Helen Hartness Flanders
Encyclopedia
Helen Hartness Flanders a native of the U.S. state of Vermont
, was an internationally recognized ballad collector and an authority on the folk music
found in New England
and the British Isles
. At the initiative of the Vermont Commission on Country Life, Flanders commenced a three-decade career capturing traditional songs that were sung in New England—songs that, in many cases, traced their origin to the British Isles. The timing of her life work was critical, coming as it did when people were turning away from traditional music in favor of listening to the radio. Today her nearly 4,500 field recordings, transcriptions and analyses are housed at the Flanders Ballad Collection at Middlebury College
, Middlebury, Vermont and have been a resource for scholars and folk singers, since the establishment of the collection in 1941.
Flanders was born in Springfield, Vermont
. Her father was James Hartness
, inventor, industrialist, and one-term Governor of Vermont
, who headed the Jones and Lamson Machine Tool Company in that town. She graduated from the Dana Hall School
in 1909, where she sang in the glee club
and was a member of the school French club. In 1911 she married Ralph Flanders
, a noted American mechanical engineer, industrialist and Republican
U.S. Senator
(1946–1959) from Vermont. She and her husband maintained homes in Springfield and Washington, DC where they entertained friends who included Dorothy Canfield Fisher
and Robert Frost
. They had three children: Elizabeth, (born in 1912), Anna (also known as Nancy—born in 1918), and James (born in 1923). Elizabeth helped her mother from time to time with collecting and transcribing tunes. In addition to her writings on traditional ballads, Flanders published two small volumes of poetry and one children's play. She traveled with her husband to the British Isles, Europe and Australia on various occasions.
invited Flanders to join the Committee on Traditions and Ideals of the Vermont Commission on Country Life. That committee asked her to collect Vermont folk songs, which were passed along orally from one person to another. In the 1930s, people in New England were turning to music on the radio; as a result, interest in traditional songs was on the wane. Flanders understood that unless these songs were collected and recorded for posterity, they would die along with the people who sang them. What began as a committee assignment became not just a hobby, but a passion. She continued collecting for three decades.
The availability of portable recording devices was key to Flanders’s ability to collect music from singers in remote parts of New England. Initially, she recorded on wax cylinder
s; then from 1939 to 1949, on aluminum
and acetate disc
s; and in later years, on reel-to-reel
tapes. On occasions when electricity was not available in a singer’s home, Flanders plugged a recorder into the cigarette lighter of her car.
Flanders expanded her quest throughout New England and to New York State. The singers that she found came from all walks of life; the majority of them were elderly. Flanders made field recordings with George Brown in 1930, then with the occasional help of Phillips Barry between 1931 and 1937, and with Alan Lomax
in 1939. From 1940–1958 Flanders continued to collect, but Marguerite Olney was responsible for major contributions both in the collection management and in the field.
Between 1930 and 1939, Flanders focused mostly on collecting Child ballads. This explains the proportionately large number of those ballads on cylinders. Of the 150 recordings made on disc with Alan Lomax, there were songs, stories and fiddle tunes. Over time, the scope of the field recordings would include religious songs, children's songs, 19th-century American popular songs, dance tunes, as well as folktales.
George Brown, his mother, Alice Brown, Phillips Barry, Marguerite Olney and Elizabeth Flanders Ballard all made musical transcriptions of songs for Flanders's publications. An index of all the field recordings (collected between 1930 and 1958) was published in 1983.
in Vermont. Today the Flanders Ballad Collection is housed in Special Collections and includes not only her papers but nearly 4,500 field recordings. Copies of these recordings are also available at the American Folklife Center
of the Library of Congress
and at Harvard University
. The American Folklife Center also has files of Flanders’s correspondence.
Flanders demonstrated that when songs migrated from the British Isles or Europe, the texts would sometimes undergo changes as singers inserted details from their life in the new world. For example, the "Yorkshire Bite" became the "New Hampshire Bite." Many of the stories in these ballads and folksongs describe aspects of life in New England and Colonial history.
