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W.P.A. California Folk Music Project collection, 1936-1991

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Series I: Manuscripts
BOX-FOLDER 1/1 Finding Aid
Subseries I: Correspondence 1937-1958; 1980-1991
Subseries I contains correspondence materials that represent the pre-WPA period which spans September 21, 1938-October 20, 1938. During November 1938-February 1940 and post-WPA April 1940-September 1958.
BOX-FOLDER 1/2 Correspondence, Pre-WPA Project, September 21, 1937-February 1938
Correspondence to and from Robertson, memoranda, project proposals, and other materials relating to pre-California Folk Music Project activities and queries. Correspondents include Henry Cowell, Adrian Dornbush, Albert I. Elkus, Herbert Halpert, George Herzog, Alan Lomax, John A. Lomax, Charles Seeger, James B. Sharp, Harold Spivacke, the Society of California Pioneers and others.
BOX-FOLDER 1/3 Correspondence, Pre-WPA Project, March 1938-May 1938
Correspondence to and from Robertson, memoranda, project proposals, and other materials relating to pre-California Folk Music Project activities and queries. Correspondents include Henry Cowell, Adrian Dornbush, Albert I. Elkus, Herbert Halpert, George Herzog, Alan Lomax, John A. Lomax, Charles Seeger, James B. Sharp, Harold Spivacke, the Society of California Pioneers and others.
BOX-FOLDER 1/4 Correspondence, Pre-WPA Project, June 1938 -October 1938
Correspondence to and from Robertson, memoranda, project proposals, and other materials relating to pre-California Folk Music Project activities and queries. Correspondents include Henry Cowell, Adrian Dornbush, Albert I. Elkus, Herbert Halpert, George Herzog, Alan Lomax, John A. Lomax, Charles Seeger, James B. Sharp, Harold Spivacke, the Society of California Pioneers and others.
BOX-FOLDER 1/5 Correspondence. November 1938-July 1939 (During WPA project)
Correspondence to and from Robertson, memoranda, reports, and other materials relating to the California Folk Music Project while the project was being funded. Correspondents include Percy Grainger, George Herzog, Alan Lomax, Charles Seeger, Harold Spivacke and others.
BOX-FOLDER 1/6 Correspondence. August 1939-February 1940 (During WPA project)
Correspondence to and from Robertson, memoranda, reports, and other materials relating to the California Folk Music Project while the project was being funded. Correspondents include Percy Grainger, George Herzog, Alan Lomax, Charles Seeger, Harold Spivacke and others.
BOX-FOLDER 1/7 Correspondence. April 1940-September 1958 (Post-WPA project)
Correspondence to and from Sidney Robertson (after 1941, Sidney Robertson Cowell), memoranda, reports, and miscellaneous materials relating to the California Folk Music Project once it had been discontinued. Includes information about intended follow-up projects planned in the 1950s, material of folkloric and ethnomusicological value relating to the music already recorded, and plans for reviving the WPA-like cooperation of funds and resources through a consortium of universities, archival institutions, and collectors. Correspondents include Benjamin Botkin, Albert I. Elkus, Duncan Emrich, Percy Grainger, George Herzog, Rae Korson, Alan Lomax, John A. Lomax, Harold Spivacke and others.
BOX-FOLDER 1/8 Correspondence. August 1980-April 1991 (American Folklife Center)
Correspondence between Sidney Robertson Cowell and the American Folklife Center relating to Library of Congress' interest in making the California Folk Music Project Collection accessible to the public online. The folder also includes some Cowell reminiscences about the WPA project. Correspondents include Alan Jabbour and others.
Subseries II: Administrative Materials related to California WPA Project
BOX-FOLDER 1/9 Grant proposals and statements of purpose
BOX-FOLDER 1/10 Forms and background materials prepared for WPA project workers by Sidney Robertson
"Instruction to workers for the Collection of Traditional Music in California." Forms to be used in conducting fieldwork on the project. Bibliographic key word list Guide for WPA workers responding to "General Queries." Bibliography.
BOX-FOLDER 1/11 WPA progress reports
Report dated July 20, 1939, and another for the period from October 28, 1938 to September, 19, 1939, both prepared for the Northern California WPA Office.
BOX-FOLDER 2/12 Final Report of UC-Berkeley Faculty Sponsors
Statement of sponsorship for the WPA California Folk Music Project by faculty of the University of California, Berkeley, February 14, 1940.
BOX-FOLDER 2/13 Final Report of the California Folk Music Project Submitted to WPA
Statement of Accomplishment for O.P. 65-1-08-62, Unit A-25, Area Unit Serial No. 0803-1659, "A Study of California Folk Music," sponsored by the Department of Music of the University of California, Work Projects Administration, State of California, Northern District, Area No. 8, Alameda County, Berkeley, California, January, 1940. 88 pages
Subseries III: Field notes
BOX-FOLDER 2/14 Yellow Song Checklist: "E" (English Language) Listing
73 pages
List of Recordings made by Sidney Robertson in California 1938-1940 arranged alphabetically by performer. Yellow and white typewritten pages, some originals, listing English-language songs recorded as part of the California Folk Music Project. Organized alphabetically by last name of performer. Includes dates and locations of performances, collector's disc number with E, indicating "English-language" songs, instrumentation, occasional background commentary on the performers and performances, location where recorded, and, at times, comments regarding quality of sound recordings.
