Collection Summary
Willard Rhodes papers 1938-1979
1938-1979
AFC
1980/041
United States. Bureau of Indian
Affairs
Rhodes, Willard, 1901-1992
140 items ; 2 containers ; .6 linear feet.
11 photographs : film negatives, black and white.
39 photographic prints : black and white ; various
sizes.
1 photographic print : color ; 3 x 4 in.
16 field notebooks.
16 folders.
English
Native American languages
In English and numerous Native American languages.
Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of
Congress
Washington, D.C.
Field notebooks, correspondence,
publications, and photographs, related to Willard Rhodes' field expeditions to Native
American communities between 1938 and 1952 on behalf of the Library of Congress and the
Bureau of Indian Affairs. The notebooks contain Rhodes' field notes, transcriptions,
translations, and some musical notation, relating to audio recordings of Native American
songs. Correspondence (1948-1979) relates primarily to the ten albums of Native American
music recorded and edited by Rhodes in the Music of the American
Indian series. Tribes recorded by Rhodes include Apache, Bannock, Caddo,
Cherokee, Cheyenne, Chinook, Choctaw, Comanche, Creek, Delaware, Hopi, Kiowa, Klallam,
Lummi, Navajo, Omaha , Paiute, Pawnee, Potawatomi, Pueblo, Quinault, San Ildefonso,
Seminole, Shaker, Shoshone, Sioux, Skagit, Taos, Tewa, Tlingit, Tsaiyak, Ute, Washo,
Wichita, and Zuni songs. The collections also includes eight government and mission
publications from Sioux communities.
Selected Search Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
People
Lange, Juel E.
Rhodes, Willard, 1901-1992
Rhodes, Willard, 1901-1992--Correspondence.
Organizations
United States. Bureau of Indian Affairs
Subjects
Apache Indians--Music.
Bannock Indians--Music.
Caddo Indians--Music.
Cherokee Indians--Music.
Cheyenne Indians--Music.
Chinook Indians--Music.
Choctaw Indians--Music.
Clallam Indians--Music.
Comanche Indians--Music.
Creek Indians--Music.
Dakota Indians--Music.
Delaware Indians--Music.
Field recordings.
Hopi Indians--Music.
Indians of North America--Great Basin.
Indians of North America--Great Lakes Region (North America)
Indians of North America--Great Plains.
Indians of North America--Middle Atlantic States.
Indians of North America--Music.
Indians of North America--Southern States.
Indians of North America--Southwest, New.
Kiowa Apache Indians--Music.
Lummi Indians--Music.
Navajo Indians--Music.
Omaha Indians--Music.
Paiute Indians--Music.
Pawnee Indians--Music.
Potawatomi Indians--Music.
Pueblo Indians--Music.
Quinault Indians--Music.
Seminole Indians--Music.
Shoshoni Indians--Music.
Skagit Indians--Music.
Songs, Hopi.
Songs, Lummi.
Songs, Navajo.
Songs, Seminole.
Songs, Tewa.
Songs--Texts.
Taos Indians--Music.
Tewa Indians--Music.
Ute Indians--Music.
Washoe Indians--Music.
Wichita Indians--Music.
Zuni Indians--Music.
Titles
Music of the American Indian.
Form/Genre
Correspondence.
Field notes.
Manuscripts.
Photographs.
Song texts.
Translations.
Arrangement
Collection is arranged in two series: Manuscripts and Visual Materials.
Additional Guides
Inventory is available in the Folklife Reading Room.
Acquisition
Willard Rhodes; 1980.
Related Material
For associated sound recordings see Willard Rhodes field recordings collections,
housed at the Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress,
Washington, D.C.:
-
[Willard Rhodes 1940 field
recordings collection (AFC 1940/019)]
-
[Willard Rhodes 1941 field
recordings collection (AFC 1941/039)]
-
[Willard Rhodes 1942-1943 field
recordings collection (AFC 1942/024)]
-
[Willard Rhodes 1943 field
recordings collection (AFC 1943/020)]
-
[Willard Rhodes 1947 field
recordings collection (AFC 1947/012)]
-
[Willard Rhodes 1949 field
recordings collection (AFC 1949/001)]
-
[Willard Rhodes 1950 field
recordings collection (AFC 1950/027)]
-
[Willard Rhodes 1951 field
recordings collection (AFC 1951/001)]
-
[Willard Rhodes 1952 field
recordings collection (AFC 1952/005)]
Some associated original sound recordings reside at UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive.
Copyright Status
Duplication of collection materials may be governed by copyright and other
restrictions.