In recognition of her accomplishments as a ballad collector, Middlebury College awarded Flanders an honorary Master of Arts
in 1942. She was a member of the National Committee of the National Folk Festival Association and vice president of the Folksong Society of the Northeast. In 1966, the Vermont House of Representatives
added Flanders's name to the state's Roll of Distinction in the Arts.
) during the 1930s.
Vermont
Vermont is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state ranks 43rd in land area, , and 45th in total area. Its population according to the 2010 census, 630,337, is the second smallest in the country, larger only than Wyoming. It is the only New England...
, was an internationally recognized ballad collector and an authority on the folk music
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
found in New England
New England
New England is a region in the northeastern corner of the United States consisting of the six states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut...
and the British Isles
British Isles
The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
. At the initiative of the Vermont Commission on Country Life, Flanders commenced a three-decade career capturing traditional songs that were sung in New England—songs that, in many cases, traced their origin to the British Isles. The timing of her life work was critical, coming as it did when people were turning away from traditional music in favor of listening to the radio. Today her nearly 4,500 field recordings, transcriptions and analyses are housed at the Flanders Ballad Collection at Middlebury College
Middlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...
, Middlebury, Vermont and have been a resource for scholars and folk singers, since the establishment of the collection in 1941.
Biographical
Springfield, Vermont
Springfield is a town in Windsor County, Vermont, United States. The population was 9,373 at the 2010 census.-History:One of the New Hampshire grants, the township was chartered on August 20, 1761 by Governor Benning Wentworth and awarded to Gideon Lyman and 61 others...
. Her father was James Hartness
James Hartness
James Hartness was an American inventor; a mechanical engineer; an entrepreneur who mentored other inventors to develop their machine tool products and create a thriving industrial center in southeastern Vermont; an amateur astronomer who fostered the construction of telescopes by amateurs in his...
, inventor, industrialist, and one-term Governor of Vermont
Governor of Vermont
The Governor of Vermont is the governor of the U.S. state of Vermont. The governor is elected in even numbered years by direct voting for a term of two years; Vermont and bordering New Hampshire are the only states to hold gubernatorial elections every two years, instead of every four...
, who headed the Jones and Lamson Machine Tool Company in that town. She graduated from the Dana Hall School
Dana Hall School
Founded in 1881, Dana Hall School in Wellesley, Massachusetts, USA, is an independent boarding and day school for girls in grades 6-12.-History:...
in 1909, where she sang in the glee club
Glee club
A glee club is a musical group or choir group, historically of male voices but also of female or mixed voices, which traditionally specializes in the singing of short songs—glees—by trios or quartets. In the late 19th Century it was very popular in most schools and was made a tradition...
and was a member of the school French club. In 1911 she married Ralph Flanders
Ralph Flanders
Ralph Edward Flanders was an American mechanical engineer, industrialist and Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Vermont. He grew up on subsistence farms in Vermont and Rhode Island, became an apprentice first as a machinist, then as a draftsman, before training as a mechanical engineer...
, a noted American mechanical engineer, industrialist and Republican
Republican Party (United States)
The Republican Party is one of the two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Democratic Party. Founded by anti-slavery expansion activists in 1854, it is often called the GOP . The party's platform generally reflects American conservatism in the U.S...
U.S. Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
(1946–1959) from Vermont. She and her husband maintained homes in Springfield and Washington, DC where they entertained friends who included Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Dorothy Canfield Fisher
Dorothy Canfield Fisher was an educational reformer, social activist, and best-selling American author in the early decades of the twentieth century. She was named by Eleanor Roosevelt as one of the ten most influential women in the United States...
and Robert Frost
Robert Frost
Robert Lee Frost was an American poet. He is highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech. His work frequently employed settings from rural life in New England in the early twentieth century, using them to examine complex social and...
. They had three children: Elizabeth, (born in 1912), Anna (also known as Nancy—born in 1918), and James (born in 1923). Elizabeth helped her mother from time to time with collecting and transcribing tunes. In addition to her writings on traditional ballads, Flanders published two small volumes of poetry and one children's play. She traveled with her husband to the British Isles, Europe and Australia on various occasions.
