BARBARA McDERMITT COLLECTION
1982

East Tennessee State University
Archives of Appalachia
Box 70295
Johnson City, Tennessee 37614

E-mail: archives@etsu.edu
Telephone: (423) 439-4338

INTRODUCTION

Title: Barbara McDermitt Collection
Collection Number: Accession No. 134
Physical Description: 28 audiocassette tapes; 14 photographs; 1 file folder
Creator: Barbara McDermitt
Repository: Archives of Appalachia, East Tennessee State University

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION

Provenance: The Barbara McDermitt Collection was donated to the Archives of Appalachia by Barbara McDermitt on September 28, 1982 and June 1, 1987.

Access: The collection is open for research.

Processing Information: Marie Tedesco completed processing and the collection was opened for research in October 1987.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE

Barbara McDermitt was born on September 7, 1934 in Orange, New Jersey. She received a BA in English and Speech from Wittenberg University, Springfield, Ohio, in 1956. Post graduate work undertaken in 1956 and 1957 included studies in theater arts at Columbia University, New York City, and religious drama at Union Theological Seminary, New York City. In 1958 McDermitt earned a certificate of elementary education from Paterson State Teacher's College, Paterson, New Jersey, and in 1968 she earned a MA in theater arts from Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois. At Northwestern McDermitt taught storytelling and, as a consequence, became interested in the origin of stories and tales and in the art of storytelling. These interests, together with a curiosity about her family's Scots and Appalachian heritage, led McDermitt to research and write her dissertation, "A Comparison of a Scottish and American Storyteller and Their Marchen Repertoires." The dissertation was completed in 1986 at the School of Scottish Studies, Edinburgh, Scotland.

Throughout her career McDermitt has been active in teaching and writing about children's literature and theater. Included among her pursuits have been teaching drama in elementary school, serving as an elementary-school literature testing consultant for the Chicago Board of Education and writing articles on storytelling, drama and literature for elementary school children.

At present McDermitt divides her time between music and folklore. She directs the Edinburgh Harp Festival International and works on special projects with the School of Scottish Studies, Edinburgh University.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The Barbara McDermitt Collection includes 28 audiocassette field trip tapes (see tape list below) of storytellers telling stories; 14 photographs, mainly of storytellers, (see photo list below), and one file folder which includes the reports on the field trip tapes.

NON-MANUSCRIPT MATERIALS

The dissertation, "A Comparison of a Scottish and American Storyteller and Their Marchen Repertoires," has been catalogued and added to Special Collections. The photographs are shelved in the photograph storage area according to accession number, while the tapes are stored in the audiovisual storage area, according to accession number. The reports on the field trip tapes are shelved with the tapes.

Important subjects covered in the collection include:

Banjo music
Devil--Fiction
Dulcimer music
Folk music
Ghost stories
Harmonica
Hicks, Ray, 1922-
Hicks, Stanley, 1911-
Jack tales
Lie-Hew tales
MacGregor, Maggie
Presnell, Hattie, 1907-
Proffitt, Frank, 1946-
Robertson, Stanley
Stewart, Maggie
Storytelling
Witches--Fiction

TAPE LIST

A=Side A; B=Side B
Tapes recorded summer 1982, Beech Mountain, North Carolina.

Box 1

Photo List

1. Ray Hicks' house on Beech Mountain.
2. Ray, his wife Rosa and his son Ted on their front porch.
3. Stanley Robertson piping under "The Tree of Life" at his family campgrounds on the Old Road of Lumphanan.
4. The summer seat by the gate of the cemetery on the Old Road of Lumphanan.
5. Ray (Hicks) storytelling on his porch.
6. Ray storytelling in his house.
7. Stanley (Hicks) telling "Jock and the Water Horse" on location beside the River Dee to Gabrielle and Nicole.
8. Maggie MacGregor by his fire.
9. Old Maggie Stewart telling stories about her traveller childhood to her grandnephew, Stanley.
10. Stanley (Hicks) telling a ghost story to Gabrielle, Nicole and Heather McDermitt (1979).
11. Hattie Presnell telling a ghost story.
12. Ray (Hicks) storytelling in his house.
13. Stanley Hicks-storytelling.
14. Stanley (Robertson) piping beside the photograph of his grandfather Soldier Donald, an excellent piper in his day.

Folder 1

1. Reports on field trips tape transcripts, summer 1982.