Museum Replica Bowed Zither

The original was made by Jacob Gross, a school teacher, fracture artist, and occasional instrument builder in Bucks County, PA, home of the "Pennsylvania German who settled there in the 18th & 19th centuries and kept alive many of the folk arts of their European ancestors -- including building and playing both fretted and bowed zithers, the ancestor of the mountain dulcimer.  Jacob built and played the original in about 1865, and in1900 when Henry Mercer was collecting items that would become his Museum of Americana, Jacob Gross presented Henry with what is now known as Acquisition #726.