University of South Dakota, in Vermilion.

We’d wanted to stop here for years, but the timing had always been wrong.  This year we arrived at 11 AM, popped some quarters into the parking meter and hustled inside.  The museum’s collection holds some of the finest instruments in the world (15,000 instruments (12,000 are on display).

I will now bombard you with pictures.

One of the first electric violins and two lap steels.

Banjo Man in front of the you-know-whats.

Johnny Cash’s guitar.

Bob Dylan’s guitar.

Muddy Waters’ guitar.

More mandolins.

And the violins…

A Stradivari.

And the brass!  This is a very small sampling of the brass instruments.  And there was a room full of pianos.  And a room dedicated to instruments from around the world.

We were here a little over an hour, but we could have spent longer.  It was well worth the stop!