The Southern Folklife Collection began in the mid 1980s with the acquisition of the John Edwards Memorial Collection and the UNC Folklife Archive. It officially opened for research during the "Sounds of the South" Conference hosted by UNC in April of 1989.

Southern Folklife Collection

Size	More than 170,000 sound recordings. Nearly 400 discrete manuscript collections. Thousands of photographs, song folios, posters, and research files. More than 3000 film and video recordings.
Scope	All forms of Southern musical and oral traditions. Spectrum of individual and community expressive arts. Mainstream media production.
Time Period	Early twentieth century to the present.
Subject Strengths	Old-time Country-western Hillbilly Bluegrass Blues Gospel Cajun Zydeco Folk revival movement Discography of the 78 rpm era Music festivals Fan clubs Folksong clubs Recording companies Coffeehouses

Online Finding Aids: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/sfc1/sinv.html