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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 | 277.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 124,000 items) |
| Abstract | Archie Green (1917-2009) was graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1939 and then worked in San Francisco shipyards, served in the United States Navy in World War II, and was active in several labor organizations. He earned an M.L.S. degree from the University of Illinois and a Ph.D. in folklore from the University of Pennsylvania. Green joined the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1960, where he was librarian and later served also as an instructor in the English Department until 1972. In 1973, Green took on a creative role at the Labor Studies Center in Washington, D.C., in part assisting with the Smithsonian Institution's Festival of American Folklife and labor participation in the Bicentennial celebrations. At the same time, he produced sound recordings, conducted fieldwork, and wrote extensively. He was active in the John Edwards Memorial Foundation and in the movement to establish the Center for American Folklife (1976). Green retired from the University of Texas at Austin in the early 1980s to San Francisco, Calif., where he continued to work collaboratively with many individuals and institutions dedicated to the study of folklore and the preservation of folklife. Archie Green died in March 2009. The collection includes correspondence, subject files, research materials, writings, photographs, and other materials pertaining chiefly to Green's professional activities, circa 1955-2008. Materials reflect Green's interests in the study of folklore; occupational folklore, with special emphasis on songs relating to textile workers, railroad workers, coal miners, and cowboys; labor history, especially the 1919 riot in Centralia, Wash.; early country (hillbilly) music; sound recording archives; folk musicians; and production and collection of sound recordings. There are also materials relating to Green's research and teaching activities and participation in professional associations, music and folklore festivals, and the faculty labor union at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The additions to the papers of Archie Green build on and expand the topical content of the original deposit. Beyond the subjects already described, notable topics represented in these additions include Green's lobbying efforts on behalf of the Citizens' Committee for an American Folklife Foundation (CCAFF) to establish the American Folklife Center; songs relating to oil field, longshore, and cannery workers, and to the Homestead Strike; songs and history of wobblies and the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.); the 1913 Wheatland, Calif., riot; folk art, labor art, and artists, and artists; unions and working culture of shipwrights, pile drivers, millwrights and carpenters, loggers, and maritime, steel, sheetmetal, and timber workers; labor landmarks throughout the United States, but especially in the San Francisco Bay area; the history of federal government support for folk life; the role of public sector/applied folklore in the preservation of folklore and cultural conservation; the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Project; and graphic art representations of folklore and labor themes, including depictions of folk hero John Henry. In these projects, he worked with many folklorists, musicologists, and others. Green collected a wide variety of materials on folk and labor themes, including art and music; newsletters; pamphlets, bibliographies; work songs; work tales; and posters, clippings, and other ephemera. His papers also include the extensive collections of labor lyrics and musical scores and pamphlets on socialism and labor topics from John Neuhaus. Other materials in the additions document Green's teaching career at the University of Texas; his participation in organizations dedicated to the study of labor history and culture, such as the Fund for Labor Culture & History and the San Francisco State University Labor Archives and Research Center; collaboration with John Neuhaus on the "Big Red Songbook" and Peter Tamony on etymology of labor slang terms; and a long relationship with the University of North Carolina, where he gave lectures, organized conferences, and led fundraising for the John Edwards Memorial Foundation Fund and an occupational folklore fellowship. There is some documentation of Green's personal finances, especially his budget for books, records, and journals, and some biographical materials. Audio, video, and film recordings from the original deposit and the additions are filed together in Series 10. Some of the individuals, organizations, and events represented in this collection appear as access points in the online catalog terms section of this finding aid but researchers are advised to keyword search throughout the finding aid for additional name, place and subject terms. |
| Creator | Green, Archie. |
| 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.
Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.
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Biographical
Information
Archie Green (1917-2009) was an eminent scholar in the area of occupational folklore. He worked in a variety of capacities as a folklorist--archivist, field worker, professor, and public sector advocate. He was best known for his work with labor materials and early hillbilly music recordings.
