Series 439: Folk Music Survey Files. 1936-1941.
Creator: Work Projects Administration (RG 60).
Collection Summary: Files from two surveys of Mississippi’s folk music administered jointly by the Federal Writers’ Project and Federal Music Project (overseen at the state level by Misses Eri Douglas and Jerome Sage, respectively). The music project served two purposes. The first purpose was to bring musical instruction to rural Mississippians by employing out of work musicians and music teachers to teach private and group lessons and direct small ensembles and school bands. The second purpose was to produce a survey of Mississippi’s folk music that would include actual musical notation in addition to the text of folk songs. Additionally, in 1939, the state was able to secure three months of time with the federal project’s recording machine to record folk music from various contributing musicians (termed informants) who had already contributed scores and texts. The machine toured the state in the summer of 1939, shepherded by Herbert Halpert, a New York City music specialist, and notetaker Abbott Ferris. Files from the state music project include bibliographies of folk music research and collections of published song texts; published articles on various types of folk music and folk music preservation; project correspondence; lists of project workers and the songs they contributed; one report each on the progress of the state and federal music projects; original, handwritten sheet music and song texts for the songs collected by project workers, organized by Civilian Conservation Corps district number; and handwritten song texts organized by the county in which they were collected. Files from the Halpert recording tour include correspondence and lists of recorded songs; drafts of interviews conducted with informants; handwritten notes from recording sessions; press releases and news clippings discussing the tour; and the final report, comprising a complete transcript of the song recordings and informant interviews, an index of all the songs recorded on each record with their singers, and an index of project workers, songs contributed, and singers.
Access Restrictions: None.
Date(s): 1936-1941.
Volume: 9.25 Cubic Feet.
Finding Aid Created By: Colby Cox in September 2024.
Related Materials: TBD.
Record Group History: The Works Projects Administration (WPA) was a federal program established on May 6th, 1935, in order to increase employment during the Great Depression. While the WPA was a federal program, it was implemented and managed on the state level with each state having their own director and office to guide the operation of the WPA for each state. The WPA was primarily focused on employing individuals for the purpose of creating public works and infrastructure, but a small portion of its funding was devoted to cultural and artistic endeavors which the files in this collection are primarily concerned with. Two of the major cultural projects the WPA undertook were the Federal Writers’ Project and the Historical Records Survey. The Federal Writers Project employed writers to create guides, histories, and chronicles for each state and the Historical Records Survey sought to catalogue the historical records of each state.
- Collection Inventory:
Box Content Box Number Halpert tour: correspondence and recording lists 10911 Halpert tour: final report [B437, B438, MF 1740] 11075 Halpert tour: interview drafts, Negro musicians 11081 Halpert tour: interview drafts, white musicians 11084 Halpert tour: recording notes, press releases and clippings 11083 Music project: correspondence 11082 Music project: lists of complete and incomplete song manuscripts 11076 Music project: lists of project workers and contributions 11079 Music project: miscellaneous, duplicate and additional song texts 11080 Music project: research and bibliography 11076 Music project: research and bibliography 11066 Music project: session notes 11079 Music project: state and federal music project reports 11082 Sheet music: District 1 11069 Sheet music: District 1 & 2 11070 Sheet music: District 2 & 3 11071 Sheet music: District 3 & 4 11072 Sheet music: District 4 11073 Sheet music: District 5 & 6 11074 Sheet music: alphabetized by song title 11078 Song texts: Adams - Itawamba counties 11067 Song texts: Itawamba - Yazoo counties 11068