Restrictions to Access

Use of audio or moving image materials may require production of listening or viewing copies.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

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 Bill Mansfield Collection #20072, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Bill Mansfield of N.C. in November 1992 and circa 1993 (Acc. 102528).

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.

Encoded by: Anne Wells, February 2016

Archival processing of the Bill Mansfield Collection was made possible through a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

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.

• Auctioneers--North Carolina.
• Auctions--North Carolina.
• Clog dancing--United States.
• Farm life--North Carolina.
• Folk dancing--United States.
• Mansfield, W.T.
• Tobacco Industry.
• Tobacco farmers--North Carolina.
• Tobacco farms--North Carolina.
• Tobacco--North Carolina.

• Association for the Preservation of the Eno River Valley Collection (#20329)
• Paul Brown Collection (#20382)
• Tom Davenport Papers (#20025)
• Alice Gerrard Collection (#20006)
• Art Menius Papers (#20406)
• Daniel W. Patterson and Beverly Bush Patterson Papers (#20026)
• Lauchlin Shaw Collection (#20375)
• Southern Folklife Collection Artist Name File (#30005)
• Southern Folklife Collection Field Notes (#30025)

Born and raised in Raleigh, N.C., Bill Mansfield began playing music at age eleven when his mother showed him how to play the "juice harp." He then went on to play harmonica and banjo. In 1979 Mansfield was awarded a National Endowment for the Art grant to study banjo under renowned folk artist and traditional banjoist, Fred Cockerham. Mansfield received an MA in folklore from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1992, writing his master's thesis on tobacco auctioneers. He has also worked for the National Park Service's Tuskegee Airmen Oral History Project, and is the author of the award-winning book, Song of An Unsung Place: Living Traditions by the Pamlico Sound (Coastal Carolina Press, 2001). Mansfield is married to historian Lu Ann Jones.

The Bill Mansfield Collection consists of 11 audiocassette field recordings, 1990-1992, that Mansfield conducted for his master's thesis on North Carolina based tobacco auctioneers, while studying folklore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. These field recordings feature auctioneers, tobacco graders, farmers, buyers, and warehouse employees speaking in various industrial environments. The collection also includes 1 VHS video recording, 1988, featuring a community-based music party that includes footage of clogging and in-context rabbit dancing.

• Audiocassette (FS-20072/905-915)
• Videotape (VT-20072/1)