In the mid-1800s, long before factory-made instruments were common, people all across early America were building their own guitars and stringed instruments from whatever they could find. Old barn boards, scrap lumber from houses, and especially leftover wooden boxes became the raw material for homemade music.

As the railroads spread between the 1850s and 1870s, nearly everything was shipped in wooden crates—tool boxes, food crates, cigar boxes, and more. When those boxes were emptied, creative hands turned them into instruments. A simple box, a sturdy stick for a neck, a few strings, and you suddenly had a guitar. It was pure, practical ingenuity.

From the Mississippi Delta to the Appalachian Mountains, poverty never stopped people from making music. If you wanted to play and had no money, you built your own guitar. Many early blues and rock ’n’ roll pioneers started out this way—on homemade, box-built guitars that most of the world has long forgotten.