![john and allen lomax john and allen lomax](https://s.hdnux.com/photos/17/46/34/4089615/7/1200x0.jpg)
Lomax urged the collection of Texas folklore: “Two rich and practically unworked fields in Texas are found in the large Negro and Mexican populations of the state.” He adds, “Here are many problems of research that lie close at hand, not buried in musty tomes and incomplete records, but in vital human personalities.” These were oral traditions that changed with every new generation.
![john and allen lomax john and allen lomax](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/e8/ee/cb/e8eecb20c802f03c67b3bb3db8d9096e.jpg)
In the inaugural issue of the Publications of the Texas Folklore Society, John A. By April 1910, there were ninety-two charter members (one of whom was Lomax’s former student, John B. The two set out to marshal support, and a month later, Killis Campbell, an associate professor at the university, publicly proposed the formation of the society at a meeting of the Texas State Teachers Association in Dallas. On Thanksgiving Day, 1909, Lomax nominated Payne as president of the society, and Payne nominated Lomax as secretary. Lomax and Payne hoped that the society would further their own research while kindling an interest in folklore among like-minded Texans. Some of the most famous songs in the book - “Get Along Little Doggies,” “Sam Bass,” and “Home on the Range” were credited to black cowboys.Īround the same time, Lomax and Professor Leonidas Payne of the University of Texas at Austin co-founded the Texas Folklore Society, following Kittredge’s suggestion that Lomax establish a Texas branch of the American Folklore Society. From the first, John Lomax insisted on the racial inclusiveness of American folklore. Included were “The Buffalo Skinners,” which George Lyman Kittredge called “one of the greatest western ballads” and which was praised for its Homeric quality by Carl Sandburg and Virgil Thompson. The resulting anthology, Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads, published in 1910, with an introduction by President Theodore Roosevelt, made him famous. Encouraged by Wendell, he applied for, and was awarded, a Sheldon grant to research and collect cowboy songs. Both Wendell and Kittredge continued to play an important advisory role in his career long after he returned to Texas the following year, Master of Arts degree in hand, to resume his teaching position at A&M. He moved to become a graduate student at Harvard for the chance to work with the scholars. In 1907 Lomax learned of two scholars at Harvard University, Barrett Wendell and George Lyman Kittredge, who actively encouraged research into folklore. English Literature was culture, cowboy songs were sentimental trivia. He felt the depth of artistic expression but couldn’t find anyone interested in documenting it.
![john and allen lomax john and allen lomax](https://www.lomax1934.com/uploads/7/9/4/5/7945221/2380719_orig.jpg)
His early interest in cowboy songs never really left him. In 1903 he accepted an offer to teach English at Texas A&M University and settled down with his new wife, Bess Brown Lomax. After graduation he worked as the University of Texas as registrar, manager of Brackenridge Hall (the men’s dormitory on campus), and personal secretary to the President of the University.
![john and allen lomax john and allen lomax](https://pictures.abebooks.com/inventory/30648425308.jpg)
Lomax focused his attentions on more mainstream academic pursuits. He showed them to an English professor, only to have them discounted as simple, cheap and unworthy, prompting him to take the bundle behind the men’s dormitory and burn it. He brought with him a roll of cowboy songs he had written down in childhood. In 1895, at age 28, Lomax entered the University of Texas at Austin to study English literature. He became fascinated it the ability of the simple ballads to give voice to the stories of their lives. He was surrounded by the music of the rural Texan countryside. He was raised on a farm and lived the life of a Texas farmer for the first 28 years of his life. Lomax was born in Goodman, Mississippi and grew up in central Texas. John Avery Lomax (September 23rd, 1867 – January 26th, 1948) was a pioneering musicologist and folklorist. With the help and support of the Library of Congress many (or most) of the collected recordings and images (including videos) of John and Alan Lomax are now available on-line. Photo by John Lomax, Library of Congress LOT 7414-B, no.Edited and expanded from research from Wikipedia and other sources by Leonard Wyeth Tapes include performances by Breaux Brothers Band, Hoffpauir Sisters, Segura Brothers Band, Wayne Perry, Jimmy Peters, and others. Provided by the Library of Congress in the American Folklife Center. John and Alan Lomax Collection - Audio - DetailsĬopies of discs recorded by American folklorists and authors John and Alan Lomax around Acadiana during a 1934 trip.