The Library of Congress >  Researchers >  Search Finding Aids  >  Seeger family collection, 1846-2023
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MacColl/Seeger, 1846-2009 (bulk 1930-1995) (continued)
Correspondence, 1959-1994 (continued)
General Correspondence, 1959-1994 (continued)
BOX-FOLDER 191/5 1991 July-December and undated
Correspondents include: Johanna Halbeisen, John Seeger, Jeremy Seeger, Mike Seeger, and Pete Seeger
BOX-FOLDER 191/6 1992 January-September
Correspondents include: Joe Bossom, Elsa Corbluth, Gershon Legman, Barbara Seeger, Kate Seeger, Mika Seeger, Mike Seeger, Tony Seeger, and Judith Tick
BOX-FOLDER 191/7 1992 October-December and undated
Correspondents include: Joe Bossom, Elsa Corbluth, Pete Seeger, and Toshi Seeger
BOX-FOLDER 191/8 1993 January-June
Correspondents include: Sonya Cohen, Elsa Corbluth, and Mika Seeger
BOX-FOLDER 192/1 1993 July- December and undated
Correspondents include: Elvira Hauschild, Laura Seeger, Pete Seeger, and Alexia Smith
Includes: Pete Seeger's additional lyrics to Ewan MacColl's "Joy of Living"
BOX-FOLDER 192/2 1994 January-June
Correspondents include: Sandra Kerr, Barbara Seeger, Mike Seeger, Pete Seeger, Alexia Smith, and Hedy West
BOX-FOLDER 192/3 1994 July-December and undated
Correspondents include: Elsa Corbluth and Christy Moore
BOX-FOLDER 192/4 undated
BOX 193 Condolence Letters and Cards, 1989
Arranged chronologically.
BOX-FOLDER 193/1 Letters (1 of 3), 1989
Correspondents include: Billy Bragg, Sidney Robertson Cowell, Elvira Hauschild, Hamish Henderson, Louis Killen, Alan Lomax, Tom Paley, and John Seeger
BOX-FOLDER 193/2 Letters (2 of 3), 1989
Correspondents include: Paddy Tunney
BOX-FOLDER 193/3 Letters (3 of 3), 1989
Correspondents include: Elsa Corbluth, Edmund Frow, Naomi Seeger Hvolbek, Sandra Kerr, Jeremy Seeger, and Naomi Seeger
BOX-FOLDER 193/4-6 Cards, 1989
BOX 194-202, 260, 263, 270-271 Organizations, 1931-1993

The Organizations subseries documents three entities in which Ewan MacColl and/or Peggy Seeger played significant roles: the Critics Group, the Singers Club, and the Workers Theatre Movement including the Theatre Workshop.

The Critics Group, an offshoot of the Singers Club, provided MacColl and Seeger, as seasoned folk revival performers, with a venue to share their experience in the art of folk performance with Club performers, attendees, and others.

The Critics Group came also to serve as a vehicle for MacColl to write and stage The Fesival of Fools--satirical plays performed during the new year season that recapitulated the previous year’s news. New and old folk songs and dancing were a feature of the programs. MacColl also wrote mumming plays and radio plays for the group. The bulk of the Critics Group materials document these programs through scripts and other documentation created to manage the productions. Annotated scripts show how each play developed as it was rehearsed. Peggy Seeger played a significant role in the productions managing the communications, finances, and staging. Her “books” are interesting for the director’s notes found on the verso of rehearsal script pagess. Photographs (virtually all unidentified as to performers or production) show how the performances were staged.

The Singers Club was a membership organization operated by a volunteer management committee of members under the auspices of the Education Department of London Co-operative Society Ltd. between 1961 and January 1992. Originally based in the Princess Louise pub, the Club cycled through a number of different physical locations over its 30 year history.

MacColl and Seeger played a significant role in the club's structure and organization and performed there nearly weekly, except when they were on extended tours outside London. Performance books and lists of songs sung by MacColl provide a window into the extent of their performing history, the songs they sang at the Club, and others who appeared there. Meeting minutes document the administration of the club and financial records including bar accounts, invoices, and cash books shed light on the money matters.

Although theater loomed large in MacColl's early years, there is little documentation about his role in the development of the Theatre Workshop the most significant organization to come out of the Workers Theatre Movement in England. This sub-subseries contains mainly articles, photographs, and programs from various productions.

Materials consist of cast and crew lists, music cue sheets, newsletters, photographs, rehearsal schedules, scripts, and stage layouts.
Arranged in three sub-subseries: Critics Group, Singers Club, and Workers Theatre Movement.
BOX 194-198, 260 MAPCASE-FOLDER 18 Critics Group, 1965-1973

