Moses on Writing

            Now that I have finished my second box of digitizing I feel like I have the hang of things and am indeed- as one of the other interns said- becoming a robot.  I am at over two thousand digitized items and nearing halfway through the first step of my third box.  As my internship starts winding down, I become more and more intent on finishing as much as possible before I leave to graduate back in Florida.  The idea that I have digitized and found the metadata for so many letters alone isn’t the main source of work I have encountered.  It is reading all of those letters and picking out what is important in them, as I may have mentioned before.  Finding gems are one of the best parts of the job especially when I can relate to them.  That’s one of the best parts about digitizing.  You can find things to relate to that you never knew existed.  

Property of the Ralph Rinzler Archives, Smithsonian

               This is one of the letters that caught my attention.  In a letter to Nancy Brown, Moses Asch shows a very human side of himself that is ordinarily difficult to find.  Asch was so driven towards his goal that oftentimes that is all that could be seen in his letters and his work.  Like I talked about in my last post, sometimes people forgot that he was a human who had human problems and emotions.  (Maybe they thought he was a robot, too!)  

               The discussion about writer’s block and the “creative artist” was something I had never seen Asch talk about before.  It was almost sentimental and he was exhibiting a lot of personality.  In a way it was a pep talk.  This was a wonderful change from the other letters where he had to defend the contracts his artists had signed.    He was supportive of Nancy Brown and her creativity, even if it meant delving away from the children’s music that was so popular in the 70s.  

               Though I must warn, what is digitized is not always all that is there.  There is more out there than what the internet can show you.  Never stop looking just because you think the internet and digital mediums are good enough.  Digital resources should NEVER replace physical contact and the desire that curiosity produces.  

Maybe it’s a good thing that teleportation isn’t invented yet…

Ever since the internet has caught on the feeling of wanting to reach through the screen and smack someone has become a feeling that almost everyone has felt.  I don’t condone bending physics in order to cause someone pain- even if it is to smack some sense into them.  However, I do understand the frustration that it creates.  My most recent experience was during my digitization work. 

               In order to properly enter the metadata for documents you have to inspect every single one.  In my case, this means reading a lot of different letters by different people.  It is always interesting to see the breadth of people that communicated with Folkways Records.  Lately I have been battling to finish the last of my box with at least half a dozen folders of the same person. (Note: It ISN'T Langston Hughes!)  He made a good number of records for Folkways of cultural music.  The first one or two folders seemed to be similar to other correspondence I had seen.  There are exorbitant numbers of people who were insulted by Moses Asch’s delayed response to the mail received.  Looking at this from an outside perspective, gaining more and more knowledge of Moses Asch as I digitize more, I found that those insulted had no empathy for the Folkways project.

               During the time Folkways made it’s over two thousand records, the amount of paper going in and out of the company was quite large.  Some of the individual artists or others who wanted their records to be bought and sold by Folkways seemed to completely forget the fact that there were tons of other people writing to Folkways.  The particular person I was working on digitizing seemed to ignore the fact that Folkways was juggling a number of different people and records besides just him.  He would send letters complaining about the lack of correspondence when only two weeks had gone by.  Not to mention that Folkways was located in New York and the artist was in Hawaii.  

               It is not only the amount of paper that Folkways had to shift through and respond to, it was also the events that happened during the course of the record making.  Moses Asch was hospitalized with a compound fracture and bone infection that took a long time to heal completely.  Also, during the course of the Folkways company Marian Distler, the true- or at least legal- “head honcho” of Folkways Records passed away. 

               To an extent this person expressed sympathy, but he would continue to push more recordings onto Folkways during a time where there was very little money for anything to actually happen.  No matter how many times it was expressed that Folkways did not have the budget for more records that would not sell many copies, the person kept trying to sell more of his records, ignoring everything that was said to him when he was responded to.  Quite frankly, I would have stopped replying to the man if I was in Moses’ position. 

               So far I haven’t attempted to reach through the screen into the past to smack some sense into this person.  I have been very tempted to, though.  It is a good reminder that you should never think yourself as all-knowing about someone else’s life or affairs.  You can never truly understand what someone is going through or see what position they are in.  All you really can go by is by what they tell you.  Sometimes even getting the entire story won’t be enough, as in this case, but at that point it’s really up to the person to look at the entire picture and not just the small window which suits them best.      

Cinderella

 This was a relatively big week.  The first notable thing was that I met my 1,000 digitized item mark and well exceeded it. I have now digitized around 1300 items!  It’s a personal goal and I feel relatively proud of my progress so far!

I was also able to attend one of the Benjamin Botkin Folklife Lecture Series at the Library of Congress.  The lecture was given by Margaret Yocom from George Mason University.  The lecture came at a perfect time- I had recently returned from a weekend home with my niece.  One of her favorite movies currently is Disney’s “Cinderella.”  The lecture I went to happened to be about a lesser known Cinderella than the mainstream, less gruesome and politically incorrect version that the Brothers Grimm originally created.  Even before other authors changed the original version, the Grimm Brothers edited their own version to change with the times.  However, the themes that stuck were incest and fur.  Those are two things that current Cinderella models leave out completely.  Cinderella in the Grimm Brothers’ versions was called “Allerleirauh” which translates into “all kinds of fur.”  

It wasn’t the story itself- as terrifying and odd as the original version is- that got my attention.  It was the mysteries that Dr. Yocom solved to find the origins of Cinderella.  She analyzed the works and illustrations in a way that allowed her to learn new things about folklore and the stories of Allerleirauh and Cinderella.  What kind of parallels could have been drawn between the previous versions and those of today had the manuscripts been digitized and preserved as we are doing with the Moses Asch project?  This can extend to all manuscripts that have been completely or partially destroyed or lost.  I am currently digitizing letters between Folkways and everyone that contacted it.  Will this help people draw different types of connections in the future if something happens to the originals?  

The lecture was not only interesting- and a great topic for dinner conversation- it also allowed questions about my current work to grow.  These are the best kind of lectures, I think.  The brain wasn’t made to just listen, it was made to process and apply what we hear to help up create or understand other things.

The week ended with meetings at the Dibner and Cullman libraries.  These libraries contain the American History and Natural History museum’s rare book collection.  It was a dream come true.  I have always loved museums, but there’s something about rare books that draws me in more completely.  

However, it was my trip to the Natural History museum store that led me back to Moses Asch.  One of the people working at the store and I started talking about Folkways records.  She was so excited to hear about my internship and what I was doing with the Smithsonian.  Her interest in Moses Asch was a great way to see that this project was going to be important to people- even people you just happen to meet.  My conversation with the Smithsonian employee really made Moses Asch seem like a superstar of the Smithsonian!