Restrictions to Access

Use of audiotapes may require production of listening copies.

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 Karen Helms Pressley Collection #20324, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Provenance

Received from Karen Helms Pressley of Ft. Walton Beach, FL, in October 2000 (Acc. 98758) and July 2003 (Acc. 99574).

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.

• Ballads, English--North Carolina--Outer Banks.
• Ballads, English--North Carolina--Union County.
• Ballads, English--North Carolina.
• Children's songs--North Carolina.
• Folk music--North Carolina--Outer Banks.
• Folk music--North Carolina--Union County.
• Folk songs, English--North Carolina--Outer Banks.
• Folk songs, English--North Carolina--Union County.
• McMillon, Bobby.
• North Carolina--Songs and music.
• Ocracoke Island (N.C.)--History.
• Ocracoke Island (N.C.)--Social life and customs.
• Ocracoke Island (N.C.)--Songs and music.
• Oral tradition--North Carolina--Outer Banks.
• Oral tradition--North Carolina--Union County.
• Outer Banks (N.C.)--Songs and music.
• Pressley, Karen Helms.
• Union County (N.C.)--Songs and music.

Ethnomusicologist Karen Helms Pressley was born in Union County, N.C. Classically trained in piano, organ, and voice, Pressley later developed an interest in the preservation of old-time music and the oral tradition. Her maternal grandfather, David Price, was a well-known folk fiddler.

Pressley received a Bachelor of Music degree from Queens College in Charlotte, N.C., and in 1974 a Master of Arts in Ethnomusicology from East Carolina University in Greenville, N.C. Her Master's thesis, "The Role and Function of Oral Tradition of Ballad Form as Related to the Society and Culture of Ocracoke Island," was based on fieldwork she conducted on the Outer Banks of North Carolina in the early 1970s. Grants from the North Carolina Arts Council, 1976-1978, and the National Endowment of the Arts, 1978-1979, enabled her to conduct fieldwork in her native Union County, N.C.

The Karen Helms Pressley Collection contains fieldwork relating primarily to the oral musical traditions of the Outer Banks of North Carolina and Union County, N.C.

Outer Banks materials consist of recorded songs, stories, and interviews with residents, as well as interview transcripts, Pressley's essay on the oral traditions of the Outer Banks, and ballads and songs she collected. Pressley's essay pays particular attention to women sources on the Outer Banks. Also included is correspondence about a lecture on coastal folk music she gave in 1978 for the Man and the Seacoast lecture series, and historical information she compiled about Ocracoke Island. Several of the recordings were released on a Folkways LP, Between the Sound and the Sea: Music of the North Carolina Outer Banks, in 1977.

The Union County, N.C., materials consist of field recordings Pressley made documenting the oral musical traditions of Union County, N.C., located in south-central North Carolina. Music includes church gospel, guitar blues, fiddle tunes and banjo tunes, traditional ballad singing, and children's songs performed by Union County residents ranging in age from 10 to 88. Pressley's recordings were released as two LPs on the Folkways label: Hand Me Down Music-Old Songs, Old Friends: Traditional Music of Union County, North Carolina, Volume 1 (1979) and Volume 2 (1980).

Also included are other recordings made by Pressley, some of which appeared on North Carolina Sampler: Anglo-American Vocal Music from North Carolina. Pressley worked closely with storyteller  Bobby McMillon on the project, which included materials previously recorded for her Outer Banks fieldwork as well as recordings from western North Carolina and the Piedmont area. Other recordings include music workshops and children's songs.

Items separated include sound recordings (8T-40, FS-6539 through FS-6558, FT-11230 through FT-11273), and documentation for sound recordings (SFC vertical files).