Ronald D. Cohen Collection, 1914-2005 (bulk 1940-2005)

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Ronald D. Cohen Collection, 1914-2005 (bulk 1940-2005)

1914-2005 (bulk 1940-2005)

https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/20239/

Ronald D. Cohen, professor of history at Indiana University Northwest-Gary, 1970-2005, wrote and edited numerous books and articles, many about American folk music, and co-produced compilations of folk and topical songs. He edited , written by Agnes Cunningham (Sis) and her husband Gordon Friesen. Sis Cunningham was a songwriter and musician who performed with the Almanac Singers, a 1940s group of folk musicians, and the Red Dust Players, a 1939 radical agitprop group that performed plays in aid of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union. Gordon Friesen was a newspaper journalist and artist. Cunningham and Friesen fled anti-Communist harassment in Oklahoma and moved to New York City where they founded and published , a magazine that documented topical and folk songs, beginning in the early 1960s. Photo-Sound Associates was organized by Aaron Rennert, Ray Sullivan, and Joel Katz in Greenwich Village in connection with Lee Hoffman and magazine to document the folk revival movement in New York City. Rennert and Sullivan did the photography, while Katz recorded the concerts. Red Dust and Broadsides: A Joint Autobiography Broadside Caravan The collection consists of papers, photographs, and audiovisual materials relating to Ronald Cohen, Sis Cunningham, Gordon Friesen, , Photo-Sound Associates, and many others, chiefly from the folk music scene. papers, 1957-1999, include original artwork; operations correspondence; transcriptions of songs; articles; press releases; and concert flyers. Cohen papers, 1932-2005, include correspondence; materials related to recording and book projects; and research files documenting his studies of American topical songs and protest songs, the folk revival movement, and McCarthy-era Communism. Sis Cunningham papers, 1914-1998, include correspondence, family memorabilia, and original songs, plays, and writings. Some materials relate to the Red Dust Players. Gordon Friesen papers, late 1930s-1983, include correspondence, drawings, and writings, many documenting his career as a newspaper journalist and novelist. Photographs consist of family photographs of Sis Cunningham, Gordon Friesen, and their family. There are also a few unidentified images of old downtown storefronts and cars. Audiovisual materials include Cohen's collection of audiocassettes with recordings of folk music radio programs, copies of 78 rpm records, interviews, and commercial recordings. Microcassettes include recordings of Cohen's interviews with folk musicians and others associated with folk music. Other audiovisual materials include Cunningham and Friesen's family films and videocassettes documenting the 1991 Richard Reuss Memorial Folk Music Convention. The Addition of 2011 contains photographs, primarily black-and-white 35mm roll film negatives, documenting the folk revival movement in and around New York City that were taken by Aaron Rennert and Ray Sullivan of Photo-Sound Associates. Broadside Broadside

18.5 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 11500 items)

eng, Latn

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Folklife Collection.

Information

SNAC Resource ID: 6626114

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Folklife Collection.

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