KRISTINA R. GADDY
  • Books
    • Well of Souls
    • Flowers in the Gutter
  • Writing
  • Open Stacks Blog
  • About
  • Contact

Views of the Creole Bania

2/28/2019

0 Comments

 
     I spent February at the James Ford Bell Library at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis on a William Reese Company Fellowship, looking at the papers of Captain John Gabriel Stedman and investigating the banjo's early history in Suriname and the Caribbean. 
Picture
     This is a banjo, one of the earliest images of a banjo. This engraving is only one of four pre-1800s images of the banjo, taken from Stedman's memoir Narrative of a Five Years Expedition Against the Revolted Negroes of Suriname. The special collections at the Bell Library have Stedman's diaries from Suriname, notes and journals from after his time in Europe, the original 1790 manuscript, and many different versions of the published memoir. To the left is a hand-colored plate from the English first edition, while below are versions from the German, French, and Dutch editions.
Picture
German edition.
Picture
French edition.
Picture
Dutch edition.
     The first edition included 81 plates, based on Stedman's own drawings and watercolors. He provided his watercolors and drawings to the engravers, who made plates that became prints in the book. Below is one of his watercolors of a forest scene, and the engraver's version
18th century watercolor of a man sleeping in a hammock in the jungle, attended by enslaved Black men with a fire.
18th Century engraving of a white man in a hammock, attended by enslaved Black men with a campfire. A similar image is done in watercolor.
Above: "Manner of Sleeping in the Forest," a hand-colored engraving from the first edition of Stedman's memoir, held at the James Ford Bell Library. Left: One of the remaining watercolors painted by Stedman, also from the James Ford Bell Library.
     Unfortunately, Stedman's drawing or watercolor the engraver used to create the image of the Creole Bania is lost. One possibility, however, might be that the engraver used the actual instruments Stedman collected in Suriname to create the drawing. We know Stedman brought back the Bania, but we don't know how it ended up at in the collections of what is now the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen, where it's now on permanent display as part of the Tropenmuseum's exhibit "Afterlives of Slavery." 
The Creole Bania, the earliest banjo made of a calabash with three long strings and one short string.
The oldest known existing banjo, made by an enslaved person in Suriname and collected by Stedman in the 1770s. Held by the Nationaal Museum van Wereldculturen.
Picture
      When Richard and Sally Price re-discovered the instrument in the 1970s, it was labeled "Creole Bania," but in the Asian department's storage. Even though it didn't look like the engraving in Stedman's book, they knew it was the instrument he collected. 
     So why do the instrument and the engraving look so different? The engravers may have been looking at a sketch or watercolor and not the actual instrument, and didn’t have enough detail to faithfully recreate the instrument. Or (what I think is more likely), they let their white supremacy get in the way. They thought, a handmade instrument by a Black person in Suriname had to be “crude,” “primitive,” or “simple.”
     ​We don’t know who made the Creole Bania or how Stedman or the museum in the Netherlands got it. (I’ve got some theories but I’ll leave those for another day.) But it was very likely made by an enslaved man with a lot of woodworking experience. I haven’t seen the Creole Bania in person, but I did see the Panja, a second early banjo from Suriname. Banjo maker Pete Ross tells me that both have an incredible amount of intentionality. The Bania has an ornately carved headstock, beading around the edge that requires a specialized tool, and parts that have been smoothed with a hand plane. Whoever made it had access to these tools and knew how to use them well. Even the construction of the neck entering the calabash meant something. To say that gourd- or calabash-bodied early banjos are crude or primitive is a reflection of the white supremacy that lives on in our thoughts and words.
Picture
Picture
     ​  In the collections of the De Mey van Streefkerk Papers at the James Ford Bell Library, I found evidence of how much the planation owners literally valued woodworkers. The Dutch family owned plantations and people to work on those plantations. In an inventory of the enslaved, men named Champagne, Saul, Hector, and William are listed as carpenters. In Dutch, the word “Timmerneger” designated enslaved Black woodworkers and carpenters who lived on the plantation. These men were highly skilled and highly valued. Perhaps it was one such woodworker who created the Creole Bania.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Come in, the stacks are open. 

    Away from prying eyes, damaging light, and pilfering hands, the most special collections are kept in closed stacks.  You need an appointment to view the objects, letters, and books that open a door to the past. 

    Here, pieces of material culture are examined in the light. The stacks are open. ​Read the stories behind objects and ephemera found in private collections, archives, and museums. 

    Archives

    June 2020
    March 2020
    January 2020
    August 2019
    July 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    February 2014
    December 2013

    Categories

    All
    16th Century
    17th Century
    18th Century
    19th Century
    20th Century
    21st Century
    African American History
    African History
    Alcohol
    Alcohol History
    America
    Animal
    Appalachian
    Art
    Bad Science
    Baltimore
    Banjo
    Banjo Collector's Gathering
    Books
    Canada
    Cancer
    Cat
    Celebrations
    Chesapeake Bay
    Chicago
    Christmas
    Circus History
    Civil War
    Clown
    Cold War
    Colonial History
    Communism
    Conjoined Twins
    Cook Books
    Crab
    Culinary History
    Devil
    Dutch History
    Easter
    England
    Eugenics
    Exhibits
    Fiddle
    Film
    Food
    Food History
    France
    "Freak Show" History
    German American
    German History
    Goucher College
    Halloween
    Hockey
    Hollywood
    Hospital
    Human Development
    James Ford Bell Library
    Jewish History
    Lincoln
    Lost Baltimore
    Lost History
    Lying In
    Lying-In
    Magazine Covers
    Map
    Maritime History
    Maryland
    Maternity
    Medical History
    Medical Procedures
    Medicine
    Metropolitan Museum
    Midwifery
    Minstrelsy
    Monsters
    Museum
    Music
    Native American History
    New Jersey
    Newspapers
    New York City
    Obstetrics
    Ozy
    Patent
    Photography
    Plain Weave
    Political History
    Politics
    President
    Print
    Psychology
    Public Transportation
    Science
    Sheet Music
    Skansen
    Skeleton
    South American History
    Sports
    Stedman
    Streetcar
    Suffragettes
    Suriname
    Sweden
    Swedish History
    Theater
    The Knick
    Third Reich
    Traditional Music
    Traditions
    Transportation History
    Tri-racial Isolate
    Typeface
    Typography
    U.S.
    USA
    U.S. History
    Valentine
    Vegetarian
    Vegetarianism
    Victorian
    Violin
    Virginia
    Weaving
    West Africa
    West Virginia
    Wisconsin
    Witch
    Witches
    Women
    Women's History
    World History
    World War II

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Books
    • Well of Souls
    • Flowers in the Gutter
  • Writing
  • Open Stacks Blog
  • About
  • Contact