Orientation Galleries

Begin your journey through the world of music.

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Discover Why Music Is the Language of the Soul

Instruments in the John and Joan D’Addario Orientation Galleries and the stories they tell set the stage for the incredible variety of items and diversity of cultures guests will experience in MIM’s Geographic Galleries.

Featured Exhibits and Objects

Octobass, Italy, 2007
Octobass, Italy, 2007

MIM’s reproduction of French luthier Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume’s 1849 octobass, commissioned from Italian luthier Antonio Dattis in 2007, stands more than 11 feet tall and is one of the few playable examples of its kind. MIM Collection

Randy Vosti Guitar Gallery
Randy Vosti Guitar Gallery

MIM’s Guitar Gallery features guitars from around the world in many forms, including the oldest known full-size guitar. Generously supported by Randy Vosti

Thomas Robjohn pipe organ, USA, 1859
Thomas Robjohn pipe organ, USA, 1859

MIM’s 1859 Thomas Robjohn pipe organ is the maker’s only surviving instrument. It features carved rosewood casework, 10 stops, and more than 500 pipes. MIM Collection Gift of the Robert J. Ulrich and Diane Sillik Fund

Guitar, Portugal, c. 1590
Guitar, Portugal, c. 1590

The oldest known full-size guitar One of two surviving instruments made by Belchior Dias, this is the oldest known full-size guitar in existence. This guitar is now preserved in its original configuration, offering remarkable evidence of the earliest days of the world’s most popular instrument. MIM Collection Gift of the Robert J. Ulrich and Diane Sillik Fund

Musical Journeys
Musical Journeys

Musical Journeys introduces how far-reaching human migration and movement have spread and cross-pollinated musical instruments and related traditions. 

Object Highlights

No instruments found.

Acquisition of the Month

MIM’s Acquisition of the Month display showcases remarkable new highlights from the collection.
Stop by to see this month’s exciting new instrument!

A chitarra battente with an elaborate parchment rose

Chitarra battente
Naples, Italy, c. 1820s

This chitarra battente was made by Gaetano Vinaccia in the 19th century, when the instrument was primarily used in southern Italian folk music. It has a movable bridge, and its strings are mounted to pins in the end block. It also has a canted, or angled, top. The maker’s label is on the exterior, as the elaborate parchment rose in the sound hole obscures its usual place.

Two ornately decorated conch shell trumpets

Nepal, 16th to 17th c.; India, 19th c.

Each of these śankh shell trumpets is richly decorated with symbolic imagery that emphasizes its divine potency. The Nepalese trumpet is profusely engraved with depictions of the Hindu deities Vishnu and Garuda and inscriptions in Newari and Nāgarī scripts. The Indian example, fitted with elaborate brass work, features a makara (a mythical sea animal) spewing a watery form, with a yali (an elephant-lion creature) striding across its head.

Video Highlights

The Oldest Known Surviving Full-Size Guitar
The Oldest Known Surviving Full-Size Guitar
Installing the Robjohn Pipe Organ at MIM
Installing the Robjohn Pipe Organ at MIM
Octobass
Octobass Demonstration

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