This series consists of materials related to Stratman-Thomas’s Wisconsin and Cornish folk music research, writings, lectures, and radio broadcasts. Stratman-Thomas died before she could complete and publish her “Song trails through Wisconsin.” Manuscripts and research materials for Harry Peters’ Folk Song Out of Wisconsin, which incorporated and built on some of her work. Both works are included here. It should be noted that Peters’ and Stratman-Thomas’ records are sometimes mixed, particularly in the case of work done on individual songs.

Correspondence is organized alphabetically, with separate folders for correspondents Noble B. Brown, Charles Hoffman, Zida C. Ivey, H. J. Kent, The Library of Congress, Moses Morgan, the National Folk Festival, Louis Ropson, and Mary Agnes Starr (Mrs. Morton Hull Starr). Occasionally, newspaper clippings, concert programs, and the like are included with the correspondence. Outgoing correspondence was primarily written by Stratman-Thomas herself. These letters often explain the project and request participation from potential singers, or solicit assistance in identifying appropriate singers. There are also follow-up letters to project singers asking for additional details regarding the songs that they contributed. Some of the later correspondence reflects attempts to locate funding to continue the project, as well as a publisher for Stratman-Thomas’s proposed book on Wisconsin folk song. Incoming correspondence consists of responses to these letters, as well as a number of offers to participate after seeing newspaper articles or hearing later broadcasts about the project. There is also correspondence from researchers requesting information or leads on performers who might be useful in their own research.

Occasionally, some of the incoming correspondence is quite extensive, as in the case of Noble Brown, who contributed lumberjack songs to the project, including song texts and poems as well as letters in his correspondence. Folklorist Charles Hoffman came to Wisconsin in 1946 and recorded Native American music here, some of which was later released by Disc Records as American Indian Songs and Dances, a copy of which is included in the collection. Included with the Hoffman correspondence are allegations that he did not have permission from his informants to release their recordings commercially. Zida Ivey was Director of the Dwight Foster Historical Museum in Fort Atkinson and sent Stratman-Thomas song texts and other information, as well as typescript copies of a 1916 address by Edna Hoard Tratt entitled “The old time singing school” and some reminiscences by early Watertown piano tuner Max Gaebler (“Pioneer piano tuning”). The H. J. Kent correspondence reflects not only his assistance with the project but his activities as a composer, arranger, and researcher. Kent’s correspondence includes manuscript and published versions of his arrangement of “The star-spangled banner” and supporting historical research, as well as songs of his own composition, “Wisconsiana” and “The field of Old Glory.” Correspondence pertaining to the Library of Congress, a co-sponsor of the Project, includes letters to and from individuals such as Chief of the Music Division Harold Spivacke and Chief of the Folklore Section Duncan Emrich, as well as noted folklorist and ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, who was in charge of the Archive of American Folk Song at that time. This correspondence deals primarily with the loan of recording equipment for the project, advice from Dr. Lomax on field techniques, and organization of the recordings transferred to the Library of Congress. Moses Morgan, a Pickett resident of Welsh descent, was involved in the Gymanfu Ganu singing festival at Peniel Church and facilitated Stratman-Thomas in her recording of it, which she later broadcast. The National Folk Festival correspondence is primarily from its director, Sarah Gertrude Knott, and generally has to do with requests for information about Wisconsin folk music festivals and folk music in general, as well as the possibilities for Stratman-Thomas’s and Wisconsin folk musicians’ participation in festival activities. The correspondence of Louis Ropson, an instrument maker from Luxemburg, Wisconsin who initially identified Belgian singers for the project, includes letters written at Stratman-Thomas’s request describing his own musical education for use in her classroom teaching. Mary Agnes Starr (Mrs. Morton Hull Starr) was a singer of French-Canadian descent who, besides her performing activities, served as Chairman of Folk Music Research in the Wisconsin, and later the National Federation of Music Clubs. Promotional material and concert programs are included in her correspondence.

General folk music materials includes folk song and folklore material that while not related directly to the Wisconsin Folk Music Recording Project, were nevertheless of use to Stratman-Thomas in the execution of the project and its resulting manifestations. Bibliographies include material on the subject of folk music in the United States and in Wisconsin, as well as more general Wisconsin history and folklore. Additionally, there are a number of index cards with folk song sources, organized by country or ethnicity. Research materials consist primarily of somewhat lengthy newspaper and magazine articles about folk music and customs, and includes material specific to Wisconsin. Newspaper clippings deal with various types of folk music and folklore, and their collectors; here, Native American and Ozark predominate. There are programs from nine National Folk Festivals from the 1940s and 1950s including programs from 1944 from an accompanying conference in which Stratman-Thomas participated, as well as material documenting the participation of a Milwaukee Polish folk dance group, Mazur. There are also a few programs from and newspaper clippings about Wisconsin events such as Milwaukee’s Midsummer Festival and Holiday Folk Fair, and New Glarus’s annual presentation of William Tell. With the exception of a single book of French songs, the songbooks are generic rather than collections of songs from a specific group or of a particular genre. Finally, brochures and programs consist primarily of book and recording brochures and catalogs, as well as concert, festival, and conference programs and commentary. A copy of Checklist of recorded songs in the English language in the Archive of American Folksong to July 1940 (3 volumes) is included.

