OXFORD, Miss. – Musical performances and a look at rare printed pieces related to music history are among the highlights of a brown bag lecture set for Thursday (Sept. 12) at the University of Mississippi’s Department of Archives and Special Collections.
Greg Johnson, the university’s blues curator and associate professor, will take participants through the department’s Kenneth S. Goldstein Folklore Collection. The event, set for noon on the third floor of the J.D. Williams Library, is free and open to the public.
Goldstein was a folklorist, record producer, collector, teacher, folk festival organizer, editor and chairman of the Department of Folklore and Folklife at the University of Pennsylvania. He first donated materials to UM in 1979, with another consignment coming in 1997. These greatly increased the library’s music holdings and helped establish the foundations for the Blues Archive, which opened in 1984.
Among the many items in this collection are 18th-to-early 20th century British, Scottish and Irish broadsides, and more 20,000 books, musical scores and sound recordings. The broadsides were scanned in 2008 and 2009, and 850 audio reels were digitized in 2011.
Johnson will give an overview of the collection and perform music from it on Irish harp and other instruments.