Sound Archiving and Archivists
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To Kurt Reinhard, Director, Phonogramm-archiv, Berlin, 17/09/60
Asks for copies of recordings made around 1910 in the Mowanjum area. Alice listed these later in her Handlist of Field Collections of Recorded Music in Australia and Torres Strait, published in 1966. Founded in 1900, the Phonogramm-archiv, had actively commissioned recordings of non-Western music.
(MS3501/1/6/63)
To Edgar Waters, [National Library of Australia], 13/10/60
Describes early plans for the creation of a Sound Archive, sending draft documentation sheets for comments.
(MS3501/1/6/63)
To Alan Lomax, Department of Anthropology, Columbia University, New York, 16/06/61
Requests copies of his Micronesian and Ainu recordings in exchange for dubbings from Alice’s South Pacific collection. As one of the great researchers and collectors of America’s folk tradition, Lomax had also amassed a large collection of music recordings from around the world.
(MS3501/1/8/28)
To F.D. McCarthy, Principal, AIAS, Canberra, 12/03/66
Explains Alice's ideas for documentation procedures in the AIAS Sound Archive, emphasising her definition of an “audition sheet,” and outlines her research objectives for her trip to the Gulf of Carpentaria and Mornington Island in 1966.
(MS3501/1/20/131)
From George List, Director of the Archives of Traditional Music (ATL), Indiana University, 02/11/66
Congratulates Alice on her Handlist of Field Collections of Recorded Music in Australia and Torres Strait. Alice had adopted several procedures followed by the ATL for the Recorded Sound Archive at the AIAS, most notably the provisions for conditions of deposit.
(MS3501/1/25/5)
To Robert Carneal, Sound Section, Recorded Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, 06/04/72
Requests advice on phonograph-to-tape transfer methods and care of 78 rpm recordings. Alice had contacted him during her study tour in 1971.
(MS3501/1/61/39)
To Robert Carneal, Chief Engineer, Music Division, Library of Congress, Washington, 25/08/75
Congratulates him on his Presidency of the American Association of Recorded Sound Collections (ARSC), a large organisation including both institutional members and private collectors. She asks for some information on the format transfer of early recordings.
(MS3501/1/77/26)
To Frank Gillis, Director, Archives of Traditional Music, Indiana University, Bloomington, 27/08/76
Asks for information on procedures for managing collections of recordings where the depositor is deceased. Earlier, he had advised Alice on their procedures for conditions of deposit and access when the AIAS Recorded Sound Archive was being formed.
(MS3501/1/83/37)
To Ann Briegleb, Department of Music, University of California at Los Angeles, (UCLA), 03/09/76
Requests information about access and deposit conditions for sound recordings held in archives from Ann Briegleb, who had completed a major study on the holdings and organisation of audio archives internationally and was the first Director of the UCLA Ethnomusicology Archive.
(MS3501/1/83/47)
To Mervyn McLean, Head, Archive of Maori and Pacific Music, University of Auckland, New Zealand, 09/03/78
Initiates an exchange of recordings in order to obtain copies of tapes made of Tiwi performers at the 1976 South Pacific Festival in New Zealand.
(MS3501/1/94/13a)
To J.K. Ling, Director, South Australian Museum, Adelaide, 31/12/80
Offers documentation expertise in preparing auditory catalogues of the Tindale collection at the South Australian Museum. Both AIATSIS and the South Australian Museum hold copies of the meticulously-typed audition sheets that Alice prepared for this important collection.
(MS3501/1/104/29)
To Vice President Kenneth R.R. Gros Louis, Indiana University, 31/03/81
Demonstrates the strength of Alice’s commitment to audio archiving. When the Director of the Indiana University Archives of Traditional Music, Frank Gillis, retired in 1981, the University planned to leave the position vacant indefinitely. Public outcry was so great that a new Director was appointed later that year.
(MS3501/1/105/48)
To E.L. Fisher, Secretary, Australian National Commission for Unesco, [Canberra], 29/03/83
Shows Alice’s dedication towards establishing a national collection of recordings from Asia and the Pacific. Alice worked with Unesco and its associated NGO, the Asia/Pacific Cultural Centre (ACCU) to ensure that the recordings they produced would be lodged in optimum conditions.
(MS3501/1/113/24)
To Lucy Duran, Curator, International Music Collection, National Sound Archive, The British Library, London, 13/10/83
Offers documentation on early wax cylinder material held in London, including those of A.R. Radcliffe-Brown and W. Baldwin Spencer. The Radcliffe-Brown recordings were made in the lower Murray River region of South Australia and one of the singers was Albert Karlawan. Most of the Baldwin Spencer cylinders were recorded amongst the Arrernte people of Central Australia and the Tiwi of Bathurst and Melville Island. In 1983, the British Institute of Recorded Sound (BIRS) became part of the British Library. Alice had located early Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander recordings at both institutions.
(MS3501/1/115/41)
To Robin Boylan, Western Australian Museum, 24/01/84
Contains a succinct description of the auditioning and cataloguing method created by Alice. She insisted upon the importance of distinguishing transcriptions of what is actually heard on a recording from further comments made by the auditioner/cataloguer.
(MS3501/1/117/13)
To Don Niles, Music Department, Institute of Papua New Guinea Studies, 09/08/89
Gives historical information about the didjeridu and comments on some early cylinders of Papuan origin. Don Niles, like Alice, has worked for many years to repatriate recordings of Indigenous music.
(MS3501/1/140/3)