Diana Davies photographs
odd: label: General note
content: All contact sheets from the collection are digitized and accessible through this finding aid. Series-level slideshows accessible through this finding aid represent a small sampling from the collection.
label: Shared Stewardship of Collections
content: The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage acknowledges and respects the right of artists, performers, Folklife Festival participants, community-based scholars, and knowledge-keepers to collaboratively steward representations of themselves and their intangible cultural heritage in media produced, curated, and distributed by the Center. Making this collection accessible to the public is an ongoing process grounded in the Center's commitment to connecting living people and cultures to the materials this collection represents. To view the Center's full shared stewardship policy, which defines our protocols for addressing collections-related inquiries and concerns, please visit https://doi.org/10.25573/data.21771155.
name: label: Photographer
content: Davies, Diana, 1938-
label: Performer
content: Bread and Puppet Theater
label: Performer
content: Everly Brothers
label: Performer
content: New Lost City Ramblers
label: Names
content: Newport Folk Festival
label: Performer
content: Pentangle (Musical group)
label: Names
content: Philadelphia Folk Festival
label: Performer
content: The Pennywhistlers (Musical group)
label: Performer
content: The Young Tradition (Musical group)
label: Performer
content: Andersen, Eric
label: Names
content: Asch, Moses
label: Performer
content: Bikel, Theodore
label: Musician
content: Bosco, John
label: Performer
content: Brand, Oscar
label: Performer
content: Cameron, John A.
label: Performer
content: Chandler, Len
label: Names
content: Chandler, Nancy
label: Performer
content: Collier, Jimmy
label: Performer
content: Collins, Judy, 1939-
label: Names
content: Dunson, Josh, 1941-
label: Performer
content: Fuller, Jesse
label: Photographer
content: Gahr, David
label: Performer
content: Gerrard, Alice, 1934-
label: Performer
content: Guthrie, Arlo
label: Performer
content: Hartford, John
label: Performer
content: Hjorth, Ole
label: Performer
content: Joplin, Janis
label: Performer
content: Kennedy, Norman, 1934-
label: Performer
content: Kershaw, Doug
label: Performer
content: Killen, Louis
label: Names
content: King, Coretta Scott, 1927-2006
label: Performer
content: Kirkpatrick, Frederick Douglass
label: Performer
content: Koerner, John
label: Performer
content: McGhee, Brownie, 1915-1996
label: Performer
content: Mitchell, Joni
label: Performer
content: Monroe, Bill, 1911-1996
label: Performer
content: Muddy Waters, 1915-1983
label: Performer
content: Ochs, Phil
label: Performer
content: Perkins, Carl
label: Performer
content: Proffitt, Frank, Jr., 1946-2005
label: Performer
content: Rachell, Yank
label: Performer
content: Raim, Ethel
label: Performer
content: Ramsey, Frederic, 1915-1995
label: Performer
content: Reagon, Bernice Johnson, 1942-2024
label: Performer
content: Rinzler, Ralph
label: Performer
content: Sainte-Marie, Buffy
label: Performer
content: Seeger, Mike, 1933-2009
label: Names
content: Silber, Irwin, 1925-2010
label: Performer
content: Stabi, Björn
label: Performer
content: Sykes, Roosevelt, 1906-1983
label: Performer
content: Taylor, James
label: Performer
content: Traum, Artie
label: Performer
content: Traum, Happy
label: Performer
content: Watson, Doc
label: Performer
content: Watson, Merle
label: Performer
content: White, Elaine (Vocalist)
label: Performer
content: Wiseman, Mac
label: Names
content: Young, Izzy, 1928-2019
place: label: Place
content: New York (N.Y.)
label: Place
content: Saint Simons Island (Ga. : Island)
topic: label: Topic
content: Peace movements
label: Topic
content: March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Washington, D.C., 1963
label: Topic
content: Civil rights -- United States
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: The Smithsonian Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections acquired portions of the Diana Davies Photograph Collection in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Ms. Davies photographed for the Festival of American Folklife.  More materials came to the Archives circa 1989 or 1990. Archivist Stephanie Smith visited her in 1998 and 2004, and brought back additional materials which Ms. Davies wanted to donate to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. These two more recent donations of additional photographs (contact sheets, prints, and slides) consisted of documentation of the Newport Folk Festival, the Philadelphia Folk Festival, the Poor People's March on Washington, the Civil Rights Movement, the Georgia Sea Islands, and miscellaneous personalities of the American folk revival. In a letter dated 12 March 2002, Ms. Davies gave full discretion to the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage to grant permission for both internal and external use of her photographs, with the provison that her work be credited in any use.
creator: label: Photographer
content: Davies, Diana, 1938-
setName: label: See more items in
content: Diana Davies photographs
abstract: label: Summary
content: The Diana Davies photographs consist of images taken by Diana Davies at various stages of her career. Locations include the Festival of American Folklife, the Newport Folk Festival, the Philadelphia Folk Festival, the Poor People's Campaign, various peace and protest marches and outdoor performances, New York City, and the Georgia Sea Islands. The collection includes contact sheets, negatives, photographic prints, and slides.
Original photographs, negatives, and color slides taken by Diana Davies. Materials date from 1963-2009. Bulk dates: Newport Folk Festival, 1963-1969, 1987, 1992; Philadelphia Folk Festival, 1967-1968, 1987.
bioghist: label: Biographical/Historical note
content: Diana Davies is a well-known photographer of folk performers and festivals. Davies photographed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in its earlier years. Born in 1938, Davies grew up in Maine, the Catskills, New York City, and Boston. Her grandparents were local union organizers and Debs socialists; one grandfather was a gandy dancer with the railroad, and her grandmother was a textile worker in Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania. Davies finds that her family background was later expressed in her own activist efforts.