Supporting materials include requests for funding and reports – funding for fieldwork and support for Stratman-Thomas’s proposed book on Wisconsin folk music, plus reports back to the funding agencies; financial records that mostly dealing with travel expenses; press releases encouraging publication of notices requesting information about local folk music performers in preparation for Stratman-Thomas’s fieldwork in the summer of 1946; and prospects and contacts, consisting of names and contact information of folk musicians and community members who could provide information or make introductions to folk musicians. Some of this information was typed or handwritten on 3x5 cards organized by community (town, village, county), and by individuals or musical groups with a brief record of correspondence and field recording included. A smaller group of community cards simply indicate the ethnic groups living there. Maps of Wisconsin are almost all state maps; a number are marked with travel routes and destinations, while one map from 1940 shows the distribution of ethnicities in the state. One or two of the maps showing travel routes appear to have been compiled by someone other than Stratman-Thomas from the information provided on her own maps. General research notes include extracts copied from books, and information regarding songs recorded during the course of the project. There is also a small amount of itinerary information for the 1946 recording trip. Finally, newspaper clippings include articles about or referring to the project, as well as articles about individuals and communities related to the project.

Field recordings include both the original discs made by Stratman-Thomas and digital copies made for purposes of preservation and access. These include a small number of recordings of Native American, Danish, English, Gaelic, and Welsh material made in 1945 and 1946. The disc sleeves include notes by Stratman-Thomas regarding their contents. Other than the disc recordings, most of the field recordings are included in online digital collection, Wisconsin folksong: the Helene Stratman-Thomas collection.

Songs recorded, with notes include a listing by disc and title of songs recorded during Stratman-Thomas’s three project field trips: August-September 1940 (Library of Congress Archive of American Folk Song (AFS) call numbers 1A-111B), November 1940-August 1941 (AFS 112A-266B), and July-November 1946 (AFS 300A-410B)), together with pertinent information (performer, date and place of recording, notes). In addition, the AFS call number later assigned each song has been added by hand. Included in each folder is a numerical summary of songs by ethnicity or genre; the file for the second field trip includes a handwritten “Bibliography of references” as well. The index cards are of two types. There are a small number of 4x8 cards organized by ethnicity or genre but containing little other information. The 3x5song index cards, organized by ethnicity or genre, list the song title and genre, disc and cut number, performer, and place and date of recording. With these cards are included instructions for their use. Additionally, there are photocopies of another set of 3x5 cards for some of the 1940 and 1941 recordings, headed by song or cut, from discs 1-24 (AFS 4159-4177 and AFS 4189-4193), 101-123 (AFS 4178-4188 and AFS 4948-4959), and 201-266 (AFS 4960-5025). These cards contain the same information, in a slightly different format, as the 3x5 cards; the originals are not present in the collection.

Field recording notes consist of a single sheet completed for each cut of a field recording, organized according to ethnicity or geographic origin of material or genre, as assigned by Stratman-Thomas; and then by record and cut number. They contain basic information about the performer, song, and date and place of recording, as well as occasional brief remarks. After 1940, preprinted forms were generally used to record this information.

Transcriptions and research consists primarily of transcriptions of the field recordings (tunes and texts) and/or related notes and other material – including publications and, in the case of the Croatian and Norwegian materials, photographs of tamburitza and psalmodicon ensembles, respectively. Although organized by ethnicity and genre (and, in a few cases, song title), it should be kept in mind that transcriptions of songs of different ethnicities were often transcribed onto the same sheet of staff paper; thus some songs will not be found in the appropriate folder and must be sought elsewhere. It should also be noted that some of this material may be Harry Peters’ rather than Stratman-Thomas’; such material would be from a later period than the circa 1940s date given to this sub-subseries as a whole. In general, publication mockups for individual songs (in subseries End products) should also be consulted for additional transcriptions and song research.

End products include correspondence, organized roughly chronologically, regarding Stratman-Thomas’ numerous speaking engagements on the subject of Wisconsin Folk Music and/or the recording project. There is also a folder of Library of Congress correspondence, arranged chronologically, primarily relating to the checklists of recorded songs and the album Folk music of Wisconsin. Finally, there is a folder of correspondence consisting mainly of requests for folk music – usually for copies of sound recordings, but occasionally for information about specific songs. This correspondence is organized roughly chronologically by request, and includes Stratman-Thomas’ responses.

