American Folk Music Photograph Collection, 1930s

Summary

Abstract:

The collection contains 54 WPA related black and white photographs of musicians, singers, their homes and environs, from California and parts of the South, including Arkansas and North Carolina.

Extent:

0.2 linear feet (1 half-size document box)

Language:

English

Preferred citation:

American Folk Music Photograph Collection. Mss 229. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Background

Scope and content:

The collection contains 54 WPA related black and white photographs of musicians, singers, their homes and environs, from California and parts of the South, including Arkansas and North Carolina. Some are stamped “California Folk Music Recorded by the Music Dept. of the Univ. of California, in Cooperation with the Archives of American Folk Song of the Library of Congress under Works Progress Administration.”

Included are images connected with field recording projects, one with microphone visible. Southern subjects include old ballad singers and their homes, a man and his mules, small shots of a dowser, and a guitar player recording songs in the parlor. The California photos include a number of immigrant Eastern European musicians playing a variety of instruments.

Identified photographers include James L. Hall, Sidney Roberts and Dick Weston.

Acquisition information:

Purchase, 2004.

Physical location:

Del Sur.

Rules or conventions:

Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

Indexed terms

Subjects:

Folk music--United States.

Restrictions:

None.

Terms of access:

Copyright has not been assigned to the Department of Special Collections, UCSB. All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of Special Collections. Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Department of Special Collections as the owner of the physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the copyright holder, which also must be obtained.

Preferred citation:

American Folk Music Photograph Collection. Mss 229. Department of Special Collections, Davidson Library, University of California, Santa Barbara.

Location of this collection:

UC Santa Barbara, Special Research Collections

UC Santa Barbara Library

Santa Barbara, CA 93106-9010, US

Contact:

(805) 893-3062

special@library.ucsb.edu

Website