Daniel W. Patterson and Beverly Bush Patterson Papers, 1775-2018 (bulk 1964-2001)

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Summary

Creator:
Patterson Daniel W. (Daniel Watkins) and Patterson, Beverly Bush, 1939-
Abstract:

White folklorists Daniel W. Patterson (1928- ) and Beverly Bush Patterson study North Carolina folk life, southern traditional and religious folk music, Shaker art and music, and southern religious music. The Pattersons have often collaborated in their work and research, including work as consultants with Tom Davenport on his folklife films and Folkstreams project and website for streaming folklife documentary films; with Jim Peacock and Ruel Tyson on the World and Identity Primitive Baptist collection; and on the Index of Selected Folk Recordings Project. The collection includes letters, subject files, films, photographs and slides of folk musicians and folk traditions, audio recordings and moving images about folklore topics, and other materials involving Daniel and Beverly Patterson, independent filmmaker Tom Davenport, and others, including Bobby McMillon working together or independently to produce films, books, and other materials about life in the mountains; Sacred Harp singing; musical traditions of the Primitive Baptist churches in North Carolina and New York; the Shakers, including interviews with Shakers and field recordings of Shaker music and songs; the legend of Frankie Silver; folk music and folklore; and other topics. SFC material traces its history from 1960s folk archive, through the acquisition of the John Edwards Memorial Collection in 1983, and the opening of the SFC in 1989 at the Sounds of the South conference. There are also student papers that were written by Daniel Patterson's students in the Curriculum in Folklore. Correspondents include folklorist and writer Archie Green; writer D. K. Wilgus and wife Eleanor R. Long Wilgus; Ralph Steele Boggs, founder of the Curriculum in Folklore at UNC in 1939; professor Cecelia Conway; publisher Hugh McGraw; folklorist Bobby McMillon; archaeologist Stanley South; novelist Russell Banks; composer Thomas N. Rice; blues collector and record producer Peter B. Lowry; and professor John Garst. Some materials relate to religious tunebook compilers, including John G. McCurry, who wrote a shape-note songbook in 1855 that Patterson and Garst republished in 1973. Subject files contain materials about religious songs; religious groups and movements such as the Primitive Baptists; music styles; religious tunebooks; and many other topics. Also included are hundreds of photographs by Patterson created while doing research for The True Image: Gravestone Art and the Culture of Scotch Irish Settlers in the Pennsylvania and Carolina Backcountry, published by UNC Press in 2012.

Extent:
8900 items (56 linear feet)
Language:
Materials in English
Library Catalog Link:
View UNC library catalog record for this item

Background

Biographical / historical:

White folklorist Daniel W. Patterson (1928- ) was a professor in English and Folklore at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for many years. He is Kenan Professor Emeritus of English and a former chair of the Curriculum in Folklore at UNC-Chapel Hill. Patterson played a pivotal role in the development of UNC-Chapel Hill's Southern Folklife Collection, which opened to researchers in 1989. He has published several books, most of which relate to North Carolina folklife, southern traditional and religious folk music, or Shaker art and music. Patterson has also collaborated with independent film maker Tom Davenport on several documentaries relating to these subjects.

White folklorist Beverly Bush Patterson, born Beverly Bush in Mineola, Tex., earned an A.B. from Baylor University, specializing in Music; a Master of Arts degree from SUNY-Binghampton in Ethnomusicology; and a Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology with a minor in Folklore at UNC-Chapel Hill. She was also known as Beverly B. Boggs from an earlier marriage. Beverly Bush Patterson served on the North Carolina Arts Council, from 1992 until her retirement from that position in 2004, when she took the post of Executive Director of the North Carolina Folklife Institute. One of her focuses was southern religious music. She is the author of The Sound of the Dove: Singing in Appalachian Primitive Baptist Churches.

The Pattersons have often collaborated in their work and research. They were both involved as consultants with Tom Davenport on his folklife films and also worked with Davenport on the Folkstreams project and website for streaming folklife documentary films. Daniel and Beverly Patterson collaborated with Jim Peacock and Ruel Tyson on the World and Identity Primitive Baptist collection. Another well-known collaboration for Daniel and Beverly Patterson was the Index of Selected Folk Recordings Project, which provided access via microfiche to over 500 albums with information on individual songs now held by the SFC.

Scope and content:

The collection includes material from several projects from 1963 to 2001, of folkloristsDaniel Patterson and Beverly Bush Patterson (born Beverly Bush) of Chapel Hill, N.C. Materials cover folk music, gospel music, southern music, and religious music, among other topics. For the most part, the order of the materials was established by the donor, and original folder titles have, for the most part, been retained.

