Artus Moser Papers, 1921-1988

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Summary

Creator:
Moser, Artus.
Abstract:

Artus Monroe Moser (1894-1992), writer, educator, and historian, spent much of his life collecting ballads in and around his home in Western North Carolina in an effort to document the folk traditions of Appalachia. Moser wrote extensively about the folk songs, folklore, and history of Appalachia, and recorded numerous Appalachian performers onto acetate discs. In 1945, the Library of Congress provided Moser with the equipment to collect and record more material, which was later placed in the LC's Archive of American Folk Song. The Artus Moser collection includes biographical material relating to Artus Moser and his wife, Mabel Young Moser, and Moser's numerous writings on Appalachian folk song, folklore, history, and other subjects. Moser's writings on the life of novelist Thomas Wolfe and his biography of North Carolina potter Walter Benjamin Stephen are also included. Other materials are Moser's ballad collection, consisting of versions of over 200 traditional ballads and folk songs, as well as collected stories and reminiscences of Appalachian folklife. There are also family history materials and numerous photographs of Moser and his family, including Moser playing the part of Andrew Jackson in a 1950 performance of the outdoor drama Unto These Hills. The collection also contains numerous sound recordings and scattered moving images. Sound recordings consist of commercial 78rpm records and LPs Moser collected, as well as his own acetate disc and reel-to-reel recordings of traditional Appalachian performers, including Jean Ritchie, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Marcus Martin, Maud Gentry Long, Samantha Bumgarner, George Pegram, Pleaz Mobley, Red Raper, and Virgil Sturgill. Other recordings include Waldensian singing, Western North Carolina Cherokee singer Will West Long, and shape note singers from Etowah, N.C.

Extent:
3175 items (5.5 linear feet)
Language:
English.
Library Catalog Link:
View UNC library catalog record for this item

Background

Biographical / historical:

Ballad collector, educator, and historian Artus Monroe Moser was born 14 September 1894 in Hickory, N.C., to David Lafayette (Fayette) Moser and Cordelia Elizabeth King Moser. When Artus was two, the family moved to Buckeye Cove, N.C., located in Buncombe County near the Swannanoa Valley, where his mother had grown up and her family still lived. In 1904, Fayette Moser took a job as forester for the Biltmore Estate and moved the family there, where they remained until 1917 when Fayette became the North Carolina State Forest Warden on Mt. Mitchell. The family spent twelve years on Mt. Mitchell, then returned to Swannanoa after Fayette was hired as Warden for the Beacon Blanket Mill watershed. Growing up in the mountains of Western North Carolina instilled in Artus a deep respect for the traditions of Appalachia, which continued to influence him throughout his life.

Artus was graduated from Biltmore High School in 1917, then spent a year of active military duty in France during World War I. Upon returning to North Carolina, he entered the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, where he studied under historian R. D. W. Connor and received his A.B degree in 1923. During his time in Chapel Hill, Moser began to develop his lifelong interest in North Carolina history and folklore. After serving as principal of Swannanoa High School for two years, he returned to Chapel Hill to pursue an M.A. degree, which he received in 1926. During this time, he also worked as a research assistant under Howard W. Odum in the Institute for Research in Social Science. In the years after leaving Chapel Hill, Artus pursued further graduate work at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, the Chicago Art Institute, and the Grand Central Art School in New York City. He also worked as a professor of English and speech at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. In 1929, he married Mabel Eula Young, a graduate of the North Carolina College for Women in Greensboro, in her hometown of Spencer, N.C. The Mosers then moved to Middlesboro, Ky., near Harrogate, Tenn., where both Artus and Mabel served on the faculty of Lincoln Memorial University. The Mosers' three children--Dorothea Joan, Artus Monroe, Jr., and Janette Irene--were all born in Middlesboro. The family moved back to the Swannanoa area in 1943, where Artus taught in various schools until his retirement in 1964.

Artus began to collect ballads and folktales during his years in Tennessee, where he had encouraged his students to investigate their own heritage. He also contributed ballads to the collection of University of Tennessee folklorist Edwin C. Kirkland. Back in North Carolina, Artus avidly collected ballads and folktales in and around the western part of the state, recording local singer and storyteller Maud Gentry Long and musicians Jean Ritchie, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, and Pleaz Mobley, among others. In 1945, after playing his recordings during a talk he gave at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, Artus was encouraged to offer his collection to the Library of Congress. Duncan Emrich, Chief of the Archive of American Folksong at the Library of Congress, accepted Moser's collection and also loaned him a portable disc recorder to collect and record more material. During the summer and fall of 1946, Moser made hundreds of recordings which were later added to the archive, including many collected at the Renfro Valley Folk Festival in eastern Kentucky. Throughout the rest of his life, Artus continued to build his collection of folk material and also spoke and performed before student groups and at folk festivals. Moser's relationship with the Library of Congress led to a recording contract with Folkways Records, and, in 1955, he recorded the album North Carolina Ballads.

