Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the John Edwards Memorial Foundation Records #20001, Southern Folklife Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Purchased from the John Edwards Memorial Foundation, with the John Edwards Memorial Collection, in March 1978. Letter from Irene Edwards received from Daniel Patterson in May 1989. About 600 additional items were received from Eugene Earle, December 1993, and January-February 1994.

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

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.

• Arts fund raising--United States.
• Endowments--United States.
• Federal aid to the arts--United States.
• Folk music--Endowments.
• Folk music--United States--Discography.
• JEMF newsletter.
• JEMF quarterly.
• John Edwards Memorial Forum.
• John Edwards Memorial Foundation.
• Sound recordings--Catalogs.

• John Edwards Papers (#20000);
• Archie Green Papers (#20002);
• D. K. Wilgus Papers (#20003).

The John Edwards Memorial Foundation was incorporated in 1962 as a non-profit organization to promote the study and dissemination of knowledge about American folk music of the 1920s-1940s. John Edwards provided for the Foundation in his 1958 will; it was established at the University of California at Los Angeles.

The John Edwards Memorial Foundation was a pioneering effort to bring scholarly analysis to bear on American country music forms. In its first ten years, the Foundation embarked on several kinds of projects. It began acquiring record collections in 1964, one of the first being Peter Tamony's collection of early blues or "race music" recordings. In 1965, the Foundation began publishing the John Edwards Memorial Foundation Quarterly. The JEMF Quarterly contains biographical articles and discographies relating to folk, blues, and early country and western music performers. Another publishing venture, begun in the mid-1960s, was the reprinting of pertinent articles from journals and magazines. With the aid of federal grant money and private donations, the Foundation encouraged and administered biographical, cultural, and discographical research.

In 1972-1973, the Foundation started two series of educational materials, publishing a run of special discographical pamphlets and reissuing rare and old records. These two projects included both early musicians (such as the Carter Family, Uncle Dave Macon, Ernest Stoneman) and contemporary performers (like Loretta Lynn and Johnny Cash).

For the 21 years the Foundation was based at UCLA, it retained essentially the same directors. The board, elected in 1964, included Eugene Earle, Archie Green, D. K. Wilgus, Fred Hoeptner, and Ed Kahn. All except Ed Kahn were on the board in 1983. Eugene Earle, the executor of John Edwards's estate, was chiefly responsible for bringing John Edwards's record collection to UCLA.

The board agreed to sell the materials at UCLA to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1983. The directors indicated that they believed the materials would have more use there and be more effective if housed in the region where the music was born.

These papers consist of organizational materials, chiefly correspondence; financial materials, including bank statements, general ledgers, tax statements; project-related materials such as a grant-funded record reissue project, the JEMF Quarterly, "Special Series" and reprint publications, and grants administered by the Foundation; and miscellaneous materials generated or acquired by the Foundation. The collection not only gives researchers information about the work of the JEMF, but also provides biographical and discographical information about early folk and country musicians and scholars.

The organizational materials consist chiefly of correspondence between 1964 and 1982 dealing with the everyday business of the Foundation. Letters include subscription, record, reprint, and pamphlet purchase requests and also requests for biographical, historical, and discographical information. Among these letters are names significant in the fields of folklore and country music recording, performance and scholarship such as Roger Abrahams, Moses Asch, Chet Atkins, B. A. Botkin, Bertrand Bronson, John Cohen, Norman Cazden, Archie Green, Henry Glassie, John Greenway, Sid Harkreader, Bess Lomax Hawes, Bruce Jackson, Alan Jabbour, George Korson, Alan Lomax, John D. Loudermilk, Clayton McMichen, Ralph Page, Ralph Rinzler, Jeff Titon, Earl Scruggs, Carl T. Sprague, Irwin Silber, Anthony Seeger, Mike Seeger, and Pete Seeger. There is also correspondence with individuals employed as volunteers, staff, writers, and advisors to the Foundation.

Financial materials contain bank statements, check registers, ledger sheets and materials relating to the preparation and completion of state and federal taxes.

The series of files relating to JEMF projects (record reissues, reprints, pamphlets, grants) contains written descriptions of many of the requests cited in correspondence. Projects include nine albums issued on the JEMF label, drafts of ? JEMF Quarterly articles, the JEMF "Reprint" and "Special Series", reviews, and grants awarded to or administered by the Foundation. Records of various federal grants are fairly comprehensive, containing proposal drafts, correspondence, and financial figures.

Other miscellaneous files cover a wide range of subjects including John Edwards, JEMF duplicate disc lists, 19890 Grammy Awards and other.