I. Field Collecting, 1930-1958
Recording Boxes 1-8, Shelves 1-6, Manuscript Boxes 1-2
Arranged by type.
Field recordings in the Flanders Collection were made by Helen Hartness Flanders and George Brown in 1930, by Flanders with the occasional help of Phillips Barry between 1931 and 1937, by Alan Lomax and Flanders in 1939 and by Flanders and Marguerite Olney between 1940 and 1958.
The original field recordings consist of wax cylinders numbered from #1 to #254. During her first several years of collecting Flanders was especially interested in collecting the tunes and a sample verse of the traditional songs. Many of the field recordings therefore contain only the first one or two verses of a song. Helen Flanders' primary interest between 1930 and 1939 was in finding Child ballads for her archive. There is a proportionately large number of Child ballads on cylinders. Because the cylinders were used for transcription and because they were stored improperly for many years, there condition is only fair to poor.
Flanders began to use aluminum and glass-based discs for her field work in 1939; later using shellac and acetate discs. The disc recordings date between 1939 and 1949. Some of her earliest recordings on disc were made with Alan Lomax in November 1939 when they collected over 150 songs, stories and fiddle tunes. It was through her contact with Alan Lomax and through the influence of the curator of the collection from 1941-1960, Marguerite Olney, that the scope of the field recordings expanded beyond the traditional Child ballads and selected British and American broadside ballads to include also recordings of religious songs, children's songs, 19th century American popular songs and dance tunes, as well as folktales. Several numbering systems were used for the discs. These appear to relate primarily to genre. Discs #1-1214 comprise the largest body with a variety of songs, a few interviews and stories. Discs #3684-3761 are the Library of Congress discs made with Alan Lomax. Discs #VA1-VA60 contain songs recorded in Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine between 1940 and 1947. Discs #4001-4061 contain fiddle and dance music from all the New England states. Of these discs, #4001-4016 were made with Alan Lomax. Discs #10001 to 10009 are recordings of fife music made in Massachusetts. In addition to these numbered discs there are a number of unnumbered discs. There are gaps in the disc numbering as well as broken and missing discs.
Between 1946 and 1958 reel-to-reel tapes of songs and instrumental performances were made in all the New England States. Experiments were done with dubbing from original cylinders and discs onto tape. The tape collection contains numbers between 1 and 78, although a large number of these tapes are missing. In addition there are 22 unnumbered tapes. There are a number of blank tapes with contents notes on the back of the boxes in the collection. Some of the songs written on these boxes are not represented in the collection, indicating that these tapes may have been (accidentally?) erased.
It is clear that the field recordings influenced the development of the printed materials in the collection. Flanders attempted to provide a body of supporting materials to complement the field recordings, at first for her own development as a collector, later for scholarly research, as her collection grew.
Very few field notes have been preserved in the collection. In addition, there are a limited number of letters and limited genealogical information on informants.
Photographs of performers are nearly all posed. Most are identified in pen
or pencil on the back of the photo. There are a limited number of negatives of these photographs.
II. Manuscripts & Typescripts Derived From Research, 1930-60
Drawers 1-8
Arranged by genre.
Text files: Between 1930 and the early 1960s Flanders supervised a project to type copies of many of the songs which were recorded on cylinder, disc and tape. Also added to this collection were typescript copies of songs found in manuscript form in informants' homes and in library collections and typescript copies of songs sent to the collection by respondents to newspaper articles and advertisements which she wrote to solicit information on songs.
Flanders and the curator of the collection, Marguerite Olney, chose to subdivide the texts of the songs into several categories. The Child titles collected, numbering 89, were the most valuable to them and contain the largest number of variations. Other British song titles (broadsides and others) number 635. American titles number 593. There are 114 songs in a category called "Stage songs" (British and American popular songs from the 19th-early 20th centuries), 73 religious titles and 122 children's songs (further subdivided into "nursery", "game," "counting out," "jingles," "riddles," and "rounds.)"
Musical transcriptions of songs were done by George Brown, his mother, Alice Brown, Phillips Barry, Marguerite Olney and Flanders' daughter, Elizabeth Flanders Ballard. Musical transcriptions were done primarily for Flanders' publications. The same effort put into transcribing the words of the songs was not put into musical manuscript. For this reason, these manuscripts are limited.
The production of lists of songs found in Vermont and other New England States was an important activity in the collection between 1933 and 1954. Lists by Vermont town, by region, and especially by song title (subdivided by Child, British, American, Stage) were generated quite frequently.
III. Publication Materials And Lecture Notes, 1931-1967
Manuscript Boxes 3-21
Arranged by type of publication.
Flanders published articles on her collecting experiences and collections of representative songs derived from her field collecting between 1931 and 1967. In addition, she was active as a lecturer, travelling throughout New England and in the Washington, DC area for over thirty years, to describe her collecting experiences, to speak about folk songs in New England and to present singers who could illustrate her lectures with their songs.
Many of her article and book manuscripts, lecture notes and correspondence relating to submissions and lecture engagements have been preserved. Although there are no unpublished book manuscripts in the the collection there are a number of manuscripts for articles which were never published.
IV. Supporting Materials
Boxes 22-26
Arranged by type.
Manuscripts: The manuscript collection in the Flanders Ballad Collection consists of copybooks and miscellaneous sheets donated to or purchased for the Collection between 1930 and 1960.
There are twelve original copybooks, two printed books with manuscript bound in, three collections of papers and six single sheets containing over 300 songs and tunes. The copybooks and papers include ballads, fiddle and fife tunes written down between the 18th and the early 20th centuries.
Of particular interest are two copy books belonging to Patty Mann of Medway, Massachusetts [one is dated 1806], a copybook belonging to Water E. Jones of Waitsfield, Vermont [probably from the late 18th century], a copybook belonging to Rosette Daily of Pittsburg, New Hampshire containing 45 pp. of tunes.
In addition, the collection has typescript copies of many of the original manuscripts as well as copies of other manuscripts and collections of papers. There are typescript copies of twelve copybooks (it is not known whether they are complete) and ten collections of papers representing over nearly 400 songs and tunes.
Broadsides and chapbooks: The Flanders Collection has 474 original broadside titles. Eighty three of these are duplicated bringing the total to 557. Original broadsides were numbered #1-435. Four appear to be missing and seven are actually photocopies. There are 61 unnumbered broadsides. In addition there are photocopies of broadsides housed in the Vermont Historical Society and typescript copies of broadsides housed in other libraries.
The broadsides can be subdivided into three major categories: Irish, English and American. Most of the Irish broadsides are Dublin (Brereton) imprints dating from the late 19th century. The American titles are largely from Philadelphia (Auner) and date also from the late 19th century.
There are seven original chapbook titles. All of these are eight paged printed on a single sheet. In addition there are 35 Spanish/Catalan chapbooks. Thirty-four are four paged, one is eight paged. All are printed on half sheets.
V. Collection Administration, 1940-1967
Boxes 27-28
Arranged by office.
Administrative files for the Flanders Collection were housed in several locations. General correspondence was kept in her home in Springfield, Vermont. At this time this collection is limited. Two Middlebury College offices kept files on the Flanders Collection (President's Office and the Treasurer's Office) and these files were given to the Collection in 1983. A small file of papers relating to the general operation of the collection (budgetary matters, information on recording equipment, etc.) was kept in the Flanders Collection.
VI. Personal Papers, 1941-65
Manuscript Box 29
Arranged by type
A limited amount of personal papers and photographs that do not directly relate to the Flanders Collection remain in the collection. These consist largely of personal notes from friends of Helen Flanders and photographs of members of the Flanders family.