The Library of Congress >  Researchers >  Search Finding Aids  >  Seeger family collection, 1846-2023
ContainerContents
Seeger, Peggy, 1960-2013 (bulk 1989-2010) (continued)
Digital Files, 1994-2013 (continued)
MacColl/Seeger archive, digitized tape reels, 2011 (continued)
Includes: Log file with format info and time stamps
DF MacColl/Seeger archive, digitized tape reels, 2011
Digital ID: Seeger_038
Digital ID: Seeger_039
Oral histories/field recordings
Includes: Log file with format info and time stamps
DF MacColl/Seeger archive, digitized tape reels, 2013
Digital ID: Seeger_035_036
Field recordings; Peggy Seeger childhood/early tapes; songs; Revival Singers recordings; Charles Parker recordings; Radio Ballads recordings; interviews with Ewan MacColl
DF Peggy hypercare stack, 2004
Digital ID: Seeger_014
"Peg_Ewan records database copy" - catalog of recordings
DF Peggy songbook; also misc. 2004
Digital ID: Seeger_015
"Peg_Ewan records database copy" - catalog of recordings
BOX 133-224, 252-267, 269 MAPCASE FOLDER 1-17 MacColl/Seeger, 1846-2009 (bulk 1930-1995)

The MacColl-Seeger series (formerly the Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger Archive housed at Ruskin College, Oxford) contains personal and professional correspondence with family members, artist colleagues--particularly songwriters--and business associates; plays and other writings; song lyrics by MacColl, Seeger, and others in their circle; music manuscripts of works by Peggy Seeger, Ewan MacColl--both as joint creators and independent writers--and others; and family and professional photographs. Also included are datebooks, financial documents, contracts and other records which reveal more than mere business arrangements; these papers help demonstrate how the couple carved out and engineered the spread of the folk revival movement in Europe in the 1960s through club and festival appearances. These materials also provide insight into Peggy Seeger's role as a performer, songwriter, business manager, and parent. Audio/visual materials, transferred to the American Folklife Center, capture live performances, interviews, oral histories, and, in the Seeger family tradition, field recordings of folk artists in Britain and Europe.
Arranged in eight subseries: Writings, Songwriting, Subject Files, Correspondence, Organizations, Recording Activity, Biographical Materials, and Photographs.
BOX 133-159, 252-253 Writings, 1846-1999

The Writings subseries brings together most of Ewan MacColl's and Peggy Seeger’s extensive independent written output; their vast songwriting oeuvre is in the Songwriting subseries, while MacColl’s “Festival of Fools” productions are located in the Critics Group files. Between them they wrote or edited more than twenty books including heavily annotated song collections and monographs; MacColl himself wrote over twenty plays and dozens of radio and television broadcasts.

Broadcasts and plays are the most extensively documented of MacColl’s writings with versions of all of his plays and radio ballads included in the collection. There are also numerous drafts of his posthumously published autobiography Journeyman.

Between 1969-1985 a different sort of publication occupied much of Peggy’s attention: the New City Songster. These irregular issues collected newly written topical songs from Australia, Great Britain, and the United States. Seeger managed the production and distribution of each the twenty issues and their reissue and wrote an introduction to each issue.

Both MacColl and Seeger shared their knowledge of folk music through lectures on folk music structure and style, using music in documentary productions, and how to write folk songs.

Other writers are also represented in the Writings subseries through articles sent to or saved by MacColl or Seeger on topics or writers of interest and poetry sent to them by friends. The articles located here are on a variety of topics unlike those in the Subject Files subseries which focus on folk music and the folk revival.

