ARCHIVES NEWSLETTER
Spring / Summer 2004

With the renewal of Spring, and Summer following close behind, the Woody Guthrie Archives is once again in high gear. The diversity of our special projects as well as the ongoing outreach, research and reference services that we provide places great demand on our small staff. In the past, we have had wonderful people intern and volunteer to work with us, supporting our mission and helping us to meet our goal of better serving the public and academic communities. As usual, our friends, volunteers, and supporters best express what we are trying to achieve--saying it better that we ever could. Here’s a recent letter from Theresa Kubasak, a former intern and now part of our extended Woody Guthrie Archives family:

Carnegie's Tribute to Harold Photo (c) by Robert Corwin Used by Permission. Dear Nora, Jorge, Michael and Felicia, Joy and love filled Carnegie Hall during the concert honoring Harold. I was so happy to be there with my family. Compliments to you all for your role in the event! I appreciate the biography Jorge wrote about Harold--it really captured the diverse experiences and history of his life in a beautiful way. The archival photos and layout of the booklet were lyrical. Great job, everybody! My two college kids were in awe of the musicians and I delighted in seeing Pete, Fred and the Weavers as well as old favorites like Leon Bibb. The aura of the concert felt like a family album. I want to share with you a "Woody" experience I had during the week before Winter Break at the School at Columbia. A third grader came in and announced that she was doing a week-long project on Woody Guthrie, asking me for any resources I had. Of course I shared books, CD's and the website with Hannah. Later that week she came and asked me if I could accompany her on "This Land is Your Land" so she could make a tape of it to go with her project. After little Hannah and I sang the song in the music room I told her, "You know, a lot of people know this song. I bet every body in our school can sing it!" She was amazed to hear that so I lead her into the art room where a dozen parents were working on a quilt. As Hannah and I began to sing "This Land is Your Land" they all sang along with us as predicted. Hannah beamed. We next went to the kids' art room next door and got all of them singing too. We brought our song on the road to the fourth grade, then to the cafeteria, on to the ofice and finally the elevator. Everywhere we went people sang along on "This Land is Your Land." "Are you ready to take it outside of our school building?" I asked her. "I don't know. I'll try it", she timidly answered. Next thing we knew we were at the bustop at 110th and Broadway. Our music teacher came along and she recorded the 8 or so folks at the bus stop singing "This Land is Your Land" with Hannah. The voices filled out as passers-by joined in. It was amazing. At one point an old grandma added alto harmony and a young mom added the soprano descant. A guy came out of the synagogue calling, "That song should be our naltional anthem!" and he added his voice to the mix. On the tape one hears several verses mixed with the sounds of the city. Suddenly you hear the loud chuff of a big bus pulling up. The folks get on the bus and disappear. It was a great experience for Hannah and I loved every minute of it! I later asked Hannah, "Are you a shy person?" and she said, "I used to be before this!" The magic of sharing Woody with her and the folks at the bus stop was incredible. --Theresa Kubasak

Thank you Theresa!

So if you’re interested in a Woody Guthrie Archives internship, or just volunteering to help, please see the information below. Peace.

Jorge Arévalo
Curator

Archives Projects
We offer a hearty congratulations to Ed Cray on his book, Ramblin’ Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie (W.W. Norton: 2004), the first major biography of Woody Guthrie in more than twenty years. Ramblin’ Man presents a fresh perspective on Guthrie with new information and comprehensive documentation of source material.

In our outreach to academia, the Woody Guthrie Archives is currently collaborating with the Brooklyn College Music Library, CUNY, on a pilot project to provide access to selected material from its collections via the university’s web site. The project goal is to present this material to the CUNY-wide system as well as to the general Woody Guthrie audience. The Woody Guthrie Online Archives at Brooklyn College will include digitized images of Woody’s original song lyrics, transcripts of the published lyrics, audio clips of the songs, and extensive discographical information. We expect the online archives to be a wonderful resource and helpful to students, educators, and scholars working with American music and cultural studies.

