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This collection has access restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the FAQ section for more information.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 280 items |
| Abstract | Agnes (Sis) Cunningham, musician and magazine publisher of New York, N.Y., founded Broadside, a magazine devoted to topical songs, with her husband, Gordon Friesen, in the early 1960s. They recorded and published many of the leading folksingers of the folk revival. The collection contains materials from the Broadside offices. Sound recordings include open reel tapes and audio cassettes, many of which were used to transcribe topical folk songs for publication in Broadside. Additional recordings include demo tapes, live concert performances, and interviews, which were sent to the Broadside offices by friends, folk singers, and subscribers. The work of numerous performers is included (many of the most significant are listed in the online catalog terms below). Documentation materials include a log of the Broadside tapes, correspondence, and tape notes. The Broadside tape log is a list of the tapes in their original order. Correspondence and tape notes consist of materials included in the original tape boxes. Correspondence includes personal letters to Cunningham and Friesen from friends and contributors. Tape notes contain track listings of songs, dates of performances, and names of performers. |
| Creator | Broadside. |
| Language | English. |
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Information For Users
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Subject Headings
The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.
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Historical Information
Agnes (Sis) Cunningham was born 19 February 1909 in Watonga, Okla. After struggling through a childhood of poverty, she attended Oklahoma State College for Women. Following college, Cunningham briefly taught music. In the summer of 1931, she went to Commonwealth College near Mena, Ark., a labor college with socialist views. Cunningham then became an organizer for the Southern Tenant Farmers' Union, and worked as a music instructor at the Southern Summer School for Women Workers near Asheville, N.C. Returning to Oklahoma in 1939, she helped organize the Red Dust Players, a traveling troupe that entertained and sought to mobilize the state's poor with radical songs and skits.
In March 1941, Cunningham met Gordon Elmer Friesen (1909-1996). They were married on 23 July 1941. They moved to New York City and were invited by Pete Seeger to stay at the Almanac House, a three-story house rented by the Almanac Singers, a topical singing group. Cunningham performed with the Almanac Singers and appeared on their album Dear Mr. President . In December 1942, Cunningham and Friesen moved to Detroit to establish a Detroit branch of the Almanacs. They returned to New York City in May 1944, where Friesen worked for the Office of War Information and Cunningham performed and wrote songs for People's Songs, a radical musical organization. Their daughters Jane and Aggie were born in the late 1940s. In the 1950s, the family struggled with health problems, poverty, and battles with the welfare system.
In the early 1960s, Cunningham and Friesen founded Broadside, a magazine devoted to topical songs. Performer and songwriter Gil Turner aided Broadside in its early years. Turner was emcee at Gerde's Folk City, a popular folk club in Greenwich Village. Turner knew many young performers, including Bob Dylan, Phil Ochs, and Tom Paxton, and brought them to monthly meetings at Cunningham and Friesen's apartment where they sang songs into a tape recorder. Cunningham transcribed the songs and, with Friesen and Turner, decided which ones to publish. Songwriters began coming to the apartment on their own or sending their taped songs. Broadside quickly emerged as the premier national platform for topical songs.
In 1980, Cunningham and Friesen reluctantly gave up Broadside. In the mid-1980s, a collective of eight people, including Cunningham, Friesen, and their daughter Jane, regained control of the magazine. They produced issue 181 in June 1987 and continued production until issue 187 in late 1988. Cunningham and Friesen's autobiography Red Dust and Broadsides: A Joint Autobiography was published in 1999.
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Scope and Content
The Broadside Collection contains materials from the offices of Broadside, a magazine devoted to topical songs. These items include sound recordings and supporting documentation.
Sound recordings include open reel tapes and audio cassettes. Many of the recordings were made in Sis Cunningham and Gordon Friesen's apartment on an inexpensive Revere open reel tape recorder supplied by Pete Seeger. The recordings were used to transcribe topical folk songs for publication in Broadside. Additional recordings in the collection include demo tapes, live concert performances, and interviews, which were sent to the Broadside offices by friends, folk singers, and subscribers. See detailed description for performers represented on these recordings.
Documentation materials include a log of the Broadside tapes, correspondence, and tape notes. The Broadside tape log is a list of the tapes in their original order. Several of the original tapes were missing from the Broadside offices. Correspondence and tape notes consist of materials included in the original tape boxes. Correspondence includes personal letters to Cunningham and Friesen from friends and contributors. Tape notes contain track listings of songs, dates of performances, and names of performers. The Broadside tape log, correspondence, and tape notes have been separated to the SFC field notes vertical files for preservation.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Sound Recordings, 1962-1991.
Arrangement: original order has been maintained.
Sound recordings consist of open reel tapes and audio cassettes from the offices of Broadside. Many of the recordings were made in Sis Cunningham and Gordon Friesen's apartment on an inexpensive Revere open reel tape recorder supplied by Pete Seeger. The recordings were used to transcribe topical folk songs for publication in Broadside. Additional recordings include demo tapes, live concert performances, and interviews, which were sent to the Broadside offices by friends, folk singers, and subscribers.
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Subseries 1.1. Open Reel Tapes, 1962-1977.
Arrangement: original order has been maintained.
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Subseries 1.2. Audio cassettes, 1991 and undated.
Arrangement: original order has been maintained.
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Series 2. Documentation, 1963-1977.
Arrangement: chronological.
Documentation materials include a log of the Broadside tapes, correspondence, and tape notes. The Broadside tape log is a list of the tapes in their original order. Several of the original tapes were missing from the Broadside offices. Correspondence and tape notes consist of materials included in the original tape boxes. Correspondence contains personal letters to Sis Cunningham and Gordon Friesen from friends and contributors. Tape notes contain track listings of songs, dates of performances, and names of performers. The Broadside tape log, correspondence, and tape notes have been separated to the SFC field notes vertical files for preservation.
| Folder 1 |
Broadside tapes log. #20289, Series: "2. Documentation, 1963-1977." Folder 1 |
| Folder 2 |
Correspondence and tape notes, 1963-1977. #20289, Series: "2. Documentation, 1963-1977." Folder 2 |
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Items Separated
Items separated include Broadside tapes log, correspondence and tape notes (SFC Field Notes vertical files), audio cassettes (FS-5694-5702), and audio tapes (FT-9326-9535).
Back to TopPreservation of and access to the Broadside Collection was made possible through a grant from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, Inc.
Diacritics and other special characters have been omitted from this finding aid to facilitate keyword searching in web browsers.
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