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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 | 2.0 feet of linear shelf space (approximately 1200 items) |
| Abstract | John Frank Edwards (1921-1976), better known as "Johnny" and "Junior," was a white musician known for his expertise as a jazz drummer in New Orleans, La., playing with bands that included the original Dukes of Dixieland. The collection documents his musical career and Edwards family history and consists of audiovisual materials, scrapbooks, letters, original and copy print photographs, legal and financial records, ephemera, and other papers. Included are letters written from Jefferson County, Miss., Meridian, Miss., and Delta, La.; letters written during the Great Depression; letters from Edwards to family in New Orleans, La., while he served as a musician with the band of the 67th Armored Regiment of the 2nd Armored Division in the U.S. Army during World War II; an 1896 sharecropper agreement with Littleton Henry; account statements from Cohn Bros. in Lorman, Miss.; clippings about Harold Cooper, who played jazz clarinet with the Dukes of Dixieland; family history materials; detailed notes from family members that provide collection context; annotated LP covers; family and publicity photographs; and a scrapbook, 1930s-1940s, of photographs and letters of Libby Edwards. The collection also contains audiovisual materials, including audio recordings of music by Johnny "Junior" Edwards, Harold Cooper, and others, as well as video recordings documenting a reunion of descendants of the Jersey Settlers of Adams County, Miss. |
| Creator | Edwards, John Frank, 1921-1976. |
| 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
John Frank Edwards (1921-1976), better known as "Johnny" and "Junior," was a white musician known for his expertise as a jazz drummer in New Orleans, La., playing with bands that included the original Dukes of Dixieland. During World War II he served in the band of the 67th Armored Regiment of the 2nd Armored Division of the U.S. Army. His wife, Elizabeth "Libby" Helton Edwards, survived him and later married his friend and bandmate, jazz clarinetist Harold Cooper.
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Scope and Content
The Johnny "Junior" Edwards Collection documents the musical career of John Frank Edwards (1921-1976) and Edwards family history and consists of audiovisual materials, scrapbooks, letters, original and copy print photographs, legal and financial materials, ephemera, and other papers. There are letters written from Jefferson County, Miss., Meridian, Miss., and Delta, La.; letters written during the Great Depression; letters from Edwards to family in New Orleans, La., while he served as a musician with the band of the 67th Armored Regiment of the 2nd Armored Division in the U.S. Army during World War II; an 1896 sharecropper agreement with Littleton Henry; account statements from Cohn Bros. in Lorman, Miss.; clippings about Harold Cooper, who played jazz clarinet with the Dukes of Dixieland; family history materials; detailed notes from family members that provide collection context; annotated LP covers; family and publicity photographs; and a scrapbook, 1930s-1940s, of photographs and letters of Libby Edwards. The collection also contains audiovisual materials, including audio recordings of music by Johnny "Junior" Edwards, Harold Cooper, and others, as well as video recordings of a reunion of descendants of the Jersey Settlers of Adams County, Miss. Audio recordings are on audiocassette, while video recordings are on VHS.
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Johnny "Junior" Edwards Collection, 1875-2009.
Arrangement: as received.
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Items Separated
Processed by: Nancy Kaiser, Patrick Cullom, and Anne Wells, May 2019
Encoded by: Nancy Kaiser and Anne Wells, May 2019
Updated by: Anne Wells and Meredith Kite, September 2019
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.
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