Strange Museum Find - WWI Helmet-Mandolin

[The Past and The Curious]

Hello gang, in addition to podcasting about history and music for families, I also work as an educator at The Frazier History Museum in Louisville, KY. Yesterday our curator called me and told me I needed to come down and check something out. He's working on a WWI exhibit for September and one of the exhibit features is to focus on trench-art, which is quite fascinating on its own.

Well, what he had was this trench-art mandolin made by an American soldier while stationed in Europe. What's crazy is it's almost all military related materials. The body is a helmet the soldier repurposed. The tailpiece is a German belt buckle. The fret markers are primer caps from ammo rounds and the nut is a spent slug.

An awesome and one-of-a-kind piece of history. Thought y'all might like to see it.

[Mandoplumb]

Looks good but how does it sound. Be hard to put a tone guard on that bad boy.

[Bertram Henze]

A tiny cry for sanity from within hell, it appears. If it was done in the trenches, building this thing back then made more vital sense to the builder than playing it could make to any player today. OTOH, if it was done in the trenches, where did the top come from? What happened to the previous users of all those parts?

The German belt buckle says "God with us", a bitter greeting from a time where people pretended to fight on a side they hadn't asked for permission first.

[mugbucket]

That's pretty cool.

How is the neck attached?

Thanks for sharing!

[fatt-dad]

where's the thread for circular mandolins? A winning candidate for sure!

f-d

[William Smith]

Pretty Kool. One can pick a tune then use at as a weapon!

[Willie Poole]

I wonder where he got the tuners? The helmet doesn`t look German, more like an American one that was used in WW-I...It would have been easy to get a belt buckle off of a dead soldier and the parts from bullets for the nut and position markers...But it is very interesting, I also would like to know how the fingerboard is attached or is just made for looking at like hanging on a wall?

Willie

[jim simpson]

an army/navy mandolin!

[dhergert]

Interesting to note, there are 8 tuner posts, but the nut, bridge and maybe the tailpiece are setup for 4 strings.

[F-2 Dave]

I like the center fire fret markers.

[Don Grieser]

Very cool.

[tonydxn]

I wonder where he got the tuners? The helmet doesn`t look German, more like an American one that was used in WW-I..

Willie

Looks like a British army helmet. I'm not sure what Americans were wearing 100 years ago.

[The Past and The Curious]

It did't even register to pay attention to the neck joint, i was so excited by the unusual nature of the mandolin. That's a great question. I'll have a look next time I can bug him to let me in to the storage space. The helmet and cartridge parts appeared to be American to him, the latter was specifically identifiable as from 1917.

The tuners were obviously taken off of another mandolin. If I learn more, I'll report back!

Also: the army/navy quip was tops. Wish I would've thought of that.

[Caleb]

Just want to say thanks for the heads up on this podcast. I just subscribed and can hardly wait to start listening.

[Christopher Stetson]

Thanks from me, too, for this find. I agree with Bertram that this could have been a cry for sanity, however, up until the 4th quarter of the 20th century many military personnel never actually saw combat, so this could well have been made behind the lines in relative comfort. The helmet type was used, I believe, by both British and American troops in WWI, however, the belt buckle is interesting. My father, a WWII combat veteran, had a very similar German buckle with the same slogan but the Imperial crown had been replaced by the Nazi eagle and swastika.

[allenhopkins]

Looks like a British army helmet. I'm not sure what Americans were wearing 100 years ago.

American soldiers in WWI wore helmets like the one converted to a mandolin; basic British design, which we still kept up until early WWII.

"Trench art" was a very robust genre during WWI, as soldiers confined to trenches for months at a time would use their "down time" to make art objects out of shell casings, uniform parts, and other military equipment. Following shows like American Pickers, you can see some very elaborate and artistic creations. This mandolin sure qualifies as one of the most unusual I've seen, but there were sculptures, embroideries, various knick-knacks and utensils made from repurposed military gear.

Here's a Wiki article on the subject. One of the things I gleaned from it, is the sheer volume of discarded material produced in battle. This was compounded by the static nature of Western Front trench warfare, where battle lines hardly moved for months at a time, and all the war debris piled up in concentrated areas.

One can wonder if the Allied helmet made into a mandolin, came from a dead British or American soldier, or whether it was just left behind on a battlefield, or in a damp, stinking trench, to be turned into a device to make music -- to amuse other soldiers, perhaps alleviate the boredom, anxiety and distress of the truly vicious, prolonged stalemate. We won't ever know...

[CES]

Very cool piece of history! Thanks for posting!!

[G7MOF]

I wonder where he got the tuners? The helmet doesn`t look German, more like an American one that was used in WW-I...It would have been easy to get a belt buckle off of a dead soldier and the parts from bullets for the nut and position markers...But it is very interesting, I also would like to know how the fingerboard is attached or is just made for looking at like hanging on a wall?

Willie

The helmet also looks British?

[Beanzy]

Brodie, designed by John Leopold Brodie (had to look this bit up > 1873-1945 & found out he was Leopold Janno Braude, born in Riga Latvia)
Designed when he was in London & used by British, also used by dozens of countries, the US model was officially the M1917.
Made to offer protection from shrapnel and falling debris. Weighs about 1lb 5oz

(Far too much time playing war games with Airfix kits as a kid)

[Daniel Nestlerode]

My mother and father in law are French and live in Picardie, an area that was on the front lines through much of the Great War.

[If you're interested in a particularly interesting and utterly harrowing story of the Great War, have a look here: http://uk.france.fr/en/discover/cave...n-dames-museum ]

Seems every household I have entered in the area has at least one re-purposed piece of war materiel turn into art. It's usually shell casings that have been creatively bent and carved or engraved. Some of them are amazing.

I have never seen an improvised mandolin! But I can imagine that in battle, by accident, or under obscene atmospheric conditions for a musical instrument, a cherished mandolin ceases to be functional. A improvised replacement is made from an extra helmet, bits of the original mandolin, and some re-purposed metal artifacts.

I love that the top has been crimped into place. And I bet that the neck is a bolt-on of some kind. Though it's also possible that the luthier (perhaps an honorary title) used a modified banjo type of construction.

Most of all, I wonder what it sounds like!

Thanks for sharing it!
Daniel

[Austin Bob]

I'm amazed someone in a war zone could craft something like that. Just imagine what he might have been able to create if he had a fully equipped luthier shop.

Then again, some folks perform better under pressure. Kinda hard to imagine more pressure than someone shooting and launching mustard gas at you.

[addamr]

Thanks for posting this.

Adam

[SincereCorgi]

I'm amazed someone in a war zone could craft something like that. Just imagine what he might have been able to create if he had a fully equipped luthier shop.

Then again, some folks perform better under pressure. Kinda hard to imagine more pressure than someone shooting and launching mustard gas at you.

Like Alan said, we don't know that this was crafted in the trenches (unless there's some documentation I haven't seen). There was a big souvenir industry for art made out of war detritus. Still cool!

[Austin Bob]

Like Alan said, we don't know that this was crafted in the trenches (unless there's some documentation I haven't seen). There was a big souvenir industry for art made out of war detritus. Still cool!

Yeah, I know, but it's more fun to imagine it being made by some poor guy who had been in a trench for three months and was going crazy.

[Bertram Henze]

Yeah, I know, but it's more fun to imagine it being made by some poor guy who had been in a trench for three months and was going crazy.

This fun is not for faint-hearted. Those people don't look like first rate luthiers.