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This collection has access restrictions. For details, please see the restrictions.
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.
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Collection Overview
| Size | 26.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 6000 items) |
| Abstract | Guthrie "Gus" Turner Meade, Jr., was a white computer programmer and systems analyst with a lifelong interest in folk music, especially traditional country music and Kentucky fiddlers. Meade avidly collected records and corresponded with record collectors, discographers, and music scholars around the world. He spent his summers recording and interviewing Kentucky fiddlers. In 1956, Meade began an annotated discography of early traditional country music. The discography includes some 14,500 recordings of 3,500 songs organized into four categories: ballads, religious songs, instrumentals, and novelty songs. He worked on this discography until his death in 1991. Materials collected or created in the course of Gus Meade's research into traditional country music and Kentucky fiddlers. Meade drew upon many of these items to create his annotated discography of early traditional country music. Included are many artist files containing information on various performers. There are also record company logsheets; information about radio shows; a discography by Richard Spottswood; songsters, song books, and sheet music, mostly from the 1880s; correspondence with folklorists, including John Edwards, Archie Green, Eugene Earle, D. K. Wilgus, Fred Hoeptner, Willard Johnson, and Dan Mahoney; recordings of interviews with and performances by Kentucky fiddlers; and information about fiddle competitions, including the 1926 boom in contests spurred by Henry Ford's interest in reviving old-time dancing. Also included are materials relating to hymns, old-time music festivals, and collections of folklore and folk music in archives and other institutions. Note that names important in the collection have been cataloged separately. |
| Creator | Meade, Guthrie T., 1932-1991. |
| Curatorial Unit | University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Folklife Collection. |
| Language | English |
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Information For Users
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Subject Headings
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.
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Biographical Information
Guthrie "Gus" Turner Meade, Jr., was born in Louisville, Ky., on 17 May 1932 to Sarah Isabel Ballard and Guthrie Turner Meade, Sr. He served in the U.S. Air Force, and afterward attended the University of Kentucky, Lexington. Meade pursued, but never completed, a Master's Degree in Folklore at Indiana University. During graduate school, he met his wife Mary, and they married in November 1955. He worked at the Indiana University Folk Music Archives and, later, as an assistant at the Indiana University Press. The Meades had four children: Douglas Shannon, Jonathan Andrew, Morag Elizabeth, and Meredith Louise.
Meade and his wife left Indiana for Yellow Springs, Ohio, in 1961, where he began work at Wright Patterson Air Force Base as a computer programmer and systems analyst. He and his friend, discographer Bob Hyland, had a radio show in Antioch, where Meade also organized a folk festival. He taught himself to play the fiddle and often played music with friends and acquaintances. Meade also taught fiddle classes, both informally at parties and at his home. He avidly collected 78 rpm country music records, partly to help him learn fiddle tunes. Meade's correspondents included record collectors, discographers, and music scholars around the world, including folklorist John Edwards in Australia, Archie Green, Eugene Earle, D. K. Wilgus, Fred Hoeptner, Willard Johnson, and Dan Mahoney.
In 1965, Meade began working at the Library of Congress Folk Music Archives as a programmer/analyst, automating the vast collections. He left to take a position at the National Archives, where he developed a system called Spindex II for automating archives. After the system was in place, the Archives eliminated his job, and he moved to a position in the General Services Administration where he remained until his early retirement in 1986.
Each summer, Meade went to Kentucky to research Kentucky fiddlers, who had recorded on some of the early 78 records. At this time, he worked with John Harrod and Bruce Greene, who were also researching Kentucky fiddlers. Meade became close friends with Charlie and Noah Kinney, fiddling brothers from Lewis, Ky., and recorded their music on many occasions. He also spent a great deal of time conducting personal interviews with traditional fiddlers.
In 1971, the Meade family moved to Waldorf, Md., and Meade became active in the Folk Society of Greater Washington. He recorded Kentucky fiddler Buddy Thomas and arranged for Mississippi fiddler Hoyt Ming to record and play at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. During the 1970s, Meade and Mark Wilson produced three albums of Kentucky fiddle music on the Rounder label: J. P. and Annadeene Fraley's "Wild Rose of the Mountain" (Rounder 0037), Buddy Thomas's "Kitty Puss" (Rounder 0032), and Ed Haley's "Parkersburg Landing" (Rounder 1010). The Buddy Thomas recording became particularly important given the young fiddler's sudden death only months after the project's completion.
