Finding Aids to Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture

KANSAS COLLECTIONS
IN THE ARCHIVE OF FOLK CULTURE

Compiled by: Molly J. McCall
Series Editor: Ann Hoog
Revised: December 2010

AFC 1937/008: Alan Lomax Recordings of Myra E. Hull
Five 7-inch discs, 6 10-inch discs, 1 12-inch disc of 65 folk songs, children's songs, hymns, parodies, cowboy songs, and popular songs sung by Myra E. Hull of Lawrence, Kansas. Some songs accompanied by piano. Recorded in Washington, D.C., at the Library of Congress in Coolidge Auditorium, by Alan Lomax, July 15-17, 1937. (includes AFS 1055-1058; AFS 1298; AFS 1602; AFS 1871-1876) [catalog record] [audio titles]

AFS 10,495: Ivan Sutton Kansas Recordings
One 7-inch tape of 2 songs sung by Jack Staton and seven songs sung by Ivan Sutton. Also included are 2 radio commercials, a monolog by Sutton, and songs sung by 2 unidentified singers. Recorded in Pleasanton, Kansas, by Ivan Sutton, ca. 1950. The collection includes a 1-page list. (40 minutes; LWO 1968)

AFS 11,858: Mrs. Yerby and Mrs. Dalton Singing American Folk Songs
One 10-inch tape of folk songs and song fragments sung by Virginia Dalton Yerby and her mother Edna Smith Dalton. Recorded in the recording studio of the Library of Congress, Washington, DC. The collection includes a two-page log. Keywords: Civil War, Kansas, medicine shows, Ireland (LWO 3168 reel 1)

AFC 1942/024: Willard Rhodes 1942-1943 Field Recordings Collection
Fifty-seven 12-inch discs of Sioux, Assiniboine, Ute, and Navajo songs recorded by Willard Rhodes in 1942 in Wanblee and Pine Ridge, South Dakota; Towaoc and Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado; Toadalena, Shiprock, and Fort Wingate, New Mexico; Pine Springs, Fort Defiance, and Lukachukai, Arizona. The collection also includes two Potawatomi songs recorded in Lawrence, Kansas, in 1943. The recordings were made for the Bureau of Indian Affairs Education Division.

AFS 12,186 A2, B2: One disc containing 2 Potowatomie songs sung by students. Recorded in Lawrence, Kansas, by Willard Rhodes, 1943. (10 minutes; tape copy on LWO 5111 reel 395A)

AFC 1943/020: Willard Rhodes 1943 Field Recordings Collection
Seven 12-inch discs of Creek, Cherokee, Choctaw, Navajo, and Tewa songs recorded in Lawrence, Kansas; and Eufaula, Broken Bow, and Idabel,Oklahoma, by Willard Rhodes during the summer of 1943 for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Education Division.

AFS 12,203 A2-B1: One disc containing 3 Creek, 2 Navajo, and 1 Tewa song, recorded in Lawrence, Kansas, at the Haskell Institute. (10 minutes; tape copy on LWO 5111 reel 396B)

AFS 13,720: Martin Gordon and Ron Lesser / Interview and Fiddling by "Fiddlin' Charlie" Chas. A. Waer
One 10-inch tape of an interview and fiddling by Charles A. Waer, the "Native Son of Kansas." Recorded in Whittier, California, by Martin Gordon and Ron Lesser, July 1963. (50 minutes; LWO 5539)

AFC 1970/040: Folk Legacy Records Duplication Project
Thirteen 10-inch tapes of folksongs performed by various folksingers. Recorded in Arkansas, Connecticut, Indiana, Missouri, New Brunswick, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Vermont by Lee B. Haggerty, Charles "Sandy" Paton, and others for Folk-Legacy Records, Inc., 1958-69. [catalog record]

AFS 14,216: One tape containing 8 songs learned in Kansas, 4 with guitar, sung by Vern Smelser. Recorded in Paoli, Indiana, by Pat Dunford and Lee B. Haggerty, ca. 1964. (27 minutes; LWO 6042 reel 13)

AFS 15,077: Ernest Duerksen Duplication Project
One 10-inch tape of an oral history spoken in English and German dialect by Ernest Duerksen. Recorded in Hillsboro, Kansas, by Ernest Duerksen, December 1971-January 1972. The collection includes 9 pages of addresses and explanations. (29 minutes; LWO 6965)

