Two nearly identical images of an instrument owned by Gerry Milnes, and currently on display at the WV Folklife Center in Fairmont, WV. According to Milnes, this is a "slightly transitioned crude two-string instrument in that it has a peg box instead of vertical tuning pins as in those above. However, the peg box is clearly a newer recent addition to this instrument, and not original. It has two strings and staple frets." This instrument was found in Randolph County, West Virginia, but was almost surely made by an L. Pitman, who made a very similar instrument in Shenandoah County, Virginia in 1849. The instrument's square sound holes suggest that it may be older than 1849, in that the sound holes are not as refined as the maker’s 1849 effort. Photograph by Gerry Milnes, Feb 1994. archive reference: GM S1330 and GM S1336. Project description: The Milnes Collection contains audio-visual recordings made and collected by the Augusta Heritage Center’s former Folk Arts Coordinator, Gerald Milnes. Throughout his career with Augusta, Milnes conducted field work to amass a large collection of photographs, oral histories, music, and event recordings. He recorded the bulk of the collection from the early 1970s to 2013, but the collection also includes tapes and photographs with earlier dates that others sent to him.
