Restrictions to Access

This collection is not available for immediate or same day access. Please contact Research and Instructional Service staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu to discuss options for consulting this collection.

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 Donald E. Brown Collection on Country Music #20288, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

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.

This summary description was created in July 2018 to provide information about unprocessed materials in Wilson Special Collections Library.

Encoded by: Laura Smith, July 2018

Updated by: Nancy Kaiser, November 2020

Donald E. Brown is a retiree and country music collector. He resides in Boonsboro, Md.

The collection of Donald E. Brown of Boonsboro, Md., contains research files, artist name files, newspaper clippings, magazine and journal articles, printed and published materials, correspondence, photographs, discographies, and other materials related to Brown's interests in country music artists, particularly Hank Williams, Sr., (1923-1953) and Elton Britt (1913-1972).

Research files on Elton Britt contain discographies, copies of state and county documents such as marriage licenses and estate settlements, and extensive reports compiled by Brown on the interviews he conducted, his other research activities, and his findings.

Name files on Hank Williams, Sr., Hank Williams, Jr., Little Roy Wiggins, and the Statler Brothers are composed chiefly of clippings, magazine articles, and newsletters pertaining to the country music artists' careers and recordings and to fan clubs, memorials, and museums honoring them.

Copies of Brown's outgoing letters to other collectors and researchers with similar interests comprise the bulk of the correspondence in the collection. Photographs are primarily snapshots taken by Brown when he visited a Hank Williams, Sr., monument in Oak Hill, W.V.

The Brown collection originally contained numerous commercial audio and video recordings, runs of country music magazines, books, name files for hundreds of country music artists, and other files related to country music that were separated out and incorporated into the general Southern Folklife Collection.

• Oversize papers (XOPF-20288/1)