Beaver Island ArchiveSearch

Photograph

Alan Lomax Beaver Island catalog-card photographs (1933–1938)

Also Traditional Music and Spoken Word Card Catalog · Beaver Island cards

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

TypePhotograph
WithinSaint James · Beaver Island
ErasModern eraIrish era

Summary

The same local Library of Congress export that holds the 71 Beaver Island sound recording records also contains 108 digitized photographs of catalog cards. They belong to the Traditional Music and Spoken Word Card Catalog and describe songs, performers, dates, and collection identifiers; they are not 108 additional audio recordings. Each card now has an item-level Photograph article under kb/articles/documents/lomax/, with a depicts link when its AFS call-number key matches a held sound-recording article. 106 cards join to held audio records; two AFS 02270 cards do not, and remain explicitly unlinked.

Scope and dates

The cards are associated with Saint James and the Beaver Island field-recording corpus. Most carry 1938 metadata, matching the August 1938 session documented by the recording records. One card in the held directory carries a 1933 metadata date. The broad 1933–1938 span is retained as an inventory fact, with the outlier called out rather than silently normalizing it to 1938.

Open questions

  • The outlier’s relationship to the 1938 Beaver Island session needs direct comparison with the catalog’s original card image and collection chronology.
  • The two AFS 02270 cards should be checked against the original Library of Congress collection for a corresponding audio record outside the held export.
  • Names and song titles should not be treated as independently verified local biography until the card metadata is compared with family-history and island newspaper sources.

See also

Sources

  1. Library of Congress, Traditional Music and Spoken Word Card Catalog, Beaver Island still-image item metadata, 1933–1938.
    Local inventory contains 108 item.json records whose original format is photo, print, drawing. They are digitized catalog cards, not recordings. Most are dated 1938; one card in the local inventory carries 1933 metadata, so the article preserves the observed range.
    audio · lomax_michigan_1938_beaver_island
  2. Library of Congress, Willie-O, AFC 1939/007: AFS 02293 A03, 1938.
    Representative held card: a photograph of the catalog record for Willie-O, with J. W. Green identified as singer and Alan Lomax as recordist in the catalog metadata.
    audio · lomax_michigan_1938_beaver_island · afc9999005.9625 · item