Vance Randolph collection
By: collected by Vance Randolph
Contributors: Archive of Folk Song (U.S.)
Published: 1941
Language: eng
Number of pages: 261
Subjects: Children's songs, English; English Ballads; Traditional medicine; Social life and customs; Dialects; Tales; Shape note singing; Folk dance music; Folk literature; Fiddle tunes; Games; English language; Folk music; Singing games; Correspondence; Religious life and customs; English Hymns; Old-time music; Storytelling; Field recordings; Folk festivals; Local History; Rites and ceremonies; Superstition; Ethnomusicological collections; English Folk songs; Folklore; Folklorists; Tall tales; Material culture
Description: The Vance Randolph collection documents aspects of Ozark Mountains folklife and culture from 1941-1972. Randolph made field recordings of folksongs, speech, and photographs in the Ozarks from 1941-1943 for the Archive of American Folk Song, Library of Congress. Randolph donated his papers to the Archive in 1972 and the two accessions were combined.  Recordings include instrumentals, unaccompanied and accompanied ballads, folk songs, popular songs, hymns, religious songs, fiddle tunes, and old-time music, performed on fiddle, banjo, mandolin, guitar, piano, and harmonica. Randolph accumulated an extensive number of newspaper clippings and topical files on a wide variety of subjects relating to the Ozarks, including local legends, folk beliefs, local history, traditional music, childrens' games, folk medicine, spiritual healing, jokes, riddles, place names, medicine shows, local dialect, folk festivals, sporting activities, local outlaw Belle Starr, and other local characters. Vance Randolph's papers (1972 accession) comprise correspondence, fieldnotes, notes on family history, maps, articles, research notes, additional photographs, and other documents. Correspondents include Alan Lomax, Sidney Robertson Cowell, Henry Cowell, Louise Pound, Franz Boas, George Lyman Kittredge, Dorothy Scarborough, Thomas Hart Benton, Benjamin A. Botkin, Bertrand Bronson, Wayland D. Hand, Ruth Crawford Seeger, Richard Dorson, Herbert Halpert, Kenneth S. Goldstein, Gershon Legman, among others.
Notes: Access restrictions apply; some or all content stored offsite. Please contact the Folklife Reading Room before requesting materials:  folklife@loc.gov ; 202-707-5510.

Various performers include May Kennedy McCord, Booth Campbell, Lon Jordan, Stella Buchanan, Delbert McGrath, Lillian Short, Laura Wasson, Maggie Morgan, Doney Hammontree, Fred Woodruff, Ralph Eutsler, Carl Tilden, Irene Carlisle, Paramount Singers Quartet, Wythe Bishop, Bill Bilyeu, Charles Ingenthron, with songs performed by Vance Randolph, among many others.

Vance Randolph Collection (AFC 1941/001), Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Duplication of the collection materials may be governed by copyright and other restrictions.

Accessioned, 1941-1942.

Vance Randolph; Donation; 1972.

Vance Randolph; Donation; 1972.

In 1941 and 1942, Vance Randolph was commissioned by the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress to make field recordings in the Ozarks region. The recordings were deposited at the Library in 1941-1942.  Randolph was also commissioned to take photographs of the performers with film supplied by the Library of Congress; the negatives are in LOT 5580, Prints and Photographs Division.

Finding aid is available in the Folklife Reading Room and online via the American Folklife Center web pages.

Bibliographic information for music titles in this collection is found in the online resource, Traditional Music and Spoken Word Catalog: Search for audio titles in the Vance Randolph Collection.

Related photographs taken by Vance Randolph for the Archive of Folk Song in the 1940s are in LOT 5580, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.

Related manuscripts are the Vance Randolph book typescripts, 1947-1953, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.