A list of useful and interesting books for makers and enthusiasts.  Everything from historical accounts of famous makers, how-to guides, and books loaded with pictures of famous violins.  Some of these books cost in the hundreds, so I have included WorldCat links.  A synopsis is included for books I reviewed/read or owned.

Museums Around the World

A list of museums around the world that contain significant violin collections.  Includes contact information, locations and summaries.  I’ve included an interactive Google map to help location museums near your home town, or near the destination of you next trip abroad.

Ashmolean Museum Poster Index

The Ashmolean Museum has a set of posters from some of the instruments in their collection.  The posters include specific examples of violins, violas, Viols, cittern, guitars, and a lyra da braccio.

The Strad Poster Index

The Strad publishes posters in its monthly magazine a few times each year.  Each poster contain detailed pictures and dimensions of a historically significant instrument and covers violins, violas, viols, cellos and basses.  There is more than enough information in these to be the basis for making a instrument inspired by the great makers.  The posters can also be bought separately, but stock is very limited, particularly on older poster.

National Music Museum Plan Index

Full scale (violin/Viola/cello) technical drawings contain outlines, arching cross sections, f-hole patterns, and plate thicknesses as well as other details.

Violin Making Schools & Workshops

This is a list of North American violin making full-time programs, and summer workshops.

Best Practices (coming soon)

This is a reference page on best practices in violin making.  There are more than one way to make a violin, these are the methods that work well for me and I’d like to share with up and coming makers.

The Violin Making Notebook

This notebook was passed to me by John Schmidt.  The original author is unknown, but it would appear to be a american student around 1987, likely attending the Violin Making School of America.