Eliza Allen’s Guitar, 1820s
This guitar belonged to Eliza Allen (1809-1861) of Sumner County, the forlorn bride of Sam Houston. A prized item in the Tennessee Historical Society’s collections, the guitar is a featured object at the new Tennessee State Museum, opening on October 4, 2018. The story of Eliza and Sam’s fateful marriage is on our journal page, “1796.”
Eliza Allen’s Guitar
The parlor guitar was made by famous luthier Aubry-Marie of Mirecourt in France, a great guitar center. Made of birds-eye maple and inlaid with mother of pearl, it was recently repaired for the new exhibit, “Forging a Nation,” you can see the guitar being played in the video below.