In 1974, the Meades moved to Alexandria, Va., where Meade became acquainted with Bob Christenson, also a fiddle scholar. Meade continued to work with John Harrod and collaborated with other traditional music scholars Steven Rice, Steve Green, and Ray Bowman on various projects. He also conducted genealogy research. In 1980, Meade and discographer Richard Nevins compiled an important three-record set of rare Gennett recordings of early Kentucky fiddle music. The Morning Star releases (45003, 45004, and 45005) include biographical information on the musicians and represent an important contribution to traditional music scholarship.
Meade's most significant achievement may have been his annotated discography of early traditional country music, begun in 1956. This comprehensive work includes some 14,500 recordings of 3,500 songs organized into four categories: ballads, religious songs, instrumentals, and novelty songs. In 1986, Meade received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to prepare the discography for publication. Shortly afterwards, the family moved to Kentucky, where Meade worked long hours on the project. He was working on the introduction to the discography at the time of his death. His wife Mary has indicated that she will work toward the project's publication, with the help of her son Doug and discographer Richard Spottswood.
On 8 February 1991, Meade suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage at his Franklin County, Ky., home. He died the next day at the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington at the age of 58.
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Scope and Content
This collection consists of materials gathered by Gus Meade in his study of traditional country music and Kentucky fiddlers. His correspondence with other folklorists all over the world comprises one series. A significant portion of the collection consists of Meade's collected information on musicians. The collection also contains his interviews with and recordings of traditional Kentucky fiddlers, as well as biographical information about Gus Meade and writings by Meade. Meade's collected information about various archives and institutions' recorded holdings comprises one series. Another series consists of Meade's collection of songsters and sheet music, most dating from the 1880s. Meade was particularly interested in fiddle competitions and collected information about fiddle contests, including the 1926 boom in contests due to Henry Ford's interest in reviving old-time dancing.
Note that many of Meade's original folder titles have been retained.
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Series Quick Links
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Series 1. Correspondence, 1958-1990.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Correspondence with friends, discographers, and musicians, as well as representatives from university presses, music archives, and folklore organizations.
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Series 2. Biographical Information, 1951-1991.
Materials documenting Guthrie Meade's life, including newspaper articles, an obituary, and information about his education, his collecting activities, his job as a computer programmer, and his family history.
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Subseries 2.1. General Biographical Information, 1951-1991.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
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Subseries 2.2. Teaching Activities, 1970s.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
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Series 3. Writings by Meade, 1957-1988.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Record reviews and offprints of articles written by Meade, as well as drafts of articles that were never finished. There are also some college papers and other early writings. In 1976, Meade applied to the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for a research grant to compile an annotated discography of early hillbilly music. The proposal was not accepted, but, in 1986, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) approved a grant for the project. See Series 7.1 for drafts of the discography.
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Series 4. Archives and Checklists, 1958-1990.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Information about tape holdings in archives and other institutions.
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Series 5. Folksong Studies, 1817-1987.
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Subseries 5.1. Meade Folksong Collections, Undated.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Song texts collected by Meade from individuals in and around Louisville, Ky., in the 1950s. These texts may correlate with tape recordings found in the Archives of Traditional Music at Indiana University in Bloomington.
| Folder 93 |
Lyons family #20246, Subseries: "5.1. Meade Folksong Collections, Undated." Folder 93 |
| Folder 94 |
South family #20246, Subseries: "5.1. Meade Folksong Collections, Undated." Folder 94 |
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Subseries 5.2. Tune Collections, 1817-1987.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Photocopied tune collections and original songbooks. A number of the photocopied collections are incomplete, occasionally consisting of only a table of contents. Several collections lack a title page and are labeled as "Unidentified tune collections."
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Subseries 5.3. Sheet Music: Originals, 1878-1947.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Original sheet music collected by Meade. Much of this sheet music is very old and fragile. In this list, some titles have been shortened. The "Miscellaneous" folder contains unidentified sheet music without covers.
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Subseries 5.4. Sheet Music: Photocopies, 1881-1942.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Photocopies of sheet music used in songster and copyright research. Some of the folders contain several variations of a single tune. The "Miscellaneous" folder contains items with a number of songs on each page. A few of the selections are incomplete. Meade used much of this sheet music in his songster and copyright research.
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Subseries 5.5. Song Research, 1929-1988.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Handwritten and photocopied information about selected songs and ballads that Meade found especially interesting. He was also apparently intrigued with the bawdy song genre, as his early article on "The Sea Crab" demonstrates.
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Series 6. Fiddlers and Fiddling, 1889-1990.
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Subseries 6.1. Fiddle Research: General, 1940-1988.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Correspondence about fiddlers and fiddling, newspaper and journal articles about fiddlers, and information on fiddle-tune collections.