Background
In 1930, Vermont Governor John E. WeeksJohn E. Weeks
John Eliakim Weeks was an American politician from Vermont. He served as the 61st Governor of Vermont from 1927 to 1931. He served as a Vermont state court judge from 1884 to 1886, and 1902 to 1904...
invited Flanders to join the Committee on Traditions and Ideals of the Vermont Commission on Country Life. That committee asked her to collect Vermont folk songs, which were passed along orally from one person to another. In the 1930s, people in New England were turning to music on the radio; as a result, interest in traditional songs was on the wane. Flanders understood that unless these songs were collected and recorded for posterity, they would die along with the people who sang them. What began as a committee assignment became not just a hobby, but a passion. She continued collecting for three decades.
Collection methodology
Phonograph cylinder
Phonograph cylinders were the earliest commercial medium for recording and reproducing sound. Commonly known simply as "records" in their era of greatest popularity , these cylinder shaped objects had an audio recording engraved on the outside surface which could be reproduced when the cylinder was...
s; then from 1939 to 1949, on aluminum
Aluminum disc
An aluminium disc is a disk made out of aluminium and is used as a transcription disc in magnetic recording media, specifically early radio recordings...
and acetate disc
Acetate disc
An acetate disc, also known as a test acetate, dubplate , lacquer , transcription disc or instantaneous disc...
s; and in later years, on reel-to-reel
Reel-to-reel audio tape recording
Reel-to-reel, open reel tape recording is the form of magnetic tape audio recording in which the recording medium is held on a reel, rather than being securely contained within a cassette....
tapes. On occasions when electricity was not available in a singer’s home, Flanders plugged a recorder into the cigarette lighter of her car.
Flanders expanded her quest throughout New England and to New York State. The singers that she found came from all walks of life; the majority of them were elderly. Flanders made field recordings with George Brown in 1930, then with the occasional help of Phillips Barry between 1931 and 1937, and with Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax
Alan Lomax was an American folklorist and ethnomusicologist. He was one of the great field collectors of folk music of the 20th century, recording thousands of songs in the United States, Great Britain, Ireland, the Caribbean, Italy, and Spain.In his later career, Lomax advanced his theories of...
in 1939. From 1940–1958 Flanders continued to collect, but Marguerite Olney was responsible for major contributions both in the collection management and in the field.
Between 1930 and 1939, Flanders focused mostly on collecting Child ballads. This explains the proportionately large number of those ballads on cylinders. Of the 150 recordings made on disc with Alan Lomax, there were songs, stories and fiddle tunes. Over time, the scope of the field recordings would include religious songs, children's songs, 19th-century American popular songs, dance tunes, as well as folktales.
George Brown, his mother, Alice Brown, Phillips Barry, Marguerite Olney and Elizabeth Flanders Ballard all made musical transcriptions of songs for Flanders's publications. An index of all the field recordings (collected between 1930 and 1958) was published in 1983.
The collection and its significance
In 1941 when there was no longer enough space to store the collection in Flanders’s home, she donated it to Middlebury CollegeMiddlebury College
Middlebury College is a private liberal arts college located in Middlebury, Vermont, USA. Founded in 1800, it is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges in the United States. Drawing 2,400 undergraduates from all 50 United States and over 70 countries, Middlebury offers 44 majors in the arts,...
in Vermont. Today the Flanders Ballad Collection is housed in Special Collections and includes not only her papers but nearly 4,500 field recordings. Copies of these recordings are also available at the American Folklife Center
American Folklife Center
The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC was created by Congress in 1976 "to preserve and present American Folklife" . The center includes the Archive of Folk Culture, established at the Library in 1928 as a repository for American folk music...
of the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
and at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
. The American Folklife Center also has files of Flanders’s correspondence.
