Scope and Content
Collection of more than 500 audio recordings, plus digital audio files, video recordings, film, photographs, papers, and ephemera documenting the history of the Caffè Lena coffeehouse, a folk music club and theater in Saratoga Springs, New York, founded by Lena Spencer and Bill Spencer in 1960. The collection includes a large number of live concert performance recordings by folk musicians and singer-songwriters, as well as some theater, storytelling, and poetry performances. The collection also includes folk music radio programs produced from Caffè Lena concerts by Robert Durand and others. Some materials were gathered by Jocelyn Arem while conducting research on the history of Caffè Lena, and the collection includes drafts and page proofs of Arem's book, Caffè Lena: Inside America's Legendary Folk Music Coffeehouse (2013).