T-shirt: NMM Mandolin Patent Shirt

Exclusive National Music Museum patent-design t-shirt!

Reproduced from patent documents in the archives of the National Music Museum, Vermillion, South Dakota, which correspond to musical instruments in the Museum’s collections. The invention of great style!

• District^® Perfect Tri ^® Tee
• 50/25/25 poly/ring spun combed cotton/rayon
• Gray frost

Patent for the Mandolin, Style A, 1896, by Orville Gibson, Kalamazoo, Michigan

In 1898, Orville Gibson was awarded a patent for his “Improved Mandolin,” using principles that would be applied to guitars, mandolas, and lutes. His innovative arched soundboard, influenced by violin construction, would revolutionize mandolin and guitar design. Before the Gibson Mandolin-Guitar Mfg. Co. was founded by investors in 1902, Gibson had produced only a small quantity of instruments on his own. The Style A model mandolin preserved by the National Music Museum, Vermillion, South Dakota, is the earliest dated mandolin by Gibson.