Scope and Content
The collection consists of documentation from Robert Sonkin's field recording trip to Shell Pile, near Port Norris, New Jersey, and from there to Gee's Bend and other locations in Alabama in June-July 1941. Sonkin recorded two discs of African American quartets performing gospel music in Shell Pile, June 25, 1941. His field notes also describe the African American community of Shell Pile, named for the oyster shucking industry established there near Port Norris, N.J. Forty-nine of the sixty-three discs were made in various locations in Gee's Bend, Alabama, and include prayer meetings, sermons, gospel music, spirituals, hymns, jubilee quartet singing, blues, children's songs, recitations and conversations. These discussions cover health and home remedies, the Gee's Bend school, and the Farm Security Administration's (FSA) Gee's Bend study. Sonkin also recorded ten discs in other areas in Alabama, including gospel quartet music in Bessemer, Alabama; interviews in Camden and Palmerdale, Alabama; and gospel music in Rehoboth and Greensboro, Alabama. Narratives by two former slaves, Isom Moseley and Alice Gaston, were recorded on July 22, 1941.
In addition to the recordings, there are typescript copies of research materials about Gee's Bend, Alabama dating from 1937-1939, including a paper, "An exploratory study of the customs, attitudes and folkways of the people in the community of Gee's Bend," by Nathaniel S. Colley of the Tuskegee Institute. Other reports on farm production, construction of new housing and barns, home economics, and community health, which were issued by government agencies, are included in the collection.