Archie (Aaron) Green grew up in southern California, began college at UCLA, and then transferred to the University of California at Berkeley from which he was graduated in 1939. After working in the shipyards in San Francisco, serving in the Navy in World War II, and becoming active in several labor organizations, Green returned to academia. He received his M.L.S. from the University of Illinois and his Ph.D. in folklore from the University of Pennsylvania.
Green joined the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1960 and served there as librarian and later jointly as an instructor in the English Department until 1972. In 1973, Green took on a creative role at the Labor Studies Center in Washington, D.C., in part assisting with the Smithsonian Institution's Festival of American Folklife and labor participation in the Bicentennial celebrations. At the same time, he was producing albums, conducting fieldwork, teaching, lecturing, and writing articles. He was active in the John Edwards Memorial Foundation (now Forum) from its inception and lobbied Congress to pass the American Folklife Foundation Act, which it did in 1976, establishing the Center for American Folklife.
Green retired as professor emeritus from the University of Texas at Austin in the early 1980s to his home in San Francisco, Calif., where he continued to work collaboratively on research and other projects with many individuals and institutions dedicated to the study of folklore and the preservation of folklife. He received an honorary degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1991. Archie Green died in March 2009.
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Scope and Content
The original deposit of papers of folklorist Archie Green includes correspondence, research materials, writings, photographs, and other materials pertaining chiefly to Green's professional activities, circa 1955-1975. Materials reflect Green's interests in the study of folklore; occupational folklore, with special emphasis on songs relating to textile workers, railroad workers, coal miners, and cowboys; labor history, especially the 1919 riot in Centralia, Wash.; early country (hillbilly) music; sound recording archives; folk musicians; and production and collection of sound recordings. There are also materials relating to Green's research and teaching activities and participation in professional associations, music and folklore festivals, and the faculty labor union at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
The additions to the papers of Archie Green build on and expand the topical content of the original deposit. Notable topics represented in these additions include Green's lobbying efforts on behalf of the Citizens' Committee for an American Folklife Foundation (CCAFF) to establish the American Folklife Center; singers and songwriters, including Earl Robinson, Joe Hill, Merle Travis, Leadbelly, and many others; songs relating to textile, railroad, oil field, and longshore and cannery workers, coal miners, cowboys, and the Homestead Strike; songs and history of wobblies and the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.); labor history, including riots in Wheatland, Calif., in 1913 and in Centralia, Wash., in 1919; folk art, labor art, and artists, such as Tom Benton, Lili Rethi, Miguel Covarrubias, and John Noble; unions and working culture of shipwrights, pile drivers (also called pile butts), millwrights and carpenters, loggers, and maritime, steel, sheetmetal, and timber workers; labor landmarks throughout the United States, but especially in the San Francisco Bay area; the history of federal government support for folk life; the history of the study of folklore; the role of public sector/applied folklore in the preservation of folklore and cultural conservation; the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Project; and graphic art representations of folklore and labor themes, including depictions of folk hero John Henry. Green also collected a wide variety of materials on folk and labor themes, including art and music; newsletters; pamphlets and bibliographies; work songs; work tales; and posters, clippings, and other ephemera.
Other materials in the additions document Green's teaching career at the University of Texas; his work with organizations dedicated to the study of folklore and labor history and culture, such as the Institute for Folk Culture, the Fund for Labor Culture & History, and the San Francisco State University Labor Archives and Research Center; folk festivals, including the National Folk Festival; his prolific research and public presentations at conferences and other events; and his participation in professional associations, especially the American Folklore Society. Green's long-time collaborators in these associations and on conferences, festschrifts, musical compilations, and other projects include Brenda McCallum, Judy McCulloh, Gilbert Mers, Norm Cohen, Ron Cohen, Richard Reuss, Alan Jabbour, Joe Gladstone, and many others. Green also worked collaboratively with a number of institutions, including the University of North Carolina, where he gave lectures, organized conferences, and led fundraising for the John Edwards Memorial Foundation Fund and an occupational folklore fellowship.
