Images in Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo's Hidden History

Du dance from P.J. Benoit's Voyage a Suriname / John Carter Brown Library

     Every time I came across an interesting image during my research, I saved it in case I would need it again, in case I would be able to use it for the book. When it came to discussing which illustrations would make it, I had way too many. As much as I would have liked to basically make Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo's Hidden History an illustrated book, that wasn't what the book was and wasn't what we could do with it.  
    And again, I thought, well, the internet can provide. For one, many of the images that I mention in the book are digitized and available for folks to access. But interesting images that I came across in the public domain I could also put here on the blog, in color and higher resolution. (The ones that are available online but that I do not believe I have permission to share are linked below.)

Early Banjos in Well of Souls

Click below to enlarge and read captions.

These are photos that I have taken of the panja (Ethnological Museum in Berlin), Creole-bania (Tropenmuseum Amsterdam, where it was still on display), Haiti banza (Musee de la Musique, Paris), and the new banjo in Lyon (Musee des Confluences, no collection guide available online). 

Gerrit Schouten's Dioramas

Diorama van een du, dansfeest op de plantage, Gerrit Schouten, 1830, Rijksmuseum

The diorama on display at the Rijksmuseum.

​Diorama van de Waterkant van Paramaribo, Gerrit Schouten, 1820, Rijksmuseum

Waterkant van Paramaribo diorama we saw at the Rijksmuseum.

Detail of the banjo player in the Waterkant diorama.

Click here for more of Schouten's dioramas at the Rijksmuseum.
Click here for more of Schouten's dioramas held by the NMVW. 

Images of Banjos in ​Well of Souls

Engraving of the Strum Strumps in Sir Hans Sloans Voyage to...Jamaica (1707). "1.1.2.2. Strum Strumps, lutes of the Indians & Blacks, made of different hollowed-out gourds covered with animal hides."

John Rose's South Carolina watercolor is viewable in color here. 

Engraving of instruments in John Stedman's Narrative of a Five Years Expedition Against the Revolted Negroes of Suriname (1796). For more on this image, see this blog post.

Study For Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences, or The Genius of America Encouraging the Emancipation of the Blacks, ca. 1791–92, Samuel Jennings, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Study for Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences

The original Liberty Displaying the Arts and Sciences belongs to the Philadelphia Library Company and can be seen online here. Winterthur Museum also has a copy here.

Detail from Recueil de vues des lieux principaux de la colonie françoise de Saint-Domingue, 1791. The dance of a calinda at Nippes, St. Domingue with a banza (banjo) player at right. (James Ford Bell Library, University of Minnesota Libraries.)

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Detail of Isle de St. Domingue, Vue de la Fossette, unknown painter, c. 1790. (Image from Etude Tajan catalog, 1999).

Benjamin Henry Latrobe's drawing of a banjo and other instruments in New Orleans are available here.

Illustration in Cynric R. Williams, A Tour Through the Island of Jamaica: From the Western to the Eastern End in the Year 1823. 

Images of Dances in ​Well of Souls ​(and more)

Click below to enlarge and read captions.

Images of Musicians

Click below to enlarge and read captions.

Images of Processions

Click below to enlarge and read captions.

Images of Religious Ritual without Dance

Click below to enlarge and read captions.

Images of Places in Well of Souls

Click below to enlarge and read captions.

This is part of Banya Obbligato, a series of blog posts relating to my book Well of Souls: Uncovering the Banjo’s Hidden History. While integrally related to Well of Souls, these posts are editorially and financially separate from the book (i.e., I’m researching, writing, and editing them myself and no one is paying me for it). So, if you want to financially support the blog or my writing and research you can do so here. ​