Numerous people have assisted in the archival organization, cataloging, and development of the online presentation of the Sidney Robertson Cowell WPA Northern California Folk Music Project Collection. Folklife archivist Catherine Hiebert Kerst has worked extensively with the collection in the American Folklife Center since it was chosen to be included in American Memory. Ethnomusicology archivist Elaine Bradtke assisted in substantial ways for a large portion of the American Memory period.
Other American Folklife Center staff who contributed to the development of the project include Robin Fanslow, Judith Gray, Stephanie Hall, James Hardin, Joseph C. Hickerson, Alan Jabbour, Timothy Lloyd, Marsha Maguire, Carol Moran, Gerald E. Parsons, David Taylor, and Nora Yeh. Interns and Junior Fellows working at the American Folklife Center who have assisted the organization and presentation of the collection include Toni Smart, Dan Horvath, Catherine Bowers, Leah Stauber, Christa Maher, and Kate Snodgrass.
The Project would not have been conceivable without the liberal guidance and expertise provided by National Digital Library Program (NDLP) staff members Thomas Bramel, Carl Fleischhauer, Dominique Pickett, Jane Bossert, and Ricky Erway.
Other NDLP staff who contributed to the project include Mary Ambrosio, Martha Anderson, Karen Billett, Floris Flam, LeeEllen Friedland, Andrea Greenwood, Abigail Grotke, Mary-Jo Kline, Melissa Smith Levine, Steven McCollum, Sharon Nixon, Tracey Salley, and Ishmael Wilson.
Our thanks to Allan McConnell, Head of the Magnetic Recording Laboratory in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division (MBRS) and Mike Turpin, MBRS Recording Engineer who made the original disk to tape transfers. A&J Recording Studios in New York City created and edited the digital audio files.
Charlotte Givens, Marilyn Kretsinger, and James C. Roberts of the Library's Copyright Office provided copyright assistance in the early stages of the project.
Ample Minaret cataloging assistance was offered by Elaine Woods and Anton R. Pierce (Automation Planning Liaison Office). Excellent guidance in the development of a cataloging system to accommodate the needs of describing this complicated unpublished multi-format ethnographic field collection was offered by Library of Congress staff members Catherine Garland (MBRS) and Helena Zinkham (Prints and Photographs).
Invaluable language assistance was sought among the Library of Congress' cataloging staff, including Faye Ann Schott, Eniko Basa, Barbara Conaty, Anna L. Campos, Theodore Bacak, Richard J. Ricard Jr., Linda M. Ricciardi, and Kajak Y. Balekjian.
We are grateful to the Music Division for graciously allowing us to scan some pertinent items from their Sidney Robertson Cowell Collection for inclusion in this online presentation.
Gratitude is also extended to the Music Library at the University of California-Berkeley for their generosity in allowing the Library of Congress to copy materials from their sister collection of the WPA California Folk Music Project to complement the collection housed at the American Folklife Center. Furthermore, we are indebted to the Berkeley Music Library for allowing the Library of Congress to distribute in this online presentation the technical scale drawings and sketches of musical instruments not found in the America Folklife Center's collection. Among those associated with the Berkeley Music Library who provided significant assistance are John H. Roberts, John Emerson, Judy Tsou, and Steve Mendoza.
Catherine Hiebert Kerst
Washington, D.C.
June 26, 1997
California Folk Music
am Jun-27-97