Green's close collaboration with John Neuhaus on the "Big Red Songbook" is documented in the series of John Neuhaus papers. This file group also includes Neuhaus's miscellaneous research materials and notes on the I.W.W.; labor lyrics and musical scores, many handwritten into scrapbooks by Neuhaus; an extensive collection of sheet music and pamphlets on socialism and labor topics; and a Katie Phar Song scrapbook compiled by Herb Tulin. Likewise, the series of Peter Tamony papers includes materials that document their common interest in the etymology of labor slang terms, as well as other materials, including Green's memorial tribute to Peter Tamony; posthumous efforts to place Tamony's files in an archive; Green's Tamony Day lecture in 1986; a small amount of Tamony's research materials on American slang terms; and books, some with markings and notes, from Tamony's personal library relating to American slang, etymology, and labor studies; and other related materials.
The remaining materials in these additions are financial or biographical in nature. Green's financial materials include files of book, journal, and record expenses and routine banking, pension, and asset information. Other papers include biographical information about Archie Green in various formats, including curriculum vita, bibliography, newspaper clippings, family history, obituaries, memorials, tributes, photographs, and an oral history interview.
Audio, video, and film recordings from the original deposit and the additions are filed together in Series 10. Audio, Video, and Film Materials.
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Series Quick Links
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Original Deposit: 1. General Correspondence and Related Items, circa 1964-1975.
Arrangement: alphabetical by correspondent.
General correspondence with traditional artists; folklorists; labor organizations, organizers, and scholars; book publishers; record companies and collectors; students, fans, and others. Some files also contain writings, newspaper clippings, interview notes, and other materials relating to the correspondence. Additional correspondence pertaining to specific topics and/or projects is filed throughout the collection. Note that Green's original file folder headings and file order have, for the most part, been retained.
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Original Deposit: 2. Financial and Legal Materials, 1960-1972.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Correspondence, contracts, and other documents relating to Green's employment history and doctoral degree program. Note that Green's original file folder headings and file order have, for the most part, been retained.
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Original Deposit: 3. Subject Files, circa 1965-1972.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Files maintained by Green that relate to his areas of research and general interest. Included are letters, interview and field notes, newspaper clippings and journal articles Green collected, correspondence, writings, and other materials. Some of these topics were the basis for further research or projects (see Series 4), but most were not. Song folios have, in most cases, been filed with Southern Folklife Collection Song Folios (#30006).
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Original Deposit: 4. Projects, circa 1965-1972.
Arrangement: alphabetical by project; then general files.
Correspondence, research notes, newspaper clippings, drafts, photographs, and other materials from Green's published and unpublished writings, sound recordings, lectures, fieldwork, and teaching activities, circa 1965-1972. Note that Green's original file folder headings and file order have, for the most part, been retained.
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Subseries 4.1. American Folklife Foundation
Materials relating to Green's involvement in the Citizens Committee for an American Folklife Foundation, circa 1969-1971, including correspondence and transcripts of congressional hearings during which Green testified in 1970. Green lobbied for the American Folklife Foundation until it was established in 1976. He further documented this political process in "P.L. 94-201-A View From the Lobby: A Report to the American Folklore Society," which was re-issued in The Conservation of Culture (editor Burt Feintuch, University Press of Kentucky, 1988).
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Subseries 4.2. Babies in the Mill.
Correspondence, financial and legal materials, research notes, and newspaper clippings relating to Testament Records' LP Babies in the Mill: Carolina Traditional, Industrial, and Sacred Songs, featuring Dorsey, Nancy, and Howard Dixon and produced by Green and Eugene Earle around 1963. Files also include personal correspondence between Green and Dixon and two long letters in which Dixon described his life. Green's correspondence with Dixon's family continued beyond Dixon's death in 1968. Other items include notes from interviews with Dixon and a copy of the magazine Sing Out! that contains a poem written by Dixon about his experience at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival.
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Subseries 4.3. Blue Sky Boys.
Materials relating to the LP liner notes for Blue Sky Boys by Bill and Earl Bolick, written by Archie Green for RCA Records in 1964.
| Folder 826-827 |
Blue Sky Boys LP #20002, Subseries: "4.3. Blue Sky Boys." Folder 826-827 |
| Folder 828 |
Blue Sky Boys LP: Photographs #20002, Subseries: "4.3. Blue Sky Boys." Folder 828P-3417-3420 |
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Subseries 4.4. The Carolina Tar Heels.