BOX-FOLDER 2/15 Yellow Song Checklist: "E" (English Language) Listing
73 pages
List of recordings made by Sidney Robertson in California 1938-1940 arranged alphabetically by performer. (photocopy)
BOX-FOLDER 2/16 Yellow Song Checklist: "M" (Minority) Listing, Armenian to Mexican (1/2)
103 pages
List of foreign language recordings made by Sidney Robertson in California, 1938-1940. Yellow and white typewritten pages, some originals, listing non-English language songs recorded as part of the California Folk Music Project. Organized alphabetically by cultural group. Includes dates and locations of performances, collector's disc number with M, indicating "minority," instrumentation, occasional background commentary on the performers and performances, location where recorded, and, at times, comments regarding quality of sound recordings. n.d.
BOX-FOLDER 2/17 Yellow Song Checklist: "M" (Minority) Listing, Norwegian to Spanish (2/2)
103 pages
List of foreign language recordings made by Sidney Robertson in California, 1938–1940. Yellow and white typewritten pages, some originals, listing non-English language songs recorded as part of the California Folk Music Project. Organized alphabetically by cultural group. Includes dates and locations of performances, collector's disc number with M, indicating "minority," instrumentation, occasional background commentary on the performers and performances, location where recorded, and, at times, comments regarding quality of sound recordings. n.d.
BOX-FOLDER 2/18 Yellow Song Checklist: "M" (Minority) Listing, Armenian to Mexican
103 pages
List of foreign language recordings made by Sidney Robertson in California, 1938-1940 (photocopy).
BOX-FOLDER 2/19 WPA Field Reports, 1938-11-25 to 1939-11-20
38 pages
Field reports submitted to the Northern California WPA Office for Folk Music Project 10482-A25, November 25, 1938-November 25, 1939
BOX-FOLDER 2/20 California Folk Music Project miscellany
BOX-FOLDER 3/21 George Vinton Graham field materials
BOX-FOLDER 3/22 Dust jackets, "E" [English] and "M" [minority] language (original)
BOX-FOLDER 3/23 Dust jackets, "E" [English Language]
BOX-FOLDER 3/24 Dust jackets, "M" [Minority Language]
Subseries IV: Song Indexes and Transcriptions
BOX-FOLDER 3/25 Song Indexes, English and Minority Language
BOX-FOLDER 3/26 English-language songs beginning with "A"
BOX-FOLDER 3/27 English-language songs beginning with "B"
BOX-FOLDER 3/28 English-language songs beginning with "C"
BOX-FOLDER 3/29 English-language songs beginning with "D" and "E"
BOX-FOLDER 3/30 English-language songs beginning with "F"
BOX-FOLDER 3/31 English-language songs beginning with "G"
BOX-FOLDER 3/32 English-language songs beginning with "H"
BOX-FOLDER 3/33 English-language songs beginning with "I"
BOX-FOLDER 3/34 English-language songs beginning with "J" and "K"
BOX-FOLDER 4/35 English-language songs beginning with "L"
BOX-FOLDER 4/36 English-language songs beginning with "M"
BOX-FOLDER 4/37 English-language songs beginning with "N" and "O"
BOX-FOLDER 4/38 English-language songs beginning with "P," "Q," and "R"
BOX-FOLDER 4/39 English-language songs beginning with "S"
BOX-FOLDER 4/40 English-language songs beginning with "T"
BOX-FOLDER 4/41 English-language songs beginning with "U," "V," and "W"
BOX-FOLDER 4/42 English-language songs beginning with "Y"
BOX-FOLDER 4/43 Lists of Portuguese-language song titles, n.d.
4 pages with duplicate copy
With English translations, arranged alphabetically by title. Folder 43 (A -F) and Folder 44 (H-V) include musical transcriptions of Portuguese-language songs with lyrics, a translation of the lyrics into English and, at times, notes on these songs from the Azores that were recorded for the California collection, indexed, organized, and translated by WPA California Folk Music Project worker and performer Alice Lemos Avila.
BOX-FOLDER 4/44 Portuguese-language songs beginning with "A," "B," "E," and "F," n.d. (original)
BOX-FOLDER 4/45 Portuguese-language songs beginning with "H"-"V" (original)
BOX-FOLDER 4/46 Portuguese songs beginning with "A"-"V" (photocopy)
BOX-FOLDER 4/47 Spanish-language songs sung by Jessie De Soto, n.d. (original)
6 pages
BOX-FOLDER 5/48 English Language "A-T"
6 pages
English-language California song and poem research from printed sources for texts beginning in "A" through "T," n.d. Arranged in alphabetical order by first letter of title or first line.
