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Fletcher Collins Jr. Collection

AFC 1939/003

Prepared by Todd Harvey

American Folklife Center, Library of Congress

Washington, D.C.

April 2004

Encoded by Judy Ng, December 2005; Revised by Nora Yeh

Finding aid URL: http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/eadafc.af006005

Latest revision: September 2009

Table of Contents

Collection Summary

Scope and Content

Biographical History

Selected Search Terms

Names

Subjects

Forms of Material

Administrative Information

Arrangement

Access

Acquisition

Preferred Citation

Related Materials

Collection Concordance by Format

Container List

Appendix A: Performers' names and locations where recordings were made

Appendix B: Song Titles

Collection Summary

Selected Search Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog.

Names

Subjects

For lists of performers recorded by Fletcher Collins, Jr. and locations where recordings were made, see Appendix A. For a list of song titles, see Appendix B.

Forms of Material

Administrative Information

Arrangement

Manuscript materials in the Correspondence and Collecting and Recording Projects sub-series are arranged chronologically. Song indexes and transcriptions are arranged: 1) by collection as organized by the donor, and 2) alphabetically by song title. Sound recordings are arranged by AFS number.

Access

Listening and viewing access to the collection is unrestricted. Listening copies of the recordings are available in the Folklife Reading Room. The American Folklife Center is the custodial division for this collection; the original audio discs are stored in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. Restrictions may apply concerning the use, duplication, or publication of these and other items in this collection. Consult a reference librarian in the Folklife Reading Room for specific questions.

Acquisition

The collection was acquired in three separate accessions: 21 discs in 1939, 12 discs in 1942, and all manuscript materials in July 2002. Preservation copies of the discs were made as part of Library Work Order (LWO) 4872 in the 1960s. The manuscript materials were processed by Todd Harvey in 2003.

Preferred Citation

Fletcher Collins Jr. Collection (AFC 1939/003), Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Related Materials

Two discs made by Collins in Burlington, N.C. Dec. 8, 1941, were in response to Alan Lomax's call for "man-on-the-street" reactions to the Pearl Harbor attacks the day prior. Collins quickly shipped those to Washington, D.C.; today they are included in a separate collection (AFC 1941/004: The Man-on-the-Street Interviews Collection). In 1942 Collins was asked to participate in Lomax's follow-up program, "Dear Mr. President," for which he recorded three discs (AFS 6417-6419). These were sent to the Library in 1942 and are today housed as a separate collection (AFC 1942/003: "Dear Mr. President" Interviews Collection). Collins describes his collecting experiences in the Fletcher Collins Jr. Oral History Collection (AFC 2002/004).

Scope and Content

The manuscript materials in this collection reflect Collins's Anglo-American folk music collecting activities from 1935 to 1944. Collins undertook numerous projects, including a proposed song book titled A Southern Songster and a radio series on WBIG, Greensboro, N.C. Administrative papers and correspondence for these and other projects are included among the manuscript materials.

The song and tune transcriptions reflect, for the most part, Collins's collecting in North Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia from 1935 to 1941. Many are the result of Collins's fieldwork, while others were mailed to him or transcribed from printed sources. Contextual information (performer, date, place) is provided for about two-thirds of the songs. Some of the disc recordings were transcribed and transcriptions are included among the manuscripts.

Collins made twenty-one disc recordings in March 1939 (AFS 2235, AFS 3769-3788) under the auspices of the WPA Joint Committee on Folk Arts and deposited them that year at the Library of Congress. In fall 1941, as part of the Library's equipment loan program, Collins borrowed a Presto disc recorder and blank discs. During November and December 1941 he made fifteen disc recordings in Brown Summit (AFS 6491), Burlington (AFS 6365-6366, perhaps 6494), Elon College (AFS 6492-6493), and Greensboro (AFS 6482-6486), North Carolina, and in Fancy Gap, Virginia (AFS 6487-6490).

Biographical History

Fletcher Collins Jr. was born on November 19, 1906, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Yale University (Ph.B. 1928, Ph.D. 1934) and was a professor of English at Elon College in North Carolina (1936-42). Collins founded the drama department at Mary Baldwin College in Staunton, Virginia, where he was professor emeritus (1946-77). He is the author of Alamance Play-Party Songs and Singing Games (1940, reprint 1973), Medieval Church Music-Dramas (1976), Troubadour and Trouvère Songs in Singable English (2 vols. 2000-2001), and numerous other books and articles. He died in 2005.

Collection Concordance by Format

Container List

Appendix A: Performers' names and locations where recordings were made

Names of performers recorded by Fletcher Collins, Jr.:

• Cole, Calvin

• Greer, I. G. (Isaac Garfield), 1881-1967

• Greer, I. G., Mrs.