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Subseries 4.5. The Carter Family.
Correspondence, interviews, photographs, and other materials relating to three Carter Family projects by Green: Carter Family Bibliography (1962), an article titled "The Carter Family's 'Coal Miners Blues'" for Southern Folklore Quarterly (December 1961), and an album, Mid the Green Fields of Virginia: The Carter Family for RCA-Victor (1963). Correspondents include Freeman Kitchens, president of the Carter Family Fan Club; A. P., Sara, Maybelle, and June Carter; Clifford Spurlock, Carter Family manager; discographers; and others. See also copies of the Sunny Side Sentinel, the fan club journal, in the Southern Folklife Collection.
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Subseries 4.6. Coal.
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Subseries 4.6.1. Coal Discography.
Chiefly research notes on individual songs for Green's "A Discography of American Coal Miners' Songs" ( Labor History, Winter 1961; University of Illinois ILIR Reprint number 93). Other materials include Green's records of reprints and distribution of the article and a small amount of Wayland Hand correspondence and writings. There is a good deal of overlap between the research for this discography and for Green's book Only a Miner: Studies in Recorded Coal-Mining Songs (University of Illinois Press, 1972).
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Subseries 4.6.2. Coal Mining Photographs.
Photographs that apparently resulted from a New Deal documentation project. According to Green, around 1946 President Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed his personal physician, Russell Lee, to document the medical condition of coal miners in Kentucky. Some of the photographs in these files were taken under that project. Other photographs appear to have been taken for a medical survey of coal mines in Utah. The photographs were given to Green while he was conducting research for his book Only a Miner (see also Subseries 4.6). Several of the photographs appear in this book; many more have never been published.
| Folder 942-964 |
Coal Mining Photographs #20002, Subseries: "4.6.2. Coal Mining Photographs." Folder 942-964Includes one oversize photograph (OP-20002/18). |
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Subseries 4.7. Sarah Ogan Gunning.
Correspondence, interviews, a discography, research notes, and other items relating to Green's involvement in three performance events in Gunning's life between 1964 and 1970. These include the production Folk-Legacy album, Girl of Constant Sorrow; Gunning's performance at Carnegie Hall as part of the New York Folk Festival; and her appearance at the Newport Folk Festival. In his work with Gunning, Green collaborated to some extent with folklorist Ellen Stekert. Gunning was the half-sister of Aunt Molly Jackson and sister of Jim Garland.
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Subseries 4.8. Hard Times.
Research notes and writings on "Hard Times," which is both the name of a song and of a paper Green wrote for a 1966 folksong course at the University of Pennsylvania. Items include a final copy of the paper, drafts, research on the song "Hard Times" for the paper, and research conducted after the paper was completed. Research folders contain some correspondence with collectors, folklorists, and archives and also copies of variants of the song and other source materials.
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Subseries 4.9. Hillbilly Music and Image.
Research materials and drafts of Green's often-cited article, "Hillbilly Music: Source and Symbol," published in the Journal of American Folklore in July 1965 and as a reprint from the John Edwards Memorial Foundation (#4). The information in this article seems to have appeared in several forms previous to the published article. Materials are chiefly handwritten research notes, notes on interviews, and a small amount of correspondence.
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Subseries 4.10. Hobo Songs.
Research notes, song sheets, correspondence, and other materials relating to a proposed JEMF Tramps and Hoboes album (referenced in an 24 October 1967 memo from Green to the JEMF Record Committee). Information on individual songs is slight, except for a few, such as "Poor Man's Heaven," for which research materials are more extensive.
| Folder 1080 |
Discographies #20002, Subseries: "4.10. Hobo Songs." Folder 1080 |
| Folder 1081-1082 |
Songs #20002, Subseries: "4.10. Hobo Songs." Folder 1081-1082 |
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Subseries 4.11. Aunt Molly Jackson.
