Object Details
- Conn, Solomon
- Description
- Physical Description
- Wood with personal carvings.
- Specific History
- At 24 years old, Solomon Conn, a son of a hotel keeper in Minamac, Indiana, enlisted as a private in Company B of the 87th Indiana Infantry on July 26, 1862. He purchased this violin in Nashville, Tennessee, on May 1, 1863. Conn carried the violin while serving, although his family admitted that he never learned to play. Written on the back of the instrument are the names of places where the soldiers of the 87th were either on duty or engaging the enemy. More place names are written along the left and right edges of the sides. Among the more well-known battles the 87th took part in were the Battle of Chickamauga in September 1863 and Kennesaw Mountain in June 1864. By the end of the war, the 87th Volunteers had lost 283 men, most of them to disease.
- This object stands as a unique memento of the common soldier during the Civil War.
- Credit Line
- S. Jackson Conn and William M. Conn
- ID Number
- 1988.0716.01
- accession number
- 1988.0716
- catalog number
- 1988.0716.01
- Object Name
- violin
- Physical Description
- wood (overall material)
- metal (part material)
- Measurements
- overall: 24 in x 8 in x 4 in; 60.96 cm x 20.32 cm x 10.16 cm
- purchased
- United States: Tennessee, Nashville
- associated place
- United States: Indiana
- See more items in
- Military and Society: Armed Forces History, General
- Music & Musical Instruments
- Military
- ThinkFinity
- National Museum of American History
- related event
- Civil War
- Battle of Chickamauga, 1863
- Civil War and Reconstruction
- Battle of Kennesaw Mountain, 1864
- Record ID
- nmah_687491
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746b3-311f-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa
