Nadine's Diary, "A Banjo"

Saturday Oct. 13, 94.  At home.  It rained nearly all day.  Mr. Stinson came up in the after noon, brought a banjo* with him.  He invited Miss Sinclair and I down to his room a while in the evening.  Met several young men there.  Went from there to Star Society.

*Banjo:  From The Half-Barbaric Twang:  The Banjo in American Popular Culture by Karen Linn:

It was not until the early 1880s that banjo music was commonly published; at the same time banjo caught on as a society fad.  Before that time buying banjo music took time and money.... By the 1890s publishers sold much of their popular music in arrangments for a variety of instruments including those ubiquitous banjo, mandolin, and guitar arrangements, either in solos or in different ensemble combinations.

an 1890s banjo