Abstract

The Metropolitan Museum of Art holds a rich collection of fifty-three bagpipes from across the world. Mainly collected by Mary Elizabeth Brown at the turn of the twentieth century, the instruments come from India, Egypt, France, Russia, the British Isles, Greece, Croatia, Spain, and many other locations. Alongside this rich collection, which speaks to the global diversity of the instrument, there are also many different examples of bagpipes scattered across the Museum in paintings, manuscripts, wall hangings, and sculptures. This article explores some of the bagpipes one can find in the Metropolitan Museum.