ARCHIVES NEWSLETTER
January 2002

As we begin a new year and reflect on the last one, we must admit its been quite a year at the Woody Guthrie Archives!

While we continue to work on several Guthrie-related projects, we are particularly grateful for the support and concern shown by all our Guthrie fans and friends outside New York City. As for New Yorkers--you're simply the best!!! Thank you.
- Jorge Arévalo Head Archivist

Acquisitions/Accessions
With all the projects we're involved in at one time, as numerous publications come in, it's not surprising that the Archives' Accessions Collection is beginning to look like an Amazon.com warehouse. Just to name a few publications to which we recently contributed are the American Roots Music PBS series and the companion book published by Rolling Stone Press. Lila Downs recently contributed her new CD production, Border: La Linea to our archives. Rosemary Alexander wrote, and donated to us, a radio play about Woody Guthrie, titled Hard Traveling: An Ear Picture of Woody Guthrie's Life and Music. The book by Michael W. Robbins & Wendy Palitz, Brooklyn: A State of Mind, (New York: Workman Publishing, 2001) also came into our collection as it includes some interesting tidbits about Woody.

The big news is that we were recently given two scrapbooks by Mary Jo Edgmon, Woody's little sister, which include many wonderful never-before-seen photographs and information about Woody, his family and friends.

Archives Projects
Many people know of Woody Guthrie's life through Joe Klein's biography of the troubadour balladeer, Woody Guthrie: A Life (1988). Mr. Klein has given to the archives more than one-hundred cassette recordings of interviews conducted during his research on Woody. The Archives will soon be starting an audio preservation project to transfer and digitize these rare recordings of individuals, some no longer with us, who personally knew, worked and traveled with Guthrie. Since so little of what is on those tapes was actually published, we are excited to hear (and transcribe) what's on those recordings. Any transcription volunteers?

Recent Researchers and Visitors to the Archives
We are always excited by the research that people are doing at the Archives, as scholarly interest in the life and works of Woody Guthrie continues to cut across disciplines with topics of fascinating diversity. Here are a just a few examples of what's going on:

Phil Buehler, an artist and MFA student at the School of Visual Arts, researched Greystone Park Hospital in New Jersey, the health institution where Woody spent several years while dealing with Huntington's Disease. Phil is exploring Greystone as Woody experienced it, retracing Woody's (and Allen Ginsberg's) steps. His final MFA project will be a multi-media installation piece.

Bob Lazaroff, a literary scholar and PhD student at the Graduate Center, CUNY, researched Woody's response to the John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath with The Ballad of Tom Joad.

Sara Jane Blum, an undergraduate student of American Studies at the New School for Social Research researched Woody's intellectual and political development in the late 1930s for her undergraduate thesis.

Hans-Eckardt Wenzel, a musician, songwriter, and composer, researched lyrics for a CD production, as part of a collaborative project with the Woody Guthrie Foundation.

Michael Cambre, a Library Science graduate student at Queens College, CUNY, and Library Trainee at the Donnell Library Center researched the application of archival standards at the Woody Guthrie Archives.

Rachel Schneider, a research assistant for Ginger Group Productions researched photography used in the recently broadcast PBS documentary film series, American Roots Music.

New Staff
We are happy to finally have brought on board our new assistant archivist, Felicia Katz, who comes to us by way of anthropology and museum studies. Felicia has worked at the Brooklyn Children's Museum and studied arts in India. She will be available to address your research questions and requests during our regular office hours: Tuesdays, Wednesday and Fridays from 10 am to 6 pm (EST).

Felicia's Spiel
It is with great interest in Woody Guthrie's music, writings, and art, that I take total pleasure working towards preserving the Collection here at the Foundation and Archives. I've been having a great time learning about many aspects of Woody's life thanks to the wonderfully diverse research requests and questions I receive from the public! I look forward to continuing to assist you with your research needs (and learning and exploring more and more in the process).

Best regards,
Felicia Katz, Assistant Archivist

Internship Opportunities
If you are interested in participating in our unsalaried Internship Program, please submit a cover letter with a brief proposal of the type of work you are interested in doing, a resume and references. Tasks and responsibilities are commensurate with your interests and abilities and might include: assisting with research projects, answering telephone reference calls, providing administrative support, inventorying unprocessed material, and performing other duties as assigned. Ideal candidates will have a background or interest in archival or library science, museum studies, music history, or related discipline. An interest in, and knowledge of, Woody Guthrie and folk music is a definite plus, as are A/V skills. Send inquiries to:

Archivist
Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives
250 West 57th St. Suite 1218
New York, NY 10107