‘Print is Much Safer than MS’: The Fate of Folklore and Folk Song Collections in the Isle of Man
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5334/kula.26Keywords:
Isle of Man, Folklore, Folk Song, Celtic Revival, Lost CollectionsAbstract
The Isle of Man in the 1890s saw remarkable activity in the collecting of folklore and folk song, both in English and Manx Gaelic. This was followed by a further wave of collectors in the next decade, enthused by the Celtic Revival. Much of the material collected has now been lost for a variety of reasons detailed in this article. The most significant loss was that of the cylinder recordings made by the Manx Language Society between 1905 and 1913. Several collectors expressed concern in their lifetime about the survival of their papers, but this did little to prevent the loss of the collections they amassed. Such a fragmented record has consequences in researching what does now survive.
Downloads
Metrics
References
Brady, Erika. 1999. A Spiral Way: How the Phonograph Changed Ethnography. University Press of Mississippi: Jackson.
Broadwood, Lucy E. 1925. “Preface [Songs from the Isle of Man (Part ii)].” Journal of the Folk-Song Society, 7(29): v.
Broderick, George [as “Shorys y Creayrie”]. n.d. 1983. “Recording Native Manx Speech.” For a Celtic Future: A Tribute to Alan Heusaff, Cathal Ó. Luain (ed.), 308–20. Dublin: The Celtic League.
Clayton, Martin. 1996. “Ethnographic Wax Cylinders at the British Library National Sound Archives: A Brief History and Description of the Collection.” British Journal of Ethnomusicology, 5: 67–92. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09681229608567248
Cubbon, William. 1935. “Dr John Clague’s Collection of Folk-tunes.” Journal of the Manx Museum, 3(44): 51a.
Gruber, Jacob W. 1970. “Ethnographic Salvage and the Shaping of Anthropology.” American Anthropologist, 72(6): 1289–99. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1970.72.6.02a00040
H. M. Government. 1903. Census—1901: Islands in the British Seas. Cd. 1473. London: HMSO.
Kaplan, Alice Yaeger. 1990. “Working in the Archives.” Yale French Studies, 77: 103–16. DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/2930149
Kneen, J. J. 1925. “The Secretary’s Report.” 26th Annual Meeting held in the Town Hall, Douglas, on Saturday, Nov. 14th, 1925, 2–7. n.p.: Manx Language Society.
Kovács, Sándor. 1993. “The Ethnomusicologist.” The Bartók Companion. Malcolm Gillies (ed.), 51–63. London: Faber and Faber.
Lechleitner, Gerda, and Ulla Remmer (eds.). 2003. The Collections of Rudolf Trebitsch: Celtic Recordings—Ireland, Wales, Brittany, Isle of Man, and Scotland (1907–09). Series 5/2. Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften.
List, George. 1958a. “A Short History of the Cylinder Phonograph [Part 1].” The Folklore and Folk Music Archivist, 1(2): [3].
List, George. 1958b. “A Short History of the Cylinder Phonograph [Part 2].” The Folklore and Folk Music Archivist, 1(3): [3].
List, George. 1958c. “The Reproduction of Cylinder Recordings [Part 1].” The Folklore and Folk Music Archivist 1(4): [2–3].
Miller, Stephen. 1993. “A.W. Moore: An Interim Checklist of Writings on Manx Folkways.” Manx Notes: Folkways and Language, 10: 1–2.
Miller, Stephen. 2017. “The Manx Language Society (2): First Annual Report (1899).” Manx Notes: Folkways and Language, 283: 1–6.
Morrison, Sophia. 1905. “The Secretary’s Report.” Annual Meeting, 3–7. n.p.: Manx Language Society.
Morrison, Sophia. 1906. “Secretary’s Report.” Annual Meeting of the Manx Language Society, held in the Librarian’s Room, Public Library, Douglas, on Thursday, November 22, 1906, 4–7. n.p.: Manx Language Society.
