Finding Aids to Individual Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture

Fletcher Collins Jr. Collection

AFC 1939/003

Prepared by Todd Harvey
Library of Congress
American Folklife Center
April 2004

Administrative Information

Provenance:
The collection was acquired in three separate gifts: 21 discs in 1939, 12 discs in 1942, and all manuscript materials in 2002.

Processing History:
Preservation copies of the discs were made as part of Library Work Order (LWO) 4872 in the 1960s. The manuscript materials were processed by Todd Harvey in 2003.

Location:
While the American Folklife Center is the custodial division for this collection, some materials may be stored with other divisions, e.g., Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Consult a reference librarian in the Folklife Reading Room for specific information.

Access:
Listening and viewing access to the collection is unrestricted. Listening copies of the recordings are available in the Folklife Reading Room.

Restrictions:
Restrictions may apply concerning the use, duplication, or publication of these and other items in this collection. Consult a reference librarian in the Folklife Reading Room for specific information.

Electronic Format:
Consult a reference librarian in the Folklife Reading Room for a database, created with Access 2000 software, of sound recordings.

Related Collections:
The "Man-on-the-Street" Interviews Collection (AFC 1941/004) and The "Dear Mr. President" Collection (AFC 1942/003) are available online as After the Day of Infamy: "Man-on-the-Street" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afcphhtml/afcphhome.html. See also the Radio Research Project Manuscript Collection (AFC 1941/005); The September 11, 2001, Documentary Project (AFC 2001/015); The Fletcher Collins Jr. Oral History Collection (AFC 2002/004)

Preferred Citation:
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Fletcher Collins Jr. Collection, Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

The Collector

Fletcher Collins Jr. was born on November 19, 1906, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Yale University (Ph.B. 1928, Ph.D. 1934) and was a professor of English at Elon College in North Carolina (1936-42). Collins founded the drama department at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia, where he is professor emeritus (1946-77). He is the author of Alamance Play-Party Songs and Singing Games (1940, reprint 1973), Medieval Church Music-Dramas (1976), and Troubadour & Trouvère Songs in Singable English (2 vols. 2000-2001), and numerous other books and articles.

Key Subjects

Note: An asterisk denotes a subject term or a name (whether a person, a group, an organization, or a location) that does not have an LC Subject or Name Authority Headings record. Brackets are used for additional information not included in the Authority Headings.

Genres
Ballads
Fiddle tunes
Fiddling
Folk songs

Instruments
Fiddle
Banjo

Languages
English

Locations
Alamance County (N.C.)
Arthurdale (W. Va.)
Brown Summit (N.C.)
Burlington (N.C.)
Elon College (N.C.)
Fancy Gap (Va.)*
Greensboro (N.C.)

Performers
[These are the performers from the sound recordings only.]
Cole, Calvin
Greer, I. G. (Isaac Garfield), 1881-1967
Greer, Mrs. I. G.*
Hawkins, Louis*
Meredith, Russell*
Newman, Mrs. J. U.*
Quesinberry, Jackson*
Tate, Dan, b. 1896
Wagoner, John*
Wagoner, Pete*
Wagoner, Vasteen*
Weddle, Mrs. Susan*

Scope and Content Note

The manuscript materials in this collection were donated to the Library of Congress in July 2002 and reflect Collins's Anglo-American folk music collecting activities from 1935 to 1944. Collins undertook numerous projects including a song book titled A Southern Songster and a radio series on WBIG, Greensboro, NC. Administrative papers and correspondence for these and other projects are included among the manuscript materials.

The song and tune transcriptions reflect, for the most part, Collins's collecting in North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia from 1935 to 1941. Many are the result of Collins's fieldwork while others were mailed to him or transcribed from printed sources. Contextual information (performer, date, place) is provided for about two-thirds of the songs. Some of the disc recordings were transcribed and are included among the manuscripts.

Collins made twenty-one disc recordings in March 1939 (AFS 2235, AFS 3769-3788) under the auspices of the WPA Joint Committee on Folk Arts and deposited them that year at the Library of Congress. In fall 1941, as part of the Library's equipment loan program, Collins borrowed a Presto disc recorder and blank discs. During November and December 1941 he made fifteen disc recordings in Brown Summit (AFS 6491), Burlington (AFS 6365-6366, perhaps 6494), Elon College (AFS 6492-6493), and Greensboro (AFS 6482-6486), North Carolina, and in Fancy Gap, Virginia (AFS 6487-6490). The two discs made in Burlington, Dec. 8, 1941, were in response to Alan Lomax's call for "man-on-the-street" reactions to the Pearl Harbor attacks the day prior. Collins quickly shipped those to Washington, D.C.; today they are included in a separate collection (AFC 1941/004: The Man-on-the-Street Interviews Collection). The remainder of Collins's 1941 recordings were shipped to the Library in early 1942. In 1942 Collins was asked to participate in Lomax's follow-up program, "Dear Mr. President," for which he recorded three discs (AFS 6417-6419). These were sent to the Library in 1942 and are today housed as a separate collection (AFC 1942/003: "Dear Mr. President" Interviews Collection). Collins describes his collecting experiences in the Fletcher Collins Jr. Oral History Collection (AFC 2002/004).

Appendix: Song Titles

These titles are taken from both the manuscript materials and the sound recordings.