BOX-FOLDER 5/49 English Language, Gold Rush Songs, n.d.
This folder includes background information on and published lyrics of Gold Rush songs copied by California WPA workers from an unidentified book at the UC Library in Berkeley. Songs, in the order in which they were prepared by the WPA staff.
BOX-FOLDER 5/50 Portuguese Language "C-V"
Portuguese-language songs arranged in alphabetical order, beginning with first letter.
BOX-FOLDER 5/51 Portuguese Language, Five Folk Dances of the Azores
10 pages plus photocopy of same
Folk Songs and Dances from the Azores, set down by Alice Avila in Berkeley in 1938-9. Copied and translated from Portuguese by Alice Lemos Avila with notes and transcriptions from the publication entitled Portucale. Includes notes for the following songs, with lyrics and musical transcription listed by first line.
BOX-FOLDER 5/52 Spanish-language songs and their English-language translation from printed sources, n.d.
3 pages
Subseries V: Research products by WPA staff
BOX-FOLDER 5/53 Articles in San Francisco Chronicle (1938) by Sidney Robertson Cowell
"The Songs of a Nation Collect a Forgotten Claim" and "The Spirit of a Generation Reflected in Folk Songs" by Sidney Robertson in two parts about her work collecting folk songs in California for the WPA. Published in the "This World" section, on September 4, 1938, p. 26, and September 14, 1938, p. 22.
BOX-FOLDER 5/54 Portuguese Citizens of California (original, 1939).
58 pages
Original handwritten report in spiral notebook written by WPA California Folk Music Project worker Carmen Mell to describe the historical, cultural, and musical life of the Portuguese in California, 1939. Includes letter from Carmen Mell to Sidney Robertson that accompanied the report when it was completed. (3 pages)
BOX-FOLDER 5/55 Portuguese Citizens of California by Carmen Mell (1939) (photocopy)
BOX-FOLDER 5/56 Article in California Folklore Quarterly(1942) by Sidney Robertson Cowell
3 copies of "The Recording of Folk Music in California" by Sidney Robertson. Vol. 1, No. 1, January 1942, pp. 7-23.
BOX-FOLDER 5/57 Outline for book tentatively called "Folksong in California," July 1954.
24 pages
24-page typewritten and handwritten manuscript prepared by Sidney Robertson Cowell, July 1954. Research products inspired by the WPA California Folk Music Project.
BOX-FOLDER 5/58 Published articles
Articles written about Sidney Robertson, the WPA California Folk Music Project in 1938-1940, and reviews of Sidney Robertson and Eleanora Black's compilation entitled The Gold Rush Song Book, published in 1940.
BOX-FOLDER 5/59 Catalog cards
19 catalog cards created according to guidelines and procedures of the Library of Congress, as examples for the WPA California Folk Music Project staff. The actual catalog cards prepared by project staff for the field recordings of the CFMP became part of the Archive of Folk Culture's item-level shelflist card file created by other WPA staff working in the Library in the late 1930s and early 1940s located in the Folklife Reading Room.
BOX 7 Dust jackets, "E" [English-language]
BOX 8 Dust jackets, "M" [minority, 1-70]
BOX 9 Dust jackets, "M" [minority, 71-104]
The CFMP selections included here (folders 25 and up) are often annotated by an E (English-language) or M (minority) disk number, the original numbers that Robertson assigned to the recordings she made for the WPA project. The term "version" here is used to cover both true variants of a song and draft copies of transcriptions in several stages of preparation (as was frequently done by WPA staff for this collection). For Folders 24-45, see Appendix C for song titles.
Series II: Sound Recordings
AFS 3342-3377; AFS 3809-3860; AFS 4194-4287
Original field recordings made by Robertson between 1938-1940 on 12-inch acetate disks and labeled E 1-90 [English-language recordings] and M 1-109 ["Minority" or foreign-language recordings]. Arranged numerically by AFS numbers in the order in which they were received by the Archive of Folk Culture. Some of the original field recordings were sent to the Folk Archive during the project in 1939; the rest were brought in during 1940 by Robertson.
Series III: Graphic Images
Subseries I: Scale drawings and sketches of musical instruments
BOX-FOLDER 5/60 Microfilm (copy) From UC Berkeley Music Library
Two duplicate rolls of microfilm copied from the University of California, Berkeley, Music Library's California Folk Music Project Collection. Includes images representing 85 preliminary sketches of the musical instruments made originally on butcher-block paper and 40 mechanical scale drawings made by WPA staff. Includes sketches of the Spanish guitar or Sonora not included below.
BOX-FOLDER 6/61 Index to scale drawings and sketches of instruments
Typewritten listing of drawings and sketches of musical instruments in collection with handwritten annotations. Undated.
BOX-FOLDER 6/62 Scale drawings and sketches of instruments (photocopies)
Photocopies of scale drawings taken from microfilm in the collection.
BOX-FOLDER 6/63 Scale drawings and sketches of instruments (photostats)
Photostats of mechanical drawings of eight musical instruments.
Subseries II: Photographs
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