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Subseries 6.2. Genres and Traditions, 1975-1987.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Information about various genres of folk songs. Some folders are labeled according to genre (rags, waltzes) or tradition (Greek, Irish). Others are labeled by state or region.
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Subseries 6.3. Kentucky Fiddling, 1919-1990.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Material relating to Meade's interest in old-time fiddle music in Kentucky, which eventually became his most passionate specialization. Scholars across the country recognized his expertise in the field. Much of his research centered around documenting, chronicling, or tracing antecedents of fiddle tunes recovered from Kentucky-born folk musicians.
At the time of his death, he left several major works uncompleted. The Atlas of Kentucky Fiddle Tunes was an experimental project with Steve Rice of Frankfort, Ky. Meade and Rice organized data about specific tune titles to show distribution throughout the commonwealth. Meade also worked with John Harrod, Mark Wilson, and others on a projected multi-volume recorded set documenting Kentucky fiddling. Harrod was Meade's main co-compiler of the Kentucky Fiddle Anthology Project. In 1997, Rounder Records released two CDs that rely heavily on field recordings made together and separately by Harrod, Meade, and Wilson. The recordings are Traditional Fiddle Music of Kentucky: Up the Ohio and Licking Rivers (Rounder CD 0376) and Traditional Fiddle Music of Kentucky: Along the Kentucky River (Rounder CD 0377).
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Subseries 6.4. Fiddle Contests and Conventions: General, 1889-1979.
Arrangement: alphabetical, then chronological.
Information on fiddle contests and conventions other than those in 1926. The 1926 Fiddlers' Contest Phenomenon is covered in Series 6.5.
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Subseries 6.5. Fiddle Contests: 1926, 1926-1979.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Material gathered by Meade for an extensive project documenting the national fiddling contest phenomenon in 1925-1926 generated by Henry Ford's interest in reviving old-time dancing. Meade gathered news clippings and citations from across the country. He organized his data by individual states, regions, specific contests, and individual fiddlers.
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Subseries 6.6. Fiddlers Compendium, 1977-1984.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Vital statistics and bibliographic information about fiddlers who recorded both commercially and on folklore field recordings, mostly before 1950. The compendium was never published, but exists in several draft versions.
| Folder 236 |
Correspondence #20246, Subseries: "6.6. Fiddlers Compendium, 1977-1984." Folder 236 |
| Folder 237 |
Cajun discographies #20246, Subseries: "6.6. Fiddlers Compendium, 1977-1984." Folder 237 |
Folder 238-242
Folder 238Folder 239Folder 240Folder 241Folder 242 |
Fiddler's Compendium #20246, Subseries: "6.6. Fiddlers Compendium, 1977-1984." Folder 238-242 |
| Folder 243 |
Research notes #20246, Subseries: "6.6. Fiddlers Compendium, 1977-1984." Folder 243 |
| Folder 244 |
Tune index #20246, Subseries: "6.6. Fiddlers Compendium, 1977-1984." Folder 244 |
| Folder 245 |
Starr Records #20246, Subseries: "6.6. Fiddlers Compendium, 1977-1984." Folder 245 |
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Series 7. Discographical Research, 1913-1987 and undated.
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Subseries 7.1. Meade Annotated Discography, Undated.
Arrangement: alphabetical, then chronological.
Annotated discography of American folk music prior to World War II.. As of 1999, Meade's son Douglas and discographer Richard Spottswood were editing the work for publication, a draft copy was on deposit at the Archive of Folk Culture at the Library of Congress. Meade's title for this project was "Anno" or "Anno-Disco."
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Subseries 7.2. Vintage Record Labels and Numericals, Undated.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Information on vintage record companies, including numericals and general research. As a record collector, Meade often exchanged this type of discographical research information with other collectors.
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Subseries 7.3. Recording Studio Files, 1924-1930.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Photocopies of recording studio files documenting the names of artists, the songs they recorded, and whether the recording was kept or discarded. The logsheets also describe the type of song recorded (e.g., vocal, Hawaiian guitars, fiddle).
| Folder 352 |
Artist card files #20246, Subseries: "7.3. Recording Studio Files, 1924-1930." Folder 352 |
Folder 353-356
Folder 353Folder 354Folder 355Folder 356 |
Gennett logsheets #20246, Subseries: "7.3. Recording Studio Files, 1924-1930." Folder 353-356 |
| Folder 357 |
Gennett GEX logsheets #20246, Subseries: "7.3. Recording Studio Files, 1924-1930." Folder 357 |
| Folder 358 |
Gennett Matrix sheets #20246, Subseries: "7.3. Recording Studio Files, 1924-1930." Folder 358 |
Folder 359-360
Folder 359Folder 360 |
RCA Photophone logsheets #20246, Subseries: "7.3. Recording Studio Files, 1924-1930." Folder 359-360 |
| Folder 361 |
Vocalion logsheets #20246, Subseries: "7.3. Recording Studio Files, 1924-1930." Folder 361 |
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Subseries 7.4. Miscellaneous Discographical Research, 1913-1987.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Information on performers and their work that was collected by Meade for his discography.