Materials consist of articles, cast and crew lists, music cue sheets, newsletters, notated music, photographs, posters, programs, rehearsal schedules, scripts, and stage layouts.
Arranged alphabetically by file unit.
BOX-FOLDER 194/1 "Critics Group and the British Folksong Revival," 1968
By Ewan MacColl
BOX-FOLDER 194/2 Dissolution papers, 1972
Festival of Fools
see also Photographs - Festival of Fools
1965
BOX-FOLDER 194/3 Charles Parker files
BOX-FOLDER 194/4 Notes on weather lore
BOX-FOLDER 194/5-6 Scripts
1967
BOX-FOLDER 194/7 Miscellaneous
Includes: Notes, programs, and rehearsal schedules
BOX-FOLDER 260/3 Photograph album
Includes: Leaflet and program
BOX-FOLDER 194/8 Script
Bound volume
Includes: List of units and participants, minutes, notes and corrections, and rehearsal schedules
BOX-FOLDER 194/9 Script - D. G. Smith's book
Annotated
BOX-FOLDER 194/10 Script - Peggy's book
Includes: Cue sheets, annotated script, and unit and participant lists
1968
BOX-FOLDER 260/4 Artwork
BOX-FOLDER 195/1 Miscellaneous
Includes: Stage layout, units, and tape cues
BOX-FOLDER 263/8 Music
Notated music
MAPCASE FOLDER 18 Photographs
Mounted on cardboard
BOX-FOLDER 195/2 Programs and songbook
BOX-FOLDER 195/3 Script
Bound
Note: Annotated
BOX-FOLDER 195/4-5 Scripts
BOX-FOLDER 195/6 1969
1970
BOX-FOLDER 195/7 Miscellaneous
Includes: Cast lists, newsletters, rehearsal schedule, and script replacement pages
BOX-FOLDER 266/9 Poster
BOX-FOLDER 195/8 Programs
BOX-FOLDER 195/9 Script
BOX-FOLDER 195/10 Script - Peggy's book
Note: Annotated
BOX-FOLDER 196/1 Script - Tony Rose's book
Bound
Includes: Cast and crew list, music cue sheet, newsletter, rehearsal schedules, stage layout, tech crew list, and units list
1971
BOX-FOLDER 196/2 Programs
BOX-FOLDER 196/3 Script
Bound
BOX-FOLDER 196/4 Script
BOX-FOLDER 196/5 Script - Peggy's book
Includes: Newsletters, rehearsal schedules, stage layout, and unit order and casting list
Note: Annotated
BOX-FOLDER 196/6 Script - Running order
BOX-FOLDER 196/7 Script - Unused texts
1973
BOX-FOLDER 196/8 Advertisement
BOX-FOLDER 196/9 MacColl Nonsense Stories, undated
Includes: Unidentified notated music and lyrics
Titles include:
  • "Jack and the Sandicoot"
  • "Borers of Sod Ufric"
  • "Story of the King Who Signed and the Polystonium Who Rubs"
  • "The Oyster Cycle"
BOX-FOLDER 196/10 MacColl Nonsense Stories - "Ulster Divided," undated
Includes: Ewan MacColl handwritten draft
BOX-FOLDER 263/7 McMillan, Ian. Now Spread Yourselves Out and Listen to the Music, undated
Includes: Hamish MacColl dance choreography
BOX-FOLDER 197/1-6 Performance photographs, 1972 and undated
Includes: Images of Bob Blair, John Faulkner, Sandra Kerr, Jim O'Connor, Brian Pearson, Mike Rosen, Buff Rosenthal, Peggy Seeger, Jack Warshaw, and Terry Yarnell
BOX-FOLDER 197/7 "Landmarks" conference, 1965 March 3
MacColl activities
BOX-FOLDER 197/8-10 Folk song course, reels 1-26, 1964
Transcripts
BOX-FOLDER 197/11 Lecture notes for classes, undated
BOX-FOLDER 197/12 "The Sound of Folk Music" course, undated
BOX-FOLDER 197/13 Radio plays - Romeo and Juliet, 1966
BOX-FOLDER 198/1 Radio plays - St. George and the Dragon, [1964-1966]
BOX-FOLDER 198/2 "Ready, Steady, Stop" - actuality, 1965
BOX-FOLDER 198/3 "Running a Class," 1969
BOX-FOLDER 198/4 Miscellaneous files, 1965-1972 and undated
Includes: Exercises and lessons, feature evenings, repertoire, and notated music for "To Make a Fisherman"
Includes: Photographs of Bob Campbell, John Faulkner, Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger, and Denis Turner
BOX-FOLDER 249/13 "Money" project - drafts and notes, 1965-1970
Parker, Charles
BOX-FOLDER 198/5 Folk music series - "Recording techniques," 1964
BOX-FOLDER 198/6 Notes taken at business meeting of Critics Group, 1970 July
BOX-FOLDER 198/7 "Some Aspects of Traditional Song: Tradition and the Tape Recorder," 1965 June
Photographs
see Derbyshire - Critics Group
BOX-FOLDER 198/8 Reading list and bibliography, 1964, 1973
BOX-FOLDER 198/9 Research project on relationship between speech and song, 1966-1967
BOX-FOLDER 198/10 Research proposal on language of working class and middle class people, undated
BOX-FOLDER 198/11 Seeger, Peggy. "Principles of Folk Accompaniment," undated
BOX 252/4 to 253/1 Song cards - Unassociated, undated
MAPCASE FOLDER 15 St. George and the Dragon: A Modern Mumming Play, undated
Black and white photographs
BOX 199-201, 270-271 Singers Club, 1968-1992
Materials include booking confirmation sheets, correspondence; financial records, membership lists, minutes, photographs, posters, program lists, set lists, song sheets and broadsides, and a t-shirt.
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