Scope and Content
Between 1952 and 1959, Lawless wrote to approximately two hundred "folksingers" and "singers of folksongs," requesting information about their lives and careers in preparation for his book Folksingers and Folksongs in America. Lawless contacted both professional and non-professional singers and also wrote to several collectors of folksongs and collectors of folk instruments. The bulk of the collection consists of Lawless's correspondence with the singers, completed questionnaires, and information sent by the singers to Lawless. Most singers also sent one or more photographs.
The collection includes responses to the prepared questionnaire, carbon copies of Lawless's correspondence, the original letters from his correspondents, photographs, newspaper and magazine clippings, concert programs, publicity materials, and other ephemera. It also includes some correspondence with folksingers not strictly related to the preparation of Lawless's book. For example, there is correspondence concerning the arrangement of a concert at the college where Lawless taught.
The second edition of Folksingers and Folksongs in America (1965) included a "Special Supplement" with biographical information on the generation of folksingers who became prominent around 1960-64 (e.g. Joan Baez and Odetta). To research this updated edition, Lawless drew on previously published sources and did not contact the singers directly as he had in the 1950s. Few of the 1960s folksingers listed in the "Special Supplement" are represented in this collection, and those represented are documented with black-and-white photographs and clippings, not with correspondence.
The folders contain many more black-and-white photographs than appear in Folksingers and Folksongs in America. The book included two kinds of illustrations: black-and-white photographs of artworks depicting folklife, and black-and-white photographs of musicians. The black-and-white photographs of artwork are in folder 2, "Artwork illustrations." The photograph(s) of each musician are under the name of each musician or musician group.