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No restrictions. Copyright for Official University records is held by Wesleyan University; all other copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law. David McAllester Papers, Special Collections and Archives, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT, USA. Collection donated by David McAllester of Monterey, MA, May 3, 2002. Processed by Jennifer Miglus, graduate student in Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science, December 2005. Correspondence files arranged by Debi Schwartz (Wesleyan class of 2007), December 2005. Encoded by Jennifer Miglus, March 2006
David Park McAllester was born in 1916, the youngest of four children. He grew up in Everett, Massachusetts, where he often accompanied his mother on natural history walks as she collected material for her weekly column in the
Wesleyan University
David McAllester attended Harvard University, entering in 1934 and graduating in 1938. There he continued his dual interests in anthropology and music. He took classes in southwestern ethnology and linguistics with Clyde Kluckhohn and sang as a soloist with the Harvard Glee Club. Music led him to his future wife, Susan Watkins, during a joint performance with the Radcliffe Choral Society. After graduating from Harvard, he started at Juilliard; however, he continued to do field work during the summers at an archaeological dig at the Lindenmeier site in Colorado, an activity he had started while at Harvard. He also started taking classes at Columbia University, notably George Herzog's "Primitive Music" class. By the spring of 1940 he had made the decision not to pursue music as a career and had started in the PhD program in anthropology at Columbia with a focus on American Indian music. In the summer of 1940 he joined a linguistic field study of the Comanche in Oklahoma where he did research on peyote songs and rituals. With the war looming, he and Susan were married in September 1940. He spent academic year 1940-1941 at Columbia where he met such luminaries as Franz Boaz and Margaret Mead.
Although not raised in the Quaker tradition, David McAllester had deeply felt pacifist beliefs and joined the 15th Street Meeting of the Society of Friends while living in New York City. With the entry of the United States into World War II he filed for, and was granted, conscientious objector status. He spent the next two years working with the Civilian Public Service (CPS) in a forestry camp in Cooperstown, NY, and the following two years working with the CPS at the Connecticut State Hospital in Middletown, CT.
When the war ended in 1945 he returned to Columbia where he began work on his dissertation on peyote songs. He had a part-time job in the Archive of Primitive Music there and supplemented this with adjunct teaching at Brooklyn College. He was awarded his PhD from Columbia University in 1950. In 1947 he was invited to join the faculty at Wesleyan University where he remained until his retirement in 1986.
Professor McAllester has been active in the development of the field of Ethnomusicology. When he first came to Wesleyan he had a joint appointment in Psychology and Biology. In 1952, at the American Anthropological Association meeting in Philadelphia, he was introduced to Alan Merriam by Willard Rhodes of Columbia University. These three joined forces with Charles Seeger to create a newsletter focused on ethnomusicology, first published in December 1953. The four men founded the Society for Ethnomusicology in 1955. David McAllester broadened the music curriculum at Wesleyan to include non-European music in 1956 with his course Music 31, Ethnic and Folk Music. The World Music Archives at Wesleyan University developed out of the field recordings of Native American ceremonies that he made in the 1940s and '50s, and it was partly his influence that led to the establishment of the department of Anthropology at Wesleyan in 1967. He was appointed professor of Anthropology and Music in 1972.
Professor McAllester traveled extensively during the course of his professional career. He received a Guggenheim grant in 1957 and spent a year in Arizona studying the Navajo Blessingway ritual. In 1960 he was Carnegie visiting professor at the University of Hawaii. In 1972 he spent a sabbatical visiting Japan, Indonesia, India and Finland. In 1978 he taught as a visiting scholar at the University of Queensland, Australia, as a recipient of the Fulbright-Hays Award. His recordings of Comanche and Navajo music led to the establishment of the World Music Archives at Wesleyan University in 1953. This has grown extensively since then with contributions by Professor McAllester and his colleagues.
Beginning in 1979, Professor McAllester taught one full semester per year at Wesleyan, spending the remaining eight months at his home in the Berkshires. He retired fully in 1986. Since then he has continued to be involved in the Society for Ethnomusicology, writing professional book reviews, and has been very involved in his local newspaper.
The David McAllester collection documents McAllester's interests in writing, research, music and ritual. Early folders in Series I: Writings, feature short stories and poetry which he submitted for consideration to magazines like
The bulk of David McAllester's professional life consisted of his long tenure at Wesleyan University. Series II contains field notes and an exhaustive correspondence with colleagues in the fields of anthropology and ethnomusicology. Professor McAllester had close relationships with members of the Navajo Nation whom he worked with during field research. He was interested in the ceremonies of the Navajo people, and did extensive work on the Blessingway healing ceremony. He also had close ties to members of the academic world who either acted as a mentor to him, such as Lee Wyman, or whom he mentored, such as Charlotte Frisbie. His field work was an attempt to understand the differences and find the commonalities between people through music and ritual.
