Brown, Thomas S.

Overview

Digital copies of color slides of West Virginia folk musicians taken by Thomas Brown. There are 85 items, most identified. Instruments include banjo, fiddle, guitar, and voice. Performers include Sherman Hammons, Sarah Singleton, Lee Tripplett, Melvin Wine, and Bill Williams, among others. A full file listing is available by viewing the Digital Material portion of this record below.

Overview

Copies of transcribed typed and hand written lyrics of folk songs as sung by Lillie Newton Cooper (1888-1965). The songs include: 'I'll Twine Mid the Ringlets', 'The Gold Harp', and 'Johnny Came a Courting', among many others. There is also a copy of the first two pages of Lillie Newton Cooper's book of poetry, 'The Ways of Life', with a short biographical sketch, and a copy of lyrics of an untitled folk song heard in Harrison County, West Virginia during the late 19th century.

Scope and Contents Attending folk festivals in the early 1970s, when there was a revival of interest in folk culture, Thomas S. Brown became acquainted with "serious students of folk art as well as the folk artists themselves". His interest piqued and, encouraged by the Dean of Libraries at West Virginia University, Brown set out to make field recordings of traditional music in West Virginia to add to the folk music archives of the West Virginia and Regional History Center. In all, the Brown...