Also included is a file containing various articles, newspaper clippings, and programs, all referencing activities in which Stratman-Thomas participated or otherwise contributed to.

Checklists of recorded songs list the songs recorded during the three project field trips, prepared for use by the Library of Congress in compiling their publications that detail the holdings in the Archive of American Folk Song. The lists consist of songs in alphabetical order organized by ethnicity or genre, and include the name of the singer, year and place of recording, and Library of Congress Archive of American Folk Song call number. The collection includes early drafts and related materials; the “1st” (clean) draft for the Library of Congress; and what appears to be a near-final draft, with only a few editorial corrections.

Badger State Folklore Society includes correspondence reflecting Stratman-Thomas’ tenure on the Board of Directors, and also includes a copy of the society’s constitution, other information about the society, a few copies of its publication, Badger folklore, and a draft of an article Stratman-Thomas wrote for that publication.

WHA Radio broadcasts consist primarily of edited script drafts and other working materials for some of Stratman-Thomas’ Wisconsin folk music presentations on WHA programs such as Women’s place, Wisconsin yarns with Robert Gard, and a series of University of Wisconsin School of Music broadcasts.

Folk music from Wisconsin, published by the Library of Congress in 1960, is a compilation of a selection of songs Stratman-Thomas collected as part of the project. Stratman-Thomas edited the album and wrote the liner notes for it; included here are her working materials and a final copy of her liner notes, as well as press releases and articles about the album.

Book drafts and manuscripts are made up of materials created and used by Stratman-Thomas, and also by Harry Peters. Those created by Stratman-Thomas include an outline, song checklists, manuscripts entitled “Play party games” and “Sea shanties,” two manuscripts entitled “Adventures in collecting folk music,” and one entitled “Song trails through Wisconsin.” This last was included almost in its entirety in Peters’ Folk songs out of Wisconsin (1977). It is unknown whether this published version is the one that Stratman-Thomas submitted to the University Wisconsin Press, which in 1953 declined to publisher her book (see her correspondence); or one that she might have submitted to Wisconsin House, Ltd., which indicated its intention to publish her book in 1972 (see her correspondence with Robert Gard, 26 August 1971). Besides the book manuscripts are accompanying mock-ups of songs (usually notation plus typescripts of the song text and accompanying information), some grouped by ethnicity, and others – the English-language material – by song title. Many of the English-language songs were used by Peters in his book, and the individual song files thus often contain material created both by Stratman-Thomas and by Peters, as well as their supporting research materials. Besides the files created by Stratman Thomas, additional files for songs used by Peters in his book have been created and are included here, designated by an asterisk (*). In addition to the song mock-ups in the collection are song offsets. Finally, Peters’ manuscript for Folk songs out of Wisconsin, as well as related correspondence and materials used in its preparation, and a copy of the book itself are included in the collection.

The Cornish materials reflect a special interest of Stratman-Thomas, and appear to reflect an offshoot of the Wisconsin Folk Song Recording Project. These materials cover quite a range of time and place, and are not limited to Wisconsin, as Stratman-Thomas sought material on Cornish culture both in the U.S. and from Cornwall itself. Correspondence is organized alphabetically by correspondent and reflects Stratman-Thomas’s wide-ranging search for information. The hand-written bibliographies on Cornish language and literature, Cornwall and its people, and of course its music, are supplemented by additional bibliographic material recorded by Stratman-Thomas on 4x8 index cards. As part of her research, Stratman-Thomas sent out questionnaires to Wisconsin residents (or former residents) from Cornwall or of Cornish descent. These are organized alphabetically by name of respondent and often have additional correspondence and other materials attached. Field and research materials include typed extracts of books and song collections that Stratman-Thomas consulted for this project, and a large number of 4x8 index cards recording information gathered through both library and field research, including bibliographic materials, recipes, field notes, Cornish language materials, information about specific songs, summaries of some of the information gleaned from the questionnaires, collected stamps, and records suggesting that she had intended to take a research trip to Cornwall in 1946. There is also a fair amount of published material on Cornish language and culture, and a few published Cornish songs and songbooks, and a microfilm of sea chanteys. There are included transcriptions, notes, and correspondence regarding a few specific Cornish songs, and a small mimeographed collection of Cornish carols that Stratman-Thomas arranged for four-part mixed chorus. Also included are a number of 19th century music manuscript books that contain handwritten songs, piano music, flute duets, and so forth; some of these are indexed. While two are of unknown authorship, others were created by emigrants from Cornwall and from England. This section includes the manuscript of the book, Carols, by Thomas H. Arthur, who taught at a singing school in Dodgeville, Wisconsin.

Arranged into six subseries: General Folk Music Materials, Field Recordings and Related Materials, End Products, and Cornish Materials.