Access and Restrictions
Collection is open for research. To request materials, please contact the Folklife
Reading Room at [http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.contact]
Electronic Format
Additional formats include 3396 master digital files, scanned from the originals,
2018.
Preferred Citation
Willard Rhodes papers, 1938-1979 (AFC 1980/041), Archive of Folk Culture, American
Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Biographical Note
While working for the Bureau of Indian Affairs with equipment supplied in part by the
Library of Congress, Willard Rhodes, professor of music at Columbia University recorded
the music of fifty Native American tribes living primarily in the western United States.
He documented, in addition to traditional genres, Christian hymns in native languages,
songs with English words, and other music of recent composition. He undertook nine field
surveys of Native American music between 1940 and 1952. The recordings included 260
audio discs (1940-1949) and 50 7-inch audio tape reels (1950-1952). The field projects,
intended to document new music in Native American communities as well as the traditional
music that was being performed, were sponsored by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The
Library of Congress issued ten LP recordings based on the collection through the
cooperation of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Indian Arts and Crafts Board. Rhodes
also edited two albums on Smithsonian Folkways Records. A selection of Native American
music, recorded by Rhodes, was released on the Voyager Golden Record (1977).
Scope and Content
Field notebooks, correspondence, publications, and photographs, related to Willard
Rhodes' field expeditions to Native American communities between 1938 and 1952 on behalf
of the Library of Congress and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The notebooks contain
Rhodes' field notes, transcriptions, translations, and some musical notation, relating
to audio recordings of Native American songs. Correspondence (1948-1979) relates
primarily to the ten albums of Native American music recorded and edited by Rhodes in
the Music of the American Indian series. Tribes recorded by
Rhodes include Apache, Bannock, Caddo, Cherokee, Cheyenne, Chinook, Choctaw, Comanche,
Creek, Delaware, Hopi, Kiowa, Klallam, Lummi, Navajo, Omaha , Paiute, Pawnee,
Potawatomi, Pueblo, Quinault, San Ildefonso, Seminole, Shaker, Shoshone, Sioux, Skagit,
Taos, Tewa, Tlingit, Tsaiyak, Ute, Washo, Wichita, and Zuni songs. The collections also
includes 8 government and mission publications from Sioux communities.
Photographs of native peoples of Washington State were taken by Juel E. Lange in
conjunction Willard Rhodes’ fieldwork. Selected photos were published in the booklet
accompanying the original edition of Music of the American Indian:
Northwest (Puget Sound) AFS L34. Photographs of Sioux and Pueblo children
appear to have been taken by Willard Rhodes. Included in the collection are three 8 x 10
in. black-and-white photographic prints from the Bureau of Indian Affairs of BIA
schools.
Container List
Series 1: Manuscripts
1/1
Notebook with musical notation, transcriptions,
and translations, of Kiowa, Navajo and Sioux songs., June 1938
June 1938
1 notebook
1/2
5 notebooks, music pages, 1939
1939
“Indian Music I”- Omaha, South Dakota,
July 7-14, 1939
July 7-14, 1939
1 notebook
Field notes, musical notation, transcriptions, and translations which
accompany recordings I-A-1 through XV-B-2.
“Indian Music II” Omaha, South Dakota,
July 7 and July 17-19, 1939
July 7 and July 17-19, 1939
1 notebook
Vocabulary (July 7, 1939); July 17-19, 1939, field notes, transcriptions,
translations which accompany recordings VI-B-1 through XVIII-A-3.
“Indian Music III” Omaha, South Dakota,
July 19-26, 1939
July 19-26, 1939
1 notebook
Field notes, transcriptions, translations which accompany recordings
XVIII-B-2 through XXXI-A-2.
“Indian Music IV” Omaha, South Dakota,
July 27-28, 1939
July 27-28, 1939
1 notebook
Field notes, transcriptions, translations which accompany recordings
XXXI-B-1 through XXXXIII-A-5.
“Indian Music V” Omaha, South Dakota,
July 31 - August 5, 1939
July 31 - August 5, 1939
1 notebook
Field notes, transcriptions, translations which accompany recordings
XXXVI-A-1, XXXVII-A-2, XXXXIV-A-1 through L-B-2.
Loose music pages, with musical notation and
words relating to Omaha songs.
1/3
"Indian Music XI" Omaha, Navajo, Seminole; South
Dakota, New Mexico, California (?), June 6, 1940
June 6, 1940
1 notebook
Field notes, transcriptions, translations which accompany recordings I-A-1
through XI. May relate to recordings in [AFC 1940/019]. One page
with notes from 1942/1943.
