Catalog Record:
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Library's online catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically therein.
Sound recordings in this collection are arranged by the original Georgia Folklore Collection (GFC) number.
Listening and viewing access to the collection is unrestricted.
Listening copies of the recordings are available at the Folklife Reading Room.
Restrictions may apply concerning the use, duplication, or publication of items
in this collection. Consult a reference librarian in the Folklife Reading Room
for specific information about this collection. See
Art Rosenbaum donated 325 reels of field recordings to the University of Georgia Libraries in 1987. The Media Archives of the University of Georgia Libraries restored the original reel-to-reel tapes and donated a reference set of audiocassettes to the American Folklife Center in January 2000. David Taylor coordinated the donation from the University of Georgia Libraries Media Archives. Katie Lyn Peebles accessioned, arranged, and processed this collection.
Art Rosenbaum Georgia Folklore Collection (AFC 2000/003), Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Georgia Folklore Collection is located in the Walter J. Brown Media
Archives, University of Georgia, Athens, Georgia. Original recordings. An
inventory to the Georgia Folklore Collection is available at:
The Archive of Folk Culture also holds several other Art Rosenbaum
collections, including the Art Rosenbaum Duplication Project (AFC 1975/026)
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.
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
Hard copy and disc copy.
Includes descriptions and the column headings Call Number, Artist, Group/ Event/ Title, Date, Recording Location, and Songs.
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.
Sound recordings originally housed in Boxes 2 to 15 are stored in a separate location.
Note: Tape 193 was not transferred to audiocassette copy.
Note: Tape 215 was not transferred to audiocassette copy.
Note: Tape 289 was not transferred to audiocassette copy.
1 3/5-inch computer diskette. Contains the Finding aid and Inventory files.