Photographer names do not appear on the photographs. Many images were taken by Alan Lomax and Ruby Terrill Lomax, and possibly others working with them. Photos of the Bog Trotters Band, Galax, Va., are marked: "These pictures were made by CBS photographer at the time of the A. Lomax School of the Air Broadcast in Galax".

Most photographs have handwritten or typed identifications or other markings on the versos.

In 2015, the Library digitized 48 nitrate negatives (PR 06 CN 1186) for which no prints had been found and made online catalog records. These photos and their numbering fit with the Texas, Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Georgia photos of LOT 7414. The negatives date from Sept. to Nov. 1940 and are attributed to Ruby Lomax. Another 31 negatives that correspond to prints were also digitized and described in the catalog records for the prints.

LOT title devised by Library staff.

For reference access, please use the digital image surrogates in the online catalog to preserve the fragile original items.

Snapshots primarily documenting sound recording expeditions carried out by John Avery Lomax, Alan Lomax, and Ruby Terrill Lomax for the Archive of American Folk Song from 1934 to ca. 1950. Photographs depict African American, white, and Latino musicians, singers and dancers, in the southern United States (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia) and the Bahamas (Nassau, Andros Island, and Cat Island). Includes portraits of musicians posed with and without their instruments; many photos show musicians in various settings and activities--at homes, working in prison yards, working on chain gangs, performing outside and on stage at the Asheville Mountain Music Festival, North Carolina. Some photos depict daily life, including domestic activities, baptisms, and farming. Also includes some landscape and marine views, houses, and children playing singing games. Musicians depicted include, among others, Henry Truvillion, James "Iron Head" Baker, Moses "Clear Rock" Platt, Leadbelly, Crockett "Davy" Ward, Bill Hensley, Uncle Bob Ledbetter, and Bascom Lamar Lunsford. Folklorist Zora Neale Hurston, who assisted the Lomaxes on expeditions to Georgia and Florida, is identified in four photographs in subdivisions 7414-C and 7414-G.

Digitized images of these items display with associated descriptions in the Prints & Photographs Division Online Catalog,

http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/catalog.html

Digitized images are also available through the Library of Congress Web site under the title: Southern mosaic, The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip, produced in 1999 for the National Digital Library Program, American Memory collections. This site also features associated sound recordings, field notes, and other manuscript materials.

No known restrictions. For more information, see: "Lomax Collection,"

http://lcweb.loc.gov/rr/print/res/159_loma.html