Research notes and drafts for multiple projects about Aunt Molly Jackson resulting from research for an unpublished, 45-page "Bio-Bibliography." Included are notes from interviews, newspaper clippings, correspondence, and other items. Projects include the "Bio-Bibliography"; "A Visit with Aunt Molly Jackson--Techniques in Folk Song Collection," a 1959 lecture by Green at the University of Illinois; a special issue of Kentucky Folklore Record edited by Green; an Aunt Molly Jackson discography; and notes for an article entitled "Ben Robertson Meets Aunt Molly Jackson."
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Subseries 4.12. Reverend Andre Blind Andy Jenkins.
No published article by Green resulted from this research, but Jenkins's "Dream of a Miner's Child" is the title of a chapter in Green's book Only a Miner. Irene Spain Futrelle, Jenkins's stepdaughter, provided most of the information in these files. Futrelle wrote and performed with her father and also recorded in her own name.
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Subseries 4.13. Labor Discography.
Drafts and published versions of "A Discography (LP) of American Labor Union Songs" ( New York Folklore Quarterly, Autumn 1961, and University of Illinois ILIR Reprint #109).
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Subseries 4.14. Labor History.
Correspondence with the journal Labor History; a bibliography of labor history; and an article, "The Death of Mother Jones," which Green published in Labor History. Green's "Discography of American Coal Miner's Songs" also appeared in this journal and is listed as its own subseries.
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Subseries 4.15. Labor Lore.
Research notes, clippings, correspondence, and drafts relating to "American Labor Lore: Its Meanings and Uses," published in Industrial Relations (February 1965). Files also include materials relating to exhibits, presentations, and a proposed album project about labor lore.
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Subseries 4.16. John Neuhaus.
Materials relating to Green's article "John Neuhaus: Wobbly Folklorist," published in the Journal of American Folklore (July 1960) and as a chapter in Folklore of the Great West, edited by John Greenway (Palo Alto, Ca.: American West, 1969). Rich in labor materials, these files include correspondence with Neuhaus and others, miscellaneous research materials on the I.W.W, research materials on individual songs, drafts of the article, and other items.
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Subseries 4.17. Glenn Ohrlin.
Correspondence, interview notes, financial and legal materials, and writings relating to Green's involvement with Ohrlin on a range of projects. Ohrlin, a cowboy musician, performed for the Campus Folk Song Club at the University of Illinois while Green was faculty advisor. The Club also produced a recording, The Hell-Bound Train, of Ohrlin's music in 1964 for which Green wrote the liner notes. See also Series 6.
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Subseries 4.18. Railroad in Folksong.
Chiefly drafts of liner notes and research on songs for The Railroad in Folksong (RCA Victor, 1966). Correspondence indicates that research continued for another project on the same subject, possibly Railroad Songs and Ballads, which was released by the Library of Congress in 1968 (see Subseries 4.19).
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Subseries 4.19. Railroad Songs and Ballads.
Correspondence, album reviews, liner note drafts, and research on individual songs for Railroad Songs and Ballads (Library of Congress, 1968). Included are letters, newspaper clippings, and discographical lists. Also included are research materials on additional railroad songs and correspondence with individual researchers and railroad organizations. See also Subseries 4.18.
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Subseries 4.20. Roberts-Martin-Roberts Aggregation.
Correspondence, interview notes, photographs, maps, local tourist brochures, newspaper clippings, writings, and other items relating to Green's article "A Discography/Biography Journey: The Roberts-Martin-Roberts 'Aggregation'"(Western Folklore, July 1971).
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Subseries 4.21. Sacred Songs.
Research materials and drafts for three separate projects: a paper, "Thematic and Stylistic Range in American Sacred Folksong" with accompanying cassette for educational use; a published version of this paper titled "Hear These Beautiful Sacred Selections"; and liner notes for 'Mountain Sacred Songs' (County Records, 1967).
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Subseries 4.22. Sound Recordings.
Research on issuing sound recordings and some correspondence with potential publishers about an article called "Folksong Record Reissues: Alternative Approaches." The article appeared in 1962 in Autoharp, a journal published by the University of Illinois Campus Folk Song Club.