AFC 1975/011: Vera Mae Duerksen / Kansas Mennonite Recordings
One 10-inch tape of an oral history about Mennonites in Kansas spoken in English and German dialect by Mrs. P. P. Unruh. Recorded in Newton, Kansas, by Ernest Duerksen, December 9, 1974. (includes AFS 17,479) (28 minutes; LWO 8330)

AFS 18,732: L.H. Caldwell Pennsylvania Dutch Songs
One 7-inch tape of Kansas and Pennsylvania German family lore and six songs sung and spoken by L. Harold Caldwelll of Wichita, Kansas. Recorded in Washington, D.C., at the Library of Congress by Gerald E. Parsons, December 22, 1975. The collection includes .25 linear inch of a bibliography, correspondence, and notes. (27 minutes; LWO 9104)

AFS 19,341: Howard W. Marshall / Old-Time Fiddle Recordings
One 10-inch tape of fiddle tunes recorded in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma by Jake Hughes, in or before 1965. The collection includes 4 pages of lists and notes.

AFS 19,341A29-31: One tape containing 3 tunes played on fiddle, 2 with guitar, by Byron Berline of Caldwell, Kansas. (6 minutes; LWO 12,302) 

AFS 22,573-22,577: Keith Ludden / Kansas Folk Music and Oral History Collection
Five 10-inch tapes of oral histories, songs, and stories recorded at various locations in Kansas by Keith Ludden, June-August 1980, for the Kansas Folklife Project at the University for Man under the direction of Julie Coates. The collection includes 39 pages of correspondence, lists, and tape logs. Recorded on a Nagra III recorder loaned by the American Folklife Center, June-August 1980. Includes interviews, music, narratives, oral histories, and stories by various informants; includes blues, Croatian, gospel, mariachi, old-time, and Tamburitzen groups, as well as solo performances on chord organ, fiddle, guitar, hammered dulcimer, harmonica, and musical saw. (10 hours; RWA 7794-7798)

AFC 1980/011: Thurlow Lieurance Memorial Project
One 3/4-inch videocassette entitled "Thurlow Lieurance and Indian Music" of 7 American Indian songs performed by various musicians and 4 melodies played on flute by Betty Hensley, based on recordings made at various locations by Thurlow Lieruance, 1911-26. Written and produced by Carol Holan, with Fred Hurst, television director, for The Thurlow Lieurance Memorial in Wichita, Kansas, August 1979. The video includes documentation of American Indian hoop dancing, a narrative, paintings, and photographs, and is accompanied by 2 pages of correspondance and notes. (29 minutes)

AFS 24,091-24,110: KUNI Radio / 1981 Westfair Old-Time Country Music Contest Collection
Twenty 10-inch tapes of primarily banjo, dobro, fiddle, guitar, harmonica, yodeling and vocal music recorded at the Sixth Annual Westfair Old-Time Country Music Contest and Pioneer Exposition, Council Bluffs, Iowa, by Philip Nusbaum and others, September 4-6, 1981. Recorded for public radio station KUNI-FM at the University of Northern Iowa. (RWB 1751-1770)

AFS 24,093: One tape containing the Jimmy Rodgers Memorial Yodeling Contest at the Westfair Old Time Country Music and Exposition, Council Bluffs, Iowa. Recorded September 5, 1981. Includes a contestant from Kansas City, Kansas.

AFC 1984/012: Raven McDavid / Regional Dialect Collection
One hundred and sixty-one 7-inch tapes, 36 5-inch tapes, 4 3-inch tapes, and 1 audiocassette of conferences, interviews, lectures, radio programs, and dialectical and phonetic readings, recorded in Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas, Turkey, and West Virginia by Audrey Duckert, A. Lloyd James, Raven I. McDavid, Pat Nichols, and Barbara Rutledge, 1953-81. The collection includes 1 1/4 linear inches of content lists, correspondence, and ephemera.

[AFC 1984/012: Box 5]: One tape containing an interview with Mrs. Willard recorded in Fort Scott, Kansas. Interview conducted by Harold Orton and two students, ca. 1963.

