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Helen Heffron Roberts (1888–1985) was an American anthropologist and pioneer ethnomusicologist. Her work included the study of the origins and development of music among the
Jamaican Maroons Jamaican Maroons descend from Africans who freed themselves from slavery on the Colony of Jamaica and established communities of free black people in the island's mountainous interior, primarily in the eastern parishes. Africans who were ensl ...
, and the
Puebloan peoples The Puebloans or Pueblo peoples, are Native Americans in the Southwestern United States who share common agricultural, material, and religious practices. Currently 100 pueblos are actively inhabited, among which Taos, San Ildefonso, Acoma, Z ...
of the American southwest. Her recordings of ancient Hawaiian meles are archived at the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu. Roberts was a protege of Alfred V. Kidder and Franz Boas.


Early life and music background

She was born in Chicago on June 12, 1888, the oldest of three children born to accountant William Hinman Roberts and his wife, artist Dana Alma McDonald Roberts. Her parents provided piano lessons for her at an early age and encouraged her towards a career as a classical pianist. Upon the completion of her basic education at
Monticello Seminary Monticello Seminary (also Monticello Female Seminary), founded in 1835, was an American seminary, junior college and academy in Godfrey, Illinois. The campus was the oldest female seminary in the west, before it closed in 1971. The buildings are n ...
, Roberts furthered her studies, graduating from Chicago Musical College in 1909 and the
American Conservatory of Music The American Conservatory of Music (ACM) was a major American school of music founded in Chicago in 1886 by John James Hattstaedt (1851–1931). The conservatory was incorporated as an Illinois non-profit corporation. It developed the Conservator ...
in 1911.


Anthropological studies

While at the conservatory, Roberts began to realize that she did not have the abilities to achieve her parents' dream of becoming a classical pianist. Besides not having the hand dexterity, she suffered from unspecified recurring health issues. In an interview in later years, she cited both her health and an early interest in Native American culture as the motivations for her travels to the southwestern United States. Over the next several years, her continued post graduate work at the conservatory was interspersed with employment as a music teacher in Kansas, Texas and Mexico, where she was often joined by family members. Her archaeological interests also began during this time period, and she apprenticed under Alfred V. Kidder at his site excavations in
Pecos, New Mexico Pecos is a village in San Miguel County, New Mexico, United States. The population was 1,392 at the 2010 census, shrinking slower than other parts of San Miguel County, partly because Pecos is within commuting distance of Santa Fe. The village i ...
. In 1916, she published "Doubling coiling" (pottery) in ''
American Anthropologist ''American Anthropologist'' is the flagship journal of the American Anthropological Association (AAA), published quarterly by Wiley. The "New Series" began in 1899 under an editorial board that included Franz Boas, Daniel G. Brinton, and John W ...
''.
Berthold Laufer Berthold Laufer (October 11, 1874 – September 13, 1934) was a German anthropologist and historical geographer with an expertise in East Asian languages. The American Museum of Natural History calls him, "one of the most distinguished sinologi ...
of Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History added his encouragement to that of Kidder who advised her to enroll at
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. Under the tutelage of Franz Boas, known as the father of American anthropology, she changed her life goals from a career as either a music teacher or professional musician, to the study of the origins and progression of music in ethnic cultures. Boas advised her that as pioneer in the relatively new field of ethnomusicology she would have little competition. By the time she received her 1919
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 ...
degree in anthropology, her blended fields of interest were beginning to evidence themselves in her publications. She reviewed H. E. Krehbiel's book ''Afro-American Folksongs'' in 1917 for the ''
Journal of American Folklore The ''Journal of American Folklore'' is a peer-reviewed academic journal published by the American Folklore Society. Since 2003, this has been done on its behalf by the University of Illinois Press. The journal has been published since the society' ...
''; and in 1918 with co-author Herman K. Haeberlin, published ''Some Songs of the Puget sound Salish'' in the ''Journal of American Folklore''. During 1919 she did two reviews, ''Nabaloi Songs'' by C. R. Moss and A. L. Kroeber for ''American Anthropologist'', and ''Teton Sioux Music'' by Frances Densmore for the ''Journal of American Folklore''. Her master's thesis ''Coiled Basketry in British Columbia and Surrounding Region'', written with Haeberlin and James A. Tiet, was published in 1928.


