Finding Aids to Collections Organized by Topic in the Archive of Folk Culture

ZORA NEALE HURSTON:
RECORDINGS, MANUSCRIPTS, PHOTOGRAPHS, AND EPHEMERA
IN THE ARCHIVE OF FOLK CULTURE AND OTHER DIVISIONS OF THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Compiled by: Laura K. Crawley and Joseph C. Hickerson
Series Editor: Joseph C. Hickerson

Publication Date: August 1992; Web Revision: July 2005
Series Number: LCFAFA No. 11
ISSN 0736-4903

PLEASE NOTE: This finding aid lists collections in several different divisions of the Library of Congress. When requesting materials please note the division headers which are highlighted in the center of the page.

ARCHIVE OF FOLK CULTURE

SOUND RECORDINGS

AFS 309-535: Two hundred twenty-seven 12-inch discs of songs, stories, and instrumentals recorded in Florida and Georgia by Mary Elizabeth Barnicle, Zora Neale Hurston, and Alan Lomax, summer 1935.

AFS 377 B1: One disc containing "Bella Mina" sung by group led by Hurston, recorded in Chosen, Florida, June 1935. (One minute; tape copy on LWO 4872 reel 27A)

AFS 1877-1936: Sixty 10-inch discs of songs, stories, and instrumentals recorded in Haiti by Alan Lomax, December 1936--January 1937.

AFS 1879 A1-3: One disc containing three American Negro children's game songs and explanation, sung and spoken by Hurston. Recorded in Petionville, Haiti, December 21, 1936. (Hurston was in Haiti conducting independent research.) (Three minutes; tape copy on LWO 4872 reel 132B)

AFS 1879 A1: "Bluebird."

AFS 1879 A2: "Bama, Bama."

AFS 1879 A3: "There Stands a Bluebird," with explanation.

AFS 2735-3153: Four hundred nineteen 12-inch discs of songs, stories, and instrumentals recorded in several southern states by Herbert Halpert, March 15--June 15, 1939, under the joint sponsorship of the Library of Congress and the Folk Arts Committee of the W.P.A. This collection can be accessed through the American Memory online presentation entitled Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections, 1937-1942.

AFS 3135-3136; 3137B-3139; 3144B: Six discs containing eighteen songs, stories, and explanations sung and spoken by Hurston. Recorded in Jacksonville, Florida, June 18, 1939. (Forty- five minutes; tape copy on LWO 4872 reels 208B- 209A)

AFS 3135 A: "Gonna See My Long-Haired Babe." Railroad spiking song with explanation.

AFS 3135 B1: "Let's Shake It." Railroad lining song with explanation.

AFS 3135 B2: "Dat Old Black Gal." Spiking song with explanation.

AFS 3136 A: "Shove It Over." Lining song with explanation.

AFS 3136 B: "Mule on the Mount." Lining song also used in other work, with explanation.

AFS 3137 B1-2: "Georgia Skin" and "Let the Deal Go Down." Spoken description of a card game interspersed with a gambling song, with explanation.

AFS 3138 A1: "Uncle Bud." "Jook" song with explanation.

AFS 3138 A2: "Oh, the Buford Boat Done Come." Dance song with explanation.

AFS 3138 B1: "Ever Been Down." Blues song with explanation.

AFS 3138 B2: "Halimuhfack." "Jook" song with explanation.

AFS 3139 A1: "Tampa." Song Hurston says she learned as a child, with explanation.

AFS 3139 A2: "Po' Gal." Blues song with explanation.

AFS 3139 B1: "Mama Don't Want No Peas, No Rice." Bahaman song with explanation.

AFS 3139 B2: "Crow Dance." Bahaman dance song with explanation.

AFS 3144 B1: "Wake Up, Jacob." Camp rousing song with explanation.

AFS 3144 B2: "Oh, Mr. Brown." Dance song with explanation.

AFS 3144 B3: "Tilly, Lend Me Your Pigeon." Bahaman song with explanation.

AFS 3144 B4: "Evelina," with explanation.