Artus enjoyed many artistic activities during his life, including painting, pottery, and acting. In 1974, he recorded another album of traditional music for Folkways Records called North Carolina Mountain Folksongs and Ballads. He also wrote several manuscripts, none of which was published, on such subjects as the English ballads, Western North Carolina history, the Vanderbilt family, and North Carolina educator and explorer Elisha Mitchell. Artus Moser died in Swannanoa on December 24, 1992.

Scope and content:

The Artus Moser papers contain correspondence, biographical materials, and photographs relating to his life, as well as his writings on ballads and folk songs, folklore, and Appalachia, plus materials he gathered in the study of these subjects. Also included are sound recordings documenting Appalachian folk music traditions, some of which he recorded himself.

Series 1 includes personal and professional correspondence, detailing his artistic interests and his work recording Appalachian musicians for the Library of Congress. The biographical materials in Series 2 relate to Moser's career as a teacher, his painting, acting, and pottery activities. They include a biography written by his daughter Irene and information about the biographical film Renaissance Man of the Mountains. Moser's family history research is also included, as well as materials relating to his wife, Mabel Young Moser.

Moser's writings are collected in Series 3. Included are published articles and his autobiography, as well as extensive writings on ballads and folk songs, folklore, and Western North Carolina. He had intended to publish an Appalachian story collection and books on Western North Carolina history and the Appalachian ballad and folk song tradition. His biographical writings on notable North Carolinians, such as novelist Thomas Wolfe and the potter Walter Benjamin Stephen are also included.

Moser's collections of Appalachian folksong, folklore, and historical materials are included in Series 4 and 5. Moser collected versions of over 200 ballads and folk songs from his friends and neighbors in Western North Carolina, in addition to songbooks and other published sources to aid him in his research. His Appalachia research comprises a variety of materials, including an extensive story collection, recollections regarding Appalachian folklife and folklore, information on Appalachian geography, identity and education, the Cherokee experience, and biographical information on several prominent Western North Carolinians.

Series 7 contains several studio photographs of Moser as a young man, as well as images of him teaching, painting, and performing. Numerous family snapshots and scrapbook pages are also included. There are also about fifteen photographs of the 1950 performance of the outdoor drama Unto These Hills, in which Moser appeared as Andrew Jackson.

Series 8 contains numerous sound recordings and scattered moving images compiled by Moser. Sound recordings consist of commercial 78rpm records and LPs Moser collected, as well as over 400 acetate discs, 1940-1955, he recorded of traditional Appalachian folk musicians, including Jean Ritchie, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Marcus Martin, Maud Gentry Long, Samantha Bumgarner, George Pegram, Pleaz Mobley, Red Raper, and Virgil Sturgill. Moser recorded many of the discs at folk festivals for the Library of Congress, using equipment provided by them. Other acetate recordings include Waldensian singing, Western North Carolina Cherokee singer Will West Long, and shape note singing from Etowah, N.C. Other sound recordings in the series include over 20 reel-to-reel tapes featuring recordings of music performances, music festivals, storytelling, and lectures. Moving images in the series consist of 2 motion picture films, 1972-1974, of music performances and music festivals, and a videotape, 1970, featuring a lecture by Maud Gentry Long on Jack Tales and ballads. The series also includes field notes found with select reel-to-reel tapes.

Series 9 consists of museum items, including wood radios and a homemade cornstalk fiddle, housed in the North Carolina Collection Gallery.

Acquisition information:

Received from Irene Moser of Swannanoa, N.C., in July 1990 (Acc. 90123, 90124, 90131, and 90132), June 1995 (Acc. 95078), May 2000 (Acc. 98705), April 2002 (99232), and November 2005 (Acc. 100282); Mabel Y. Moser of Swannanoa, N.C., in July 1993 (Acc. 93096); and Joan Moser in August 2004 (Acc. 99875).

Processing information:

Processed by: Kelly Kress, October 2002

Encoded by: Kelly Kress, January 2003

Updated by: Nancy Kaiser, February 2024

Sensitive materials statement:

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

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This collection contains additional materials that are not available for immediate or same day access. Please contact Research and Instructional Service staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu to discuss options for consulting these materials.

Use of audio or moving image materials may require production of listening or viewing copies.

Restrictions to use:

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

No usage restrictions.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], in the Artus Moser Papers #20005, Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Location of this collection:
Louis Round Wilson Library
200 South Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Contact:
(919) 962-3765
wilsonlibrary@unc.edu