Patterson, Daniel W. (Daniel Watkins), 1928-

Patterson was a Duke University student in the late 1940s who roomed with Guy Davenport, Robert Loomis, and Clarence F. Brown. He went on to become a distinguished folklorist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Folklorist Daniel W. Patterson (1928- ) was a professor in English and Folklore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for many years. He is Kenan Professor Emeritus of English and a former chair of the Curriculum in Folklore at UNC-Chapel Hill. Patterson played a pivotal role in the development of UNC-Chapel Hill's Southern Folklife Collection, which opened to researchers in 1989. He has published several books, most of which relate to North Carolina folklife, southern traditional and religious folk music, or Shaker art and music. Patterson has also collaborated with independent film maker Tom Davenport on several documentaries relating to these subjects.

Folklorist Beverly Bush Patterson, born Beverly Bush in Mineola, Tex., earned an A.B. from Baylor University, specializing in Music; a Master of Arts degree from SUNY-Binghampton in Ethnomusicology; and a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology with a minor in Folklore at UNC-Chapel Hill. She was also known as Beverly B. Boggs from an earlier marriage. Beverly Bush Patterson served on the North Carolina Arts Council, from 1992 until her retirement from that position in 2004, when she took the post of Executive Director of the North Carolina Folklife Institute. One of her focuses was southern religious music. She is the author of The Sound of the Dove: Singing in Appalachian Primitive Baptist Churches .

The Pattersons have often collaborated in their work and research. They were both involved as consultants with Tom Davenport on his folklife films and also worked with Davenport on the Folkstreams project and website for streaming folklife documentary films. Daniel and Beverly Patterson collaborated with Jim Peacock and Ruel Tyson on the World and Identity Primitive Baptist collection. Another well-known collaboration for Daniel and Beverly Patterson was the Index of Selected Folk Recordings Project, which provided access via microfiche to over 500 albums with information on individual songs now held by the SFC.