An Anonymous Patron writes “This Says the Archive of American Folk Song was founded in 1928 within the Library’s Music Division and curated by fabled folklorist John Lomax. In 1932, Lomax and his 17-year-old son, Alan, headed south with a 500-pound recording machine built into the trunk of their car. Sponsored by the Library, they were among the first folklorists to take equipment into the field, recording not only the folk songs they encountered but the personal histories of the musicians and the social and cultural contexts of the music.
The Lomaxes returned with a treasure trove of folk, blues, gospel, Cajun and Tex-Mex music. Alan Lomax recounted this and subsequent southern journeys in “The Land Where the Blu”
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