Materials consist of clippings, correspondence; draft and published articles, books, and plays; lyric sheets; notated and printed music; photographs; pre-publication artwork; and scripts.
Arranged into seven sub-subseries or file units: Articles, Books, Broadcasts, New City Songster, Plays, Poetry, and Teaching Materials.
BOX 133 Articles and Miscellaneous Documents, 1852-1992
see also Critical and Historical Materials and Biographical Materials
Materials consist of correspondence and draft and published articles on a wide array of topics of interest to MacColl and Seeger; articles and reviews by them are here as well.
Arranged alphabetically by author or title.
BOX-FOLDER 133/1 Abolition of Unemployment Bill, 1977
BOX-FOLDER 133/2 Anson, Richard F. "The Religious Revival Among the Scottish Fisher-folk," The Month, 1922
BOX-FOLDER 133/3 Barker, Clive. "Contemporary Shakespearean Parody in Britain," Shakespeare Jahrbuch, 1969
Note: Inscribed by Barker
BOX-FOLDER 133/4 Byrne, Brian. Extracts from writings, undated
BOX-FOLDER 133/5 [Clark], "Essay on Folk Revival in Scotland," undated
Manuscript
BOX-FOLDER 133/6 Dorothy Hewett/Lloyd Davies libel case and benefit concert for Dorothy Hewett, Adelaide, 1977
BOX-FOLDER 133/7 Edgar, David. "10 Years of Political Theatre, 1968-1978," Theatre Quarterly, 1979
Includes: Transmittal letter
BOX-FOLDER 133/8 Eichholz, Alice. "Childbirth Fantasies: More Clues for Psychohistorians," 1969
BOX-FOLDER 133/9 Fowke, Edith. "The Canadian Folk Scene," 1960
Includes: Correspondence and photograph of Fowke
BOX-FOLDER 133/10 Frow, Edmund and Ruth Frow. "Radical Salford: Episodes in Labour History," 1984
BOX-FOLDER 133/11 Greisman, H. C. "Terrorism and the Closure of Society: a Social-impact Projection," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 1979
BOX-FOLDER 133/12 Guide to ballad articles in the Journal of American Folklore, undated
Manuscript list
BOX-FOLDER 133/13 Interesting articles, 1852, 1988, and undated
Contents include:
  • Buchwald, Art. "Red Men Rare in Texas, Son," undated
  • Burnley Cotton Mill office in 1852 Notice to Employees
  • Rosselson, Leon. "Mashed Potato Music," undated
  • Smith, Joan. "Ghost Riders in the Sky," 1988
BOX-FOLDER 133/14 Lerner, Lawrence S. and Edward A. Gosselin. "Galileo and the Specter of Bruno," Scientific American, 1986 November
MacColl, Ewan
BOX-FOLDER 133/15 "Grass Roots of the Theatre Workshop," Theatre Quarterly, 1973 March
BOX-FOLDER 133/16 Miscellaneous notes, 1985 and undated
BOX-FOLDER 133/17 Notes on the Peasants Revolt, undated
BOX-FOLDER 133/18 Maffi, Mario. "From the Abyss: Social Writing and the Urban Masses in Late Nineteenth Century America," undated
Typescript
BOX-FOLDER 133/19 Manchester Unity of Arts Society. "Voices: Verse and Prose," 1973
BOX-FOLDER 133/20 McKenry, John. "Click Go the Shears: The Making of an Australian Icon," undated
BOX-FOLDER 133/21 McKenry, John. "More than a Life: John Meredith and the Australian Folk Revival," undated
Excerpts
BOX-FOLDER 133/22 Milne, W. S. Virgil's Eclogues: translatit inte Scots, 1988
Unpublished typescript
Includes: Transmittal letter
BOX-FOLDER 133/23 "Paper and Watermarks," undated
BOX-FOLDER 133/24 Parker, Charles. Performance of US, 1966
BOX-FOLDER 133/25 Parker, Charles. "Some Notes Towards a Discussion of Documentary Theatre," 1966
BOX-FOLDER 133/26 Roberts, Malcolm. The Seaman's Life and Working Conditions Since the Nineteen-thirties," unpublished thesis, Ruskin College, 1972
BOX-FOLDER 133/27 Savage, Henry. The Harleian Miscellany: An Entertaining Selection, 1924
