The Real Song Catchers:  American Women Pioneers of Ethnomusicology
Carl Rahkonen, Indiana University of Pennsylvania © 2003

 Woman Pioneer           

 Training / Work Interests / Research Publications / Collections

Alice Cunningham Fletcher (1838-1923)

 Studied archeology and ethnology with Fredric Putnam; worked with Filmore, who worked with Boas 1880s Plains Indians in Nebraska and Dakotas; 1889-92 Bureau of Indian Affairs, Nez Perce, Idaho. 46 monographs and dozens of articles

Frances Densmore
(1867-1957)

Oberlin Conservatory;
Harvard University with Paine; Collaborator, Bureau of Am. Ethnology, Smithsonian

 American Indians: Studied the music of 76 tribes (1901-1940), recording more than 2500 songs.

22 monographs and more than 175 articles

 
Natalie Curtis (Burlin)
(1875-1921)		 Studied piano at the National Conservatory in New York, also in Berlin and Paris American Indians in Arizona: transcribed more than 200 songs from 18 tribes; African and African-American music.

Indian’s Book (1907); Hampton Series Negro Folksongs (1918-19)
Songs and Tales from the Dark Continent (1920); at least 69 journal and 12 newspaper articles

Helen Roberts
(1888-1985)

Chicago Musical College, American Conservatory,
M.A. (1919) in Anthropology at Columbia w/ Franz Boas.

 Jamaica, Hawaii, Pueblo Indians, Nootka Indians, Copper Eskimos; 26 monographs, 30 articles, 12 reviews.  Transcribed 3000 pieces, half of which she collected herself.

Laura Boulton
(1899-1980)

Singing at Western Reserve Univ. B.A. Denison University
Hon. Doc. Univ. of Chicago

 From 1929 to 1979 she participated in more than 40 expeditions, recording music from around the world.

The Music Hunter (1969)  Boulton Collections found at Indiana, Columbia, Harvard Univs. and at the Library of Congress.

Ruth Crawford (Seeger)
(1901-1953)

 Piano and composition, American Conservatory, Chicago; “Dissonant counter-point” w/ Charles Seeger American folk music.

American Folk Songs (1948-53);  Our Singing Country (transcriptions) 1941;  The Music of American Folk Songs (2001) ed. Larry Polansky
Sidney Robertson (Cowell) (1903-1995) B.A. Stanford Univ. (Romance Lang.); piano in Paris; counterpoint and Non-Western music at San Francisco Conservatory. American folk and ethnic music. Extensive collections at the  Library of Congress

Please read the official disclaimer.  URL=http://www.people.iup.edu/rahkonen/WP/woman_pioneer.htm
Page created and maintained by Carl Rahkonen.  (c) 2003   Last modified 2/18/03
Comments and/or suggestions may be e-mailed to: rahkonen@.iup.edu.