Lomax Collection now available on American Memory

[danna bell-russel]

This is announcement of a new collection that has been added to the
Library of Congress American Memory Historical Collections currently
online. This announcement is being sent to a number of lists. Please
accept apologies for any duplicate posts.

The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip Collection
is
now available online through the Library of Congress American Memory Web

site at the following URL:
<http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/lohtml/lohome.html>  The presentation of
this
online collection is made possible by the generous support of The Texaco

Foundation.

This multiformat ethnographic field collection includes 686 sound
recordings, as well as photographic prints, fieldnotes, dust jackets,
and
other manuscripts documenting folksingers and folksongs discovered on
the
Lomax's three-month, 6,502-mile trip through eight Southern states:
Texas,
Louisiana, Arkansas, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, and
Georgia.

Beginning in Port Aransas, Texas, on March 31, 1939, and ending at the
Library of Congress on June 14, 1939, John Avery Lomax, Honorary
Consultant and Curator of the Archive of American Folk Song (now the
Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center), and his wife, Ruby
Terrill Lomax, recorded approximately 25 hours of music from more than
300
performers. The recordings represent a broad spectrum of musical styles,

including ballads, blues, children's songs, cowboy songs, fiddle tunes,
field hollers, lullabies, play-party songs, religious dramas,
spirituals,
and work songs.  Over 100 songs are sung in Spanish.

A special presentation on the collection provides a state-by-state
snapshot of the Lomaxes' expedition, highlighting the diverse musical
styles of each region, the variety of documentation archived by the
collectors, and many of their experiences on this field expedition
through
the rural South in the 1930s.

Patrons wishing to use this collection can search for items in many
ways,
including by city, state, and county where the recording took place,
performer name, song title, musical genre, and recording venue. Also
included in the collection is an extensive bibliography and discography
for those interested in doing further research on the folk music
documented in this collection.

Other folklife-related online collections, selected publications of the
American Folklife Center, and information about products and services
are
available from the Center's homepage:
<http://lcweb.loc.gov/folklife>

American Memory is a project of the National Digital Library Program of
the Library of Congress, which, in collaboration with other
institutions,
is bringing important American historical materials to citizens
everywhere.  Through American Memory, fifty-nine multimedia collections
of
digitized documents, photographs, recorded sound, motion pictures, and
text are now available online, free to the public for educational
purposes.  This collection is the fifth American Folklife Center
contribution to the American Memory Web site.  All American Memory
collections can be accessed through <http://www.memory.loc.gov>

Please send any questions regarding this or other American Memory
Collections to ndlpcoll at loc.gov