Thomas S. Brown Folk Music Collection
Collection
Collection Number: A&M 4612
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 Collection includes more than two hundred reels of audio recordings.
Additional information available in: West Virginia University, and John A. Cuthbert. West Virginia Folk Music: A Descriptive Guide to Field Recordings in the West Virginia and Regional History Collection. West Virginia University Press, 1982.
This collection is stored offsite; please make an appointment prior to visiting.
Researchers may access digitized materials by requesting to view the materials in person by appointment or remotely by contacting the West Virginia & Regional History Center reference department.
Permission to publish or reproduce is required from the copyright holder. For more information, please see the Permissions and Copyright page on the West Virginia and Regional History Center website.
Thomas Spencer Brown was born in 1930 in Hot Springs, South Dakota. He received a Bachelor of Music Education degree from the University of Colorado in 1953, a Master of Music from the University of Montana in 1960, and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1968. From 1953 to 1960, he taught instrumental and vocal music in schools located in Kansas, Nebraska, and Louisiana and, from 1961 to 1964, he served on the faculty of the University of Maryland, Munich Campus, in Munich, Germany. In 1967, Brown was awarded an assistant professorship in Music Education at West Virginia University. His teaching duties included choral methods, conducting, and various graduate level research and statistics courses.
17.0 Linear Feet (14 record cartons, 15 in. each; )
59.8 Gigabytes (436 .wav files)
English
West Virginia and Regional History Center / West Virginia University / 1549 University Avenue / P.O. Box 6069 / Morgantown, WV 26506-6069 / Phone: 304-293-3536 / URL: West Virginia & Regional History Center
Gift of/cooperative project with Brown, Tom, Professor in West Virginia University Music Department, 1971 December 11 and more.
**UNPUBLISHED
Tapes C160-C303, C400-C427, C516-C531, C536, C538, C549, C553, C570, C575, C576, C578, C580, C592 and C595 pulled from folk music collection and placed in newly created A&M collection, as is consistent with current protocol.
We do not have written documentation for many of these recordings. John Cuthbert verbally identified Brown as the donor during a visit on 2025/09/30.
MISSING: According to their folders, C304 and C305 should also be in this collection, but there are no files on the Z drive and no reels on the shelf. Added to missing list 2025/10/17.
Box Inventory:
Box 1: reels 1-38 (C160-C176)
Box 2: reels 40-64 (C176-C185)
Box 3: C189-C251
Box 4: C186-C222
Box 5: C222-C252
Box 6: C252-C303
Box 7: C254-C273
Box 8: C274-C301
Box 9: C301-C303 and C595
Box 10: C400-C410
Box 11: C411-C416
Box 12: C416-C427
Box 13: C422, C530, C531, C536, C576, C580, C595, C549, C576, C523-C529, C538, C553, C570, C575, C578, C580, C592
Box 14: C516-C522
Box 15: C414-C416, C418, C420, C421, C425, C426
**An inventory of how many reels, cassettes, etc. are in each box can be found on the I drive.
Initially, Mr. Brown's materials were A&M 2222, but were eventually deaccessioned to the Folk Music Collection. We are not sure which were originally meant to be with that A&M; we've attempted to include everything he gave that was in the Folk Music Collection in this A&M.
C160-205 have been digitized by the CLIR grant, as of 2026-06. It's possible other C#s were digitized previously and are available in the Z drive.
Part of the West Virginia and Regional History Center Repository