AFS 9829-9868: One 12-inch and thirty-nine 16-inch discs of songs and instrumentals recorded at the National Folk Festival in Washington, D.C., by the U.S. Recording Company, May 1938.

AFS 9845 A1-6: One 16-inch disc containing six songs sung by a choir led by Hurston, recorded May 6, 1938. The choir was sponsored by the Rollins College Folklore Group of Winter Park, Florida. (Eleven minutes; tape copy on LWO 5111 reel 266B)

AFS 9845 A1: "Can't You Line It." Lining song similar to AFS 3136 A.

AFS 9845 A2: "Mule on de Mount." Spiking song similar to AFS 3136 B.

AFS 9845 A3: "Dat Old Black Gal." Spiking song similar to AFS 3135 B2.

AFS 9845 A4: "Oh Lula, Oh Gal." Spiking song similar to AFS 3135 A1.

AFS 9845 A5: "Somebody's Knockin' at My Door." Blues song with guitar.

AFS 9845 A6: Unidentified song.

AFS 19,536-19,539: Four 7-inch tapes of an interview with Mary Elizabeth Barnicle and Tillman Cadle recorded in Townsend, Tennessee, by Michael Clark and Gene Moore, January--February 1977. Subjects include personal and family history; Barnicle's career as a folklorist; friendships with Zora Neale Hurston, Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter, Alan and John A. Lomax, and Aunt Molly Jackson; fieldwork in Kentucky; and a Harlan County strike.

AFS 19,536A: One tape that includes (about two-thirds of the way through) Barnicle discussing Hurston, the Lomaxes, and the 1935 expedition to Florida, Georgia, and The Bahamas. (Twenty minutes; LWO 12,983 reel 1A)

VERTICAL FILES

There is more information about Zora Neale Hurston in the Archive's vertical files, including correspondence with and about Hurston, articles, and other ephemera.

MANUSCRIPT DIVISION

A selection of plays by Zora Neale Hurston, and related articles, can be viewed online in the American Memory presentation entitled Zora Neale Hurston Plays at the Library of Congress.

Franz Boas Papers

Microfilm Reels 27-33, 37, 43: Includes letters to and from Hurston, which are arranged by date.

1. Thirteen letters from Hurston to Boas spanning the period of March 29, 1927, to April 1940.

2. Sixteen letters from Boas to Hurston spanning the period of March 24, 1927, to April 1, 1935.

3. One letter from Hurston to Otto Klineberg dated October 22, 1929.

4. One letter from the Julius Rosenwald Fund to Hurston dated December 19, 1935.

Other letters that mention Hurston or her work may be included in this collection. Check the published guide to the microfilm edition of the Boas Papers in the Manuscript Reading Room.

Countee Cullen Papers

Microfilm Reel 1: Includes two letters from Hurston to Cullen dated March 11, 1926, and March 5, 1943.

Margaret Mead Papers

Container C5: Includes thirty-seven page Hurston manuscript titled "Ritualistic Expression from the Lips of the Communicants of the Seventh Day Church of God, Beaufort, South Carolina" and a letter to Hurston from Mead dated May 20, 1940, in Folder H, 1940.

Container O20: Includes several letters from Hurston to Jane Belo, and from Hurston to Jane Belo and Frank Tannenbaum.

1. Four letters from Hurston to Jane Belo dated December 3, 1938; March 20 and May 2, 1940; and October 1, 1944.

2. Two letters from Hurston to Jane Belo and Frank Tannenbaum dated October 14 and October 18, 1944.

3. One letter from Norman Chalfin and co- signed by Hurston to Jane Belo dated May 20, 1940.

Container P94: Includes five photographs of Hurston in folder "Jane Belo Photos--Portrait File."

NAACP Papers

Group I: Walter White's personal correspondence file is located in this collection. The bulk of White's personal correspondence (containers 90 through 112) has been reproduced on thirteen reels of microfilm. There is no exact listing of the number or dates of letters to or from Hurston contained in White's correspondence. One letter has been documented, from White to Hurston dated March 14, 1934 (container C104, reel 29).

