Singing his praises Preservationists at the Library of Congress recognize the contributions of ‘Sandy Ives, Maine’s preeminent recorder of oral history

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Back in the 1950s, when Edward “Sandy” Ives pushed the start button on his tape player to capture the songs of lumbermen and river drivers in the Northeast woods, he had no idea that more than half a century later, the recordings would link him to Mick Jagger, Cole Porter, Allen Ginsberg, Sam Cooke, Paul Simon and The Ronettes.

But Ives should get used to the company. His collection of six interviews with William “Billy” Bell, a millworker and singer from Brewer, is one of 25 recordings named earlier this month to the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. Like the recording of Ginsberg reading “Howl” and the Rolling Stones performing “Satisfaction,” the Ives interview will be digitally safeguarded in the halls of the largest library in the world.

“This is an honor for Sandy Ives, but also for Maine. It recognizes that Maine’s traditions are significant,” said Pauleena MacDougall, associate director at the Maine Folklife Center, founded by Ives at the University of Maine in Orono as an archival collection specializing in Maine and Eastern Canada.

Not only that, said archivist Pamela Dean, Ives’ presence in the registry “affirms the value of the kind of research work we do at the Maine Folklife Center – the preservation of a more enriched and complete account of the past for our community and for creating a national history that is more inclusive than the written accounts we have to rely on. It’s not just the songs. It’s what they mean to the community from which they came, why they sang them and why they passed them on.”

The same philosophy drives the sound archivists at the Library of Congress, too. In 2000, Congress passed the National Recording Preservation Act charging the Librarian of Congress to make selections to preserve in the National Registry. Each year, a national board comprised of leaders in the fields of music, recorded sound and preservation nominate recordings for consideration. Then the Librarian of Congress annually chooses 25 finalists that are “culturally, historically or aesthetically significant” and therefore worthy to be preserved for all time. So far, the registry has a total of 225 recordings.

The lists often consist primarily of music. This year’s includes “Wildwood Flower” by the Carter Family and “Live in Japan” by Sarah Vaughn. But recorded sound comes in many forms. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1941 “infamy” speech after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, a National Defense Test for radio, a 1937 episode of “The Lone Ranger” and a 1960 comedy album by Bob Newhart also made the cut. (For a complete list of the 2006 additions, see accompanying sidebar.)

Ives, whose fieldwork has been internationally recognized as groundbreaking, is the only folklorist this year.

“If you think about all recorded sound being around for over a century – from horses to steam engines to modern technology – it’s a tremendous aural record of the century,” said Gene DeAnna, head of the library’s recorded sound section in the Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division. “A list like this is just a jumping-off point. It’s a way into it. Sandy’s collection represents all those other local collections in the field for a hundred years now.”

The sheer number of sound recordings – 2.8 million at the Library of Congress alone – makes being named to the registry a bit like winning the lottery, said DeAnna. “Many, many other recordings are aging, if not deteriorating, every day,” he added. “Sandy was influential and made such important recordings. This means their heritage will be preserved. It’s going to be one of the ones we get to.”

Since 1904, the Library has collected audio and radio broadcast recordings from the 19th century to the present. The collection, which is primarily American in scope, includes nearly every medium ever used to collect sound from wax cylinders to 78-rpm discs to CDs.

Burt Feintuch, professor of English and Folklore at the University of New Hampshire, nominated Ives to assure that landmark oral history and ethnographic recordings of everyday life are among the registry’s contents. Feintuch has been aware of Ives’ work for many years and considers him an exemplar in the field.

“Sandy influenced me deeply,” Fientuch wrote in an e-mail. “When I was a young academic, I reviewed his book ‘Joe Scott, The Woodsman-Songmaker.’ I thought it was one of the best things I’d ever read – deeply feelingful, deeply rooted in place, remarkably well researched and written. I think that among contemporary academics who do this sort of grass-roots culture oral history and field recording, Sandy is one of the very finest, probably the very best of all. Generations of students, and many professional colleagues, have been changed by his work, inspired.”

David Taylor is one such student. A native of Fairfield, Taylor enrolled in anthropology classes in the 1970s at the University of Maine in Orono, where Ives was his professor. The young student thought his work would focus on exotic cultures in faraway lands.

Instead, Ives sent him to towns in Maine.

“Sandy allowed me to think about my own cultural context growing up in Maine,” said Taylor, who is now head of research and programs at the American Folklife Center in Washington, D.C. “He used local examples. The fieldwork I did during my time with him was interviewing Maine people about their lives.”

