The Duke University Musical Instrument Collections blog was created in direct response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Its purpose is to showcase choice instruments, oddities, art, and media within the collections housed on campus, fostering camaraderie and community through musical exploration on a digital stage.
The Collections (DUMIC) are founded on the flagship collection, the G. Norman and Ruth G. Eddy Collection of Musical Instruments, which arrived here in Durham in 2000. The Eddy Collection has inspired further generous gifts and the acquisition of the Frans and Willemina de Hen-Bijl Collection of Musical Instruments, which arrived at Duke in 2003. The Robert D. Miller Collection of replicas of early instruments and related materials, including a small library of printed music, was bequeathed to DUMIC in 2006. The other instruments in the collection were given as individual gifts, and are classified as part of the overall DUMIC collections.
Lizards, Serpents, and Sturgeons:
The Instrument Paintings of G. Norman Eddy
Nicholas Smolenski, May 1, 2021
A Race for Recognition:
Bainbridge and the Double Flageolet
Nicholas Smolenski, March 8, 2021
Guilbaut’s “Embouchure Rayée”
in Fin-de-siècle Paris
Nicholas Smolenski, November 30, 2020
Mandolin Culture in Boston, ca. 1900
Nicholas Smolenski, October 8, 2020
