Presentations ranged from the earliest history of the banjo to post-war Gretsch tenor banjos, and everything in between! We visited the Smithsonian National Museums of African American History and Culture and American History. For a complete look at the schedule, click here. If you are interested in taking our survey about the Gathering to help us plan for the 20th Anniversary Gathering next year, please click here. 
     Special thanks to Greg Adams, Peter Szego, Kathryn Weidener, Jim Bollman, and Ann Hough for making this event a great success! Stay tuned to the blog for more sounds, sights, and stories from 20 years of the Banjo Gathering. 

This banjo is owned by banjo researcher and historian Bob Winans. For many years, he knew that it was an antique, Minstrel-Era banjo from around the same time as the famous Boucher banjos. But there was no maker's mark or indication of where it came from. Until this showed up: ​

This tailpiece showed up on a banjo that had a nearly identical silhouette to Winans's banjo and had that mark: Levi Brown, Balto. Winans's research of banjo dealers and makers turned up the crucial information that Brown called himself a maker in advertisements and city directories. ​