Mike Seeger Research Guide: From the Mike Seeger Collection

The Mike Seeger Collection contains extensive audio recordings, photographs, and papers pertaining to the sound recordings Mike Seeger collected during his fieldwork. The audio recordings include live performances, home sessions, and Folkways dubs of prominent figures in traditional, old-time, folk, bluegrass, and country music, such as Elizabeth Cotten (FT-3754), Dock Boggs (FT-5681), Eck Robertson (FT-5664), Roscoe Holcomb (FT-14299), Tommy Jarrell (FT-14368), Ernest Stoneman (FT-5600), Ola Belle Reed (FT-14667), Kilby Snow (FT-5668), Doc Watson (FT-12881), Hazel Dickens (FS-13512), Lester Flatts and Earl Scruggs (FT-5579), and the Louvin Brothers (FT-3759). The photographs depict some of the artists Mike has field recordings for, such as Elizabeth Cotten, Dock Boggs, members of the Carter family, Tommy Jarrell, Ola Belle Reed, Leslie Riddle, and Kilby Snow. The content of the papers includes Mike’s tape logs, field notes, and transcriptions of the sound recordings he created as well as production notes for the content that got turned into records by Folkways.

The Mike Seeger Collection contains extensive audio and video recordings and papers related to the interviews conducted and collected by Mike Seeger. These recordings include interviews with prominent figures in traditional, old-time, folk, bluegrass, and country music, such as Elizabeth Cotten (FT-14478), Dock Boggs (FT-5603), Eck Robertson (FT-5602), Tommy Jarrell (FS-9649), Maybelle Carter (FT-8821), Lesley Riddle (FT-5659), Ernest Stoneman (FT-5584, FT-5585), Kilby Snow (FT-5694), and Columbia Records talent scout Frank Walker (FT-5597). The video recordings contain Mike’s interviews with Lonnie Glosson and banjoist Snuffy Jenkins (VT-147). The content of the papers includes Mike’s tape logs, field notes, and transcriptions of the interviews he conducted.

The Mike Seeger Collection contains audio and video recordings, correspondence, and other papers related to Mike Seeger’s projects outside of his personal music career. The audio and video recordings include narration, interviews, film footage, master tapes, and edits for his Folkways documentary, Talking Feet (1987). The correspondence includes professional letters between Mike and the organizations he worked with, such as Moe Asch at Folkways Records, the members of the Southern Folk Culture Revival Project, and various festival committees. Other papers include project files on these organizations and writings from Mike’s column with Frets magazine.

Collection materials may only be used in our secure reading room - a part of the North Carolina Collection does include circulating books that can leave the building. To access Wilson Special Collections Library’s collections, all researchers must register and create a research account.

To begin the registration process, please select an option below:

• UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke University students, faculty, and staff may register by logging in with a valid UNC Onyen or Duke NetID.

• All other researchers may register by creating a username and password here.

If you are not affiliated with either UNC-Chapel Hill or Duke University, be sure to write down your username and password, as this information will be required each time you make a request for special collections material.

The first time you visit Wilson Library after completing your online pre-registration and creating a Request System account, you will need to complete the registration process by showing a staff member a government issued photo ID containing (1) your name, (2) your date of birth, and (3) an expiration date, and having your picture taken with our digital camera for inclusion in our database.