In one of the most exciting projects underway, Jorge Arévalo is currently working on producing a CD of a never before heard “live” Woody Guthrie performance, recorded in 1949. Together with Nora Guthrie, Jorge is working with David Glasser and Charlie Pilzer of Airshow Mastering, restoring and programming what promises to be a truly unique and historic recording. We are aiming for a Fall 2004 release, so be on the lookout!

Artist Philip Buehler is now working on Wardy Forty: Reverberations of Woody Guthrie at Greystone Park Hospital, an art book to be published by University of Illinois Press. Based on the eponymously titled exhibition-- with which the Woody Guthrie Archives closely collaborated-- the book will include additional material such as interviews with family and friends of Woody Guthrie as well as original artwork by Philip Buehler. The Woody Guthrie Archives fully supports this emotional, historic, and aesthetically charged work, which presents this period of Woody’s life in an artistic yet respectful manner.

Stetson Kennedy is busy creating a “Guthrie Room” at the Stetson Kennedy Foundation in Jacksonville, Florida. Scheduled to open in April 2004, selected reproductions of archival material from the Woody Guthrie Archives will be on display as a permanent loan. These works convey Woody Guthrie’s deep feelings of friendship and admiration for Stetson Kennedy--one of America’s most important civil rights activist. See http://www.stetsonkennedy.com for more information about the Stetson Kennedy Foundation.

We congratulate Robert Koppleman for his recent publication, Sing Out Love, Sing Out Warning! The Writings of Lee Hays (University of Massachusettes Press: 2003). Harold Leventhal, our Executive Trustee has been walking around the office with the book in hand--he just can’t put it down! In addition to wonderful information on Lee Hays and the Weavers, the book contains some significant new information about Woody Guthrie and his politics.

Recent Researchers and Visitors to the Archives
Jim Pollard continues to research Woody’s experience with Huntington’s Disease. Working with HD patients and their families, Jim hopes he can put together valuable information on HD from patients’ perspective based on Woody’s writings. Jim has helped us to recognize the significance of the material, as it is rare for HD patients to write so much about their environment, condition, outlook on life and more. Woody, of course, was as prolific as ever during the period of his life that he suffered from HD.

Dan Zanes, friend of the Archives and talented musician, is researching songs, essays, and correspondences related to new babies and new parents. He is working on a book and CD project using Woody’s words.

Joel Rafael, another musical talent has also spent time in the Archives researching songs for an upcoming CD, which will be his second recording of Woody Guthrie songs. Joel Rafael Band’s first Woody Guthrie recording, “Woodeye” (2002) received not only great acclaim from Woody Guthrie fans, but a Grammy nomination as well! We’re looking forward to hearing the next recording!

Eli Smith and Steven Strohmeier are students at Oberlin College. Eli’s undergraduate thesis is on Woody Guthrie as a public intellectual. Eli and Steven visited the archives to view “Hard Travelin’” (MGM/UA Home Video: 1984), a documentary about Woody Guthrie in which Arlo Guthrie conducts wonderful interviews with significant personalities in Woody’s life.

Julia Holmes is working on a book mapping out famous residents of New York City and their places of residence. Julia came to the Archives to research Woody Guthrie’s residences and the works he may have produced while there, or what he may have said about that home or neighborhood. With Woody Guthrie’s prolific writings one would be hard pressed NOT to find a treasure! Julia discovered some writings about the Almanac House in lower Manhattan.

Bob Wintermute & Cassandra Jewell from the Army Heritage Foundation Center, came to research the lyrics to Woody’s song, “The Blinding of Isaac Woodard,” for an educational CD on the history of African American soldiers. These lyrics portray the injustice faced by Isaac Woodard, an African American soldier who fought during World War II, and upon returning to the States was beaten so badly by a police officer that he lost his sight. Woody Guthrie wrote a song about the incident in 1946. We are looking forward to completion of the project!

Playwright, Mark St. Germain, is researching manuscripts in hopes of writing a theater script based on Woody’s work.

Sylvia Rosenberg payed the Archives a delightful visit. Mrs. Rosenberg was a neighbor and a family friend to the Guthries when they lived in Coney Island. Mrs. Rosenberg made a nice donation to the Archives, including an essay that her her daughter wrote for her 1957 High School yearbook.

