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Ivan Walton Collection of Great Lakes Songs
The legacy left by Ivan Walton (1893-1968), who taught literature and folklore at The
University of Michigan, is beyond measure. For more than thirty years he researched and
collected the songs of Great Lake sailors and documented their way of life and that of their
families. He was honored posthumously with a Michigan Heritage Award for his immeasurable
contribution to our understanding of maritime folklore, especially that of the era of the
schooner.
His field collections (audiotapes and transcripts, interviews, photos, correspondence,
field notes and logs, papers of the Michigan Folklore Society) are preserved in the archives of
the Bentley Historical Library, The University of Michigan. Partial copies are also available at
the Library of Congress Archive of Folk Culture and the archives of Michigan State University
Museum. The collection at the MSU Museum measures 16 linear feet, of which the audiotapes are
central. Included in the collection are examples of folksongs, original reel-to-reel cassettes,
documentary materials, transcripts, photographs and commentary, and note cards.
[NOTE: For a biographical sketch and photo of Walton, see Michigan Heritage Awards
website
http://museum.msu.edu/s-program/MH_awards/mha.html
Collector:
Ivan Walton.
Donor:
Wayne State University Folklore Archives.
Related Collections
Great Lakes Maritime Collections
Phyllis Ellison Waterfowling Collection
Hy Dahlka Waterfowling Collection
Michigan Thumb Area Traditions Project Collection
Publications:
Joe Grimm. Windjammers: Songs of the Great Lakes Sailors. Detroit, Mich.:
Wayne State University Press, 2002.
Joe Grimm. Songquest. Detroit: Wayne State University Press. Forthcoming.
Laurie K. Sommers. Beaver
Island House Party. East Lansing, Mich.: Michigan State University
Press, 1996.
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