Myers, Charles S. 1907. “The Ethnological Study of Music. Appendix: The Manipulation of the Phonograph.” Anthropological Essays presented to Edward Burnett Tylor, Northcote W. Thomas (ed.), 249–53. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Quayle, J. E. 1937. “Manx Music.” Proceedings of the Isle of Man Natural History and Antiquarian Society, 4(2): 240–50.
Rehding, Alexander. 2005. “Wax Cylinder Revolutions.” The Musical Quarterly, 88(1): 123–60. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/musqtl/gdi004.
Remmer, Ulla. 2003. “Rudolf Trebitsch and the Celtic Languages.” The Collections of Rudolf Trebitsch: Celtic Recordings—Ireland, Wales, Brittany, Isle of Man, and Scotland (1907–09), Gerda Lechleitner, and Ulla Remmer, (eds.), 16 col. b–23 col. a. Series 5/2. Sound Documents from the Phonogrammarchiv of the Austrian Academy of Sciences: The Complete Historical Collections 1899–1950. Vienna: Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften.
Roeder, Charles. 1902. “Letter to the Editor.” Isle of Man Examiner, April 26: 6a.
Savage, Canon Ernest B. 1905. “The President’s Address.” Annual Meeting, 1–3. n.p.: Manx Language Society.
Trebitsch, Rudolf. 1909. “Phonographische Aufnahmen der Welschen Sprache in Wales, der Manxschen Sprache auf der Insel Man, der Gälischen Sprache in Schottland und eines Musikinstrumentes in Schottland.” Anzeiger der Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften (Philosophisch-Historische Klasse), xlvi: 156–80.
Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh. 1905. “Balance Sheet from Hollantide 1904, to Hollantide, 1905.” Annual Meeting, 1905. n.p.: Manx Language Society, 7.
Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh. 1906. “Balance Sheet from Hollantide, 1905, to Hollantide, 1906.” Annual Meeting of the Manx Language Society, held in the Librarian’s Room, Public Library, Douglas, on Thursday, November 22, 1906, 3–4. n.p.: Manx Language Society.
Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh. 1908, 3. “Balance Sheet.” Annual Meeting of the Manx Language Society, held in Empire House, Promenade, Douglas, on Tuesday, March 24th, 1908, 3. n.p.: Manx Language Society.
Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh. 1909a. “The Balance Sheet.” Annual Meeting of the Manx Language Society, held in Empire House, Central Promenade, Douglas, on Tuesday, March 23th, 1909, 3. n.p.: Manx Language Society.
Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh. 1909b. Annual Meeting of the Manx Language Society, held in Empire House, Central Promenade, Douglas, on Tuesday, March 23th, 1909. n.p.: Manx Language Society.
Manuscripts:
Manx National Heritage Library (Douglas, Isle of Man).
First Series
MS 221 A. A.W. Moore, Manx ‘Odds & Ends’.
MS 448/1–3 A. Dr John Clague Collection.
MS 449 B. Dr John Clague Collection.
MS 450/1–24 A. Notebooks compiled by Dr John Clague.
MS 1086 C. Letters from Sophia Morrison to J.J. Kneen (1904–14).
MS 1185 A. Letters from Rev. John Kewley to G.W. Wood (1911–17).
MS 1277 A. Letters from T.E. Brown to A.W. Moore (1892–97).
MS 1513 B. Letters from Sophia Morrison to J.J. Kneen (1908–15).
MS 5606 A. Letter from John Nelson to William Cubbon (28 November 1906).
New Series
MS 09495, Sophia Morrison Papers, Boxes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7.
MS 09702, Deemster J.F. Gill Papers, Box 2.
Photographic Archive
File Persons, Gill I.
Scrapbooks
J48-13XF
Yn Cheshaght Ghailckagh (Thie ny Gaelgey, St Jude’s, Isle of Man)
Minute Book [1899–1913].
Manchester City Archives (Manchester, England)
M277/12/1–65. Scrapbook compiled by Karl Roeder.
In Family Hands
C.I. Paton, Personal Diary (1905–49).
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2018 Stephen Miller
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
