Mike Seeger Research Guide: From Other Collections
In the Southern Folklife Collection
Becky Blackley Collection, 1871-1995
Becky Blackley is an expert autoharp player. Her collection mainly consists of materials about her research on the history and practice of the autoharp. Her collection includes correspondence, photographs, notes, and recorded interviews with famed autoharp players, such as Mike Seeger, Maybelle Carter, Ernest Stoneman, and Kilby Snow.
Folklorist Ed Kahn helped establish the John Edwards Memorial Foundation. His research analyzed American folk songs and the Carter Family. His collection consists of audio and video recordings, photographs, and papers pertaining to his field studies. Included in his collection are field recordings made by Mike Seeger and other prominent folk artists.
McCabe’s Guitar Shop Collection, 1967-2013
McCabe's Guitar Shop is a music store and venue in Santa Monica, California. This collection contains audio and video recordings pertaining to the musicians who played there. Most notably, this collection includes recordings of Elizabeth Cotten performing during the 1970s and 1980s and her 1984 interview with Nancy Covey. There are also audio recordings of Mike Seeger and other old-time artists performing at the venue.
Ola Belle Reed Collection, 1960-1979
Ola Belle Reed was a prominent folksinger during the American folk music revival. Mike Seeger conducted field recordings of Reed, and her collection contains further audio recordings, songs, photographs, and publicity relating to her music.
Pete Kuykendall Collection, 1938-1995
Founder of the Bluegrass Unlimited publication, bluegrass musician Pete Kuykendall conducted his own field recordings. His collection consists mainly of audio and video recordings of live performances, informal home sessions, and interviews. There are many recordings of Mike Seeger and the same old-time and bluegrass musicians he recorded.
Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project Collection, 1965-1989
The mission of the Southern Folk Cultural Revival Project was to create performances where Black and white artists could play together. This collection includes audio recordings, correspondence, publicity, and business papers on the organization, the performances they created, and the artists they worked with. In particular, this collection includes artist files, photographs, audio recordings, and posters relating to Mike Seeger.
Stephan T. Wishnevsky Collection, 1983-2007 and undated
Stephan T. Wishnevsky is an old-time musician and author. His collection consists of audiocassettes and transcriptions of interviews he conducted for his writings. Included in this collection are the interview transcriptions Wishnevsky used for his book, How The Hippies Ruin't Hillbilly Music: A Historical Memoir, 1960-2000.
At other institutions
The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress houses the Mike Seeger Collection. This manuscript collection includes additional audio recordings, photographs, and papers related to the documentation work of Mike Seeger recorded in UNC’s collection. The recordings include live performances and interviews of many prominent old-time musicians.
Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
The archive for the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage houses the Moses and Frances Asch Collection. Moe Asch founded Folkways Records in 1948, which served as the primary record company for many folk musicians. Asch’s collection includes audio recordings, correspondence, photographs, ephemera, record production materials, and business papers relating to Folkways Records, the artist they represent, and the 2186 titles now protected by the Smithsonian. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections also contains Folkways Records and Mike Seeger-related materials.
The Woody Guthrie Center Archives Special Collections focuses on preserving the materials of the legendary folk singer, Woody Guthrie. Along with his personal collection, the Woody Guthrie Center Archives contain audio recording, correspondence, and photograph collections of folk scholars and artists that further define the genre and its documentation of the southern United States.
The UW Ethnomusicology Archives holds tons of individual audio and video recordings collected from various ethnomusicologists around the world. This collection contains recordings from old-time, bluegrass, and folk festivals and artists in the United States, such as the Old Time Music Festival and Elizabeth Cotten.
In partnership with the Library of Congress American Folklife Center, the Lomax Digital Archive features the collected materials of Alan and John Lomax. This includes audio and video recordings and photographs of their fieldwork from around the world.
Using Finding Aids
A finding aid is one way that archivists make the materials within a collection available to search. It typically includes a collection overview, scope of content, copyright and permissions and sometimes a more detailed list of content. Finding aids are meant to help in the research process rather than being a complete description of what is available.
Navigating the finding aid
Finding aids have multiple sections and can be overwhelming to look at. Understanding how they are organized can help with navigating them. The format of finding aids may vary from institution to institution, but all finding aids include the same basic information such as an abstract, biography, scope and content, copyright and permissions. The top of the finding aid will typically have more general information such as an overview of the collection, subject headings and related collections. The finding aid will provide more detailed information the further you go, sometimes including a complete content list.
Finding Aid Tip:
The menu on the left side of the screen provides links to jump to different sections of the finding aid. If you are looking for a particular item, you can use “ctrl and F” (or “command and F on macs) to search for individual names, dates, locations and other keywords.
Use “search archival collections” to search the finding aids in Wilson Library.
Requesting Materials From Finding Aids
If the item you are interested in is not digitized, you can request it by clicking "request this collection" and specifying the call number of the item you want. You may request the item for an in-person visit, or through a duplication request. For more information on registering and requesting materials, visit the Registering and Requesting Materials page.
