American Museum of Fly Fishing’s Top 50 Objects: #4

October 7, 2025 By: American Museum of Fly Fishing Staff

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Uncle Thad built this rod, of maple and ash or lancewood, around 1870. All photos: American Museum of Fly Fishing

For more than 50 years, the American Museum of Fly Fishing has been preserving the history of fly fishing across two physical locations—in Manchester, Vermont, and Springfield, Missouri—and through their award-winning quarterly journal, The American Fly Fisher. This year, AMFF and MidCurrent have teamed up to count down the 50 most interesting objects in the museum’s permanent collection, which currently includes more than 25,000 objects in total. Each month will feature a variety of historically significant items, with brief descriptions from AMFF curator Jim Schottenham.

We’re down to the final four objects and we’ll be featuring one each month, revealing the top object in December. If you missed the first five installments, be sure to check them out (Part 1: #50—#36, Part 2: #35—#26, Part 3: #25-#16, Part 4: #15-#11, Part 5: #10-#6, and Part 6: #5).

That’s Jim in the video above, giving even more in-depth info on this month’s object. Start the video, and then scroll through the images below, allowing Jim to serve as your guide.

Thaddeus Norris fly rod, c. 1870
Gift of Mrs. Francis D. Borie (2002.010.001)

This 12-foot 5-inch, three-piece fly rod—complete with an extra mid-section and three tip sections—weighs 10.2 ounces and is crafted from birdseye maple and either white ash or lancewood. Of particular note are the tip sections, each featuring a distinctive 4-strip bamboo splice between segments of lancewood.

Built around 1870 by Thaddeus “Uncle Thad” Norris—one of America’s earliest and most influential rod makers—the rod reflects the transitional era in rod building, when craftsmen were experimenting with materials and construction techniques that would eventually lead to the modern split-bamboo rod. Norris was a contemporary of early innovators such as Samuel Phillippe and Charles Murphy.

Thaddeus Norris was known as “Uncle Thad” to his legion of angling fans. Photo courtesy AMFF

Originally owned by Beaveau Borie of Philadelphia, the rod was later donated to the Museum by Mrs. Frances Borie. It is housed in a custom wooden form designed to protect the delicate sections during transport. Fewer than a dozen surviving examples of Norris’s rods are known today, making this an exceptionally rare and historically significant piece.

There are two engravings on the buttcap, featuring his name and two large catches recorded:

Sept 24th, 1877
Pool below Morrell’s Rock
Weigh 7 lbs
Length 25”
Width 7”
Girth 15”
Time 1 hour 25 minutes

Sept 10th, 1879
Quick Water above McKean’s Rips
Weigh 6 ¾ lbs
Length 25 ½ inches
Width 7”
Girth 14”
Time 35 minutes