AFC 1986/037: 1986 Neptune Plaza Concert Series Collection 
Twenty-four 10-inch tapes, 481 black-and-white prints, negatives, and contact sheets, and 408 color slides of performances from the 1986 Neptune Plaza Concert Series, sponsored by the American Folklife Center and featuring the presentation of folk traditions from many cultures. Recorded in Washington, DC, at the Library of Congress, April-September 1986. [catalog record] [finding aid]

The following lists materials from the April 24, 1986, concert of Byron Berline, Dan Crary (of Kansas), and John Hickman. 

AFS 24,234-24,236: Three tapes containing bluegrass instrumentals and songs. (One hour and thirty minutes; RWB 2960-2962)

AFC 1986/037:Folder 2: Twenty-three pages of press releases, fliers, news clippings, administrative correspondence, and identification of people in photographs.

AFC 1986/037:Envelope 1: Thirty-six black and white images photographed by John T. Gibbs.

AFC 1986/037:Envelopes 2-4: Forty-three color slides photographed by John T. Gibbs and Reid Baker.

AFC 1988/020: Michael A. Gowan Collection of Colorado Dutch Hop Music
Thirty 7-inch tapes and two audiocassettes of Dutch Hop instrumentals and songs performed by nine Volga German bands. Recorded in Colorado by Michael A. Gowan, October 1986 May 1987. The collection includes 50 pages of brochures, correspondence, lists, and summaries. Dutch Hop is music and dance found only in Northeastern Colorado, Western Kansas, and Nebraska, practiced by the Volga Germans, who settled in the area in the 1870s. Funded by the Colorado Council on the Arts & Humanities and the National Endowment for the Arts. Project Director: Michael Gowan. Published cassette and brochure sponsored by the Music Association of Swallow Hill, Denver, Colorado.

AFC 1989/026: H. Karl Saalbach / Reminiscences of Gerhard J. Duerksen Family
Eighty-six pages of narratives by 4 Duerksen family members, Agnetha, Alvin, Margaret, and Paul, a history of Steinbach School District No. 72, and a letter written by the parents, Gerhard J. and Maria Duerksen.The material covers 94 years, from 1893, when the couple married, to 1987, but focuses primarily on the 1930s.

AFC 1997/011: Lands' End All-American Quilt Collection
Lands' End in cooperation with Good Housekeeping magazine sponsored quilt contests in 1992, 1994, and 1996. The collection,housed in 154 boxes, consists of visual images, entry blanks, and essays written by entrants, as well as Lands End administrative files and correspondence pertinent to the promotion of the contest. Approximately 13,100 entries for the three contests came from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Numerous types and styles of needlework, quilting, patchwork, applique and embroidery are represented among the visual images. [catalog record] [finding aid] [online presentation]

AFC 2000/001: Local Legacies Collection
Four hundred and five linear feet (approximately 90,000 manuscript pages, 475 sound recordings, 13,270 graphic materials, 335 electronic media, and 75 artifacts) of documentation of local festivals, fairs, parades, and other community-based events from each U.S. state, the District of Columbia, and U.S. territories and trusts. The Local Legacies Collection was donated through the efforts of individuals, organizations, and institutions asked to participate by members of Congress. This project was part of the Library of Congress Bicentennial celebration in the year 2000. [catalog record] [online presentation] [Kansas Local Legacies]

AFC 2008/013: The Bajich Brothers Concert Collection
Collection of digital video, sound recordings, and photographs documenting a concert of tamburitza music and songs performed by the Bajich Brothers, in the Coolidge Auditorium, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., September 17, 2008. Recorded as part of the Homegrown concert series sponsored by the American Folklife Center. Tamburas are a family of fretted, steel-stringed acoustic instruments common to several countries in southeastern Europe, including Serbia. Tambura music (also known as tamburitza or tamburica, after common diminutives for tambura), has been widely played in ethnic communities in the United States since the nineteenth century. [catalog record] [event flyer and webcast]

Manuscript Collections

Eight pages of "Traditional Songs and Ballads (Heard in Kansas) 1876-1936," consisting of a list of 178 songs and an accompanying letter submitted by Myra E. Hull, Lawrence, Kansas, October 25, 1936. Contained in volume 24.