Violin maker Kitty Smith – holding it together

This photograph from the 1940s shows violin maker Kitty Smith (1912-2005) with a violin clamped together during the gluing process. Kitty said:

A violin has 72 parts, joined only by glue. The table weighs only approximately 2 ¾ ounces. However because of its shape it can support a pressure of 60 pounds at the bridge when the strings are tuned to concert pitch, and even more weight is supported when the pressure of the bow is added.

This is one of a series of photographic prints given to the Museum when we purchased a string quartet (two violins, a viola and a cello) made by Kitty Smith.

Post by Lynne McNairn

Photographer unknown
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Tags: Australian makers, Kit Smith, Kitty Smith, Luthier, Violin making, violin workshop, Violins, women

The Powerhouse Museum's Photo of the Day blog features a new image each day, chosen from the Powerhouse Photo Library.

The majority of these images have been taken by Museum photographers for a variety of purposes such as for exhibitions, of objects in our collection, events, behind-the-scenes and location shots. We also feature many images taken by our Flickr community and from our visitors. We hope you enjoy the photographs and stories.

The licensing of each image varies however we are trying to release as many as possible under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.1 license.