Lawrence Spivak Papers

Container 37: Includes six-page page proof titled "You Don't Know Us Negroes" submitted to American Mercury magazine. This article was never published in the magazine. According to the author index cards in Container C3 of the Spivak Papers, Hurston's published articles were titled: "Story in Harlem Slang" (July 1942); "The `Pet Negro' System" (May 1943); "High John de Conquer" (October 1943); "Negroes Without Self-Pity" (November 1943); "The Last Slave Ship" (March 1944); and "Rise of the Begging Joints" (March 1945).

Carter G. Woodson Papers

Microfilm Reel 3: Woodson's correspondence is arranged alphabetically. One undated letter from Hurston to Woodson has been identified on this reel (the letter and enclosure are filed in the "H" miscellany folder in container 5 of the collection).

W.P.A. Federal Writers Project

Container A591: Includes, under "Traditional Folklore Project--Florida; Negro Lore," folders containing four Hurston manuscripts: "Negro Folk Tales" (two pages); "Negro Legends" (seven pages); "Negro Religious Customs" (eight pages); and "Negro Folk Customs and Folk Lore" (twenty-six pages).

Container A878: Includes, under "Negro Studies Project-- Florida," folders containing three Hurston manuscripts:

"Eatonville (When You Look at It)" (two pages), in "Contemporary Culture-- Lifestyle" folder.

"The Sanctified Church" (six pages), in "Contemporary Culture--Religious Organizations" folder (same as "Negro Religious Customs" in Container A591).

"Negro Work Songs" (five pages), in "Folklore--Songs, Ballads, and Rhymes" folder.

MOTION PICTURE, BROADCASTING AND RECORDED SOUND DIVISION

MOTION PICTURE AND TELEVISION READING ROOM

VBF 3411: "Hurston, Zora Neale." Thirty-minute silent film footage in the Margaret Mead Collection taken by Hurston in the field ca. 1927-29. Contents include a barbecue; baseball crowd and boy dancing; children dancing and girl rocking on a porch; children's games and baptism; man with an axe; "Kissula--Last of the Takkoi Slaves"; logging.

VBG 6995-6996: "Zora is My Name!" Ninety-minute video recording of February 14, 1990, American Playhouse television broadcast of Ruby Dee's stage production.

Note: There is additional Hurston material not listed here. Contact the Motion Picture and Television Reading Room for more information.

RECORDED SOUND REFERENCE CENTER

RWC 6858B: One 10-inch tape of Mary Margaret McBride interviewing Hurston on WEAF radio, January 25, 1943. Topics include Dust Tracks on a Road, Hurston's experiences while writing Jonah's Gourd Vine, and a description of zombies in Haiti. Hurston also briefly describes her first experiences in the field gathering folklore (listening copy is R-Dat cassette RGA 4836).

PRINTS AND PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION

These and other photos of and by Hurston can be viewed online via the Prints and Photographs Online Catalog.

Biographical File: Includes photograph of Hurston standing outdoors against a city building, wearing a hat. (Negative #LC-USZ62-62394)

Lomax Collection: Includes several photographs of and by Hurston. These can also be viewed online in the American Memory online presentation entitled Southern Mosaic: The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Collection.

Lot 7414-C, N94: Taken in Eatonville, Florida, 1935, of Hurston seated on a porch with Rochelle Harris and Gabriel Brown playing his guitar. (Negative #LC-USZ61- 1777)

Lot 7414-C, N109: Taken in Eatonville, Florida, 1935, of Hurston, wearing a hat, standing outdoors with children.

Lot 7414-G, N300: Hurston, wearing a hat and laughing, standing outdoors. (Negative #LC- USZ61-1859)

Lot 7414-G, N301: Hurston wearing a hat and standing outdoors; similar to N300.

Lot 7414-G, N318: Taken in Belle Glade, Florida, 1935, of Hurston standing outdoors with field and building in the background.

Carl Van Vechten Photographs: Includes photograph taken in 1938 of Hurston, wearing a hat, seated before a zig-zag patterned backdrop in a studio. (Negative #LC-USZ62-79898)