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Photograph

Fair Ellen

Draft — sources verified, prose evolving

TypePhotograph
Date1938-08
WithinSaint James · Beaver Island
ErasModern era
On this page
Photograph
Date
1938-08
Eras
Modern era
Concepts
music-folkloreheritage
Within
Saint James · Beaver Island

Summary

A catalog card for Fair Ellen, digitized by the Library of Congress as afc9999005.9580 and catalogued under AFS Number: AFS 02277 B. It indexes AFS 02277, side B, and it is the only held card for that side. The catalog dates it to August 1938.

Catalog metadata

  • Library of Congress identifier: afc9999005.9580
  • Call number: AFS Number: AFS 02277 B
  • Catalog date: 1938-08
  • Catalog contributor labels: Lomax, Alan (1915-2002) (Recordist); Green, J. W. (Singer)
  • Original format: photo, print, drawing
  • Catalog note: This is a digitized catalog card, not an audio recording.
  • Catalog note: Statement of responsibility: Sung by J. W. Green.
  • Catalog note: Cf. Child, no. 73

The held item.json is the authority for every field above. The card is a Photograph source entity, and its title and contributor labels stay the catalog’s rather than becoming song or biographical claims here.

The card’s AFS key answers to Fair Ellen (Fair Ellen). That is call-number arithmetic, and nothing on the card has been compared with the audio.

The catalog’s image URL is the digitized card image.

Provenance and limits

The card belongs to the Beaver Island subset of the Alan Lomax Collection of Michigan and Wisconsin Recordings, AFC 1939/007. Alan Lomax Beaver Island catalog-card photographs, 1933–1938 covers all 108 cards and the 71 held sound recordings beside them. What the card records is catalog metadata until someone sets it against the recording.

Open questions

  • Does the card’s own hand record anything the catalog transcription left out?

See also

Sources

  1. Held item.json identifies this item as a still image in the Traditional Music and Spoken Word Card Catalog and preserves its title, date, call number, contributor labels and LOC identifier.
    audio · lomax_michigan_1938_beaver_island · afc9999005.9580 · item

Added 31 July 2026 · revised 4 August 2026. Recent changes

Cite this article

Beaver Island Archive, “Fair Ellen”, https://beaverislandarchive.org/documents/lomax-card-afc9999005-9580/, accessed [date], citing Library of Congress, 'Fair Ellen', AFS Number: AFS 02277 B, digitized catalog-card photograph, 1938-08..

Last revised 2026-08-04. Fill in [date] with the date you read it — this page is static and cannot know that.

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