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This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held in the Wilson Library at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in our reading room, and not digitally available through the World Wide Web. See the Duplication Policy section for more information.
Archival processing of the Patricia Sawin Collection was made possible through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Size | 62 items |
Abstract | The Patricia Sawin Collection consists of audio recordings, 1979-1989, and a video documentary, 1996, created by folklorist, Patricia Sawin. The materials relate to Sawin's longstanding exploration of the life, songs, and stories of Bessie Eldreth, a folk singer from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina who died in 2016 at the age of 103. Born in 1913 on an Ashe County farm, Eldreth accompanied her everyday life with old ballads, gospel songs and hymns, parlor songs, and original songs. It was not until the 1970s that Eldreth began to sing publicly with her granddaughter, Jean Reid. The Sawin Collection contains audio from this period, including field recordings of live concerts, special events, church services, as well as interviews and story telling with Eldreth and Reid. The collection also contains video copies of Sawin's 1996 documentary film on Eldreth titled, Bessie Eldreth: Stories and Songs of a Blue Ridge Life. |
Creator | Sawin, Patricia. |
Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Folklife Collection. |
Language | English |
Encoded by: Anne Wells, May 2016
Archival processing of the Patricia Sawin Collection was made possible through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Back to TopThe 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.
Patricia Sawin is an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has a BA in English from Yale, received her Masters in anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin, and received her Ph.D. in folklore from Indiana University. Sawin's scholarship primarily focuses on the constitution of identity and culture through storytelling, festive enactments, and other forms of communicative interaction. Much of what she has written about narrative and performance comes from her longstanding exploration of the life, songs, and stories of Bessie Eldreth, a folk singer from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Sawin has also written about rural Mardi Gras celebrations in Louisiana; the portrayal of women in the Kalevala, Finland's national epic; and most recently about contemporary responses to fairy tales and about international adoption.
Back to TopThe Patricia Sawin Collection consists of 60 audio recordings, 1979-1989, and 2 video copies of a documentary, 1996, created by folklorist, Patricia Sawin. The materials relate to Sawin's longstanding exploration of the life, songs, and stories of Bessie Eldreth, a folk singer from the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina who died in 2016 at the age of 103. Born in 1913 on an Ashe County farm, Eldreth accompanied her everyday life with old ballads, gospel songs and hymns, parlor songs, and original songs. It was not until the 1970s that Eldreth began to sing publicly with her granddaughter, Jean Reid. The Sawin Collection contains audio from this period, including field recordings of live concerts, special events, church services, as well as interviews and story telling with Eldreth and Reid. The collection also contains 2 video copies of Sawin's 1996 documentary film on Eldreth titled, Bessie Eldreth: Stories and Songs of a Blue Ridge Life.
Back to TopArrangement: Chronological.
Titles compiled from SFC database and accession inventory.
A guide to the collection, including a song appendix and select transcriptions, resides in Folder 81 within the Southern Folklife Collection Field Notes Collection (#30025).