Indian Neck Folk Festival collection
Scope and Content Note
Collection of audio recordings of folk festival concerts, workshops, and informal events, produced at various locations in Connecticut and Pennsylvania by the Indian Neck Folk Festival from about 1961-2015. The collection also includes papers, photographs, videocassettes, posters, and digital files. The Indian Neck Folk Festival was an invitation-only folk music gathering held annually in May at a camp facility in Connecticut. The collection documents the relationships, activities, and music that this community shared over the course of several generations. Includes documentation about planning and organizing the Indian Neck Folk Festivals, as well as photographs and sound recordings of public concerts and events at Yale University, Harrisburg Area Community College, and the Pennsylvania Folk Festival. The Indian Neck Folk Festival and concerts featured various performers, including Bob Dylan, Dave van Ronk, Rev. Gary Davis, John Hammond, Big Joe Williams, Ian and Sylvia, Gordon Bok, Sara Grey, Kenneth S. Goldstein, Debby McClatchy, Helen Schneyer, Del McCoury and the Dixie Pals, Mike Seeger, Tony Trischka and Skyline, the Paton family, Mick Moloney and Eugene O'Donnell, Ed Trickett, Ann Mayo Muir, Stan Rogers, Utah Phillips, Sparky Rucker, John McCutcheon, Grey Larsen, Michael Cooney, Bill Staines, Joe Hickerson and Kathy Hickerson, Alistair Anderson, Kinvara, John Jackson, Sally Rogers and Howie Bursen, Barbara Carns, Philippe Bruneau, Lucy Simpson, Margaret MacArthur, Lani Herrmann, Pricilla Herdman, Jon Wilcox, Linda Goss, Elizabeth LaPrelle, Ken Perlman, and many others.
Dates
- Creation: 1961-2015
Language of Materials
Collection material is in English, a few songs in Spanish and other languages.
Access and Restrictions
Collection is open for research; access to collection materials may be restricted. To request materials, please contact the Folklife Reading Room at https://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.contact
Copyright Status
Duplication of collection materials may be governed by copyright and other restrictions.
Biographical Note
The Indian Neck Folk Festival was founded by student members of the Yale University Folk Music Club, including musician John Cohen, and others. The festival was held in 1958, 1960, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1966, and then was held annually on a weekend in May. The group raised money for the festival by hosting a series of public folk music concerts on the Yale University campus and other locations. In 1970 the non-profit organization cut its ties with Yale, and moved the festival to a camp facility on Indian Neck Point in Branford, Connecticut. Jay Hartman-Berrier was the Indian Neck Folk Festival director for 51 years until her death in March 2017. In the early 1980s Jay Hartman-Berrier started a folk music concert series at Harrisburg Area Community College under the Indian Neck name, which ran for 5 years and then was taken over by the Susquehanna Folk Music Society. Because of her expertise and reputation, in 1983 she was approached by a group of five small colleges in Central Pennsylvania to organize the Pennsylvania Folk Festival, which ran for three years, showcasing Pennsylvania folk traditions, musicians and groups. The Indian Neck Folk Festival continued to be held during this time, by invitation only, in Falls Village, Connecticut. Since Hartman-Berrier's passing, the festival continues on with a different name.
Extent
6986 items ; 7 containers ; 4.5 linear feet.
48 sound cassettes (DAT) : digital.
284 sound cassettes : analog.
65 sound tape reels : analog ; 7 in.
10 sound tape reels : analog ; 10 in.
44 sound discs (CD-R) : digital ; 4 3/4 in.
3 videocassettes (VHS) : sound, color ; 1/2 in.
3 video discs (DVD) : digital, sound, color ; 4 3/4 in.
152 video files (MOV and MP4) (moving images) : digital.
4453 photographs (graphic images) : digital, JPEG files, color.
54 photographs (graphic images) : film negatives, black-and-white ; 35 mm
654 photographs (graphic images) : photographic prints ; 8 x 11 in. and smaller.
249 sound files (sound recordings) : digital, WAV files.
50 items (PDF, DOC) (manuscripts) : text files.
1050 items. (manuscripts)
Abstract
Collection of audio recordings of folk festival concerts, workshops, and informal events, produced at various locations in Connecticut and Pennsylvania by the Indian Neck Folk Festival from about 1961-2015. The collection also includes papers, photographs, videocassettes, posters, and digital files.
Arrangement
Organized into the following series: I. Manuscripts; II. Sound Recordings; III. Graphic Materials; IV. Moving Images; V. Optical Media; VI. Oversize materials. Arrangement reflects the intellectual/chronological order rather than the physical numbering of items.
Acquisition
Indian Neck Folk Festival collection; 2016.
Additional Formats Available
Selected analog recordings have digital preservation masters.
Processing History
The collection was processed by Maya Lerman.
Subject
- Beers, Bob, 1920-1972 (Person)
- Beers, Evelyne (Person)
- Berkeley, Roy, 1935-2009 (Person)
- Blaustein, Richard (Person)
- Bok, Gordon (Person)
- Broudy, Saul (Person)
- Cohen, John, 1932-2019. (Person)
- Davis, Gary, 1896-1972 (Person)
- Dylan, Bob, 1941- (Person)
- Eberhart, Jon (Person)
- Goss, Linda (Person)
- Hartman-Berrier, Jay (Person)
- Haslam, Cliff (Person)
- Hickerson, Joseph C. (Joseph Charles), 1935- (Person)
- Hickerson, Kathryn W. (Person)
- Jackson, John, 1924-2002 (Person)
- MacArthur, Margaret, 1928-2006 (Person)
- McClatchy, Debby (Person)
- McCoury, Del, 1939- (Person)
- McCutcheon, John, 1952- (Person)
- Moloney, Mick, 1944-2022 (Person)
- O'Donnell, Eugene, 1932- (Person)
- Paley, Tom (Person)
- Peirce, Maggi Kerr, 1931- (Person)
- Rosenbaum, Art (Person)
- Schneyer, Helen (Person)
- Seeger, Mike, 1933-2009 (Person)
- Staines, Bill (Person)
- Tuft, Harry M. (Person)
- Van Ronk, Dave (Person)
- Wallace, Andy (Person)
- Ian & Sylvia (Organization)
- Indian Neck Folk Festival, collector. (Organization)
- Indian Neck Folk Festival. (Organization)
- Pennsylvania Folk Festival (1981-1985 : Chambersburg, Pa.) (Organization)
Genre / Form
Geographic
- Falls Village (Conn.), event place.
- Falls Village (Conn.)
- Harrisburg (Pa.), event place.
- Harrisburg (Pa.)
- New Haven (Conn.), event place.
- New Haven (Conn.)
Topical
- Folk festivals--Connecticut.
- Folk festivals--Pennsylvania.
- Folk festivals--United States.
- Folk music festivals--Connecticut.
- Folk music festivals--Pennsylvania.
- Folk music--Connecticut.
- Folk music--Pennsylvania.
- Folk songs, English.
- Popular music--1961-1970.
- Popular music--1971-1980.
- Popular music--1981-1990.
- Popular music--1991-2000.
- Popular music--2001-2010.
- Title
- Indian Neck Folk Festival collection, 1961-2015
- Subtitle
- AFC 2016/002
- Author
- Prepared by Maya Lerman
- Date
- 2018
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
Part of the American Folklife Center Repository
American Folklife Center Reading Room
101 Independence AV, SE
Thomas Jefferson Building, G31
Washington, DC 20540-4810
(202) 707-5510