For those REALLY interested in the history of the banjo, I have to recommend a great book called America's Instrument, substitled The Banjo in the Nineteenth Century, by Philip F. Gura and James F. Bollman. 300 pages, about 8-1/2 by 12 or 13. Lots of gorgeous color plates of banjos, and b&w's of old posters and other illustrations.

No, Rollo, Stephen Foster did not invent the five-string. A fellow named Joel Sweeney is often erroneously credited with having added the thumb string, but what he added was the fourth string; previously the usual form of banjo had been three long strings and a short thumbstring. This would have been in the 1850s or thereabouts.

The banjo is what's technically classed as a membranophone, referring to the skin (or plastic) head. It also is grouped as a member of the lute family, the word "lute" here being a much wider concept than what we usually refer to by that name, the European lute.

DAve Oesterreich