Restrictions to Access

Use of audio materials may require production of listening copies.

This collection contains additional born-digital materials that are not processed and are currently not available to researchers. For information about access to these materials, contact Research and Instructional Services staff at Wilsonlibrary@unc.edu. Please be advised that preparing unprocessed materials for access can be a lengthy process.

Access to streaming audio or moving image materials may be restricted to researchers who can authenticate with an ONYEN or who are physically present on campus. For further information about access to streaming audiovisual materials, contact Research and Instructional Services staff at Wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Ralph Steele Boggs and Edna Garrido de Boggs Papers #4503, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Ralph S. Boggs of Coral Gables, Fla., in January 1988 and transferred from the Collection Development Department of the Academic Affairs Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in January 1990 (Acc. 88002, 90067, 90156). Received from Ralph S. Boggs in September 1993 (Acc. 93118). Transferred from the Southern Folklife Collection in January 1998 (Acc. 98011). Received from the estate of Edna Boggs in 2015 (Acc. 102256).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed by: Roslyn Holdzkom, February 1988, January, July, August 1990, September 1993, January 1996

Encoded by: ByteManagers Inc., 2008

Updated by: Laura Hart, April 2019; Anne Wells, May 2019; Laura Smith, October 2023

Since August 2017, we have added ethnic and racial identities for individuals and families represented in collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Boggs, Ralph Steele, 1901-1994.
• Folklore--Latin America.
• Folklore--North Carolina.
• Folklore--Study and teaching.
• Folklorists.
• Garrido de Boggs, Edna.
• Redondo, Antonio.
• Spanish drama--18th century.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962)--Faculty.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962). Curriculum in Folklore.
• University of North Carolina (1793-1962). Dept. of Romance Languages.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--Faculty.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Curriculum in Folklore.
• University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dept. of Romance Languages.

• Southern Folklife Collection Field Notes (#30025)
• Daniel W. Patterson and Beverly Bush Patterson Papers (#20026)

White folklorist, Ralph Steele Boggs (1901-1994), taught Spanish in the Department of Romance Languages at the University of North Carolina and founded the Curriculum in Folklore at the University in 1939. Later in life, Boggs did substantial work in the Dominican Republic, and married Dominican folklorist Edna Garrido in 1948. He spent his final academic years teaching at the University of Miami and conducting research in Florida and Latin America. He was an active charter member of the Florida Folklore Society, and after retirement continued to pursue studies in Latin American folklore.

Dominican educator and folklorist, Edna Garrido de Boggs (1913-2010), was born in Azua de Compostela, Dominican Republic. She taught introductory folklore courses at the Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo (UASD) from 1934-1946. In 1946 she moved to the United States to further her studies in folklore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She was founder of the first Folkloric Society, founded in Santo Domingo in 1947, founder of the "Bulletin of the Dominican Folklore" from 1947 to 1948. In 1956 she received her Bachelor or Education from the University of Miami, and in 1969 the Dominican Government granted Edna Garrido de Boggs the Juan Pablo Duarte Order of Merit for her ethnomusicological work.

Papers, bound volumes, and audio recordings related chiefly to white folklorist and professor of Romance Languages at the University of North Carolina, Ralph Steele Boggs (1901-1994), and Dominican folklorist, Edna Garrido de Boggs, careers in folklore. Included is correspondence with folklore scholars in the United States and in Latin America and scrapbook volumes, compiled by Boggs that contain items documenting his professional life, his family, and post-retirement travel. Also included are manuscript volumes, apparently purchased by Boggs, containing eighteenth-century Spanish plays, one by Antonio Redondo; research and book materials on Dominican folklore subjects created and compiled by Edna Garrido de Boggs, including materials on children's games, legends, music, superstitions, riddles, poetry, and other subjects; dubbed 1940s field recordings by Edna Garrido de Boggs and Ralph Steele Boggs, some of which contain commentary by Ralph Steele Boggs on the history of UNC Curriculum in Folklore, which he helped found in 1939. Audio recordings are on audiocassette and 1/4" open reel audio.

• Audiocassette: C-4503/1
• Audiotape: FT-1262-1264
• Digital Folder: DF-4503/1
• Oversize Paper Folder: OPF-4503/1
• Instantaneous Disc: FD-4503/109, 138-140, 145-154