Arrangement
The John Cohen collection is organized into the following series:
- Series 1. Manuscripts
- Series 2. Sound recordings and moving images
- Series 3. Still images
- Series 4. Accrual from January 2020
Series 1-3 were arranged and described according to format, such as manuscripts and sound recordings. Series 4 was processed separately, and is mostly arranged topically, by Cohen's area of interest, such as Peru and Southern U.S. music, but there is also a large subseries that documents the administrative side of Cohen's teaching, writing, photography, and film making career. Sound recordings that do not fit into the topical subseries of Series 4 have been moved to "Series 2. Subseries 4. Sound recordings and moving image materials from 2020 accrual." Materials within the Series 4 subseries are arranged alphabetically except for the "Original Artwork" subseries, which is arranged chronologically.
Headings in titles, such as "New Lost City Ramblers" and "Hidden Threads of Peru," were provided to uphold the collection's original order according to the topics of Cohen's projects and endeavors.