Catalog Record:
The collection consists of documentation from Robert Sonkin's field recording trip to Shell Pile, near Port Norris, New Jersey, and from there to Gee's Bend and other locations in Alabama in June-July 1941. Sonkin recorded two discs of African American quartets performing gospel music in Shell Pile, June 25, 1941. His field notes also describe the African American community of Shell Pile, named for the oyster shucking industry established there near Port Norris, N.J. Forty-nine of the sixty-three discs were made in various locations in Gee's Bend, Alabama, and include prayer meetings, sermons, gospel music, spirituals, hymns, jubilee quartet singing, blues, children's songs, recitations and conversations. These discussions cover health and home remedies, the Gee's Bend school, and the Farm Security Administration's (FSA) Gee's Bend study. Sonkin also recorded ten discs in other areas in Alabama, including gospel quartet music in Bessemer, Alabama; interviews in Camden and Palmerdale, Alabama; and gospel music in Rehoboth and Greensboro, Alabama. Narratives by two former slaves, Isom Moseley and Alice Gaston, were recorded on July 22, 1941.
In addition to the recordings, there are typescript copies of research materials about Gee's Bend, Alabama dating from 1937-1939, including a paper, "An exploratory study of the customs, attitudes and folkways of the people in the community of Gee's Bend," by Nathaniel S. Colley of the Tuskegee Institute. Other reports on farm production, construction of new housing and barns, home economics, and community health, which were issued by government agencies, are included in the collection.
Born in the Bronx, New York in 1911, Robert Sonkin was an educator, ethnographic researcher, and author. A graduate of the City College of New York and Columbia University, Sonkin taught at the Department of Public Speaking at City College from 1929 to 1976. In the late 1930s, he worked with Charles L. Todd, his colleague at the Department of Public Speaking, to document the experience of residents of the FSA migrant worker camps in California in 1940 and 1941. In the summer of 1941, using money granted by City College of New York to document Americana, Sonkin traveled to Shell Pile, New Jersey, and Gee's Bend, Alabama to record the religious music and personal reflections of African Americans living in those communities. In Gee's Bend, Sonkin also recorded conversations about the FSA projects that were being undertaken there. During World War II, he worked with the Archive of American Folk Song to document popular reactions to America's involvement in the war, and served in the Army Signal Corps. In the late 1970s, he again collaborated with Todd to produce the book
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.
For a list of locations where recordings were made, see Appendix A.
The collection is divided into two series, manuscripts and sound recordings. The manuscripts are broken down by sub-series and arranged alphabetically. These include the administrative file, correspondence, notes, recording logs, reports, and transcriptions of song texts. The sound recordings are arranged and numbered chronologically by the date recorded, beginning with the first recordings made and ending with the last. Original disc dust jackets are housed separately from the collection.
Access copies of the collection are available through the Folklife
Reading Room of the American Folklife Center. Duplication of collection
materials may be governed by copyright and other restrictions. Please refer to
the AFC web site for information on ordering copies of unpublished recordings (
Two interviews with Alice Gaston and Isom Mosely recorded in Gee's
Bend on July 22, 1941 can also be found on the American Memory website
Robert Sonkin donated the collection to the Archive of American Folk Song in 1941, which later became the Archive of Folk Culture at the American Folklife Center. The collection was formerly referred to as the "Gee's Bend Collection."
Robert Sonkin Alabama and New Jersey Collection (AFC 1941/018), Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Ethnographic field collection consisting of
audio recordings, photographs, manuscript materials, publications, and
ephemera, documenting the everyday life of residents of the FSA migrant worker
camps in 1940 and 1941. See the American Memory website,
Folder list, AFC Collections Database and LC Catalog record printouts
2 letters
Field notes covering AFS 5035 to AFS 5098 (October 1937 to July 3, 1941); Field notes (1941); Superstitions (no date); "Taken from Charles L. Todd / California Migrant Labor Collection"
3 copies (AFS 5040 to AFS 5098)
"Big World At Last Reaches Gee's Bend," transcript of article from
Texts of songs, summary of interviews (AFS 5040 to AFS 5073)
Texts of songs, summary of interviews (AFS 5074 to AFS 5098)
64 disc recordings recorded in Port Norris, New Jersey and Alabama. Specific locations in Alabama include Gee's Bend, Palmerdale, Birmingham, Bessemer, Camden, Greensboro, Selma and Rehoboth.