• Hawkins, Louis

• Meredith, Russell

• Newman, J. U., Mrs.

• Quesinberry, Jackson

• Tate, Dan, b. 1896

• Wagoner, John

• Wagoner, Pete

• Wagoner, Vasteen

• Weddle, Susan

Locations where recordings were made:

North Carolina

• Alamance County (N.C.)

• Browns Summit (N.C.)

• Burlington (N.C.)

• Elon College

• Greensboro (N.C.)

Virginia

• Fancy Gap (Va.)

West Virginia

• Arthurdale (W. Va.)

These titles are taken from both the manuscript materials and the sound recordings.

"Adam and Eve"

"All My Sins Are Taken Away"

"Arkansas Traveler"

"As I Went Out One Morning in May"

"As the Ship Went Down"

"Aunt Jemima"

"Babes in the Wood"

"Baggage Coach Ahead, The"

"Barbara Allen"

"Berayna"

"Best Old Man in the World"

"Bible Is the Engineer, The"

"Big Black Billy Goat"

"Bill Bailey"

"Billy Boy"

"Billy Grimes"

"Birmingham Jail"

"Blind Child's Prayer, The"

"Blind Girl, The"

"Blue Juniata, The"

"Boll Weevil, The"

"Bonny Barbary Allen"

"Boston Burglar, The"

"Boy's Best Friend Is His Mother, A"

"Brambly Briars"

"Brown Eyes"

"Buckeye Jim"

"Bully of the Town, The"

"Butcher Boy"

"Captain, Captain, Tell Me True"

"Casey Jones"

"Charleston Merchant, The"

"Charlie Lawson"

"Charlie over the Water"

"Chick-a-ma-craney-ma-crow"

"Cindy"

"Claude Allen"

"Cock Robin"

"Coffee Grows in a White Oak Tree"

"Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies"

"Come All You Good People"

"Common Bill"

"Cruel Mother, The/Down by the Greenwood Side/Hangman"

"Death of Jesse James, The"

"Derby Ram, The"

"Derby Town"

"Devil and the Farmer, The"

"Dog and Gun"

"Down by the Seashore"

"Down in Arkansaw"

"Drowsy Sleeper"

"Dusty Miller"

"Dying Cowboy, The"

"Dying Cowboy's Lament"

"Edward/The Little Guinea Pig"

"Eliza Jane"

"Ellen Smith"

"Fair Charlotte/Young Charlotte"

"Fair Young Maid, A"

"Fare You Well, My Own True Love"

"Farmers, The"

"Fellow That-A Looks Like Me, The"

"Fickle Lover, The"

"Flop Eared Mule"

"Foggy Foggy Dew"

"Fond Affections"

"Fox, The"

"Frankie and Johnny"

"Frog in the Park"

"Frog in the Pool"

"Frog Went A-Courting"

"George Came Riding through the Town"

"George Collins"

"George Riley"

"Giddyyap Napoleon"

"Git on Board, Little Children"

"Give Me Three Grains of Corn"

"Go In and Out of the Window"

"Go Tell Aunt Patsy"

"Go Tell That Weary Travelling Man"

"Going Down the Road Feeling Bad"

"Good Old Man, The (Four Nights Drunk)"

"Grasshopper Sittin' on a Sweet Potater Vine"

"Green Beds"

"Green Grow the Rushes-Ho/The Ditty Song"

"Green Grows the Laurel"

"Green Grows the Willow Tree"

"Green Mountain Polka"

"Ground Hog"

"Guerilla Man, The"

"Gypsy Laddie, The/The Blackjack Davy"

"Gypsy's Warning, The"

"Hangman, The"

"Hi! Lowlanders"

"House Carpenter, The"

"How Old Are You My Pretty Little Pink?"

"I Asked My Love to Take a Walk/Pretty Susan"

"I Caught a Beau"

"I Don't Love Nobody"

"I Lost My Glove"

"I Married Me a Wife"

"I Stepped Out One Morning in May"

"I'll Build Me a Castle"

"I'll Need Not Your Kind Caresses"

"I'm Happy"

"If I Had a Butcher Knife"

"Independence Song"

"Independent Lover"

"Indian Song"

"Irish Molly-O"

"Is This the Promise You Made to Me?"