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Subseries 4.23. Textile Mill Songs.
Research notes, writings, correspondence, and other items relating to "Songs of the Textile Workers" ( Textile Labor, April 1961), "Tipple, Loom & Rail" (see Subseries 4.24), and several other projected projects.
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Subseries 4.24. Tipple, Loom & Rail.
Song notes, research materials, notes on interviews, and correspondence relating to writing brochure notes for Tipple, Loom & Rail, produced by Mike Seeger (Folkways, March 1966). Included are interview notes with the family of Roy Harvey, author of the song "The Virginian Strike of '23."
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Subseries 4.25. Henry Whitter.
Research materials relating to an apparently unwritten biographical article on Henry Whitter. Included are a Whitter discography, correspondence, and interviews with Whitter's family, and a thesis by a former student of Green's on urban folk revivals (1967).
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Subseries 4.26. Will the Weaver.
Correspondence and drafts relating to an article called "Will the Weaver's Hillbilly Kinfolk" ( Caravan, February 1959).
| Folder 1298-1299 |
Will the Weaver #20002, Subseries: "4.26. Will the Weaver." Folder 1298-1299 |
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Subseries 4.27. The Workers in the Dawn.
Correspondence and drafts of "The Workers in the Dawn: Labor Lore," originally written by Green for broadcast on the Voice of America and later published in Our Living Tradition, edited by Tristram Coffin (1968).
1300-1301The Workers in the Dawn #20002, Subseries: "4.27. The Workers in the Dawn." Folder 1298-1299 |
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Subseries 4.28. General Projects.
Materials relating to ongoing kinds of work in which Green was engaged during his professional career.
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Subseries 4.28.1. Field Work, circa 1961-1971.
Field notes, circa 1961-1971. Green traveled to Kentucky, North Carolina, and Tennessee with Ed Kahn in the summer of 1961 and with Eugene Earle in the summers of 1962 and 1963 to conduct fieldwork with early country music recording artists. These trips supplied information for several of articles and sound recordings documented in this series. For additional information on Kahn and Earle, see Series 1, Series 7, John Edwards Papers (#20000), and the John Edwards Memorial Foundation Records (#20001). Also included are field notes from other trips that Green made.
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Subseries 4.28.2. Lectures, circa 1959-1972.
Lectures and interviews given by Green, circa 1959-1972, to labor organizations, educational institutions, academic conferences, and other groups. These files also include Tape Talks, 1959-1963. These talks were part of an educational series of lectures with accompanying audio cassettes that Green developed.
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Subseries 4.28.3. Reviews, circa 1957-1970.
Reviews and review-articles published by Green, circa 1957-1970.
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Subseries 4.28.4. Teaching, circa 1967-1969.
Green's files on teaching at the University of Illinois, circa 1967-1969.
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Original Deposit: 5. Festivals, circa 1958-1972.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Materials chiefly documenting folk music or folklife festivals that Green attended, participated in, or helped organize. Included is the 1971 Smithsonian American Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C., for which Green organized a presentation of "Folk Skills of American Labor." The 1964 UC Berkeley Folk Music Festival contains a profile photograph of Green, who was a guest lecturer for the event. Note that Green's original file folder headings and file order have, for the most part, been retained.
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Original Deposit: 6. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Campus Folk Song Club,
circa 1961-1972.
Arrangement: chronological.
Materials documenting Green's role as faculty adviser to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Campus Folk Song Club from around 1961 to 1972. Each year's files contain correspondence, financial and legal items, printed materials and newspaper clippings, and photographs. The files combine Green's personal records of the Club with those of student organizers. Correspondence is between Green and students, students and artists, and Green and artists. Financial and legal materials relate to artist and University contracts and fees. Printed materials are primarily publicity posters designed and distributed by Club members advertising open-mike "Folk Sings" and concerts and lectures by visiting artists and scholars. Also included is documentation of the three albums produced by the Club: Philo Glee and Mandolin Society (1962); Green Fields of Illinois (1963), featuring local performers including Lyle and Doris Mayfield; and The Hell-Bound Train (1964) by Glenn Ohrlin (see also Subseries 4.17). The Folk Song Club also published a journal called Autoharp. The Southern Folklife Collection holds a full run of this journal. Note that Green's original file folder headings and file order have, for the most part, been retained.