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Subseries 7.5. Spottswood Ethnic Discography, Undated.
Draft of Spottswood ethnic discography. Richard Spottswood gave Meade drafts of his massive discography of ethnic music recordings on 78 rpm discs.
| Folder 385 |
Discography #20246, Subseries: "7.5. Spottswood Ethnic Discography, Undated." Folder 385 |
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Series 8. Artist Files, 1928-1981.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Files on old-time, country, hillbilly, and western string bands and artists, including photocopies of articles, recording company ledger sheets, discographical checklists, handwritten biographical and discographical notes compiled by Meade, correspondence with artists or their descendants, photographs, and other materials. One folder contains addresses of artists.
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Series 9. Bibliographies, 1925-1986.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Bibliographies on subjects that interested Gus Meade. Some of the bibliographies relate to music and others reflect his interest in the environment in which the music was created.
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Series 10. Songster and Copyright Research, 1842-1975.
Copyright deposit records, songsters, and songsters indexes. Many folksongs recovered by collectors from oral tradition derive from or have antecedents in printed songsters and sheet music. Meade used copyright deposit records at the Library of Congress to identify both the songsters and sheet music sources and to establish earliest appearances for songs that later were collected by folklorists or recorded by record companies from local musicians in the 1920s and 1930s.
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Subseries 10.1 Copyright Deposits and Songster Indexes, 1870-1884.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
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Subseries 10.2. Songsters: Original, 1842-1888.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
NOTE: These materials are extremely fragile.
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Subseries 10.3. Songsters Research, 1850-1975.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
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Series 11. Radio, 1922-1940.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Guides to radio programming, both weekly publications and local newspaper columns. The "Old Time Radio Programs" folder contains Meade's research notes, and indicates the dates and times that old time radio programs aired on various stations.
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Series 12. Other Printed Material, 1869-1990.
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Subseries 12.1. Periodicals, 1930-1990.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Folklore periodicals collected by Meade. The periodicals below do not represent the totality of his collection, but this series does include the more difficult to find items.
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Subseries 12.2. Old Time Music Festivals: Programs, 1960-1990.
Arrangement: alphabetical by locale.
Programs from folk music events all over the country. Most of the programs include details about the type of music played at the event and a list of participants.
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Subseries 12.3. Hymnody: Photocopies, 1869-1917.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Photocopies of hymnals. Some of these items are incomplete, containing a single or several hymn selections or sometimes only a title page or index. Some hymnals were issued in a series (e.g.. Songs of Love and Praise No. 1, 2). These are filed in a single folder.
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Subseries 12.4. Folios and Ephemera, 1870-1944.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Items include information about artists, a humorous magazine, instrument catalogs, some offset printing sheets, a few posters, and other miscellaneous printed materials.
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Series 13. Folklore: General, 1966-1982.
Arrangement: alphabetical.
Information on various folklore topics. Some of the papers were written by Gus Meade's friends and associates.
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Series 14. Sound Recordings.
Arrangment: By format as received.
Processing information: Processing archivists created titles and descriptions of the instantaneous disc, 1/4" open reel audio, and audiocassettes from the SFC database. 45-rpm records, 78-rpm records, and LPs are commercial recordings that can be accessed by the UNC library catalog or by contacting the Research and Instructional Services staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.
1/4" open reel audio and cassette tapes of Gus Meade's interviews with and recordings of Kentucky and other Appalachian fiddlers and his collections of 78-rpm records, 45s, and LPs. Nearly 75 early country music labels, many obscure, are represented in the 78s collection. The tapes include Meade's Kentucky series (K) and Hillbilly series (H) on 1/4" open reel audio tape, and the Hillibilly series (CH) on audiocassette. On some tapes, there is material from other collectors.
45s (2) 45-2895 through 45-2896
78-rpm records (about 1,000) 78-16746 - 78-17864
LPs (275) Call numbers available from SFC database
Instantaneous disc (1) FD-616
1/4" open reel audiotapes (280) FT-6303 - FT-6583
Audiocassettes (about 500) FS-3703 - FS-4191