Field work and transcriptions

Under the aegis of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Folklore Foundation at
Vassar College Vassar College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Poughkeepsie, New York, United States. Founded in 1861 by Matthew Vassar, it was the second degree-granting institution of higher education for women in the United States, closely foll ...
, Roberts spent several months of 1920–1921 in
Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...
with foundation chair Martha Beckwith. Their collaborative efforts resulted in recordings and published works on Jamaican forklore. Beckwith published ''Folk-Games of Jamaica'' with music recorded in the field by Roberts in 1921. The pair also published ''Jamaica Anansi Stories'' in 1924. Roberts published ''Possible Survivals of African Song in Jamaica'' in 1926, that centers around the history and culture of the
Jamaican Maroons Jamaican Maroons descend from Africans who freed themselves from slavery on the Colony of Jamaica and established communities of free black people in the island's mountainous interior, primarily in the eastern parishes. Africans who were ensl ...
. The field work completed by Roberts in Hawaii during 1923 and 1924 produced the recording of 1,255 individual meles that are currently archived at the Bernice P. Bishop Museum in Honolulu. In 1926, Roberts recorded Ellen Brazill, in the remote northern California community of Somes Bar, singing a "''Konomihu Lullaby''". This wax cylinder recording can be heard at the
American Folklife Center The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C. was created by Congress in 1976 "to preserve and present American Folklife". The center includes the Archive of Folk Culture, established at the library in 1928 as a repo ...
. Specifics of this recording session, part of a project to preserve the dying Shasta language, can be found in the Smithsonian National Anthropological Archive. Her initial apprenticeship with Alfred V. Kidder served not only to change her career choice, but also provided a path to exploring her ongoing interest in Native American culture. In 1923, she published ''Chakwena Songs of Zuñi and Laguna'' in ''The Journal of American Folklore''. She began doing field work among the
Puebloan peoples The Puebloans or Pueblo peoples, are Native Americans in the Southwestern United States who share common agricultural, material, and religious practices. Currently 100 pueblos are actively inhabited, among which Taos, San Ildefonso, Acoma, Z ...
in 1930, and an Alan Lomax 16mm video reel collection of American folk songs includes a
Tewa The Tewa are a linguistic group of Pueblo Native Americans who speak the Tewa language and share the Pueblo culture. Their homelands are on or near the Rio Grande in New Mexico north of Santa Fe. They comprise the following communities: * ...
dance that Roberts filmed in 1936 near
San Ildefonso Pueblo San Ildefonso Pueblo (Tewa: Pʼohwhogeh Ówîngeh ’òhxʷógè ʔówîŋgè"where the water cuts through" ) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, United States, and a federally recognized tribe, established c. 13 ...
, New Mexico. Artwork from
San Ildefonso Pueblo San Ildefonso Pueblo (Tewa: Pʼohwhogeh Ówîngeh ’òhxʷógè ʔówîŋgè"where the water cuts through" ) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, United States, and a federally recognized tribe, established c. 13 ...
collected at this time by Roberts can be found in the collection of the
National Museum of the American Indian The National Museum of the American Indian is a museum in the United States devoted to the culture of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. It is part of the Smithsonian Institution group of museums and research centers. The museum has three ...
. In between field assignments, Roberts collaborated with several professionals with whom she would be associated for most of her life.
Clark Wissler Clark David Wissler (September 18, 1870 – August 25, 1947) was an American anthropologist, ethnologist, and archaeologist. Early life Clark David Wissler was born in Cambridge City, Indiana on September 18, 1870 to Sylvania (née Needler) an ...
and
Jesse Walter Fewkes Jesse Walter Fewkes (November 14, 1850 – May 31, 1930) was an American anthropologist, archaeologist, writer, and naturalist. Biography Fewkes was born in Newton, Massachusetts on November 14, 1850, and initially trained as a zoologist at H ...
involved her with their work on
Pawnee Pawnee initially refers to a Native American people and its language: * Pawnee people * Pawnee language Pawnee is also the name of several places in the United States: * Pawnee, Illinois * Pawnee, Kansas * Pawnee, Missouri * Pawnee City, Nebraska ...
music, and it was for
Edward Sapir Edward Sapir (; January 26, 1884 – February 4, 1939) was an American Jewish anthropologist-linguist, who is widely considered to be one of the most important figures in the development of the discipline of linguistics in the United States. Sap ...
that she transcribed the
Diamond Jenness Diamond Jenness, (February 10, 1886, Wellington, New Zealand – November 29, 1969, Chelsea, Quebec, Canada) was one of Canada's greatest early scientists and a pioneer of Canadian anthropology. Early life (1886–1910) Family and childho ...
collection of ''Songs of the Nootka Indians of Western Vancouver Island''. In 1924, she accepted a
Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Sta ...
staff position at the request of Wissler who was helping spearhead a new project funded by the Rockefeller Foundation. Sapir became her supervisor at Yale in 1931, where she would remain until 1936. Edwin Grant Burrows, after two years on the staff of Honolulu's Bernice P. Bishop Museum, arrived at Yale in 1933 to work on both his M.A. and Ph.D anthropology degrees, and according to Roberts came under her mentorship. Her professional work and associations for Yale took her to Europe where she formed a lifelong friendship with
Beatrice Blackwood Beatrice Mary Blackwood (3 May 1889 – 29 November 1975) was a British anthropologist, who ran the Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford from 1938 until her retirement in 1959. Early life and education Beatrice Blackwood was born in London on 3 May ...
. A 1934 grant from the Carnegie Corporation of New York provided for her procurement of specially designed recording equipment to facilitate her Yale project of copying wax cylinder recordings to aluminum discs. Additionally, Roberts became a collector of wax cylinders recorded by other researchers in her field. She eventually donated 400 such wax cylinder recordings to the permanent collection of the
Archive of Folk Culture The Archive of Folk Culture (originally named The Archive of American Folk Song) was established in 1928 as the first national collection of American folk music in the United States of America. It was initially part of the Music Division of the Libr ...
at the
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library ...
. Along with musicologist and composer
Charles Seeger Charles Louis Seeger Jr. (December 14, 1886 – February 7, 1979) was an American musicologist, composer, teacher, and folklorist. He was the father of the American folk singers Pete Seeger (1919–2014), Peggy Seeger (b. 1935), and Mike Seeger ( ...
, composer Henry Cowell, ethnomusicologist
George Herzog George Herzog (October 19, 1851 – September 16, 1920) was an American interior designer and decorative painter, best known for his work on Philadelphia Masonic Temple. Career Born in Munich to German landscape painter Hermann Ottomar ...
and Dorothy Lawton of the New York Public Library, Roberts was a founding member of the American Society for Comparative Musicology in 1933, the parent organization of the American Library of Musicology (ALM). Seeger envisioned the short-lived ALM as a publisher of music-related resources, but it ceased to exist by 1936.


