This electric guitar was made by the Slingerland Musical Instrument Manufacturing Company in Chicago, Illinois, around 1936–39. It pre-dates the experimental "log" guitar of Les Paul from 1940 and is one of the earliest commercially marketed solid body, Spanish neck electric guitars. Slingerland ceased making electric instruments in 1940, changing exclusively to production of percussion instruments. This electric guitar is a Songster Spanish style and serial #114. In a late 1930s Slingerland catalog, this electric guitar, case and amplifier sold for $150.00Currently not on view

Nickolas Muray color carbro photograph of Frank Sinatra for Modern Screen Magazine ca. 1940s. Sinatra is in a suit with a burgandy tie and white carnation on his lapel. Behind him, there are floating records. Editing marks in pencil are drawn directly onto the photograph.Recto: Signed by the artist in lower right corner (pencil). Mount verso: "Frank Sinatra No. 17" (pencil).The photograph is mounted on Monogram Illustration Board. Photograph appeared on the cover of the January 1947 issue of Modern Screen.Nickolas Muray was born in Szeged, Hungary on February 15, 1892. Twelve years after his birth, Muray left his native town and enrolled in a graphic arts school in Budapest. Enrolling in art school was the first step on a road that would eventually lead him to study a photographic printing process called three-color carbro. In the course of his accomplished career, Muray would become an expert in this process and play a key role in bringing color photography to America.While attending art school in Budapest, Muray studied lithography and photoengraving, earning an International Engraver's Certificate. Muray was also introduced to photography during this time period. His combined interest in photography and printmaking led him to Berlin, Germany to participate in a three-year color-photoengraving course. In Berlin, Muray learned how to make color filters, a first step in the craft that would one day become his trademark. Immediately after the completion of the course, Muray found a good job with a publishing company in Ullstein, Germany. However, the threat of war in Europe forced Muray to flee for America in 1913. Soon after his arrival in New York, Muray was working as a photoengraver for Condé Nast. His specialty was color separations and half-tone negatives.By 1920, Muray had established a home for himself in the up-and-coming artists' haven of Greenwich Village. He opened a portrait studio out of his apartment and continued to work part time at his engraving job. Harper's Bazaar magazine gave Muray his first big assignment in 1921. The project was to photograph Broadway star Florence Reed. The magazine was so impressed with his photographs that they began to publish his work monthly. This allowed him to give up his part time job and work solely as a photographer. It did not take long for Muray to become one of the most renowned portrait photographers in Manhattan. Muray spent much of the early 1920s photographing the most famous and important personalities in New York at the time.In his spare time Muray enjoyed fencing. In 1927, he won the National Sabre Championship and in 1928 and 1932, he was on the United States Olympic Team. During World War II, Muray was a flight lieutenant in the Civil Air Patrol.Currently not on view

Joel Grey wore this hat as part of a costume portraying the Emcee (Master of Ceremonies) in the 1972 film of the musical Cabaret. The straw boater-style hat has a flat top and brim and is decorated with a multicolored striped grosgrain ribbon and flat yellow ribbon bow around the rim. The hat has a narrow leather sweatband inside.The musical Cabaret premiered on Broadway in 1966. With music by John Kander, lyrics by Fred Ebb, and book by Joe Masteroff, the show was an adaptation of John Van Druten's 1951 play I Am a Camera, which itself was based on Christopher Isherwood's 1939 memoir Goodbye to Berlin. Cabaret is the story of love triangle centered around Berlin's Kit Kat Klub amidst the decadence, corruption, and political intrigue of the Weimar Republic era. The musical was celebrated for its originality, but was also controversial for its moral ambiguity, frank sensuality, and mature themes, including homosexuality, abortion, anti-semitism, and the rise of the Nazi party. In 1972, director Bob Fosse adapted Cabaret as a critically- lauded and popular film.For his performances as the impish, leering Emcee in both the stage and film productions, Grey won the Tony Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Broadway Musical in 1967 and Oscar for Best Supporting Actor in 1972.Currently not on view

This harpsichord was made by Francesco Poggio in Florence, Italy, in 1620. It is a polygonal virginal with a compass of C/E - f3 (6 split keys for alternate tunings), and has a disposition of 1 x 8’. The soundboard is made of spruce with a gilt parchment rose. This virginal has medium-brown stained arcaded naturals and dark-stained accidentals. The jackrail, possibly a later addition or re-inscribed, is inscribed: “IONNES BATT. BONI DA CORTONA. FECIT ANNO. 1617.”The inseparable outer case is painted black with gold designs. The interior of the lid is painted with panels of birds and flowers with a shield in the center. The stand is similarly painted black with gold designs and 4 curved legs.Other instruments attributed to Francesco Poggio are in the collections of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Yale University, New Haven, and the University of Edinburgh.Currently not on view

This drum was made by William A. Pond and Company in New York, New york, in 1863. It is a presentation drum.

Civil War drummer Jacob Booz (1840–1909) was presented this drum in 1863 by officers of his regiment, Company C, 1st New Jersey Volunteers, for recognition of service. The drum is inscribed with 14 of the engagements that Booz participated in. He enlisted in the Civil War on March 22, 1861 and served until he was honorably discharged on June 23, 1864. Jacob Booz re-enlisted on September 2, 1864, and participated in three more engagements. He was honorably discharged on June 30, 1865.

After Jacob Booz's death, his family presented the drum to the State of New Jersey Museum. Woodrow Wilson was governor at that time, and when he became president, the drum was transferred to the Smithsonian in 1917. The drum was originally intended for presentation only, but a vent hole (in the center of the inscription) was added later by Booz, enabling him to actually play the drum, which he used until his death in 1909.

Currently not on view

This is an experimental sound recording made in the Volta Laboratory, Washington, D.C., on 11 March 1885. The recording process involved focusing a beam of light, projecting it through a liquid, and causing sound waves to interrupt both the light and the liquid to expose a prepared photographic plate. The recording, which starts at the center and spirals outward, is of variable density, that is the areas of exposure vary in density according to volume and pitch of the sound recorded. Process is described in U.S. Patent 341,213 awarded Alexander Graham Bell, Chichester A. Bell, and Charles Sumner Tainter on 4 May 1886.Sound was recovered from this recording in 2011.Content summary: “Mary had a little lamb”Content transcript (37 seconds):“ [?]…Sumner Tainter and H. G. Rogers. This eleventh day of March, eighteen hundred and eighty-five. [trilled r sound] [indistinct phrase] Mary had a little lamb, and its fleece was white as snow [alternatively, black as soot?] . And wherever Mary went…Oh [indistinct word].Mary had a little lamb, and its fleece was white as snow [alternatively, black as soot?].And wherever Mary went, the little lamb was sure to go. How is this for high? [trill]”Download link, Interplanetary File System (IPFS) content identifier (CID): https://w3s.link/ipfs/bafybeibrdb5tuqk4lj5yuqa7cvd57uxf3xtgujfd2g5j4ugmsscqx7pgjaReferences:Patrick Feaster, “A Discography of Volta Laboratory Recordings at the National Museum of American History”Leslie J. Newville, “Development of the Phonograph at Alexander Graham Bell's Volta Laboratory,” in Contributions from the Museum of History and Technology, United States National Museum Bulletin 218, Paper 5 (1959): 69-79.Steven E. Schoenherr, “Charles Sumner Tainter and the Graphophone”Wile, Raymond R. "The Development of Sound Recording at the Volta Laboratory," Association for Recorded Sound Collections Journal 21, No. 2, 1990, pp. 208-225.Currently not on view