Peter Miller is an independent filmmaker working on a documentary about the Sacco and Vanzetti trial and how various artists have depicted the case throughout the years. Woody Guthrie is one of these artists, having recorded "Ballads of Sacco & Vanzetti" (commissioned by Moses Asch in 1945; composed and sung by Woody Guthrie 1946-47; originally issued in 1960 on Folkways and re-issued in 1996) and created a series of paintings related to this case and the town where the crime occurred. Peter recently visited the Archives and was happy to find artwork and photographs relevant to his project.

Special Accessions
This past season we have received some terrific donations. Here are just a few of the items we recently accessioned into the collection:

Sylvia Rosenberg donated printed material, including the original record liner notes to Woody Guthrie’s album, “Songs to Grow On,” a brochure distributed by the Committee to Combat Huntington’s Disease featuring a tribute to Marjorie Guthrie, and a copy of a wonderful essay that her daughter, Sandra Russo, wrote and published in a 1957 yearbook, titled “Woody.” The Rosenbergs were friends with the Guthries in Coney island, and Sandra was one of the Guthrie’s babysitters! The essay documents the author’s childhood memory of Woody Guthrie, including a specific trip to famous Nathan’s to have hotdogs for breakfast and driving over the Brooklyn bridge to a guitar shop in Manhattan, where Woody purchased matching ‘Baby’ Gibson guitars for Sandra and for Arlo.

McSorley’s Bar published a 2004 calendar, which features a Time Life photo of Woody playing for patrons. The photo is by Eric Schaal, and was taken around 1945 as a publicity photo for Woody’s book, Bound for Glory.

Sydney Krasnoff kindly donated a photograph of Marjorie Guthrie with her 1931, 8th grade class at the William B. Mann School in Philadelphia , PA. As the only photo of Marjorie as a child that is in the holdings of the Woody Guthrie Archives, this is a truly great gift!

Irma Bauman donated a copy of the Woody Guthrie Bibliography by Richard A. Reuss.

Most of our collection material is available for viewing and listening in the Archives. However, a few items may be restricted due to the either the item’s conditions or at the donor’s request. If you have questions about specific collections or items, please contact the archivists.

Ed Cray generously donated very neatly organized treasure boxes full of information on the life and works of Woody Guthrie. As explained in the Archives projectrs section, Ed recently published his biography, Ramblin’ Man: The Life and Times of Woody Guthrie (W.W. Norton: 2004), and we suppose he just finished cleaning his office! It may take us a bit of time to process all this material, but well worth the effort as there are years worth of hard core research into Woody’s legacy.

Applications for Conducting Research at the Archives
Encouraged by the range of scholarship, creativity, and inspiration that the Woody Guthrie Collection offers, the Archives welcomes researchers, scholars, artists, musicians, publishers, filmmakers, and those pursuing interests related to the life, works, and times of Woody Guthrie. Interested researchers must complete an Application for Research form. Successful applicants are invited to set up an appointment with the archivist on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Fridays between 10:30 AM to 5:30 PM. We encourage visitors to look at the Online Collection Finding Aids on our web site before visiting the archives.

At this time, due to limited staff time we are unable to accomodate general interest visits. We hope that our ever-improving website will satisfy general interest. For further information or questions, please contact Felicia Katz.

Internship Opportunities
We are a small, but very busy office. If you are interested in internship or volunteer opportunities at the Woody Guthrie Archives, please submit a resume, a brief proposal of the type of work you are interested in doing, and a list of three references.

We are presently interested in candidates with the following credentials:
- experience in maintaining, developing, and designing web site content.
- interest in transcribing Woody Guthrie’s original song lyrics.

Other tasks may include answering general reference calls, providing administrative support, and helping out with various archives projects.

Ideal candidates will have a background in archival or library science, museum studies, music history, or a related area. An interest in, and special knowledge of, Woody Guthrie and folk music is a plus, as are A/V skills.

Applications and inquiries should be sent to:
Archivist
Woody Guthrie Foundation and Archives
250 West 57th St.
Suite 1218
New York, NY 10107