"Jack Has Gone A-Sailing"

"Jealous Lover of Lone Green Valley, The/Fair Young Ellen"

"Jeff Davis"

"Jew's Daughter, The"

"Jockey Hat, The"

"Joe Bowers"

"John Henry"

"Johnny Doyle"

"Johnny Home from Sea"

"Johnny Randolph"

"Journeyman Tailor"

"Kenny Wagoner"

"King William Was King George's Son"

"Kitty Cline"

"Kitty Runs"

"Kitty Went Fiddle-Die-Dee"

"Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight"

"Let My Name Be Kindly Spoken"

"Letter Edged in Black, The"

"Lexington Murder/Nellie Cropsey"

"Little Brown Jug"

"Little David, Play on Your Harp"

"Little Mary Fagan"

"Little Mohee, The"

"Little Rosewood Casket, The"

"Little Sparrow/The Cuckoo/I'll Build Up a Castle"

"London Bridge Is Breaking Down"

"Long Time Ago"

"Lord Bateman"

"Lord Lovel"

"Lord Randal"

"Lord Thomas and Fair Ella"

"Love Henry"

"Lover's Leap"

"Maggie"

"Mary and Sandy (Sandy Far at Sea)"

"Mary Golden Tree, The"

"Mary, Martha, and Lazarus"

"Maumee Maid, The"

"Mermaid, The"

"Michael Roy"

"Miller and His Son, The"

"Miller's Will, The"

"Mister Frog Went A-Courting"

Mnemonic school songs: (a) ABC's, (b) Spelling, (c) Multiplication table, (d) Geography

"Molly Bond"

"Molly Bright"

"Moonshiner's Dream"

"Moravian Song"

"My Grandmother's Advice"

"My Soldier Scarce Twenty-Four Years Old"

"Naomi Wise"

"New River Train"

"Nightingale, The"

"Nobody's Business"

"Oats, Peas, Beans"

"Oh, To Me the Time Draws Near"

"Oh, What a Happy Land Is England"

"Oh, Where is My Sweetheart?"

"Old Arm Chair, The"

"Old Bangum"

"Old Gray Goose, The"

"Old Joe Clark"

"Old Maid, The"

"Old Rosin the Beau"

"Old Sally Brown"

"Old Smokey"

"Old Woman and the Preacher, The"

"On the Tennessee"

"On to Richmond"

"On Top of Old Smokies/The Wagoner's Lad"

"Orphan Girl"

"Our Camp's in the Wilderness"

"Oyster Girl, The"

"Paddy the Barber"

"Paper of Pins, A"

"Pig in the Parlor"

"Pretty Sarah"

"Quaker Lover, The"

"Raggedy Ann"

"Red River Valley"

"Reply to the Gypsy's Warning, The"

"Rich Man and Lazarus, The"

"Rich Merchant, The (The Brown Girl)"

"Rock Island Line, The"

"Romish Lady, The"

"Run, Nigger, Run"

"Sailor Boy"

"Saint James Infirmary"

"Seaman on the Doe, The"

"Seven Long Years I Served My King"

"Shabby Genteel, The"

"Sheepskin and Beeswax"

"Shoot the Buffalo"

"Silver Dagger"

"Silvery Tide, The"

"Single Gal (When I Was Single)"

"Skip to My Lou"

"Soldier and the Lady, The"

"Soldier, Soldier"

"Soldier, Won't You Marry Me?"

"Soldier's Advice, The"

"Soldier's Poor Little Boy, A"

"Soldier's Sweetheart, The"

"Sourwood Mountain"

"Sparkling Sunday Night"

"Springfield Mountain"

"Steamboat Bill"

"Stepmother, The"

"Storm Is on the Ocean, The"

"Sugar Hill"

"Sweet Are the Flowers in Springtime"

"Sweet William and Fair Ellen"

"Sydna Allen"

"Take This Hammer"

"There's Some Sees Lots of Pleasures"

"Three Babes, The"

"Three Little Girls Went Skating"

"Time Draws Near, The"

"Tom Boleyn"

"Tree in the Wood, The"

"Turkey in the Mountain (I Don't Have Old Cindy)"

"Turkey in the Straw"

"Twenty Long Years We've Been Married"

"Two Brothers, The"

"Two Sisters"

"Ugly Mug"

"Villikin's Dinah"

"Wabash Blues"

"Waily, Waily"

"Wayfaring Stranger"

"We've Come to Judgement"

"Weeping Willow Tree, The"

"Weevily Wheat"

"When the World's on Fire"

"Whistle, Daughter, Whistle"

"Whoa Mule"

"Wife of Usher's Well, The"

"Wild Irishman, The"

"Will the Circle Be Unbroken"

"William Taylor"

"Willie and Polly (Pretty Polly)"

"Willie My Darling Come Back"

"Willie Ransome"

"Woman Who Made Her Old Man Blind, The"

"Wreck of Ninety-Seven"

"Wreck of Number Nine, The"

"Ye Guardian Powers"

"Young Collins"

"Young Man Who Wouldn't Hoe His Corn, The"