Featured What musical instrument is she playing?

As to this instrument, I believe all such instruments, without a fret, are members of the chorded zither family with an autoharp being one of them.

The above pic shows a dulcimer on it's side at the bottom. That website calls it a lap dulcimer. I guess one could call it that, but fretted dulcimer is what they are referred to at the musical venues in the Ozarks. There are some very good dulcimer events and workshops in AR (Ozark Folk Center at Mountain View, AR) and in Tennessee like in Memphis. I guess the proper name for them is an Appalachian dulcimer. I used to attend at least one workshop a year, but after arthritis set into my hands and fingers, I very rarely play one anymore. The other type of dulcimer is called a hammered dulcimer - a different animal. I use to enjoy playing a bari, baritone ukulele also. With not having to actually curl your fingers around the fret, a fretted dulcimer is easier on arthritic hands than a bari or a guitar.

When young I found a "Plain Jane" zither without any buttons stashed away in my grandparents attic. I never learned the history of it, but felt it was my great grandmother's. When my grandparents home sold back in the early 1950s the zither was still in the attic. I was always sorry it hadn't been rescued. Today it would be at least 100 to possibly 150 years old.

--- Susan

 

I would call it an Appalachian dulcimer as well. I have a simple one that used to be owned by Dave Swarbrick of the UK folk-rock band Fairport Convention. I played it for a while, my zither had been lost moving from one house to another. But like you I don't play any instruments anymore due to health issues.
I used to sing as well, but stopped after my best friend and accompanying musician sadly died. I always had bad stage fright anyway, whether singing, playing or dancing. Every time I thought, why am I putting myself through this? I guess I just loved dancing or playing music with others.

 

I wouldn't call the zither in OP's photo a chorded zither; it has no arrangement at all to play chords, such as the chord bars on an autoharp or several other mechanical arrangements to play chords by damping or otherwise selecting particular strings.
However, that usage has become common for any zither with some strings grouped to play chords, so call it what you like. There is a specific name for OP's type of zither, with a fretboard along one edge, in Germany where it was once quite popular, but I do not recall what it was.
In Tauriel's photo, all the instruments except the Appalachian or lap dulcimer and the guitar at the bottom are types of zithers, popular in the early part of the last century. It was common for the makers to give them trademarked names that had no real musical meaning; they were marketing terms - the "Mandolin-Harp" has no relation to either a mandolin or a harp....
To a musicologist, even the Appalachian dulcimer and the guitar are types of zithers. Musicologists recognize two main families of strings: zithers, with strings parallel to the soundboard, and harps, with strings at right angles to the soundboard; some put lutes in their own family, and add lyres, which have no soundboard as such. In that terminology, the guitar, the piano and hammered dulcimer are all zithers.

Ooooh. An excellent band!

Here's a very pretty tune played on the Appalachian dulcimer by Neal Walters (he also plays autoharp!): his composition "Cheat River Waltz."



Or Ron Wall's tune "Patty Ann" played by Neal Walters' band Doofus, with Heidi Cerrigione on hammered dulcimer.....Ron Wall is another autoharper; he wrote the tune for his mother-in-law, better known as Mrs. Grandpa Jones, for you fans of Hee-Haw....



Got any Fairport Convention favorites?
(Apologies for wandering somewhat OT....kind of a stream-of-consciousness posting style, I'm afraid)

 

Wonderful, a lovely gentle sound.

Don't apologize, most of us do that, and I for one am enjoying this.
The first Fairport Convention song I ever heard was Tam Lin, and I still love it.
It is an excellent band, but at its best with Sandy Denny, just like Sandy Denny was at her best with FC. Her divine voice is subtle and expressive in Crazy Man Michael, it still brings tears to my eyes. Not just because of the emotive lyrics, but that voice. FC's Richard Thompson also sings it wonderfully solo, he has a great voice, but Sandy is sublime.
Here is the song from Liege & Lief, Dave Swarbrick on violin:

 

Here is a video of the friend I spoke of, with his band Bots in a very 70s TV show. They were one of the first Dutch language folk rock bands, with mostly politically inspired songs written by my friend Hans Sanders.
This song, 'Zeven dagen lang' (seven days long), about standing together, became a political anthem for young people in the 70s, not just in The Netherlands and Belgium. They were even bigger in Germany, and Ritchie Blackmore (of Deep Purple fame) translated the lyrics into English as 'All for One'. The tune is Breton.
When I sang with Hans in the 90s, his voice was much better than in the 70s, he had become a wonderful folk singer.

 

I think it is a dulcimer.

 

I remembered.....the German name for the instrument was Konzert-Zither, though other types of zithers without the fretboard also seemed to have that name applied. Most such instruments were made in Germany, around 1900-1920, though I've also found some early US makers, apparently German immigrants, who made Konzert-Zithers.
(One of those makers called the instrument an "Alpine Zither;" there really is no standardized naming system in the US for the numerous types of zithers.)
Of them all, only the autoharp has survived as a modern performance instrument; the other types of zithers turned out to be very awkward to actually play.

(Enjoyed "Zeven dagen lang;" nice arrangement of the Breton tune.)
Even the Konzert-Zither in OP's picture, though used to great effect in the Third-Man theme, is rarely played today; and as a performance instrument, suffers from the fact that it has to be played on a table, and can't be strap-supported.

 

All, I enjoyed reading this thread and very much liked the photo. So, I asked @Lucille.b if she would let me know when she listed it. One thing led to another, and I'm now the proud owner of this cabinet card photo -- it arrived today. And of course I'm going to try to research the woman in the photo!