Excerpt
BOX-FOLDER 133/28 Seeger, Peggy. Review of John C. O'Donnell 'And Now the Fields are Green': A Collection of Coal Mining Songs in Canada, 1992?
BOX-FOLDER 133/29 Smith, Sheila M. "John Overs to Charles Dickens: A Working-man's Letter and Its Implications, Victorian Studies, 1974 December
BOX 134-140, 252-253 Books, 1954-1998
Materials consist of correspondence, drafts, indexes, lyric sheets, music transcriptions, notated music, notes, page proofs, reviews, and song analysis charts created by MacColl and Seeger for publications they wrote or contributed to.
Arranged alphabetically by author and then by title.
Ewan MacColl
BOX-FOLDER 134/1 Agit-prop to Theatre Workshop - correspondence and notes, 1983-1990
BOX-FOLDER 134/2 Agit-prop to Theatre Workshop, undated
Contains: Introduction by MacColl and script for Last Edition
BOX-FOLDER 134/3 "Damnable Town," undated
Bound typescript
BOX-FOLDER 134/4 Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland, 1965
Published volume
Journeyman: An Autobiography
BOX-FOLDER 251/1 Published volume, 1990
BOX-FOLDER 251/2 Published volume, 2009
Paperback edition
BOX-FOLDER 134/5 Correspondence, 1989-1998
BOX-FOLDER 252/1 Index cards, undated
BOX-FOLDER 134/6 Notes, undated
BOX-FOLDER 134/7 Press release, 1990
BOX-FOLDER 134/8 Reviews, 1990-1991
BOX-FOLDER 134/9-12 Draft - Topical order, undated
BOX-FOLDER 135/1 Draft - Incomplete - Chapters 1-6, undated
BOX-FOLDER 135/2 Draft - Incomplete - Chapters 7-10, undated
BOX-FOLDER 135/3 Draft I - Chapters 1-6, 1987
BOX-FOLDER 135/4 Draft I - Chapters 7-14, 1987
BOX-FOLDER 135/5 Draft I - Chapters 15-20, 1987
BOX-FOLDER 136/1 Draft I - Chapters 21-28, 1987
BOX-FOLDER 136/2 Draft 2 - The Big Yellow Foot - Chapters 1-6, undated
BOX-FOLDER 136/3 Draft 2 - The Big Yellow Foot - Chapters 7-15, undated
BOX-FOLDER 136/4 Draft 2 - The Big Yellow Foot - Chapters 16-23, undated
BOX-FOLDER 136/5 Draft 2 - The Big Yellow Foot - Chapters 24-29, undated
BOX-FOLDER 136/6 Unedited final - Introduction and Chapters 1-6, 1990
BOX-FOLDER 137/1 Unedited final - Chapters 7-14, 1990
BOX-FOLDER 137/2 Unedited final - Chapters 15-22, 1990
BOX-FOLDER 137/3 Unedited final - Chapters 23-30, 1990
BOX-FOLDER 137/4 Running Sheets, 1990
BOX-FOLDER 250/6 Personal Choice, undated
Published volume
BOX-FOLDER 137/5 Shuttle and Cage, 1954 and undated
Includes: Two copies of published volume
Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger
BOX-FOLDER 137/6 Crime and Punishment/Rogues and Vagabonds songbooks, undated
BOX-FOLDER 137/7 Miscellaneous proposed projects, undated
BOX-FOLDER 137/8 Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl Songbook, undated
BOX-FOLDER 137/9 The Singing Island: A Collection of English and Scots Folksongs, 1960
Published volume and lyric sheets
BOX-FOLDER 138/1 Songs of Work and Leisure - Correspondence and notes, 1969
BOX-FOLDER 138/2 Songs of Work and Leisure - Songs, 1969
Till Doomsday in the Afternoon: The Folklore of a Family of Scots Travellers: The Stewarts of Blairgowrie
BOX-FOLDER 251/3 Published volume, 1988
BOX-FOLDER 138/3 Correspondence, notes, notated music, and lyric sheets, 1988
BOX 252/2 Song cards, undated
MAPCASE FOLDER 8 Song analysis charts, 1988
BOX-FOLDER 138/4-5 Manuscript, undated
BOX-FOLDER 251/4 Travellers Songs from England and Scotland, 1973-1977
Published volume
BOX-FOLDER 138/6 Travellers Songs from England and Scotland, 1973-1977
BOX 252/2 Travellers Songs from England and Scotland, 1973-1977
Song cards
Peggy Seeger
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