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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 | 37.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 30,000 items) |
| Abstract | Archie Green (1917- ) was graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1939 and then worked in San Francisco shipyards, served in the U.S. 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 PhD 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. 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. The collection includes correspondence, subject files, 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. 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. |
| 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.
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.
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Biographical Information
Archie Green (1917- ) is an eminent scholar in the area of occupational folklore. He has worked in a variety of capacities as a folklorist--archivist, field worker, professor, and public sector advocate. He is 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 PhD 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. 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 California, where he continued to work on research and other projects. He received an honorary degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1991.
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Scope and Content
Papers of folklorist Archie Green include 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 music (hillbilly; 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.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 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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Series 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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Series 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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Series 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 the 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 #020002, Subseries: "4.3. Blue Sky Boys." Folder 826-827Folder 826Folder 827 |
| Folder 828 |
Blue Sky Boys LP: Photographs #020002, Subseries: "4.3. Blue Sky Boys." Folder 828 |
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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).