Helen Hartness Flanders

Infobox Person
name = Helen Hartness Flanders


caption = Helen Hartness Flanders ca. 1945.
birth_name = Helen Edith Hartness
birth_date = birth date|1890|5|19
birth_place = Springfield, Vermont
death_date = Death date|1972|5|23
death_place = Springfield, Vermont
resting_place = Summer Hill Cemetery, Springfield, Vermont
known_for = Collection of traditional ballads in New England
education = Dana Hall School
spouse = Ralph Flanders
children = 3
parents = James and Lena Hartness

Helen Hartness Flanders (May 19, 1890 – May 23, 1972), a native of the U.S. state of Vermont, was an internationally recognized ballad collector and an authority on the folk music found in New England and the British Isles. At the initiative of the Vermont Commission on Country Life, Flanders commenced a three-decade career capturing traditional songs that were sung in New England—songs that, in many cases, traced their origin to the British Isles. The timing of her life work was critical, coming as it did when people were turning away from traditional music in favor of listening to the radio. Today her nearly 4,500 field recordings, transcriptions and analyses are housed at the Flanders Ballad Collection at Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont and have been a resource for scholars and folk singers, since the establishment of the collection in 1941.

Biographical

Flanders was born in Springfield, Vermont. Her father was James Hartness, inventor, industrialist, and one-term Governor of Vermont, who headed the Jones and Lamson Machine Tool Company in that town. [cite book
last= Roe
first= Joseph W.
title= James Hartness—A Representative of the Machine Age at Its Best
year=1937
publisher= The American Society of Mechanical Engineers
location= New York] She graduated from the Dana Hall School in 1909, where she sang in the glee club and was a member of the school French club. [cite web
url = http://mail.danahall.org/~library/125yrs/flanders.html
title = Helen Hartness Flanders 1909 (1890–1972)
accessdate = 2007-11-30
publisher = Dana Hall School—Helen Temple Cool Library] In 1911 she married Ralph Flanders, a noted American mechanical engineer, industrialist and Republican U.S. Senator (1946–1959) from Vermont. She and her husband maintained homes in Springfield and Washington, DC where they entertained friends who included Dorothy Canfield Fisher and Robert Frost.cite book
last= Flanders
first= Ralph E.
title= Senator from Vermont
year=1961
publisher= Little, Brown & Company
location= Boston] They had three children: Elizabeth, (born in 1912), Anna (also known as Nancy—born in 1918), and James (born in 1923). [cite journal
last= Hailey
first= Jean R.
year=1972
date=1972-05-25
title= Helen H. Flanders, Widow of Senator, Dies at 82
journal=The Washington Post
pages=R6
location= Washington, D.C] Elizabeth helped her mother from time to time with collecting and transcribing tunes. cite web
url = http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/lis/about/library_info/special_collections/collections/flanders/
title = Flanders Ballad Collection
accessdate = 2007-11-30
publisher = Middlebury College] In addition to her writings on traditional ballads, Flanders published two small volumes of poetry [cite book
last= Flanders
first= Helen Hartness
authorlink=
title= A Garland of Green Mountain Song
year=1934
publisher= Vermont Commission on Country Life
location= Northfield, Vt. ] [cite book
last= Flanders
first= Helen Hartness
authorlink=
title= Looking out of Jimmie
year=1927
publisher= E.P. Dutton & Co.
location= New York] and one children's play. [cite book
last= Flanders
first= Helen Hartness
authorlink=
title= Gypsy Daisy came over the hills
year=1934
publisher= Springfield Printing Corporation
location= Springfield, Vt.] She traveled with her husband to the British Isles, Europe and Australia on various occasions.

Ballad and folk song collecting

Background

In 1930, Vermont Governor John E. Weeks invited Flanderscite journal
last=Seigel
first=Nancy-Jean
year=2003
month= Fall-Winter
title= Helen Hartness Flanders, the Green Mountain Songcatcher
journal= Voices, The Journal of New York Folklore
volume=29
url=http://www.nyfolklore.org/pubs/voic29-3-4/flanders.html] to join the Committee on Traditions and Ideals [cite journal
last= Seigel
first= Nancy-Jean
year=2001
month= Spring
title= Field Days in the Flanders Collection
journal= Folklife Center News, Library of Congress
pages=13–16] of the Vermont Commission on Country Life. [cite journal
last=Taylor
first=Henry C.
year=1930
month= January
title= The Vermont Commission on Country Life
journal=Journal of Farm Economics
volume=12
number=1
doi= 10.2307/1230357
pages= 164] That committee asked her to collect Vermont folk songs, which were passed along orally from one person to another. In the 1930s, people in New England were turning to music on the radio; as a result, interest in traditional songs was on the wane. Flanders understood that unless these songs were collected and recorded for posterity, they would die along with the people who sang them. [ cite journal
last=Noble
first=June
authorlink=
coauthors=William Noble
year=1978
month=June
title= Vermont’s first Lady of Folk Songs
journal= Yankee Magazine
pages=95–177] What began as a committee assignment became not just a hobby, but a passion. She continued collecting for three decades.

