So What Is That Thing?

Sam Ford asks me that question in the pilot episode of Alabama Backroads...

A Very Brief History of the Cigar Box Guitar
by Shane Speal & Bill Jehle

In the Beginning
According to Dr. Tony Hyman, curator of the National Cigar Museum cigar boxes as we know them didn’t exist prior to mid-1800. Early on, cigars were shipped in larger crates containing 100 more per case, in barrels, or even bundled and tied in tobacco leaves for quick bulk transport. Eventually, cigar manufacturers started using smaller, more portable boxes with 20, 50, or 100 cigars per box. This is largely due to an imposition by the US government in 1865 to restrict the number of cigars sold into conveniently taxable quantities of 25, 50, and 100. The government only printed tax stamps in these quantities, so the boxes, to comply with the tax law, evolved from the large crates sent to retailers into the more consumer sized boxes that we are familiar with today.

Cigars were extremely popular in the 19th century, and therefore, many empty cigar boxes would be lying around the house. In fact, the empty containers were often seen as a nuisance by both stores and consumers alike. The boxes took up as much space when they were full as when they were empty. Using an available cigar box to create a guitar, fiddle or a banjo was an obvious choice for a few crafty souls.

The earliest proof of a cigar box instrument found thus far is an etching of two Civil War Soldiers at a campsite with one playing a cigar box fiddle. This was created by artist, Edwin Forbes, who worked as an official artist for the Union Army. The cigar box fiddle appears to sport an advanced viola-length neck attached to a “Figaro” cigar box. The etching is copyrighted 1876. There is some evidence to suggest that an earlier sketch of the same subject was made by Forbes around 1864 to 1865.

In addition to the etching, plans for a cigar box banjo were published in 1884 by Boy Scout’s founder, Daniel Carter Beard in The Book Buyer in “Christmas Eve with Uncle Enos”. The plans, eventually entitled “How to Build an Uncle Enos Banjo”, were published again in 1890 in Beard’s immensely popular "The American Boy’s Handy Book". The plans showed a step-by-step description for a playable 5-string fretless banjo made from a cigar box.

Suggested Reading

The number of books, magazines, and newspapers that contain interesting and useful information about cigar box guitars is very long. To get you started, here's a list of what I would consider the cream of the crop. Reprints of all but one should be readily available through Amazon or similar online booksellers.

• Cardboard Folk Instruments To Make And Play, Dennis Waring, Sterling Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 2002. The most comprehensive book with plans to make many simple instruments with carboard and other simple materials.
• Creative Music For Children, Satis N. Coleman, GP Putnam’s Sons, New York and London, The Knickerbocker Press, 1922. May be difficult to find. Similar to Waring's work, but with much more detail on how simple instruments are used in musical education.
• The American Boy’s Handy Book, D. C. Beard, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1890. Facsimile copy of the Uncle Enos Banjo and many other projects to keep you in trouble.
• Thirty Years After: An Artist's Memoir of the Civil War, Edwin Forbes, Fords Howard & Hulbert, New York, 1890. Forbes memoirs on hearing the cigar box violin, and his description of the materials used to make it.

I have pages and pages of notes on this stuff. Writing it up in a form that's entertaining is quite another matter. Up and coming sections will cover:

• The first cigar box violin
• The first cigar box banjo
• The first cigar box ukulele
• The first cigar box guitar

Stay tuned...