The addition of Ives’ recordings to a registry made up primarily of more famous recordings is a fitting placement for a scholar whose focus was the working classes, added Taylor.

“The fact that his oral history interviews with average people are classified with other more famous recordings is profound and totally correct,” said Taylor. “It values the knowledge of individuals, which relates to their individual culture and individual creativity. He captured the sounds of men talking about their lives as woodsmen and river drivers. It is primary documentation of the best kind in aural form. These are immediate windows to the past of the most dramatic source. In terms of cultural documentation, this is pure gold.”

Ives, who was born in 1925, grew up in a middle-class family in White Plains, N.Y., served in the Marines, studied literature in college and, in the 1950s, became an English instructor at UM. Performing folk ballads to supplement his income brought him into contact with the rich singing traditions in lumber camps in Maine.

It didn’t take long for Ives to realize he had found his calling. His approach to recording personal lives and cultural traditions put him, and the students he sent out into the field, at the forefront of oral history practices. Ives’ book about how to conduct fieldwork is still used today.

Now a professor emeritus, Ives lives with his wife, Barbara, in Bucksport. At 82, he no longer conducts the interviews that won him respect among his colleagues. But he remembers the work well and fondly.

“I was interested in the songs that people sang, the guys in the lumber camps,” said Ives. “I knew there were song makers and that their songs were passed on by oral tradition. To record the music, I have to go to the people who knew the songs.”

Through the years, Ives’ work has received considerable accolades. He has several honorary doctorates and received a Guggenheim fellowship for his research. Being named to the National Recording Registry brings yet another validation for a topic he was hooked on early in his career.

“These songs that were not considered beautiful by musicians,” said Ives. “I think I helped make the point that there was a tradition of singing among ordinary people.”

He still enjoys listening to music, he said. His hearing is compromised these days. But still, he added, “I’m hearing music all the time in my head.”

The rest of the world can count on the Library of Congress to make sure those songs are available for generations to come and to recognize the importance of oral history – and its preeminent recorder – in Maine.

2006 selections to National Recording Registry

To be added to the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress, recordings must be culturally, historically or aesthetically significant, and at least 10 years old. The 2006 selections, which span from 1904 to 1986, follow in chronological order. For more information about the registry, visit www.loc.gov.

1. “Uncle Josh and the Insurance Agent,” Cal Stewart (1904)

2. “Il mio tesoro,” John McCormack, orchestra conducted by Walter Rogers (1916)

3. National Defense Test, Sept. 12, 1924 (1924)

4. “Black Bottom Stomp,” Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers (1926)

5. “Wildwood Flower,” The Carter Family (1928)

6. “Pony Blues,” Charley Patton (1929)

7. “You’re the Top,” Cole Porter (1934)

8. “The Osage Bank Robbery,” episode of “The Lone Ranger” (Dec. 17, 1937)

9. Address to Congress, Dec. 8, 1941, Franklin D. Roosevelt (1941)

10. Native Brazilian Music, recorded under the supervision of Leopold Stokowski (1942)

11. “Peace in the Valley,” Red Foley and the Sunshine Boys (1951)

12. Chopin Polonaise, op. 40, no. 1 (“Polonaise militaire”), Artur Rubinstein (1952)

13. “Blue Suede Shoes,” Carl Perkins (1955)

14. Interviews with William “Billy” Bell, recorded by Edward D. Ives (1956), representing the Edward D. Ives Collection held at the Maine Folklife Center, University of Maine at Orono and the Archives of Traditional Music at Indiana University in Bloomington

15. “Howl,” Allen Ginsberg (1959)

16. “The Button-Down Mind of Bob Newhart,” Bob Newhart (1960)

17. “Be My Baby,” The Ronettes (1963)

18. “We Shall Overcome,” Pete Seeger (1963) recording of Pete Seeger’s June 8, 1963, Carnegie Hall concert

19. “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction,” Rolling Stones. (1965)

20. “A Change is Gonna Come,” Sam Cooke (1965)

21. “Velvet Underground and Nico,” Velvet Underground (1967)

22. “The Eighty-Six Years of Eubie Blake,” Eubie Blake (1969)

23. “The Wailers Burnin’,” The Wailers (1973)

24. “Live in Japan,” Sarah Vaughan (1973)

25. “Graceland,” Paul Simon (1986)