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Original Deposit: 7. John Edwards, circa 1955-1971.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Correspondence between Green and John Edwards and materials relating to Green's involvement with the John Edwards Memorial Foundation. Green, along with Irene Edwards, Norman Cohen, Ed Kahn, and Eugene Earl, helped establish the Foundation at UCLA, served on its board, and contributed to The JEMF Quarterly. See also John Edwards Papers (#20000), John Edwards Memorial Foundation Records (#20001), and D. K. Wilgus Papers (#20003). Note that Green's original file folder headings and file order have, for the most part, been retained.
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Original Deposit: 8. Professional Organizations, circa 1954-1972.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Materials relating to Green's involvement in professional organizations, including the American Folklore Society (AFS), the Association of Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC), the Modern Language Association (MLA), and the Labor History organization. Green served as chair of the Constitution Revision Committee of AFS around 1965-1966 and was elected a member of the executive board in 1972. He also served on the Finance Committee of ARSC, circa 1966-1972. Files also contain materials on the Professional Union at the University of Illinois, an organization established around 1971 to unionize professors and other instructors at the University. Green appears to have been peripherally involved; the progress of the union is documented through correspondence, printed materials, newspaper clippings, and mailings from the union and the University. Note that Green's original file folder headings and file order have, for the most part, been retained.
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Original Deposit: 9. Other Papers.
Correspondence, newspaper clippings, writings, kodaliths, and other items pertaining to topics not included in other series. Of note is "The Doerner Collection," a group of newspaper clippings, circa 1890-1891, "concerning labor questions, socialism, politics and the work of women" among other topics.
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Additions of March 2006, July 2009, and April 2010.
Notes: Archie Green's file folder titles and headings have been retained, though alphabetical order has been imposed on the headings to facilitate searching.
There are many interconnected subject files throughout the original deposit and these additions. Researchers are advised to consider a wide range of access points for areas of interest as there is overlap of content among many files with different titles. For example, labor-themed materials may be concentrated under headings of "Labor" and "Laborlore," but they also may be found within a particular book project or subject file that does not have "labor" in its title. Likewise, writings, especially lectures and articles, could be filed under the published title, the heading "Writings," or a topical subject file.
The additions include series for correspondence, subject and project files, posters and other printed ephemera, the John Neuhaus papers, the Peter Tamony papers, financial materials and other papers. Correspondence files document exchanges and collaborations with traditional artists; folklorists; labor organizations, organizers, and scholars; book publishers; record companies and collectors; students; fans; and others. Files often contain other materials, such as related writings, grant proposals, newspaper clippings, and interview notes.
The subject and project files build on and expand the topical content found in the original deposit. Notable topics represented in these additions include Green's lobbying efforts on behalf of the Citizens' Committee for an American Folklife Foundation (CCAFF) to establish the American Folklife Center; singers and songwriters, including Earl Robinson, Joe Hill, Merle Travis, Leadbelly, and many others; songs relating to textile, railroad, oil field, and longshore and cannery workers, coal miners, cowboys, and the Homestead Strike; songs and history of wobblies and the Industrial Workers of the World (I.W.W.); labor history, including riots in Wheatland, Calif., in 1913 and in Centralia, Wash., in 1919; folk art, labor art, and artists, such as Tom Benton, Lili Rethi, Miguel Covarrubias, and John Noble; unions and working culture of shipwrights, pile drivers (also called pile butts), millwrights and carpenters, loggers, and maritime, steel, sheetmetal, and timber workers; labor landmarks throughout the United States, but especially in the San Francisco Bay area; the history of federal government support for folk life; the history of the study of folklore; the role of public sector/applied folklore in the preservation of folklore and cultural conservation; the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway Project; and graphic art representations of folklore and labor themes, including depictions of folk hero John Henry. Many of these topical files directly relate to an article or book Green wrote and consist of his "sequence" notes on project status and conversations with sources and collaborators, correspondence, clippings, and other secondary source materials. Several of the projects, especially Only a Miner, Calf's Head and Union Tales, Pile Butt Prints, Tin Men, and Graphics, a series of articles Green wrote for the JEMF Quarterly (John Edwards Memorial Foundation), also include extensive files of artistic illustrations and photographs. In addition to art, Green also collected a wide variety of printed materials, including folk music catalogs; folk life newsletters; labor newsletters, pamphlets, and bibliographies; work songs; and work tales. Green's collection of posters, clippings, and other ephemera that publicize or comment on albums and concerts, art exhibitions, political campaigns, folk festivals, lectures, and other events are filed in a separate series.