Later life

Roberts moved to
Tryon, North Carolina Tryon is a town in Polk County, on the southwestern border of North Carolina, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 1,646. Located in the escarpment of the Blue Ridge Mountains, today the area is affluent and a center f ...
, in part to care for her father, after a 1935 funding slash eliminated her position at Yale. In this small southern environment, she learned to grow her own food and became an accomplished horticulturist. During World War II, Roberts joined other Tryon women in cooking and canning foods to be sent to Europe. After her father's death, Roberts relocated to
New Haven, Connecticut New Haven is a city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. It is located on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound in New Haven County, Connecticut and is part of the New York City metropolitan area. With a population of 134 ...
in 1945 where she spent the rest of her life. She became a member of the Horticultural Society of New York and sat on the Board of Directors of the
New Haven Symphony Orchestra The New Haven Symphony Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra based in New Haven, Connecticut. The New Haven Symphony Orchestra gave its first concert in 1895 and is the fourth oldest orchestra in the United States. Today, the orchestra is ...
. While serving on that Board, Roberts co-wrote (with Doris Cousins) "A History of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra Celebrating its Seventh-Fifth Season". She died on March 26, 1985, and the bulk of her records are at the repository of the Sterling Memorial Library at Yale. Roberts estate established the Helen Roberts Trust, which underwrites a free performance on the New Haven Green by the
New Haven Symphony Orchestra The New Haven Symphony Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra based in New Haven, Connecticut. The New Haven Symphony Orchestra gave its first concert in 1895 and is the fourth oldest orchestra in the United States. Today, the orchestra is ...
each summer. In recent years, the Symphony has performed with William Boughton, Cirque Mechanics, Kurt Elling, Jimmy Green, Alasdair Neale, Dianne Reeves, Amir ElSaffar's Rivers of Sound, and Tiempo Libre in concerts celebrating Helen Robert's musical legacy in the New Haven community.


Sound recordings

Partial listing *Recorded by John Peabody Harrington and his wife Carobeth Harrington Laird in 1916–1917. Transcribed and analyzed by Roberts in 1921. *Recorded for Beckwith by Roberts. Donated to the Library by Roberts on February 21, 1937. * * * * * * * * * * *


Publications

Partial listing * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Special Bibliography
Six page bibliography1967
fro
Ethnomusicology, Vol. 11, No. 2, May
on JStor.


Misc

*Possibly recorded by James Barnes. Donated to the Library of Congress in 1937 by Helen Heffren Roberts. *Donated to the Library of Congress in 1937 by Helen Heffren Roberts. *Included in the footage is a
Tewa The Tewa are a linguistic group of Pueblo Native Americans who speak the Tewa language and share the Pueblo culture. Their homelands are on or near the Rio Grande in New Mexico north of Santa Fe. They comprise the following communities: * ...
dance recorded by Roberts near
San Ildefonso Pueblo San Ildefonso Pueblo (Tewa: Pʼohwhogeh Ówîngeh ’òhxʷógè ʔówîŋgè"where the water cuts through" ) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Santa Fe County, New Mexico, United States, and a federally recognized tribe, established c. 13 ...
, New Mexico.
*Charlotte J. Frisbie (1989),
Helen Heffron Roberts (1888-1985): A Tribute
', Ethnomusicology, Vol. 33, No. 1 (Winter, 1989), pp. 97–111


See also

* Linstead Market


Notes


Footnotes


Citations


Further reading

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Roberts, Helen Heffron 1888 births 1985 deaths American women musicologists Ethnomusicologists Yale University staff People from Chicago Scientists from New Haven, Connecticut American women archaeologists People from Tryon, North Carolina 20th-century American musicologists 20th-century women writers 20th-century American women musicians 20th-century American archaeologists Historians from Illinois Historians from Connecticut