tbchappe - Posted - 06/18/2026:  18:58:57

I posted this about a year ago. I’m hoping someone has seen this banjo my great grandfather is holding in this picture of him c. 1910. The picture was taken near Winton, NC. He fought in AEF involvement in WW1 from start to finish with the 6th Infantry Reg.
According to my great aunt, the banjo was sold to the milk man in the late 1930s or early 1940s. I’m hoping maybe it’s survived the 80+ years since then and someone has seen it hanging on someone’s wall in northeastern NC or southeastern VA.

Blaine

tdennis - Posted - 06/18/2026:  19:07:38

Have you tried praying to Saint Jude ?

martyjoe - Posted - 06/18/2026:  21:08:27

If it shows up in Ireland I’ll give you a shout.

EEB - Posted - 06/19/2026:  00:58:21

Would you be happy with finding a banjo of the same make and model?



My involvement in research provides constant reminders of just how popular the banjo was in its late-Victorian and early Edwardian heyday. When we consider the amount of that banjo print material and instruments that will have been thrown out in the intervening years, the percentage that still remains in attics is dusty, brittle proof of the scale of that activity.



Yesterday I drove 30 miles to collect two cardboard boxes of antique banjo sheet music and printed material from a retired couple living in a modern house within 5 miles of where the original owner (a family forebear) had lived, bought music and played banjo. Clearly this long-gone musician had himself ‘inherited’ sheet music from older banjoists whose neatly hand-written addresses reveal they too lived and played in the same area.



Great-Grandfather's banjo?  Stranger things do happen…

Edited by - EEB on 06/19/2026 01:05:11

Alvin Conder - Posted - 06/19/2026:  04:07:37

Blaine, I have not seen the banjo itself , but that is an amazing photograph.



It is very fortunate that you have that. Hopefully the wheels turn and somehow the instrument itself comes back to you.

Edited by - Alvin Conder on 06/19/2026 04:08:12

tbchappe - Posted - 06/19/2026:  06:04:48

quote:

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Originally posted by EEB

Would you be happy with finding a banjo of the same make and model?



My involvement in research provides constant reminders of just how popular the banjo was in its late-Victorian and early Edwardian heyday. When we consider the amount of that banjo print material and instruments that will have been thrown out in the intervening years, the percentage that still remains in attics is dusty, brittle proof of the scale of that activity.



Yesterday I drove 30 miles to collect two cardboard boxes of antique banjo sheet music and printed material from a retired couple living in a modern house within 5 miles of where the original owner (a family forebear) had lived, bought music and played banjo. Clearly this long-gone musician had himself ‘inherited’ sheet music from older banjoists whose neatly hand-written addresses reveal they too lived and played in the same area.



Great-Grandfather's banjo?  Stranger things do happen…

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It could be of various makers between 1880 - 1910. It's quite difficult to say. I've been unable to find the old thread on this topic where I had whittled it down to one of 3 - 4 makers.

 Blaine

 Blaine

NWBanjo - Posted - 06/19/2026:  07:00:11

Great photo, Blaine. I hope you find the banjo - stranger things have happened. Hopefully somebody’s put strings on it too 

Good luck!

Edited by - NWBanjo on 06/19/2026 07:00:38