Davies left high school at 16, and worked sweeping out coffeehouses, which gave her the opportunity to listen to music while she worked. She became interested in theater and music. In Greenwich Village, she began doing some sound technician work, and then got interested in photography. She taught herself how to develop and print photographs in a darkroom, and began photographing in theaters, shooting from behind the scenes. Her theater photos are at Smith College in Northampton, where she presently lives. In the early 1960s, she began working with the editors of Broadside Magazine, Sis Cunningham and Gordon Friesen. She developed an interest in human rights work, which grew from her contact with Sis and Gordon, and also her own family background. She also worked as a photographer in a wide range of settings, including night clubs, weddings, and doing portrait photography. This led her to work for major national and international media including the New York Times, covering such events as the war in Biafra, and traveling to Mexico, Cuba, and Portugal on assignment.

Davies' folk photographs represent about one-quarter of her body of work; her other major photographic work includes the Civil Rights Movement, the Peace Movement, and theater. Davies began photographing at the Newport Folk Festival in 1964, which she covered for a number of years. She knew Ralph Rinzler, and found him a vibrant, alive person excited by all aspects of culture. He introduced her to Bessie Jones from the Georgia Sea Islands, and in 1966 she made a photographic journey to the islands. Her work from this trip is included in the collection. Davies has also been a musician. She became involved with the punk rock movement of the 1970s, and felt that there was a connection between the hard-hitting songs from the punk world and the songs being published in Broadside Magazine. In 1975, she became part of a folk/punk women's band in Boston, and later moved to Western Massachusetts. In addition to being a photographer and musician, Davies is also a writer. She wrote a play entitled "The Witch Papers" in 1980, which was produced in Boston and other locations. The play was a vehicle for her human rights activism, comparing the technology of inquisition with labor sweatshops. In 1998, her play "The War Machine" was produced in Amherst, Mass. She lives in Northampton, and enjoys and participates in street performance, which she describes as the "most essentially communicative stuff you can come up with."
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 3.83 Cubic feet (8 binders containing contact sheets, slides, and prints; 7 boxes (8.5"x10.75"x2.5") of 35 mm negatives; 2 binders of 35 mm and 120 format negatives; and 1 box of 11 oversize prints.)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1963-2009
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections
identifier: label: Identifier
content: CFCH.DAVIE
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Contact sheets
label: Type
content: Slides (photographs)
label: Type
content: Black-and-white negatives
label: Type
content: Photographic prints
arrangement: label: Arrangement note
content: Each item in the Diana Davies Photographs has been assigned an accession number, and like materials have been put together such as the Newport Folk Festival photographs, in a chronological sequence as much as possible.  Materials in the three more recent donation batches (1998, 2004, and 2006) were numbered and integrated into the collection.  In some series, the accession numbers are in numerical order, and in others, the numbers are random because like items with different number sequences were pulled together in a series for subject coherence.  The best way to find occurrences of a particular subject is to use the ctrl+F function.  Please consult the archivists if you have any questions about the collection contents. 

Contact sheets, slides, and prints arranged in 8 binders; negatives and oversize prints are stored separately. 

Arranged in 14 series: 

Series 1: Newport Folk Festival

Series 2: Philadelphia Folk Festival

Series 3: Broadside Magazine

Series 4:  -- Sing Out! --  Magazine Concerts

Series 5: Miscellaneous Concerts and People

Series 6: Festival of American Folklife

Series 7: Recording Sessions

Series 8: Instruction Book Shots

Series 9: Jazz, Blues, and Salsa Musicians

Series 10: Georgia Sea Islands

Series 11: Social Justice

Series 12: New York City Scenes

Series 13: Miscellaneous Papers and Correspondence

Series 14: Oversize Materials
processinfo: label: Processing Information note
content: The records were processed in 2004-2005 by Stephanie Smith, Joyce Capper, Jillian Foley, and Meaghan McCarthy.

Encoded by Brittany Dunton, December 2011.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Contact sheets
label: Genre/Form
content: Slides (photographs)
label: Genre/Form
content: Black-and-white negatives
label: Genre/Form
content: Photographic prints
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: The Diana Davies photographs, 1963-2009, consist of black and white negatives, contact sheets and prints, as well as color slides and negatives. The bulk of materials depict major festivals and protest movements (including the Poor People's March of 1968)  documented by Diana Davies (located in Series 1: Newport Folk Festival, Series 2: Philadelphia Folk Festival, Series 6: Festival of American Folklife, and Series 11: Social Justice). Also well-represented are non-festival performances (in locations such as clubs, concert halls, and homes), recording sessions, and other music-related images, mainly of notable figures in the American folk music revival  (located in Series 3: Broadside Magazine, Series 4: Sing Out! Magazine Concerts, Series 5: Miscellaneous Concerts and People, Series 7: Recording Sessions, Series 8: Instruction Book Shots, and Series 9: Jazz, Blues, and Salsa Musicians). Series 10: Georgia Sea Islands consists of photographs depicting the culture, environment, and daily life of these coastal islands in 1966. Series 12: New York City Scenes contains photographs taken on the street depicting everyday life in NYC in the 1960s and 1970s. The collection also contains related papers in Series 13: Miscellaneous Papers and Correspondence.