Information Sheet

 

 

R         Bittersweet.

669                  Papers, 1973-1983.

                                    26 record storage boxes.

 

NOTE: THIS COLLECTION IS IN OFF-CAMPUS STORAGE. AT LEAST TWO DAYS' ADVANCE NOTICE IS REQUIRED FOR RESEARCH USE.

 

 

These are papers of Bittersweet: The Ozark Quarterly, a journal of Ozark culture published by Ellen Gray Massey and her English classes at Lebanon (Mo.) High School.  Included are tape recordings, transcripts, and photographs of interviews.

 

In 1973, under the direction of teacher Ellen Gray Massey, English students at Lebanon High School in Lebanon, Laclede County, Missouri, began publication of Bittersweet, a journal of Ozark history and culture.  The students researched, wrote, and composed each issue.  Publication ceased in 1983.  This collection consists of the original tape recordings (and transcripts) and pho­tographs that were made during the production of each article.

 

The subjects of the articles were far-ranging, including such topics as fiddling, making rail­road ties, one-room rural schools, social customs and mores, the African-American experience, and handicrafts.  Generally this collection consists of tape-recorded interviews with sources (often "old-timers") knowledgeable about the subject at hand, edited transcripts of the interviews, and photographs taken to illustrate the articles.

 

The cassette (rarely reel-to-reel) tapes and transcripts were placed in consecutively numbered envelopes during the production process, and this arrangement has been retained.  They are dated, but the arrangement is only roughly chronological.  The name of the interviewee, interviewer(s), and general topic of discussion have been written on the envelopes.  A detailed card index to the tapes, prepared by Bittersweet, Inc., is available at the repository.  The photographs (35mm nega­tives and contact prints) are arranged alphabetically in broad subject areas, but are not keyed di­rectly to associated tapes and transcripts.  They, too, are dated, and additional data concerning the persons on, and topics of, the images are available on the individual envelopes.  A collection of reel-to-reel tapes of musical subjects, including bluegrass, ragtime, and shape note singing has been placed in the last record storage box.

 

Although much of the information to be found in these materials was subsequently published in Bittersweet, these tapes and photographs represent the complete unedited record of the research that went into the journal.  Researchers can hear the interviewees in their own voices, and have ac­cess to more complete discussions than could be presented in the limited space of the journal.

 

 

 

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