The Paul R. Parthun Ethnomusicology Collection consists of mixed media materials donated by
noted ethnomusicologist Dr. Paul R. Parthun. Dr. Parthun received his Ph.D. in Musicology and
Anthropology from the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, in 1976; his doctoral thesis was entitled
Ojibwe Music in Minnesota.
Dr. Parthun’s research and teaching materials were collected during his twenty-six year teaching
career at several secondary schools and colleges in Minnesota, Wisconsin and New Mexico. The
collection includes an extensive collection of journal articles on Native American music, dance and related
topics published through 1979. The collection also includes original field recordings of game, social,
ceremonial and religious songs of the Minnesota Ojibwa were recorded in the 1970s on micro-cassettes,
audio-cassettes and reel-to-reel tapes. Other original source materials in the collection include lecture
notes, course materials, photographs, diaries, correspondence and unpublished manuscripts by Dr.
Parthun and other scholars. Some of the articles and manuscripts in the collection are invaluable
because of the author’s personal relationship with the Ojibwa people.
Many of the published materials, primarily journal articles, are difficult to find and acquire. The
collection also includes a set of audio-cassettes copied from the original wax recordings of Frances
Densmore’s Catalogue of Phonograph Records of Indian Music in the Archives of the Bureau of American
Paul R. Parthun Collection
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Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution; the wax recordings comprise the earliest known recordings of Ojibwa
music and date from the early 1900s.
The Paul R. Parthun Ethnomusicology Collection also contains various personal notes,
newspaper articles, pamphlets, record jackets, concert notes, and academic papers on subjects related to
Native American music. Songs from Dr. Parthun’s field recordings were released by Folkways Records in
1977 under the title Songs of the Chippewa, Vol. 1: Minnesota Chippewa Game and Social Dance Songs,
and re-issued and distributed by Smithsonian Folkway Recordings on CD and cassette-tape.