The series were arranged first by specific subjects: Tom Davenport films and related material; the legend of Frankie Silver; the Shakers; Sounds of the South (conference and book); the development of the Southern Folklife Collection; and Daniel Patterson's students' papers along with sound recordings he used in class when he taught folklore classes at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Following the subject series, material is arranged by format: correspondence, subject files, pictures, audio material, and video material. Researchers are advised tbat topics may be covered in several series.

The material in the Davenport films series relates to Davenport Films and projects on which independent film maker Tom Davenport and Dan Patterson collaborated. Films discussed include Being a Joines: A Life in the Brushy Mountains (with Beverly Bush Patterson); The Shakers; A Singing Stream; and a film about Sacred Harp singing.

The legend of Frankie Silver series contains material related to the folk legends, history, and projects about Frankie Silver. Daniel and Beverly Patterson, along with Tom Davenport, worked on a documentary with Bobby McMillon called The Ballad of Frankie Silver. Daniel Patterson went on to write a book called A Tree Accurst: Bobby McMillon and Stories of Frankie Silver (2000).

Daniel Patterson has worked on several projects related to the Shakers religious sect. The Shakers was a film made with Tom Davenport in 1974. Patterson has written two books about the Shakers. Gift Drawing and Gift Song: a Study of Two Forms of Shaker Inspiration was published in 1983, and centers on the Shakers' distinctive art and music. The Shaker Spiritual was published in 1979 (new edition 2000). This book concentrates on Shaker music. Correspondents in the Shaker series include Sister R. Mildred Barker and Brother Theodore E. Johnson of the Sabbathday Lake Shaker Community in New Gloucester, Me.; Robert F. W. Meader, director of the Shaker Museum in Old Chatham, N.Y.; Frank Sierra, collector of information on song manuscripts; professor Robert P. Emlen; and June Sprigg of the Hancock Shaker Village. Audio material related to the Shakers includes interviews with Shaker members and field recordings of Shaker music and songs.

Sounds of the South was a conference held in April 1989 at the UNC-Chapel Hill to mark the opening of the Southern Folklife Collection, which Daniel Patterson had helped to establish. Items related to the conference include correspondence with speech contributors and transcriptions of the speeches. The speeches made at this conference were later published as in a book, also titled Sounds of the South. Patterson edited the book, which was published in 1991.

A series about the development of the Southern Folklife Collection traces its history from its time as a folk archive in the 1960s, through the acquisition of the John Edwards Memorial Collection in 1983, and its development into the Southern Folklife Collection in 1989. Correspondents include folklorist and writer Archie Green; writer and donor D. K. Wilgus and his wife, Eleanor R. Long Wilgus; and Ralph Steele Boggs, founder of the Curriculum in Folklore at the University of North Carolina in 1939.

Student papers were written by Patterson's Curriculum in Folklore students. Subjects include religious music, folk legends, and folk musicians. Included with these papers is a paper by Patterson on shape-note singing.

The correspondence series includes letters from professor Cecelia Conway; publisher Hugh McGraw; folklorist Bobby McMillon; archaeologist Stanley South; novelist Russell Banks; composer Thomas N. Rice; Ralph Steele Boggs; and professor John Garst. Some correspondence is arranged by subject, including that of religious tunebook compilers such as John G. McCurry, who wrote a shape-note songbook called The Social Harp in 1855. Patterson and John Garst published a facsimile of this book in 1973. In 1978, a recording of some of the songs from The Social Harp was made by Rounder Records, featuring notes by Patterson.

The subject files series includes materials related to religious song with information on specific religious groups and movements such as the Primitive Baptists, music styles such as Sacred Harp, religious music compilers, and religious tunebooks. Subject files about Patterson's involvement in several projects related to folklife and folk music include information on Arts in Earnest; Diversities of Gifts; and the Index of Selected Folk Recordings (1984).

Pictures include photographs and slides of folk musicians, folk traditions, and images used in Patterson's 2012 publication The True Image: Gravestone Art and the Culture of Scotch Irish Settlers in the Pennsylvania and Carolina Backcountry.

Audiovisual materials consist of audio recordings, moving image material, and related documentation created and compiled by Daniel W. Patterson and Beverly Bush Patterson. Audio material includes miscellaneous music and field recordings: Social Harp and Christian Harmony recordings, gospel music, folk music, and interviews. Moving image material includes mostly documentaries about folklore topics. Documentation consists of field notes, tape logs, transcripts, ephemera, and other materials related to the recordings found in the collection.

Note that original arrangement and folder titles have, for the most part, been retained. Because there is some content overlap among series, researchers should check multiple series for materials of interest.

