Category: Bibliography, Outline, and Proposal

We will separate our website into multiple pages based on the section of the project, for instance we will have separate pages for the proposal, outline, and documentary. We will also have the main blog as the homepage. We will have a page containing a gallery of historical banjos as well as modern banjos, which the viewer can scroll down to get a visual sense of how the instrument has evolved over time.

Our documentary page will have the documentary featured, but we will also include a summary of the contents of the documentary beneath it to provide some background information and a general idea of what will be discussed.

We might also include a page of famous banjo players, each with a short description about the musician’s life and banjo technique as well as an analysis of how their race has played a role in their fame. Most famous banjo players are white. The gallery pages will be included on a sidebar navigation menu, while the project timeline related pages will be linked on the top of the website. 

Plan for our Documentary

For the documentary short, we will not be using AI in any way.

We will open the documentary with our introduction, in which we will go over what the American banjo is using a voiceover. This section will show images of the modern popular banjo and pictures of people playing them.

We will then interrupt this narrative with visiting how the banjo became what it is today, its roots in Africa. We will discuss the American Banjo’s origins in Africa, showing historical images and talk about how enslaved people introduced the instrument to the Americas in the colonial era. If we can find any recordings of plantation banjo songs, we can have that playing in the background while we discuss the history.

Next, we will transition to a new section featuring the banjo’s spread to white America and overall appropriation by white people. We will show political cartoons/ images of minstrel shows, discussing racism that was associated with the instrument.

The American Banjo was perceived by most of the population as a low-class instrument and was not taken seriously. It was primarily a way to mock Black culture, rather than to make popular music.

We will discuss the process in which the banjo became accepted into larger society, especially popular with rural white America. We will dive into the value of the American Banjo in bluegrass and country music, including recordings and videos of popular white banjo music today, demonstrating that shift that took place.

After that section of the documentary, we will transition to section about banjo alternatives in Europe, discuss how these forms emerged out of minstrel shows in the United States.

Finally, we will end our documentary with a conclusion, including an overview of the American Banjo’s impact on our culture today.

Images we will use:

“Iconic image” can be of Earl Scruggs, an ultra famous (white) banjo player who popularized a new style for playing the instrument. We will analyze how Scruggs, along with countless other white American country musicians, have become the face of the banjo despite its origins having been invented by enslaved Africans. 

“The Humble Genius Of Earl Scruggs.” Southern Songs and Stories, 2023. https://www.southernsongsandstories.com/blog/2023/1/23/the-humble-genius-of-earl-scruggs 

Grossman, Sid. n.d. Pete Seeger Photograph. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Accessed October 16, 2025. https://www.si.edu/object/pete-seeger:npg_NPG.94.85.

Serl, John. n.d. Male Figure Oil painting on board. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. Accessed October 16, 2025. https://www.si.edu/object/male-figure:saam_1998.84.32.

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‌Lee Sudduth, Jimmy. n.d. Self-Portrait with Banjo Mixed media: mud, paint, and vegetable matter on board. Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection. Accessed October 16, 2025. https://www.si.edu/object/self-portrait-banjo:saam_1997.124.40.

Hoddu (Xalam). late 19th century. Wood, skin, L. 48.5 cm; W. 9 cm; H. 8.5 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Open: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Artstor. https://jstor.org/stable/community.34719025.

Hoddu (Xalam). late 19th century. Wood, skin, 65cm x 12cm x 15.5cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Open: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Artstor. https://jstor.org/stable/community.34719026. 

Sora Ngoni (Simbingo). 19th century. Gourd, skin, wood, leather, 88cm x 31cm x 27cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Open: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Artstor. https://jstor.org/stable/community.27235563.

“This banjo was made by an unknown maker in Bristol, Tennessee during the 19th century. It is a Five-String Fretless Banjo. The banjo has a commercial neck cut down and joined to a 4 bracket hoop of welded wrought iron”.

“American Five-String Fretless Banjo | Smithsonian Institution.” 2025. Si.edu. 2025. https://www.si.edu/object/american-five-string-fretless-banjo:nmah_605682.

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Created by Unidentified. Gourd Head Banjo. ca. 1859. Gourd with wood and metal, H x W x D: 7 × 26 1/2 × 2 1/2 in. (17.8 × 67.3 × 6.4 cm). National Museum of African American History and Culture; Collection of the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. https://jstor.org/stable/community.31886663. 

Double Head Fretless Banjo. ca.1850. Various woods, metal hardware, calfskin head, calf gut strings, 41 in. Length x 5 in. Depth x 14 in. Diameter. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Open: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Artstor. https://jstor.org/stable/community.39752451. 

“This banjo was made by Samuel Swain Stewart Co. in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, about 1889. It is a Five-String Banjo, serial #6682, with a metal-covered wooden hoop, 26 metal brackets, dark wood veneered fretboard and peghead, with shell inlay, rosewood neck, carved heel, and friction pegs.”

