Call Number:

MSS 0695

Repository:

University of Delaware Library Special Collections

Extent:

8 1/4 inch audio tape

Language:

Finnish and English

Preferred Citation:

MSS 695, Delaware Folklore Society audio recordings, Special Collections, University of Delaware Library, Newark, Delaware.

Date:

1950-1955 (inclusive)

Creator:

Delaware Folklore Society

Form:

Folk tales, Sermons, 1/4 inch audio tape, and Oral histories (document genres)

Abstract:

These audiotape recordings by members of the Delaware Folklore society feature folk tales, narratives, songs, sermons, and discussions of folklore. The recordings provide a glimpse into the work of an organization dedicated to preserving and studying the folk heritage of Delaware.

The Delaware Folklore Society was founded to document and preserve Delaware folklore, folk sayings, customs, narratives and folk history, songs, and information about individuals and communities. Membership in the society was open to anyone interested in any phase of the folklore of Delaware. The organization's primary medium of communication was the

The Delaware Folklore Society developed out of a conference on folklore held in the spring of 1950 on the campus of the University of Delaware under the sponsorship of the University's Institute of Delaware History and Culture. Organization of the society took place at a subsequent meeting, in Dover, Delaware, on June 5, 1950. The founding officers of the Delaware Folklore Society after its founding were University of Delaware professor John A. Munroe (president), Georgetown state senator Harold W. T. Purnell (vice president), and Assistant State Archivist Charles W. Dickens (secretary). Additional members of the executive committee were Delaware Historian Anthony Higgins, Dover-based historic preservationist Mable Lloyd Ridgely, and Sussex County state representative William T. Bennett. Other early members include R. O. Bausman, chairman of the Institute of Delaware History and Culture, Arthur R. Dunlap, secretary of the same institute, and Leon de Valinger, Jr., state archivist.

According to the minutes of the executive committee recorded on March 9, 1956, by John R. Ernest, the Society donated their tapes and minutes to the University of Delaware Library.

"Folklore - and a folklore society."Delaware Folklore Bulletin1 (1951): 1-4.

These audiotape recordings by the Delaware Folklore society feature folk tales, narratives, songs, sermons, and discussions of folklore. The recordings provide a glimpse into the work of an organization dedicated to preserving and studying the folk heritage of Delaware.

Recordings by the Delaware Folklore Society include "negro folk tales" as told by New York State educator Louis C. Jones; Finnish language choral singing from the Iron Hill area, recorded or organized by University of Delaware Professor John A. Munroe; and stories told by Nathaniel "Fan" Tingle, an elderly African American resident of Oak Orchard, Sussex County, Delaware. The recordings also feature talks by the collectors of folklore and songs, including New York State educator Louis C. Jones and Alan Lomax, musicologist and field collector of American folk music.

The collection features several oral history interviews including an interview with two residents of Cedar Swamp, Blackbird Hundred, Delaware, on local legends. There is also an interview with John Ernest of Newark, Delaware, in which he discussed Chesapeake Bay "show boats" and other traveling shows he visited as a child, church attendance, local customs, and his frank views of African-Americans. The final tape in the collection features an interview and sermon by Reverend Andrew Gaston of Newark, Delaware. Gaston was an employee of the Continental Diamond-Fibre Company, and the son of a former slave and a free woman. In his interview, he discussed his life, children, education, working railroad, and his time in Savannah, Georgia, where he was born. The tape also includes readings by Charles W. Eaton and students in oral interpretation and speech.

In addition to John Munroe, the tapes were recorded by Delaware author and historian C.A. Weslager, historian Anthony Higgins, and journalist Bill Frank. Additional information regarding the content of the audiotapes was handwritten on their containers and is included in the scope note of each tape where possible.