UW-Madison awarded NEH grant to preserve historic recordings
Otto Rindlisbacher at the wheel, with Iva Rindlisbacher and other members of the Lumberjacks, c. 1930s. Rindlisbacher and his fellow musicians are among those forgotten voices of Wisconsin’s cultural heritage to be digitally preserved and accessible. Photo: UW Libraries Digital Collections
The University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures and the UW-Madison Mills Music Library have been awarded $230,000 by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) for the digital preservation of a unique collection of historic sound recordings.
In collaboration with the Mayrent Institute for Yiddish Culture, and other grant partners, the award will ensure that listeners today and in the future will be able to hear these rare fragments of Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest’s musical past.
“The seldom heard yet culturally rich songs of the Upper Midwest’s indigenous and immigrant rural and working class peoples make surprising, significant contributions to the American experience,” says Jim Leary of the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures.
Recorded in the 1920s, this 78 rpm disc was marketed to Swiss communities in Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest. Photo: UW Libraries Digital Collections
Leary received a Grammy nomination for “Folksongs of Another America,” which draws on field recordings found in the Mills Music Library.
More than 25 cultural traditions of Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest are captured on field recordings, home recordings and the earliest commercial recordings. Dating from 1900 to the 1980s, these 78 rpm discs, DATs, cassettes and reels are fragile, deteriorating, or require obsolete and specialized equipment for playback.
“We’re thrilled the NEH recognized the importance of this fabulous and historic collection,” says Jeanette Casey, head of the music library. “These recordings are like books nobody can read, and now we can open them up to the world.”
Father and son Irving (center) and Robert DeWitz play concertina as folklorist Jim Leary records the session in Robert’s basement. Photo: Lewis Koch, courtesy of UW Libraries Digital Collections
Grant partners include the Max Kade Institute for German-American Studies, Mayrent Institute, UW Digital Collections Center, and Wisconsin Teachers of Local Culture. The expertise of these partners will provide crucial language, cultural and technical knowledge needed to create detailed Web-accessible digital collections. Extensive research notes, photos and printed ephemera will help illuminate this auditory history of Wisconsin and the Upper Midwest.
“NEH provides support for projects across America that preserve our heritage, promote scholarly discoveries, and make the best of America’s humanities ideas available to all Americans,” says NEH Chairman William D. Adams. “We are proud to announce this latest group of grantees who, through their projects and research, will bring valuable lessons of history and culture to Americans.”
The National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 created the National Endowment for the Humanities as an independent federal agency, the first grand public investment in American culture. The law identified the need for a national cultural agency that would preserve America’s rich history and cultural heritage, and encourage and support scholarship and innovation in history, archaeology, philosophy, literature and other humanities disciplines.
Track 1: “Swamper’s Revenge on the Windfall,” lumberjack song, Otto and Iva Rindlisbacher
Track 2: Tamburiča Quartet plays “Marinar Mars,” 1940
Track 3: Swedish vocal duet, “Löftena de Stä Kvak,” Wisconsin, 1946
All clips from the Wisconsin Folksong Collection, 1937-1946, courtesy of the University of Wisconsin Libraries Digital Collections
