With a 1,200 lb. battery-powered disc-cutting machine, Sidney Robertson recorded dozens of tunes in taverns, encampments, and even a hearse in and around Rhinelander and Crandon, Wisconsin. These recordings of lumberjack standards, regional story-songs, and Canadian fiddle tunes would become the first recordings of Wisconsin folksongs for the Library of Congress. Thus began a decades-long effort by fieldworkers to collect and preserve the distinct and diverse music of the Badger State. For Sidney Robertson, the Wisconsin collecting trips lit her passion for song collecting and propelled her to take on the first large-scale effort to gather American folk music.
This website highlights early Wisconsin folksong recordings and points visitors to an array of resources related to Wisconsin’s folksong heritage. You can learn about the musicians and hear some of the original recordings as they were put down in 1937.