Art Rosenbaum Georgia Folklore Collection
Catalog Record: http://lccn.loc.gov/2004695183
General International Standard for Archival Description
Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center Library of Congress Washington, D.C. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.home
Encoded by Judy Ng, December 2005; Revised by Nora Yeh
Encoded Archival Description
Encoded Archival Description (EAD) Version 2002
collection
Art Rosenbaum Georgia Folklore Collection 1955-1983 1976-1983
236 audiocassette tapes; 1 box of manuscripts and electronic media
Rosenbaum, Art
Georgia Folklore Society
Biographical History for: Art Rosenbaum Georgia Folklore Collection 1955-1983 1976-1983
Biographical History The field collector, Art Rosenbaum, is a professor of art at the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia. He was born in 1938 and received his degrees from Columbia University (A.B. 1960, MFA 1961). He also studied at the Institut d'Art et d'Archéologie in Paris on a Fulbright grant in 1964-65, and has exhibited his drawings and paintings extensively. He has recorded folk musicians throughout the United States, particularly in Georgia, Kentucky, Indiana, Iowa, and New York. Some of his visual art portrays the performers and musical performances represented in his musical collections. Rosenbaum has published Shout Because You're Free: The African American Ring Shout Tradition in Coastal Georgia (F 292 .M15 R67 1998; Margo Newmark Rosenbaum, photographs; Johann S. Buis, music transcriptions and historical essay). This book draws in part from the field recordings of the Georgia Folklore Collection, and also includes subsequent field research. Four recordings that include music from these field recordings are: Folk Vision and Voices: Traditional Music and Song in Northern Georgia (1983, Folkways FE 34161-34162), Down Yonder: Old-Time String Band Music from Georgia (1982, Folkways FS 31089), McIntosh County Shouters: Slave Shout Songs from the Coast of Georgia (1984, Folkways FE 4344), and Georgia Folk: A Sampler of Traditional Sounds (1990, Global Village SC 03).
Scope and Content Art Rosenbaum collected these field recordings in north and coastal Georgia between 1976 and 1983. They include many genres of instrumental and vocal folk music and, in addition, oral history interviews with some performers. These recordings were made in homes, churches, and at festivals with the intent of: 1) preserving through duplication the content of deteriorating tapes of local performing traditions; 2) making these recordings accessible to a wider public; and 3) ensuring the continuity of the musical traditions of these performers' ancestors. Although Rosenbaum made the majority of these recordings in the late 1970s and early 1980s, one tape (GFC 43) is dated from approximately 1955 and was duplicated from a recording by Oscar and Fred Huff. Another tape (GFC 171) was recorded with Joe Heaney in September 1966. Most of the recordings were made in summer and fall, but notably 4 tapes (GFC 319-322) record an Easter church service in Oglethorpe County. An extensive sequence of tapes (GFC 295-315) was recorded in the Georgia Sea Islands. Several lectures by visionary artist Rev. Howard Finster are included. The Walter J. Brown Media Archives and Peabody Awards Collection at the University of Georgia Libraries holds the original masters, where they were deposited in 1987 by Art Rosenbaum, and the 3-1/4 inch preservation masters. A few tapes were not duplicated onto audiocassettes because of their extremely poor condition even after restoration. The Inventory (Folder 2) appended to this guide provides further details. In addition to complete sets of recordings at the Archive of Folk Culture at the American Folklife Center and the University of Georgia Media Archives (Athens, GA 30602), different selections of reference copies from the collection are also held at locations around Georgia. In regions that are represented in the field recordings, the University of Georgia Libraries deposited relevant copies of field tapes at the regional public libraries. The names and addresses of these libraries are included in Folder 3. The Georgia Folklore Collection consists primarily of the field recordings made by Art Rosenbaum and was created when he donated these tapes to the University of Georgia Libraries Media Archives in 1987. However, the Georgia Folklore Collection is currently an open collection and also contains associated collections of sound and video recordings from around Georgia, including those made by the Georgia Folklore Society.
series
Series I: Manuscripts
file
Finding aid, inventory and correspondence.
Hard copy and disc copy.
Inventory.
Includes descriptions and the column headings Call Number, Artist, Group/ Event/ Title, Date, Recording Location, and Songs.
List of Public Libraries.
Includes the names, addresses, phone numbers, directors, and service area of the public libraries receiving copies of the field recordings. Also includes the number of audiocassettes donated, the original number of reel-to-reel tapes duplicated on the audiocassettes, and the locations at which the original masters were recorded.
Series II: Sound Recordings
GFC 1-23
GFC 24-53
GFC 54-79
GFC 80-107
GFC 108-128
GFC 129-149
GFC 150-172
GFC 173-192
Note: Tape 193 was not transferred to audiocassette copy.
GFC 194-214
Note: Tape 215 was not transferred to audiocassette copy.
GFC 216-237
GFC 238-263
GFC 264-288
Note: Tape 289 was not transferred to audiocassette copy.
GFC 290-307
GFC 308-325
Series III: Electronic Media
1 3/5-inch computer diskette. Contains the Finding aid and Inventory files.