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Collection ID is exactly "1" AND Tradition Bearer is exactly "Avalon, Mrs. Nick"
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WPA field recordings at Jacksonville, Tarpon Springs, St. Augustine, and Slavia (1939-1940 recording expedition: Alton Morris)

WPA field recordings at Jacksonville, Tarpon Springs, St. Augustine, and Slavia (1939-1940 recording expedition: Alton Morris)
Date
1939-08-26
Description
One reel to reel. These recordings were created by Morris of the University of Florida, assisted by workers of the Florida Writers Project (including photographer Robert Cook), in 1939 and 1940. He created 14 12-inch acetate records in total. On this recording, Morris recorded Greek singers in Tarpon Springs and Jacksonville, Minorcans in St. Augustine, and unidentified singers from the Czechoslovakian community of Slavia, founded in 1911. For more detailed information on the recordings, see S 1579, box 3, for copies of the original LOC indexes. The Works Progress Administration (WPA) – after 1939, the Works Projects Administration – was a work-relief program created in 1935 by the Roosevelt Administration that employed over 8.5 million people between 1935 and 1943. One of its programs was the Federal Writers Project (FWP), which included the Folklore Section. This section conducted fieldwork, recording songs, traditions, and stories across the nation. Originally created to gather material for the American Guide Series, but later emphasis was placed upon fieldwork for preservation of folk traditions for future use. In Florida, the FWP was based out of Jacksonville, and directed by historian Carita Doggett Corse. Folklorist Stetson Kennedy directed the Florida Folklife section. Seven recording expeditions were conducted in Florida. Two were conducted between 1935 and 1937, before the creation of the Florida Folklore Section: one by Alan Lomax and Zora Neale Hurston, and the other by John and Ruby Lomax. After 1939, five more were conducted by Florida’s FWP staff: Kennedy, Hurston, Robert Cook, Alton Morris, Corse, Robert Cornwell, John Filareton, and Herbert Halpert (of the Joint Committee on Folk Art’s Southern Recording Expedition.) Recording equipment was loaned to Florida’s WPA program by the Library of Congress’ Archive of the American Folk Song (later the American Folk Center). The field recordings were made on acetate disks, usually recorded at 78 rpm (although occasionally at 33 rpm). Because these disks were shipped from Washington DC to Florida, then to the recording site, and then back to Washington, these disks often were not of the highest sonic quality. Several had surface scratches and many had various recording speeds. In 1986, the FFP staff made copies of many of these recordings onto reel to reels for inclusion to the Florida Folklife Archive. The originals are still housed with the Library of Congress.
Collection
WPA field recordings at Jacksonville, Tarpon Springs, St. Augustine, and Slavia (1939-1940 recording expedition: Alton Morris)

WPA field recordings at Jacksonville, Tarpon Springs, St. Augustine, and Slavia (1939-1940 recording expedition: Alton Morris)
Identifier Title Type Subject Thumbnail
a_s1576_t86-225WPA field recordings at Jacksonville, Tarpon Springs, St. Augustine, and Slavia (1939-1940 recording expedition: Alton Morris)SoundFieldwork
New Deal, 1933-1939
Interviews
Public service employment
Folklorists
Public welfare
United States. Work Projects Administration
Arts, Greek
Greek Americans
A capella singers
Performing arts
A capella singing
Music performance
Singing
Arts, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakian Americans
Songs, Greek
Songs, Slavic
Minorcans
Minorcan Americans
Love songs
Christmas music
Carols
Musicians
Singers		/fpc/memory/omeka_images/thumbnails/audio.jpg