Wilgus (D.K.) Collection

D.K. Wilgus and Wayland D. Hand established Folklore Studies at UCLA, and together founded the Folklore and Mythology Program in 1965. Wilgus came to UCLA in 1963, where he was professor of English and Music until his death in 1989. Wilgus held numerous offices in national and state folklore societies: Editor of Western Folklore for the California Folklore Society; President of the California Folklore Society; Vice-President and President of the American Folklore Society. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s Wilgus produced and directed UCLA’s legendary folk music festivals. Wilgus was a folksong and ballad scholar, indefatigable fieldworker, and renowned authority on Anglo-American folksong, African American records, and Appalachian music. He was a pioneer in the teaching of Anglo-American folksong as a rigorous academic subject, in identifying the blues ballad as a legitimate form of narrative song, and in developing the “narrative theme” approach to ballad classification. At the time of his death, Wilgus’ scholarly biography consisted of more than 250 items, including three books and innumerable essays on folk music. During his tenure at UCLA, he demonstrated his commitment to both the academic study and the performance of folk music and built an archive of folksong and folk music of over 8,000 commercial recordings and 3,000 field recordings. A selection of field recordings by Wilgus and his students are included in this collection.