“Stewart Five-String Banjo | Smithsonian Institution.” 2025. Si.edu. 2025. https://www.si.edu/object/stewart-five-string-banjo:nmah_605689.

Made in 1923

“Gibson Tenor Banjo | Smithsonian Institution.” 2025. Si.edu. 2025. https://www.si.edu/object/gibson-tenor-banjo:nmah_606326.

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“This banjo was made by Gibson Inc. in Kalamazoo, Michigan around 1935. It is a Five-String Banjo, with 22 frets, 24 brackets, pearloid inlaid on fingerboard and back of resonator, and a maple hoop. In a 1934 Gibson catalog, this “RB-11” style banjo sold for $60.00.”

Gibson Five-String Banjo, Used by Wade Ward | Smithsonian Institution.” 2025. Si.edu. 2025.https://www.si.edu/object/gibson-five-string-banjo-used-wade-ward:nmah_605688.

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Barnes, Rhae Lynn. “Working Class Hero to Felon: Picking Apart the Banjo’s Cinematic Character Assassination in Postwar Mass Culture and Film.” Modern American History 7, no. 2 (July 1, 2024): 313–18. https://www-cambridge-org.umw.idm.oclc.org/core/journals/modern-american-history/article/working-class-hero-to-felon-picking-apart-the-banjos-cinematic-character-assassination-in-postwar-mass-culture-and-film/AC2BB4E6BD6CD5D0BE992ECAF10400D6.

This source describes the early American Banjo, and its role in portraying racial stereotypes against Black Americans in minstrel shows. It describes the perception shift from a “lowclass” instrument to the various ways artists went on utilize the banjo in later years. 

Blount, Jake. “Jail the Zombie: Black Banjoists, Biopolitics, and Archives.” Modern American History 7, no. 2 (July 2024): 301–6. https://doi.org/10.1017/mah.2024.30.

This source details the banjo’s invention, from its African antecedants to the Caribbean sugarcane plantation social structures that allowed for the banjo to develop into a new shared cultural tradition among black people. The author explains the changes made to the instrument as it spread across America, then discusses the surviving recordings of black banjoists from the early to mid 20th century. 

Conway, Cecelia. “Banjo.” Chapter. In Encyclopedia of African American Music: [3 Volumes], edited by Tammy L. Kernodle, Emmett G. Price, and Horace Maxile, 39–40. Santa Barbara, California: Greenwood, 2011. https://research.ebsco.com/c/mcjyvo/search/details/rj7mfbjp6r.

Conway, Cecelia. “Black Banjo Songsters in Appalachia.” Black Music Research Journal 23, no. 1/2 (2003): 149–66. https://doi.org/10.2307/3593213.

Conway explores the evolution of the banjo’s associations in music, from hillbillies to bluegrass and beyond. The text delves into the history of the instrument, from its African origins to its use by white minstrel performers to portray racist stereotypes.

Dubois, Laurent. The Banjo : America’s African Instrument. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2016.

Dubois presents the banjo’s evolution throughout history, from its origins in Caribbean and American plantations to when whites appropriated the instrument for minstrel shows and began to produce it on an industrial scale. The source focuses on the community aspect of the instrument and how it has remained a staple in African American music. 

Fulwood, Ethan L. “Quantitative Similarities between the Banjo and a Diverse Collection of West African Lutes.” Humanities & Social Sciences Communications 9, no. 1 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-022-01401-3.

This source uses quantitative methods to study the West African antecedents of the banjo, since there are many different types of lutes that likely contributed to the creation of the instrument. 

Khalid, Farisa. “Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Banjo Lesson.” September 9, 2016. Accessed September 19, 2025. https://smarthistory.org/tanner-banjo/. 

Through the lens of Henry Ossawa Tanner’s famous painting, Khalid discusses the history of the banjo and its impact on Tanner’s artwork. 

Mazow, Leo G., Sarah Burns, Michael D. Harris, Joyce Henri Robinson, and Cecelia Tichi. Picturing the banjo. University Park, Pennsylvania: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2005.

This source is a piece of artwork that depicts a Black American holding a banjo on their knee. It is from the Smithsonian museum in the era after the Civil War.

Meredith, Sarah. “With a Banjo on Her Knee: Gender, Race, Class, and the American Classical Banjo Tradition, 1880-1915.” Dissertation Abstracts International. Proquest Info & Learning Co, 2006.https://research.ebsco.com/linkprocessor/plink?id=9f359450-3a2e-3474-ac52-7c247986bcc3.

This source discusses how women were able to popularize the American Banjo to white audiences due to gender ideologies of the time period. It states that by studying the banjo, we learn about race, gender, and class relations of the nineteenth century.

