Walter Harrison "Watt" Elzey was born in Huntsville, Arkansas in 1885. He was at various times in his life a photographer, printer, and bus driver. Watt married Netia Burkett about 1906, and they had three children. The Elzeys lived in the Madison County community of Marble.

Watt Elzey's grandaughter remembers Watt playing this fiddle along with a partner who beat the strings with a pencil while Watt fiddled. A unique aspect of the fiddle is the tailpiece made of animal horn.

Watt Elzey died in an automobile accident in 1958. The Chenault family of Owasso, Oklahoma, descendants of Elzey, donated his fiddle to the Museum in 2005.

Find Marble on a 1901 map of Northwest Arkansas.