Collection methodology

The availability of portable recording devices was key to Flanders’s ability to collect music from singers in remote parts of New England. Initially, she recorded on wax cylinders; then from 1939 to 1949, on aluminum and acetate discs; and in later years, on reel-to-reel tapes. On occasions when electricity was not available in a singer’s home, Flanders plugged a recorder into the cigarette lighter of her car.

Flanders expanded her quest throughout New England and to New York State. The singers that she found came from all walks of life; the majority of them were elderly. Flanders made field recordings with George Brown in 1930, then with the occasional help of Phillips Barry between 1931 and 1937, and with Alan Lomax in 1939. From 1940–1958 Flanders continued to collect, but Marguerite Olney [cite web
url = http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afcphhtml/afcphbio.html#MO
title = Marguerite Olney
accessdate = 2007-11-30
publisher = The American Folklife Center, Library of Congress] was responsible for major contributions both in the collection management and in the field.

Between 1930 and 1939, Flanders focused mostly on collecting Child ballads. This explains the proportionately large number of those ballads on cylinders. Of the 150 recordings made on disc with Alan Lomax, there were songs, stories and fiddle tunes. Over time, the scope of the field recordings would include religious songs, children's songs, 19th-century American popular songs, dance tunes, as well as folktales.

George Brown, his mother, Alice Brown, Phillips Barry, Marguerite Olney and Elizabeth Flanders Ballard all made musical transcriptions of songs for Flanders's publications. An index of all the field recordings (collected between 1930 and 1958) was published in 1983. [cite book
last= Quinn
first= Jennifer P.
title= An Index to the Field Recordings in the Flanders Ballad Collection at Middlebury College, Middlebury, Vermont
year=1983
publisher= Middlebury College
location=Middlebury, Vermont]

The collection and its significance

In 1941 when there was no longer enough space to store the collection in Flanders’s home, she donated it to Middlebury College in Vermont. Today the Flanders Ballad Collection is housed in Special Collections and includes not only her papers but nearly 4,500 field recordings. Copies of these recordings are also available at the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress and at Harvard University. The American Folklife Center also has files of Flanders’s correspondence.

Flanders demonstrated that when songs migrated from the British Isles or Europe, the texts would sometimes undergo changes as singers inserted details from their life in the new world. For example, the "Yorkshire Bite" became the "New Hampshire Bite." [cite book
last= Flanders
first= Helen Hartness
authorlink=
coauthors= Marguerite Olney
title= Ballads Migrant in New England
year=1953
publisher= Farrar, Straus, and Young
location= New York] Many of the stories in these ballads and folksongs describe aspects of life in New England and Colonial history.

In recognition of her accomplishments as a ballad collector, Middlebury College awarded Flanders an honorary Master of Arts in 1942. She was a member of the National Committee of the National Folk Festival Association and vice president of the Folksong Society of the Northeast. In 1966, the Vermont House of Representatives added Flanders's name to the state's Roll of Distinction in the Arts.cite web
url = http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/afcphhtml/afcphbio.html#HF
title = Helen Hartness Flanders
accessdate = 2007-11-30
publisher = The American Folklife Center, Library of Congress]

Legacy

Promoting an interest in traditional ballads

Flanders was the author of eight books on ballads and folk music; she also wrote pamphlets, newspaper and magazine articles, and two books of poetry. She wrote a regular column on ballads for the [http://www.masslive.com/ Springfield Sunday Union and Republican] (Massachusetts) during the 1930s.

Performers of traditional ballads

Through their concerts and recordings, numerous folksingers have promoted interest in the Flanders Ballad Collection. Foremost among these is ballad singer Margaret MacArthur (1928-2006) who moved to Vermont in the late 1940s. [cite web
url = http://www.marlboro.edu/about/news/pr/2007/3/1/macarthur
title = Musicians Pay Tribute to Vermont Folk Legend
accessdate = 2007-11-30
publisher = Marlboro College] During their ten-year friendship, Flanders encouraged her singing and gave her copies of the field recordings. Although also a collector of traditional songs in New England, MacArthur was especially known in the United States and abroad for her repertoire (and many recordings) of songs derived from the Flanders Collection. [cite web
url = http://www.loc.gov/folklife/events/HomegrownArchives/0405-folklifeconcerts_files/MacArthur.pdf
title = Voice and Dulcimer Traditional Music from Vermont
last = Beck
first = Jane
year = 2005
accessdate = 2007-11-30
publisher = The American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
format=PDF] In recent years, Vermonter Deborah Flanders has performed and recorded songs collected by her great-aunt Helen. [cite web
url = http://www.deborahflanders.net
title = Deb Flanders
accessdate = 2007-11-30]

