Search Results

1. 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   The Woody Guthrie manuscript collection includes unpublished correspondence, most are letters from Guthrie to Alan Lomax, assistant in charge of the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress, dated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.

2. Duncan Emrich autograph album collection, 1843-1956

   20 volumes and 2 folders in 2 boxes. -- American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

   Summary:

   This collection was initiated through an on-air request for autograph albums on the "NBC Weekend" radio program by Duncan Emrich, then head of the Archive of Folk Song, Library of Congress, between 1955 and 1956. It consists of twenty autograph albums and related ephemera from Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, and New York, with dates from 1843 to 1923.

   Please note:

   Access restrictions apply.

3. Duncan Emrich manuscript collection, 1933-1977

   (original) 8.75 linear feet (21 boxes) including manuscripts and 23 black-and-white photographic prints. -- American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

   Summary:

   Correspondence, research materials, book contracts, and typescripts for several of author and folklorist Duncan Emrich's published and unpublished books and articles on American folklore. There are some personal papers, including Emrich's college transcripts; course materials from classes that Emrich taught at the University of Maryland; and documents pertaining to Emrich's service with the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force during World War II, and the Department of State, United States Information Agency during the 1960s. Book projects include American Folk Poetry; song lyrics prepared for An Anthology of American Folk Songs, with Charles Seeger; the Lucius Beebe Reader, with Charles Clegg; a Child's Book of Folklore, with Marion V. Emrich and George Korson; poetry and articles about the American West; and unpublished works on animal lore, death, and other topics. The collection includes a bibliography of Emrich's writings, and a Bibliography of American Folksong in the English Language compiled by Joseph C. Hickerson, galleys, photographs of Duncan Emrich, fan mail from children, and other materials.

4. 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.

5. 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.