Other materials in the subject and project files document Green's teaching career at the University of Texas; his work with organizations dedicated to the study of folklore and labor history and culture, such as the Institute for Folk Culture, the Fund for Labor Culture & History, and the San Francisco State University Labor Archives and Research Center; folk festivals, including the National Folk Festival; his prolific research and public presentations at conferences and other events; and his participation in professional associations, especially the American Folklore Society. Green's long-time collaborators in these associations and on conferences, festschrifts, musical compilations, and other projects include Brenda McCallum, Judy McCulloh, Gilbert Mers, Norm Cohen, Ron Cohen, Richard Reuss, Alan Jabbour, Joe Gladstone, and many others. Green also worked collaboratively with a number of institutions, including the University of North Carolina, where he gave lectures, organized conferences, and led fundraising for the John Edwards Memorial Foundation Fund and an occupational folklore fellowship.
Green's close collaboration with John Neuhaus on the "Big Red Songbook" is documented in the series of John Neuhaus papers. This file group also includes Neuhaus's miscellaneous research materials and notes on the I.W.W.; labor lyrics and musical scores, many handwritten into scrapbooks by Neuhaus; an extensive collection of sheet music and pamphlets on socialism and labor topics; and a Katie Phar Song scrapbook compiled by Herb Tulin. Likewise, the series of Peter Tamony papers includes materials that document their common interest in the etymology of labor slang terms, as well as other materials, including Green's memorial tribute to Peter Tamony; posthumous efforts to place Tamony's files in an archive; Green's Tamony Day lecture in 1986; a small amount of Tamony's research materials on American slang terms; and books, some with markings and notes, from Tamony's personal library relating to American slang, etymology, and labor studies; and other related materials.
The remaining materials in these additions are financial or biographical in nature. Green's financial materials include files of book, journal, and record expenses and routine banking, pension, and asset information. Other papers include biographical information about Archie Green in various formats, including curriculum vita, bibliography, newspaper clippings, family history, obituaries, memorials, tributes, photographs, and an oral history interview.
Audio and visual recordings from the original deposit and the additions are filed together in Series 10. Audio, Video, and Film Materials.
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Additions: General Correspondence and Related Materials.
General correspondence with traditional artists; folklorists; labor organizations, organizers, and scholars; book publishers; record companies and collectors; students, fans, and others. Some files also contain writings, grant proposals, newspaper clippings, interview notes, and other materials relating to the correspondence. Also included is an index card address file. The correspondence is arranged into alphabetical and chronological runs. The chronological run is much smaller and chiefly, though not exclusively, an aggregation of non-substantive letters that Archie Green left unfiled in his later years; nevertheless, researchers are advised to review both runs as some correspondents are represented in both. Additional correspondence pertaining to specific topics and/or projects is filed throughout the collection. Note that Green's original file folder headings and file order have, for the most part, been retained.
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Additions: Alphabetical Correspondence.
General correspondence with traditional artists; folklorists; labor organizations, organizers, and scholars; book publishers; record companies and collectors; students, fans, and others. Some files also contain writings, grant proposals, newspaper clippings, interview notes, and other materials relating to the correspondence. Researchers are advised to review the chronological run as well as some correspondents are represented there as well. Additional correspondence pertaining to specific topics and/or projects is filed throughout the collection. Note that Green's original file folder headings and file order have, for the most part, been retained.