Acquisition information:

Received from Daniel W. Patterson and Beverly Bush Patterson of Chapel Hill, N.C., 1986-2001; and in June 1999 (Acc. 98388), July 1999 (Acc. 98405, 98406, 98413), September 2005 (Acc. 100191), July 2011 (Acc. 101467), (Acc. 101938), December 2013 (Acc. 101938, 101966), March 2015 (Acc. 102176), December 2018 (Acc. 103424), and Agust 2023 (20230807.1).

Processing information:

Processed by: Nathalie Wheaton and Jodi Berkowitz, June 2005

Encoded by: Nathalie Wheaton and Jodi Berkowitz, July 2005

Revised by: James McGlothlin, May 2008; Anne Wells, January and November 2016; Jennifer Overstreet, Rebecca Stubbs, and Patrick Cullom, March 2018; Nancy Kaiser, Anne Wells, and Meredith Kite, 2019; Nancy Kaiser, January 2021; Davia Webb and Laura Smith, September 2023

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.

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.

Indexed terms

Subjects:
Folk music.
Folk songs.
Folklore.
Folklore--North Carolina.
Folklore--Study and teaching (Higher)--North Carolina.
Folklorists.
Hymns, English.
Independent filmmakers.
Mountain life.
Music and folklore.
Primitive Baptists.
Sacred music.
Shakers.
Sepulchral monuments--New York (State).
Sepulchral monuments--New York (State)--Photographs.
Sepulchral monuments--North Carolina.
Sepulchral monuments--North Carolina--Photographs.
Sepulchral monuments--South Carolina.
Sepulchral monuments--South Carolina--Photographs.
Sepulchral monuments--Pennsylvania.
Sepulchral monuments--Pennsylvania--Photographs.
Scots-Irish—Connecticut--Social life and customs.
Scots-Irish—Connecticut--Social life and customs--Photographs.
Scots-Irish—Massachusetts--Social life and customs.
Scots-Irish—Massachusetts--Social life and customs--Photographs.
Scots-Irish—New Hampshire--Social life and customs.
Scots-Irish—New Hampshire--Social life and customs--Photographs.
Scots-Irish--New York (State)--Social life and customs.
Scots-Irish--New York (State)--Social life and customs--Photographs.
Scots-Irish--North Carolina--Social life and customs.
Scots-Irish--North Carolina--Social life and customs--Photographs.
Scots-Irish--South Carolina--Social life and customs.
Scots-Irish--South Carolina--Social life and customs--Photographs.
Scots-Irish—Pennsylvania--Social life and customs.
Scots-Irish—Pennsylvania--Social life and customs--Photographs.
Scots-Irish—Tennessee--Social life and customs.
Scots-Irish—Tennessee--Social life and customs--Photographs.
Scots-Irish—Virginia--Social life and customs.
Scots-Irish—Virginia--Social life and customs--Photographs.
Shape-note singing.
Songbooks.
Tales--North Carolina.
Tune-books.
Posters.
Names:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill--Faculty.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Curriculum in Folklore.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Folklife Collection.
Banks, Russell, 1940-
Boggs, Ralph Steele, 1901-1994.
Conway, Cecelia.
Davenport, Tom.
Garst, John F.
Green, Archie.
Long-Wilgus, Eleanor R., 1923-2005.
Lowry, Peter B.
McCurry, John G. (John Gordon), 1821-1886.
McGraw, Hugh.
McMillon, Bobby.
Patterson, Beverly Bush, 1939-
Patterson, Daniel W. (Daniel Watkins), 1928-
Rice, Thomas N.
Silver, Frankie.
South, Stanley A.
Wilgus, D. K.
Places:
North Carolina--History.
North Carolina--History--Photographs.
North Carolina--Religion.
North Carolina--Religion--Photographs.
North Carolina--Social life and customs.
North Carolina--Social life and customs--Photographs.
North Carolina--Songs and music.
Southern States--Religion.
Southern States--Religion--Photographs.
Southern States--Social life and customs.
Southern States--Social life and customs--Photographs.
Southern States--Songs and music.

Access and use

Restrictions to access:

This collection contains additional materials that are not available for immediate or same day access. Please contact Research and Instructional Service staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu to discuss options for consulting these materials.

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

Access to streaming audio or moving image materials may be restricted to researchers who can authenticate with an ONYEN or who are physically present on campus. For further information about access to streaming audiovisual materials, contact Research and Instructional Services staff at Wilsonlibrary@unc.edu

Restrictions to use:

No usage restrictions.

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 Daniel W. Patterson and Beverly Bush Patterson Papers #20026, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Location of this collection:
Louis Round Wilson Library
200 South Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Contact:
(919) 962-3765
wilsonlibrary@unc.edu