Flanders demonstrated that when songs migrated from the British Isles or Europe, the texts would sometimes undergo changes as singers inserted details from their life in the new world. For example, the "Yorkshire Bite" became the "New Hampshire Bite." Many of the stories in these ballads and folksongs describe aspects of life in New England and Colonial history.
In recognition of her accomplishments as a ballad collector, Middlebury College awarded Flanders an honorary Master of Arts
Master of Arts (postgraduate)
A Master of Arts from the Latin Magister Artium, is a type of Master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The M.A. is usually contrasted with the M.S. or M.Sc. degrees...
in 1942. She was a member of the National Committee of the National Folk Festival Association and vice president of the Folksong Society of the Northeast. In 1966, the Vermont House of Representatives
Vermont House of Representatives
The Vermont House of Representatives is the lower house of the Vermont General Assembly, the state legislature of the U.S. state of Vermont. The House comprises 150 members. Vermont legislative districting divides representing districts into 66 single-member districts and 42 two-member...
added Flanders's name to the state's Roll of Distinction in the Arts.
Promoting an interest in traditional ballads
Flanders was the author of eight books on ballads and folk music; she also wrote pamphlets, newspaper and magazine articles, and two books of poetry. She wrote a regular column on ballads for the Springfield Sunday Union and Republican (MassachusettsMassachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
) during the 1930s.
Performers of traditional ballads
Through their concerts and recordings, numerous folksingers have promoted interest in the Flanders Ballad Collection. Foremost among these is ballad singer Margaret MacArthur (1928–2006) who moved to Vermont in the late 1940s. During their ten-year friendship, Flanders encouraged her singing and gave her copies of the field recordings. Although also a collector of traditional songs in New England, MacArthur was especially known in the United States and abroad for her repertoire (and many recordings) of songs derived from the Flanders Collection. In recent years, Vermonter Deborah Flanders has performed and recorded songs collected by her great-aunt Helen.Flanders Ballad Collection at Middlebury College
The Flanders Ballad Collection at Middlebury College is organized, as follows:- Materials related to field collecting, 1930-1958: The original field recordings consist of 254 wax cylinders. Those recorded on discs comprise the largest body with a variety of songs, a few interviews and stories. Flanders made 77 discs with Alan Lomax, which are catalogued in the Library of Congress. There are 60 discs that contain songs recorded in Vermont, New HampshireNew HampshireNew Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
, and MaineMaineMaine is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States, bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the east and south, New Hampshire to the west, and the Canadian provinces of Quebec to the northwest and New Brunswick to the northeast. Maine is both the northernmost and easternmost...
between 1940 and 1947; and 61 that contain fiddleFiddleThe term fiddle may refer to any bowed string musical instrument, most often the violin. It is also a colloquial term for the instrument used by players in all genres, including classical music...
and dance music from all the New England states (16 collected with Alan Lomax); nine discs of fifeFifeFife is a council area and former county of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries to Perth and Kinross and Clackmannanshire...
music made in Massachusetts; and from the 1950s, approximately 55 tapes made on a reel-to-reel recorder. - Manuscript and typescript materials derived directly from field research, 1930-60: Flanders and Marguerite Olney subdivided song texts into the following categories: Child ballads (89 titles), 635 other British song titles (broadsides and others), and 593 American titles. Among these, there were 114 "stage songs" (British and American popular songs from the 19th-early 20th centuries), 73 religious titles and 122 children's songs.
- Correspondence, publication materials, lectures and exhibits derived largely from field work, 1931-1967: including Flanders’s correspondence with scholars, articles about her collecting experiences; information about ballad lectures given over a 30 year period throughout New England and in the Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
area. - Supporting materials not directly related to field work, 1930-1960: original manuscripts, copybooks, and miscellaneous sheets which contain over 300 songs and tunes—including ballads, broadsides, fiddle and fife tunes which were transcribed between the 18th and the early 20th centuries.
- Collection administration, 1940-1967: papers relating to the general operation of the collection.
- Personal papers, 1941-65: a limited number personal notes from friends of Helen Flanders and photographs of members of the Flanders family.