In the 1890s, people on Hawaii started playing the guitar in a different way, laying it flat on their lap, and not fingering chords, but shortening the strings with a straight (steel) object and using an open tuning.

In the early 1910s, Hawaiian music became a craze in USA and the Hawaiian guitar became very popular, together with the accompanying small guitar - the ukulele.

In fact any guitar can be used as a Hawaiian guitar (although often it was a dreadnought model) as long as it has steel strings, which are tuned to an open tuning. The main difference with a normal guitar is a slightly raised nut, so the sliding steel does not touch the frets. Some were made of the beautiful koa wood. The sound of the (acoustic) Hawaiian guitar is not so strong, compared with resophonic guitars.