Stimeling, Travis D. “Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo’s Hidden History by Kristina R. Gaddy (Review).” Notes (Music Library Association) 80, no. 2 (2023): 346–48. https://doi.org/10.1353/not.2023.a912355.

This source goes into the roots of the banjo, exploring the roots found in various places in the world. Gaddy relies heavily on diaries, journals, and artistic renderings for her research, acknowledging the implicit ethnocentrism in primary sources of the time. 

Thompson, Joseph M. “Five Strings for Freedom: The Banjo in Cold War America.” Modern American History (Cambridge.) 7, no. 2 (2024): 307–12. https://doi.org/10.1017/mah.2024.32.

Thompson delves into the intricacies of how the banjo has been used as a quintessentially “American” instrument, especially during wartime. The banjo has always been rooted in resistance and community, so this source indicates how that association has evolved over time and the different was the banjo has been used for protest. 

Thornton, Ramsey. “Affrilachian Banjo Lineage: Its Archaeological Trail, Instances of Black/White Exchange, and Lasting Legacy.” Order No. 30575206, Oklahoma State University, 2023. https://umw.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/dissertations-theses/affrilachian-banjo-lineage-archaeological-trail/docview/2910062412/se-2.

This source traces the origins of the American Banjo, specifically delving into the history of cultural exchange between black people and white people. After dedicating research to the early African banjo the study then discusses the white adoption of the instrument.

Winans, Robert B, and Elias J Kaufman. “Minstrel and Classic Banjo: American and English Connections.” American Music (Champaign, Ill.) 12, no. 1 (1994): 1–30. Minstrel and Classic Banjo: American and English Connections on JSTOR 

This source describes the evolution of the banjo in America, and how the instrument was popularized in the United States. It explains how variations of the American Banjo emerged in Europe and how English Banjos had a distinct style musically. 

Research Proposal

For our project, our group all agreed that we were interested in studying the history of a musical instrument, since we hadn’t seen any previous groups choose to study an instrument and we all found the topic interesting. After searching for different instruments, we settled on the banjo because of its strong association with American culture, making it an incredibly fitting topic for our documentary and project. All three of us were already somewhat familiar with the instrument, but we did not have any background knowledge on the instrument itself, its invention, history, or antecedents other than the fact that it is viewed as a southern American instrument. We were interested in learning more about how the banjo emerged as the icon in Bluegrass and Country music that it is today.

While the modern banjo is viewed as quintessentially American, the banjo actually developed from West African stringed lutes such as the ngoni, xalam, and kora. After the establishment of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, West Africans enslaved in Caribbean sugar cane plantations developed new instruments based on the lutes from their own cultures. They used gourds and calabashes to create the body of the instrument and animal hides to create the head. In part due to the invention of a new shared instrument, enslaved Africans were able to develop a sense of community in spite of the horrific conditions they faced at the plantations. 

The banjo soon spread to the United States by the 1730s, where the design evolved to utilize synthetic materials, wood, and steel. The instrument began to be produced on an industrial scale, allowing more communities to have access to it and adopt it into their own music. However, despite its invention being owed to enslaved Africans, the banjo was appropriated by white Americans and used to portray racist stereotypes in minstrel shows. Publishers sold banjo guides for minstrel show performers until 1970. In addition to teaching readers about the instrument, the guides also portrayed stereotypes of Black Americans. The banjo was widely viewed as a “lowclass” instrument, and wasn’t taken seriously due to its role in minstrel shows. As white southerners began to play the instrument, the American Banjo gradually became more accepted seriously, and was attributed to white, rural, southern culture rather than black culture. Artists in the South were largely influenced by Black culture, but were credited with the invention and popularization of the five string banjo. Americans popularized the banjo in Europe through minstrel shows. By the 1860s, distinct English banjos emerged that were physically different from the American Banjo. These alternative banjos often had six, seven, or even nine strings. 

We have decided that we will not be using AI in any way while creating this project, in part due to shared moral objections to AI and also due to our desire to keep this project as a creative endeavour that is entirely our own work. While we believe that AI can be useful in certain instances, we all agreed that we wanted to focus on creating this project purely from our own research and creative ideas rather than using AI to produce drafts or ideas of our work for us. 

As for the documentary section of this project, we will be using a professional camera from the HCC to film. After we finish our recordings, we will edit our footage using either Microsoft Clipchamp, Canva, or both, depending on which program we find best suited to our skills. Since we do not have much prior experience with video editing, we will likely visit the HCC throughout the process in order to get pointers and advice for the process of documentary creation. We also do not have much experience with website creation, but we hope to learn more throughout the process of this project and we will continue to gain skills in digital creation as we do so. We plan to reference past project sites to give us examples of how different groups have organized their websites in order to gather different ideas and styles that we may like. We will use these as references along with our own ideas to find a suitable website style and structure. We will also include our documentary on our website.