Frank Clyde Brown (October 16, 1870 – June 3, 1943) was an American academic, university administrator, and pioneer collector of
folk songs and
folklore
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...
from the
southeastern United States
The Southeastern United States, also referred to as the American Southeast or simply the Southeast, is a geographical region of the United States. It is located broadly on the eastern portion of the southern United States and the southern por ...
.
Career
Brown was born in
Harrisonburg, Virginia, and gained an
A.B.
Bachelor of arts (BA or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree course is generally completed in three or four yea ...
degree from the
University of Nashville in
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
in 1893. He then studied
English literature at the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
, where he gained an
M.A.
A Master of Arts ( la, Magister Artium or ''Artium Magister''; abbreviated MA, M.A., AM, or A.M.) is the holder of a master's degree awarded by universities in many countries. The degree is usually contrasted with that of Master of Science. Tho ...
in 1902 and
Ph.D.
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
in 1908. The following year, he was appointed professor of English at
Trinity College Trinity College may refer to:
Australia
* Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales
* Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...
in
Durham, North Carolina, where he became known as "Bull" Brown. He wrote a biography of the 17th-century poet and playwright
Elkanah Settle
Elkanah Settle (1 February 1648 – 12 February 1724) was an English poet and playwright.
Biography
He was born at Dunstable, and entered Trinity College, Oxford, in 1666, but left without taking a degree. His first tragedy, '' Cambyses, King ...
, published in 1910, and as a teacher became noted for his work as an interpreter of
Shakespeare
William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's natio ...
.
[ W. E. King, "Brown, Frank Clyde", ''NCPedia.org'', 1979]
Retrieved 26 July 2016
Retrieved 26 July 2016
He was encouraged by
John A. Lomax, president of the
American Folklore Society, to set up the North Carolina Folklore Society in 1913, an organisation of which he was the inaugural president, and later secretary. Over the next thirty years he became the society's principal collector of folk songs and
lore
Lore may refer to:
* Folklore, acquired knowledge or traditional beliefs
* Oral lore or oral tradition, orally conveyed cultural knowledge and traditions
Places
* Loré, former French commune
* Loré (East Timor), a city and subdistrict in La ...
, and traveled around the region, often on summer expeditions to isolated areas, with recording equipment powered by a gasoline generator.
[ Initially he recorded material on an ]Ediphone
Phonograph cylinders are the earliest commercial medium for recording and reproducing sound. Commonly known simply as "records" in their era of greatest popularity (c. 1896–1916), these hollow cylindrical objects have an audio recording engra ...
, using wax cylinders
Phonograph cylinders are the earliest commercial medium for Sound recording and reproduction, recording and reproducing sound. Commonly known simply as "records" in their era of greatest popularity (c. 1896–1916), these hollow cylinder, cylind ...
, and later used a Presto machine for recording onto aluminum discs.[ He took particular note of previously-unwritten ballads and songs, and in 1915 published ''Ballad Literature in North Carolina''. However, "he was never able to stop collecting long enough to actually assemble his material."][ The Frank Clyde Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore, eventually published after his death, contained seven volumes comprising some 38,000 items including ballads, songs, games, rhymes, beliefs, customs, riddles, proverbs, tales, legends, superstitions, and speech, taken from the southeastern United States, particularly North Carolina, and has been described as "the most imposing monument ever erected in this country to the common memory of the people of any single state."][
In 1921 Brown was appointed head of the English department at Trinity College.][ After 1924, he was also involved in administering the foundation of Duke University, serving as its first comptroller in 1926, and later as the new university's marshal. As liaison officer with architects and contractors, he assumed a supervisory role alongside Trinity's President, William P. Few, and is credited with contributing many ideas to the university's building plans, including its use of the then newly discovered Hillsborough stone.][
]
Personal life
Brown was married twice: to Ola Marguerite Hollis from 1893 until her death in 1928; and from 1932 to Mary Henkel Wadsworth. He died, aged 72, in 1943.[
]
References
External links
The Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brown, Frank Clyde
1870 births
1943 deaths
American folk-song collectors
American folklorists