The circle of people in his life expanded ever outward and he kept in touch by voluminous letter writing as evidenced in Series III, Correspondence. This series contains both professional and personal letters since David McAllester never clearly drew the line between the two. In all of his correspondence, he kept carbons of letters he wrote, so the collection is easy to follow and rich in detail.
As a young man at the beginning of his career, his studies in anthropology at Columbia were interrupted by World War II. Documents in the beginning of Series IV, Personal History, show his application for Conscientious Objector status and the activities he was involved in during the four years he was in the Civilian Public Service (CPS). Projects of interest to him after formal retirement in 1986 are found in the second half of this series. His writing and administrative talents were put to use for the
David McAllester was married to his wife Susan from 1940 until her death in 1996. Series V contains letters she wrote to him, correspondence of her own with friends, and papers surrounding her final illness.
Series VI consists of a photograph album, circa 1894 from the family of David McAllester's mother, Maude Helen Park McAllester. The photographs are portraits of family members, individually and in groups. Some are labeled with names. They are mostly tintypes.
Series I: Writings, 1943-1995
Series II: Subject area, research and correspondence, 1946-1996
Series III: Correspondence, 1940-1996
Series IV: Personal history, 1941-1996
Series V: Susan McAllester, 1944-1994
Series VI: Photo album, circa 1894
These and related materials may be found under the following headings in online catalogs.
World Music Archives at Wesleyan University has many recordings made by David McAllester. Listening copies are available although a few recordings require Professor McAllester's permission for listening.
World Music Archives also has approximately six linear feet of transcriptions of chants and field notes, un-cataloged.
Blessingway film (3 reels), in Special Collections & Archives. Access restricted. Please contact SC&A staff for information.
There is related material at the Schlesinger Library, Radcliffe Institute, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.; see
Books removed from the David McAllester Papers to be cataloged separately:
This series is arranged chronologically. It traces David McAllester's writings from early short stories and poetry to scholarly journal articles, book reviews and books. The last four folders contain notes for columns for the newspaper
This series contains field notes and correspondence with colleagues in the fields of anthropology and ethnomusicology. It also contains notes for courses and talks given by David McAllester in the United States and abroad. It is arranged alphabetically by topic.
Newspaper clipping on a federal case involving definition of the uli'uli and whether it is a musical instrument or not.
Bibliography for Robbins Swamp Project ('82-'88). Research program summer '87-fall '88.
Correspondence relevant to anthropology.
Correspondence, timetable, extensive handwritten notes for course taught in Australia summer 1978.
Correspondence and notes on Blessingway film from its conception to creation.
Texts of Blessingway chants.
25 pages of handwritten notes transcribing interview (with father of Frank Mitchell)?
Correspondence with Bob Brown while he was in India.
Brown University: seminars in ethnomusicology taught fall '89 and spring 1990.
Galley proofs of Burrows' "Sound, Speech, and Music" Amherst: U Mass Press, 1990. Notes by DM.
Curt Cacioppo, composer/pianist. Snake Dance Trio score for flute, cello and piano. Two other compostitions as well.
Correspondence with Irene Mitchell and family.
Correspondence with Irene Mitchell and family.
Paper by K. Coley. Editorial marks by David McAllester. His notes in front: list of names with symbols.
Professional correspondence.
Professional correspondence.
Professional correspondence.
Musical notations of 12 dawn songs/transcriptions of words plus 'Johnson's guide' (Frisbie). Some notes by D McA.
27 dawn songs attributed to Ray Winne, notated with words. Extensive handwritten notes by D McA.
Dawn songs 1-9 (missing #5) attributed to Smith. Accompanying notes by D McA.
Frederica de Laguna, Bryn Mawr, PA. Correspondece.
Correspondence.
Correspondence.
Proposal for field study. Related subject materials.
Songs of Ray Winnie Lukachukai, transposed, notated and words transcribed.
Correspondence with Charlotte Frisbie, especially regarding book in honor of Lee Wyman.
Correspondence and contracts for entries to Groves made by D McA.
Thesis by Leanne Hinton.
38 pages of handwritten notes on hogan (house) songs. Six pages of typed translations and notes.
Field study. Research interviews with 5 people in Ramah, NM. Questions about their songs and instruments.