1/4
Field notebook: Paiute; Santa Clara, Utah,
1941
1941
1 notebook
Related recordings: [AFC 1941/039]
1/5
Field notebook: Primarily Navajo; Pine Springs,
Arizona (1942) and Intermountain Indian School, Brigham City, Utah (1952),
August 5-10, 1942 ; June 14 - July 2,
1952
August 5-10, 1942 ; June 14 - July 2,
1952
1 notebook
Related recordings: [AFC 1942/024] and
[AFC 1952/005]
1/6
3 notebooks : Alaskan Eskimo, Arikara,
Blackfeet, Crow, Flathead, Omaha, Navajo, Nez Perce, Pueblo, Sioux, Wasco, and
Winnebago; northern Great Plains and Pacific Northwest, 1947
1947
3 notebooks
Field notes related to recordings made in the summer of 1947 at Pine Ridge,
South Dakota; Chemawa, Simnasho, and Pendleton, Oregon; Toppenish, Washington;
Browning and Poplar, Montana; and Elbowoods and Fort Yates, North Dakota.
Sponsored by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Related recordings: [AFC 1947/012]
1/7
3 notebooks: Various tribes and locations,
1950
1950
3 notebooks
Field notes related to Native American music recorded in the summer of 1950 by
Willard Rhodes. Songs are labeled as Puyallup, Canadian/Vancouver Island,
Nisqually, Lummi, Snahomish, Skokomish, Snoqualmi, Samyama, Fraser River,
Nooksack, Skagit, Samish, Nitinat, Makah, Clayoquot, Quinault, Kwakiutl,
Quileute, Chinook, Twana, Chehallis, Bannock, Shoshone, and Arapaho. Included
are Native American Shaker songs. Recordings were made at Auburn, Shelton,
Marietta, Everson, La Conner, Marblemount, Neah Bay, La Push, Union,
Washington; and at Fort Hall, Idaho. Sponsored by the Bureau of Indian Affairs,
Education Division. Related recordings: [AFC 1950/027].
1/8
Field notebook: Apache, Cherokee, Comanche,
Creek, Hopi, Kiowa, Navajo, Pawnee, Shoshone, and Tlingit, as well as
indigenous Ecuadorian and Eskimo music; Arizona, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, and
Wyoming, 1951
1951
1 notebook
Field notes related to recordings of Apache, Cherokee, Comanche, Creek, Hopi,
Kiowa, Navajo, Pawnee, Shoshone, and Tlingit, as well as indigenous Ecuadorian
and Eskimo music. Recorded in Arizona, Oklahoma, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming by
Willard Rhodes, June 1951, for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Related
recordings: [AFC 1951/001]
1/9
Trip report, 1952
1952
6 pages
Discusses fieldwork in Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Utah by Willard
Rhodes, summer 1952, to collect and record texts of Native American songs to be
used in the series of albums of [Music of the American
Indian] by Library of Congress. Related recordings: [AFC 1952/005]
2/10
1948-1954 correspondence (trips and record
production)
1948-1954
2/11
1958-1979 correspondence
1958-1979
2/12
Publications by Rhodes
“The Use of the Computer in the
Classification of Folk Tunes,” Studia Musicologica
Tomus VII ( 1965 )
1965
“Toward a Definition of Ethnomusicology,”
American Anthropologist 58, No. 3 ( June
1956 )
June
1956
“Society of Ethnomusicology,” African Music 1, No. 3 ( 1956 )
1956
“A Study of Musical Diffusion Based on the
Wandering of the Opening Peyote Song,” Journal of the
International Folk Music Council X ( 1958 )
1958
“Acculturation in North American Indian
Music,” TAX: Acculturation in the Americas, Vol. II, Proceedings of the 29th International Congress of Americanists
( 1952 )
1952
2/13
8 Government and mission publications from Sioux
communities, including 1936 Constitution and By-laws of the Oglala Sioux Tribe
of the Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota, 1936
1936
2/14
Miscellany
Lists, text transcriptions, concordance of tracks for Music of the American Indian albums with Rhodes recording numbers,
draft of introduction to albums.
Series 2: Graphic Materials
2/15
Photographs of native peoples of Washington
State, taken in conjunction with the fieldwork of Willard Rhodes. By Juel
E. Lange (NW Coast)
17 black-and-white photographic prints, 8
x 10 in.
Selected photos were used in the published booklet accompanying the original
edition of Music of the American Indian: Northwest (Puget
Sound) AFS L34, recorded and edited by Willard Rhodes.
2/16
Photos – Sioux, schoolchildren, Pueblos, Navajo
and BIA school photos from Bureau of Indian Affairs.
1 color, 22 black-and-white photographic
prints (various sizes); 11 negatives