Flanders Ballad Collection at Middlebury College

The Flanders Ballad Collection at Middlebury College is organized, as follows:
#Materials related to field collecting, 1930-1958: The original field recordings consist of 254 wax cylinders. Those recorded on discs comprise the largest body with a variety of songs, a few interviews and stories. Flanders made 77 discs with Alan Lomax, which are catalogued in the Library of Congress. There are 60 discs that contain songs recorded in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine between 1940 and 1947; and 61 that contain fiddle and dance music from all the New England states (16 collected with Alan Lomax); nine discs of fife music made in Massachusetts; and from the 1950s, approximately 55 tapes made on a reel-to-reel recorder.
#Manuscript and typescript materials derived directly from field research, 1930-60: Flanders and Marguerite Olney subdivided song texts into the following categories: Child ballads (89 titles), 635 other British song titles (broadsides and others), and 593 American titles. Among these, there were 114 "stage songs" (British and American popular songs from the 19th-early 20th centuries), 73 religious titles and 122 children's songs.
#Correspondence, publication materials, lectures and exhibits derived largely from field work, 1931-1967: including Flanders’s correspondence with scholars, articles about her collecting experiences; information about ballad lectures given over a 30 year period throughout New England and in the Washington, D.C. area.
#Supporting materials not directly related to field work, 1930-1960: original manuscripts, copybooks, and miscellaneous sheets which contain over 300 songs and tunes—including ballads, broadsides, fiddle and fife tunes which were transcribed between the 18th and the early 20th centuries.
#Collection administration, 1940-1967: papers relating to the general operation of the collection.
#Personal papers, 1941-65: a limited number personal notes from friends of Helen Flanders and photographs of members of the Flanders family.

References

Bibliography

* cite book
last= Flanders
first= Helen Hartness
authorlink=
title= A Garland of Green Mountain Song
year=1934
publisher= Vermont Commission on Country Life
location= Northfield, Vt.
* cite book
last= Flanders
first= Helen Hartness
authorlink=
title= Gypsy Daisy came over the hills
year=1934
publisher= Springfield Printing Corporation
location= Springfield, Vt.
* cite book
last= Flanders
first= Helen Hartness
authorlink=
title= Looking out of Jimmie
year=1927
publisher= E.P. Dutton & Co.
location= New York
* cite book
last= Flanders
first= Helen Hartness
authorlink=
coauthors=George Brown
title= Vermont Folk-Songs & Ballads
year=1932
publisher= Stephen Daye Press
location= Brattleboro, Vt.
* cite journal
last= Flanders
first= Helen Hartness
authorlink=
year=1939
month= June
title= The quest for Vermont ballads
journal= Proceedings of the Vermont Historical Society
volume= VII
issue=2
pages=53–72
* cite book
last= Flanders
first= Helen Hartness
authorlink=
title= Country Songs of Vermont
year=1937
publisher= G. Schirmer, Inc.
location= New York
* cite journal
last= Flanders
first= Helen Hartness
authorlink=
year=1939
month= June
title= Index of ballads and folk-songs in the Archive of Vermont Folk-Songs at Smiley Manse, Springfield, Vermont
journal= Proceedings of the Vermont Historical Society
volume= VII
issue=2
pages=73–97
* cite book
last= Flanders
first= Helen Hartness
authorlink=
coauthors=E.F. Ballard, G. Brown and P. Barry
title= The New Green Mountain Songster: Traditional Folk Songs of Vermont
year=1939
publisher= Yale University Press
location= New Haven
* cite book
last= Flanders
first= Helen Hartness
authorlink=
coauthors= Marguerite Olney
title= Ballads Migrant in New England
year=1953
publisher= Farrar, Straus, and Young
location= New York
* cite book
last= Flanders
first= Helen Hartness
authorlink=
title= Ancient Ballads Traditionally Sung in New England, Volumes 1-4
year=1960-1965
publisher= University of Pennsylvania Press
location= Philadelphia

Further reading

* cite journal
last= Johnson
first= Sally
year=1991
month= Spring
title= Helen Hartness Flanders Preserved Vermont's Folk Music Traditions
journal= Vermont Life
volume=
issue=
pages=
id=
url=http://users.adelphia.net/~debflanders/Pages/vlife.htm
accessdate=
* cite journal
last=Seigel
first=Nancy-Jean
year=2003
month= Fall-Winter
title= Helen Hartness Flanders, the Green Mountain Songcatcher
journal= Voices, The Journal of New York Folklore
volume=29
url=http://www.nyfolklore.org/pubs/voic29-3-4/flanders.html
* cite journal
last= Seigel
first= Nancy-Jean
year=2001
month= Spring
title= Field Days in the Flanders Collection
journal= Folklife Center News, Library of Congress
pages=13–16
* cite journal
last= Seigel
first= Nancy-Jean
year=1999
month= Winter
title= Ballad Collector from New England
journal= English Dance and Song Magazine
pages=6–7
* cite journal
last=Noble
first=June
authorlink=
coauthors=William Noble
year=1978
month=June
title= Vermont’s first Lady of Folk Songs
journal= Yankee Magazine
pages=95–177
* cite journal
last= Bergman
first= Vonda
year=1954
date= 1954-12-26
title= She Is a Ballad Hunter
journal=The Washington Post and Times Herald
volume=
issue=
pages= F16
location= Washington, D.C.
* cite journal
last= McNair
first= Marie
year=1948
date=1948-1-16
title= Mrs. Flanders to Speak On Her Hobby, Old Songs
journal= The Washington Post
pages= C1
location= Washington, D.C.