Sidney Robertson Cowell collection
Contributors: Cowell, Henry, 1897-1965; United States. Resettlement Administration; United States. Farm Security Administration; W.P.A. California Folk Music Project Collection, 1938-1940 (Library of Congress)
Published: 1901
Language: eng
Number of pages: 5067
Subjects: Correspondence; Photographs; English Ballads; W.P.A. California Folk Music Project Collection, 1938-1940 (Library of Congress); United States. Resettlement Administration; United States. Farm Security Administration; Ethnomusicological collections; History and criticism; Field recordings; English Folk songs; Folk dance music; Political ballads and songs; Protest songs; Archives; Folk music; Folk songs; Ethnomusicologists; United States; Archive of Folk Song (U.S.)
Description: The collection consists of Sidney Robertson Cowell's personal papers that document her life and work. It includes correspondence with family, friends and colleagues, inlcuding husband Henry Cowell, Ansel Adams, Ernst Bacon, Suzanne Bloch, Bertrand Bronson, Frank Brown, John Cage, Adrian Dornbush, Sam Eskin, Warde Ford, Grete Franke, Alfred Frankenstein, Lou Harrison, H. Wiley Hitchcock, Maud Karpeles, John Kirkpatrick, William Lichtenwanger, John Lomax, Dorothy Maynor, Colin McPhee, Laurence Powell, Bruce Saylor, Charles Seeger, Pete Seeger, Peggy Seeger, Nicolas Slonimsky, Stephen Spackman, Virgil Thomson, Margaret Valiant, Robert Van Hyning, Hugo Weisgall, Yehudi Wyner, and Shinʼichi Yuize. The collection contains materials that document her field recording projects and trips during all phases of her career, including her work with the Resettlement Administration; the W.P.A. California Folk Music Project, which she conceived and directed; the Appalachian collecting trip with Maud Karpeles; the Wolf River/Ford-Walker family, Cape Breton Island, and Aran Islands recording trips; and her travels to Asia and the Middle East with Henry Cowell, during which she recorded many traditional musicians. In addition, it contains published and unpublished written material by Sidney Robertson Cowell, including books, articles, essays, reviews, reports and papers; autobiographical narratives and essays relating to her career and to her personal life; project proposals; and teaching materials. There is material related to Henry Cowell, including transcripts of recorded biographical narratives that Sidney made for a biography of Henry that was never completed; narratives and articles about Henry written by Sidney and others; articles on music written by Henry; a selection of folk songs with piano settings by Henry Cowell in his own hand, and photocopies of a small collection of Henry Cowell holographs, some annotated by Sidney. The collection also contains materials relating to personal and professional interests, including schools where Sidney Robertson Cowell taught, conferences in which she was involved, her travels both alone and with Henry, personal and professional relationships with individuals such as Percy Grainger, John Cage and Roland Hayes, and materials relating to the Cowell's book on Charles Ives. It also contains photographs and song sheets and song books.
Notes: Open to research.

Access Advisory: Not all materials in this collection may be readily accessible; please request accessibility information well in advance of your visit http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/perform.contact

Sidney Robertson Cowell Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress.

Certain restrictions to use or copying of materials may apply.

Gift; Sidney Robertson Cowell; 1977-1994.

W.P.A. California Folk Music Project collection, 1936-1991 is located in the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

Resettlement Administration recordings collection, 1937-1939, containing items related to Sidney Robertson Cowell's work with the RA, is located in the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress has additional materials related to Sidney Robertson Cowell. It holds sound recordings containing folk songs, ethnic music, and interviews that Sidney Robertson Cowell recorded in the United States, Canada, Ireland, the Middle East, and Asia, during the 1950s and 1960s. These materials may be accompanied by documentation, including correspondence, journals, logs, notes, postcards, transcriptions, and articles. In addition, the Sidney Robertson Cowell Collection of Writings and Reminiscences contains her recollections about doing fieldwork and folksong collecting. It ranges from the 1950s to 1990 and includes additional biographical, music, and research material. Finally, there is one tape of Wisconsin fiddle tunes originally recorded on disc in 1937 and one disc containing songs sung by Ford-Walker family members recorded in Wisconsin in 1937.

Sidney Robertson Cowell (b. June 2,1903, in San Francisco, California; d. February 23, 1995, in Shady, New York) was a pioneering ethnomusicologist, folk song and ethnic music collector and recordist, ethnographer, teacher, and writer. She was the wife of  modernist composer Henry Cowell.

Finding aid available in the Library of Congress Performing Arts Reading Room and at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.music/eadmus.mu010010

The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress holds the Sidney Robertson Cowell recordings of Carrie Grover which were recorded by Sidney Robertson Cowell in 1941.

The Library of Congress Music Division holds the Sidney Robertson Cowell correspondence collection which is shelved under ML94.C69.