Helen Hartness Flanders

Flanders was born in Springfield, Vermont. Her father was James Hartness, inventor, industrialist, and one-term Governor of Vermont, who headed the Jones and Lamson Machine Tool Company in that town. She graduated from the Dana Hall School in 1909, where she sang in the glee club and was a member of the school French club. In 1911 she married Ralph Flanders, a noted American mechanical engineer, industrialist and Republican U.S. Senator (1946–1959) from Vermont. She and her husband maintained homes in Springfield and Washington, D.C. where they entertained friends who included Dorothy Canfield Fisher and Robert Frost. They had three children: Elizabeth, (born in 1912), Anna (also known as Nancy—born in 1918), and James (born in 1923). Elizabeth helped her mother from time to time with collecting and transcribing tunes. In addition to her writings on traditional ballads, Flanders published two small volumes of poetry and one children's play. She traveled with her husband to the British Isles, Europe and Australia on various occasions. == Ballad and folk song collecting ==

Background In 1930, Vermont Governor John E. Weeks invited Flanders to join the Committee on Traditions and Ideals of the Vermont Commission on Country Life. That committee asked her to collect Vermont folk songs, which were passed along orally from one person to another. In the 1930s, people in New England were turning to music on the radio; as a result, interest in traditional songs was on the wane. Flanders understood that unless these songs were collected and recorded for posterity, they would die along with the people who sang them. What began as a committee assignment became not just a hobby, but a passion. She continued collecting for three decades. Collection methodology The availability of portable recording devices was key to Flanders's ability to collect music from singers in remote parts of New England. Initially, she recorded on wax cylinders; then from 1939 to 1949, on aluminum and acetate discs; was responsible for major contributions both in the collection management and in the field. Between 1930 and 1939, Flanders focused mostly on collecting Child ballads. This explains the proportionately large number of those ballads on cylinders. Of the 150 recordings made on disc with Alan Lomax, there were songs, stories and fiddle tunes. Over time, the scope of the field recordings would include religious songs, children's songs, 19th-century American popular songs, dance tunes, as well as folktales. The collection and its significance In 1941 when there was no longer enough space to store the collection in Flanders's home, she donated it to Middlebury College in Vermont. Today the Flanders Ballad Collection Many of the stories in these ballads and folksongs describe aspects of life in New England and Colonial history. ==Legacy==

Promoting an interest in traditional ballads Flanders was the author of eight books on ballads and folk music; she also wrote pamphlets, newspaper and magazine articles, and two books of poetry. During their ten-year friendship, Flanders encouraged her singing and gave her copies of the field recordings. Although also a collector of traditional songs in New England, MacArthur was especially known in the United States and abroad for her repertoire (and many recordings) of songs derived from the Flanders Collection. More recently, Vermonter Deborah Flanders performed and recorded songs collected by her great-aunt Helen. Flanders Ballad Collection at Middlebury College The Flanders Ballad Collection at Middlebury College is organized, as follows: • Materials related to field collecting, 1930-1958: The original field recordings consist of 254 wax cylinders. Those recorded on discs comprise the largest body with a variety of songs, a few interviews and stories. Flanders made 77 discs with Alan Lomax, which are catalogued in the Library of Congress. There are 60 discs that contain songs recorded in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine between 1940 and 1947; and 61 that contain fiddle and dance music from all the New England states (16 collected with Alan Lomax); nine discs of fife music made in Massachusetts; and from the 1950s, approximately 55 tapes made on a reel-to-reel recorder. • Manuscript and typescript materials derived directly from field research, 1930-60: Flanders and Marguerite Olney subdivided song texts into the following categories: Child ballads (89 titles), 635 other British song titles (broadsides and others), and 593 American titles. Among these, there were 114 "stage songs" (British and American popular songs from the 19th-early 20th centuries), 73 religious titles and 122 children's songs. • Correspondence, publication materials, lectures and exhibits derived largely from field work, 1931-1967: including Flanders's correspondence with scholars, articles about her collecting experiences; information about ballad lectures given over a 30-year period throughout New England and in the Washington, D.C. area. • Supporting materials not directly related to field work, 1930-1960: original manuscripts, copybooks, and miscellaneous sheets which contain over 300 songs and tunes—including ballads, broadsides, fiddle and fife tunes which were transcribed between the 18th and the early 20th centuries. • Collection administration, 1940-1967: papers relating to the general operation of the collection. • Personal papers, 1941-65: a limited number personal notes from friends of Helen Flanders and photographs of members of the Flanders family. ==References==