Period Mandolins

[wsurugby10]

Does anyone have any photos containing soldiers playing mandolins? I'm looking for some but I can't seem to find any. Thanks for your help


Dan Ketterman

[Danny]

Re: Period Mandolins

Good luck with that.

Apparently, and according to research done by others in this forum, mandolins were not at all popular in the U.S. until quite late in the century, when Eastern Europeans migrated to the U.S. in larger numbers. That may explain why photographs of mandolins and players from Stateside during the CW period are hard to come by.

But based on how many mandolins you find today at reenactments and used for "Civil War music" on CD, who could blame one for also wanting to include a mandolin in their impression?

My understanding of it is that all early mandolins were of the deep domed-back variety, no flat-backs as are found today, so domed-back would be the way to go for this unlikely CW soldier's instrument.

- Dan Wykes

[wsurugby10]

Re: Period Mandolins

Dan,
I appriciate your input. I was beginning to wonder if anyone even looked at the Civil War music forum. So if what I gather from your post is true then the only time one would have found a mandolin in camp would have been with a European group and even then it would have been very unlikely? Thanks for clearing this up a bit. Maybe I should leave the mando playing at home and leave camp time to cleaning my rifle.

Dan Ketterman

[Amtmann]

Re: Period Mandolins

Search function: Mandolin