Search Results

1. John A. Lomax and Alan Lomax papers, 1907-1969

   approximately 4900 items; 14 boxes; 5.6 linear feet.. -- American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

   Summary:

   Collection of correspondence, research notes, transcripts, sheet music, manuscript music transcriptions, song texts, song books, maps, and administrative documents dating primarily from the tenure of John A. Lomax and his son Alan Lomax at the Archive of American Folk Song, Library of Congress, from 1932-1942, but with a few items dating to the 1960s. Correspondents include various staff at the Library of Congress, in particular, Harold Spivacke; and folklorists, musicians, writers, academics, film directors, and others, including Huddie "Lead Belly" Ledbetter and Woody Guthrie; various government agencies including the Works Progress Administration, Federal Writers' Project, and War Department; broadcasting and record companies; publishers; and fans of Alan Lomax's radio shows, who sent in contributions of folk songs and folklore from their childhood and communities. Documents include drafts of speeches, lectures, articles, and drafts of their books for publication.

2. Woody Guthrie manuscript collection, 1935-1950

   3 boxes. -- American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

   Summary:

   The Woody Guthrie manuscript collection includes unpublished correspondence, most are letters from Guthrie to Alan Lomax, assistant in charge of the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress, dated 1940-1942; plus drawings; essays; song lyrics; and a songbook, "Songs of Woody Guthrie."

   Please note:

   Access restrictions apply.

3. W.P.A. California Folk Music Project collection, 1936-1991

   7 boxes 4.5 linear feet.. manuscripts: 115 folders.. 239 sound discs (35 hours) : analog, 78 rpm, mono. ; 12 in.. 170 photographic prints : black and white ; various sizes.. 24 drawings.. -- American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

   Summary:

   The California Folk Music Project of the California Work Projects Administration (WPA) was conceived and directed by Sidney Robertson Cowell and co-sponsored by the Music Department of the University of California, Berkeley, and the Music Division, Library of Congress from 1938 to 1940. Additional support was provided by the New Music Society of California and the Society of California Pioneers. The resulting collection of sound recordings, photographs, correspondence, field notes, and drawings documents the musical culture, including religious music and folk song, of many ethnic and English-language performers in northern California. The collection includes the documentation of the music of Anglo Americans, Armenians, Assyrians, Basques, Croatians, English, Finns, Hungarians, Icelanders, Italians, Norwegians, Russian Molokans, Scots, Portuguese, Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Spaniards and Spanish Americans from 1938 to 1940. The sound recordings were deposited in the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress in 1940. The collection also includes a few instantaneous sound discs made by Sidney Robertson Cowell in Missouri and Iowa for the Farm Security Administration in 1936-1937, and includes folk music research, writing, photographs, and technical drawings and sketches of the musical instruments, generated by Cowell and by the WPA staff who worked for her, plus related documents to 1991.

   Please note:

   Access restrictions apply.

4. Library of Congress and Fisk University Mississippi Delta collection, 1941-1943

   493 items ; 1 container plus 1 oversize ; 4 linear feet.. 350 manuscript items.. 10 sound discs : analog, 78 rpm, mono. ; 12 in.. 87 sound discs : analog, 78 rpm, mono. ; 16 in.. 46 negative prints : black and white ; 54 x 37 cm and smaller.. -- American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

   Summary:

   The collection consists of a portion of the materials generated by a joint field project -- the Coahoma County, Mississippi, field project, 1941-1942 -- undertaken by Alan Lomax, Assistant in Charge of the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress, and Fisk University faculty members including Charles S. Johnson, John Wesley Work, and Lewis Wade Jones. Field recordings were made of secular and religious music, sermons, children's games, jokes, folktales, interviews, and dances documenting the expressive culture of an African American community in Coahoma County, Mississippi. Some audio recordings were made by Alan Lomax and John W. Work at Work's home in Nashville, Tennessee; and a few were recorded by Lomax in Arkansas. The collection includes recording logs, reports, and correspondence related to the project. Also included are negative photostats of song transcriptions by John W. Work (1943), including some songs that were recorded on this project.

5. Eloise Hubbard Linscott collection, circa 1815, 1929-2002

   34 boxes (18 linear feet); 198 folders.. 11 sound cylinders : analog.. 441 sound discs : analog ; various sizes.. 32 sound tape reels : analog ; various sizes.. 1 sound cassette : analog.. circa 200 photographs : photographic prints, negatives ; various sizes.. 12 drawings.. -- American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

   Summary:

   Eloise Hubbard Linscott’s collection of research materials for her book, Folk Songs of Old New England (1939) and other folk music research through about 1955. The collection includes correspondence; music transcriptions; sound recordings of folk music, lectures, and radio broadcasts; photographs of Linscott's informants; documentation of events and trips within New England; plus some materials from her estate, dated circa 1815-2002.

   Please note:

   Some or all content stored offsite.

6. Captain Pearl R. Nye collection, 1937-1944

   18 folders total (Folders 1-16 and Folder 18 in 1 box, plus Folder 17, oversize).. 22 sound discs : analog ; 12 in.. 7 photographic prints : black and white, color ; various sizes.. -- American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

   Summary:

   The collection is comprised of field recordings made in Akron, Ohio, by John A. Lomax (on June 27-28, 1937), and Alan Lomax and Elizabeth Lomax (on November 3, 1937), of songs performed by Pearl R. Nye related to life on the Ohio and Erie Canal, plus photographs of canal life (some hand-decorated by Nye), and correspondence between Nye and Harold Spivacke of the Library of Congress, and manuscript and typed transcriptions of song lyrics sung and collected by Pearl R. Nye.