Project report for seminar in ethnomusicology 5/26/65.
Miscellaneous articles and leaflets on plants in American Indian life.
John Russell Kelsey, correspondence.
Photos taken of the musical instrument (kudyapi), in the Philippines.
Two papers and bibliography by Danny Lichtenfeld.
Miscellaneous maps.
Correspondence w/ Wheelwright Museum re: Matthews' wax cylinder recordings of Navajo music made early 1890's.
"The Treatment of Ailing Gods" manuscript in the W. Matthews collection now in MNCA, Santa Fe, NM. 2 copies.
"Navajo Blessingway Singer: The Autobiography of Frank Mitchell, 1881-1967". Photographs of Mr. Mitchell.
Essay concerning 5 different translations of the same Navajo poem.
Correspondence.
Correspondence.
Correspondence.
Navajo Studies Conference, Feb. 20-22, 1986. Albuquerque, NM.
Correspondence.
Field Notes I.
Field Notes II.
Newspaper clippings mostly from
Sessions given at the American Indian National Self-Reliance Conference at Brigham Young University, March 9-11, 1983.
Olin, Caroline B. "Early Navajo Sandpainting Symbols in Old Navajoland: Visual Aspects of Mythic Images". Autographed
Correspondence re: guest lectures, symposia, etc.
Correspondence re: guest lectures, symposia, etc.
Correspondence re: guest lectures, symposia, etc.
Correspondence re: recordings of Eastern woodlands native American music recorded by D McA in 1952.
Correspondence with Pequot tribe re:plans for archives for Eastern North American music at the Pequot Museum.
Correspondence relevant to PhD thesis on peyote songs.
Newspaper clippings, writings and correspondence.
Handwritten notes for paper.
Correspondence and notes for paper given at conference at Arizona State University, April 14-16, 1977.
Correspondence re: repatriation of recordings of Navajo music made by DMcA. Transcription of interview, Jan 1993.
Bibliography of works by H. Roberts, chronology.
Legal paperwork establishing a Massachusetts chapter of this foundation.
Chris Saumaiwai. Music of Fiji.
Janet Whittle, Masters Thesis "The Sligo Rover": copy of paper and correspondence.
Interview with Albert Smith of Navajo Nation. Handwritten field notes, typed notes. Story extracted and typed separately.
Correspondence.
Correspondence.
Correspondence with and student papers by Pamela Swing (incl. "Musical Toys in the Alexander Lazar Collection").
4th International Symposium of the Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Property, Tokyo, August 6-9, 1980.
Transcripts of interviews done in Tumaco, Columbia by Tom _? Pages 1009-1132 plus one page appendix.
Documentation, correspondence regarding establishment of World Music Program 1963.
Correspondence regarding publication of "Worlds of Music" edited by J. Titon, Schirmer Books.
Extensive correspondence with Lee Wyman, colleague and mentor. Scholar in Navajo studies.
Extensive correspondence with Lee Wyman, colleague and mentor. Scholar in Navajo studies.
Legal correspondence relating to estates of Lee Wyman and his wife.
The correspondence in this series is arranged chronologically. Letters include carbon copies of letters sent by David McAllester as well as letters received by him. Correspondents include family, friends and colleagues.
This series brackets David McAllester's professional life. It documents his time spent in the Civilian Public Service as a conscientious objector during World War II. This series also documents his activities during his retirement from 1986 to the present. Arrangement of this series is chronological.
Application for CO status.
Correspondence, minutes of inter-camp meetings.
Newsletter of Civilian Public Service (CPS) #12.
Correspondence: withdrawal of CPS#81 from AFSC administration.
Newsletters/bulletins for CPS #81.
Complete sets of newsletters for CPS #81.
Manuscript by patient at CT State Hospital.
Writings by patients for in house newspaper.
Writings by patients.
Drawings, partial letters, clippings.
Guggenheim fellowship application, misc. photos, etc.
Natural Resource Inventory and Land Use Plan for Monterey, Massachusetts.
Exhibit: Navajo Art. Retirement events.
Information on Eastern encephalitis.
General information on topic.
Monterey News.
Japanese program promoting peace and cultural understanding.
Susan and David McAllester were married for over 50 years. This series contains letters written by Susan to David and also correspondence with her own friends. Some of the correspondence is arranged alphabetically by correspondent. The rest of the correspondence is chronological. This is the way the Folders were originally created.
The single photograpah album in series VI is from the Park family of David McAllester's mother. Some of the photographs are labelled, but not all. Most of the photographs are tintypes.