Archives of Traditional Music

Lore & Background

The archive was initiated by George Herzog at Columbia University in 1936, modeled on the Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv where Herzog had worked as a student and later researcher from 1921 to 1924. Herzog brought the nascent archive to Indiana University in 1948 when he was appointed as professor in the Department of Anthropology. The archive was formally established at Indiana University in 1954 under its second director, George List, as the Archives of Folk and Primitive Music, though it had already been functioning since 1948. Its present name, the Archives of Traditional Music, was adopted in 1964 when it became a division of the Folklore Institute.

In 2008, staff at the ATM participated in a coalition that surveyed audiovisual materials on the Bloomington campus, revealing over half a million recordings at risk. This led to the Media Preservation Initiative, later renamed the Media Preservation and Digitization Initiative (MDPI), which received a $15 million commitment from Indiana University President Michael McRobbie. By 2020, MDPI aimed to digitally preserve 280,000 audio and video recordings, including nearly all of the ATM's 100,000 recordings. The ATM houses a vault with temperature- and humidity-controlled storage for formats such as wax cylinders, lacquer discs, aluminum discs, wires, open reel tapes, audiocassettes, films, and video recordings.

Reader's Guide

The Archives of Traditional Music is significant as one of the largest university-based repositories of ethnographic and linguistic audiovisual recordings in the United States. Its holdings, nearly half of which are unique field recordings, document the expressive culture and languages of peoples worldwide, supporting research in ethnomusicology, folklore, anthropology, linguistics, and area studies. The archive's preservation efforts, particularly through the Media Preservation and Digitization Initiative, represent a pioneering model for university-based media preservation, being the first and as of 2018 the only such effort on this scale in the United States. The ATM also houses notable projects such as the Archive of Historical and Ethnographic Yiddish Memories, the EVIA Digital Archive, and the Hoagy Carmichael Collection, and publishes the quarterly ReSound and the Folklore and Folk Music Archivist. Its holdings are cataloged in the Indiana University online library catalog, IUCAT, with commercial and broadcast recordings cataloged at the item level and field collections at the collection level.

Did You Know?

• The archive was initiated by George Herzog at Columbia University in 1936, modeled on the Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv where Herzog worked as a student and later researcher from 1921 to 1924.
• The vault contains 7,000 wax cylinders, 4,600 lacquer discs, and 18,000 open reel tapes.
• Nearly half of the archive's recordings are unique field recordings documenting cultures and languages worldwide.
• The Media Preservation and Digitization Initiative (MDPI) was the first university-based media preservation effort on this scale in the United States as of 2018.

Origins and Institutional Evolution

The Archives of Traditional Music traces its intellectual roots to 1936, when ethnomusicologist George Herzog launched a small recording collection at Columbia University. Herzog's vision was directly inspired by his earlier experience at the Berliner Phonogramm-Archiv, where he served as an assistant to Erich M. von Hornbostel between 1921 and 1924. That European model of systematic sound preservation shaped the young American archive from its very first days. When Herzog accepted a professorship in the Department of Anthropology at Indiana University in 1948, he brought the still-nascent collection with him, transplanting it to Bloomington. The archive gained formal institutional standing in 1954 under its second director, George List, who established it under the name Archives of Folk and Primitive Music. A significant rebranding followed in 1964, when the collection was rechristened the Archives of Traditional Music and reorganized as a division within the Folklore Institute, a structural move that reflected both the broadening of its disciplinary scope and the evolving academic language of the field.

Physical Holdings and Preservation Infrastructure

Behind the public-facing services of the archive lies an extraordinary physical infrastructure designed to safeguard fragile media. At its core sits a 2,138-square-foot vault, meticulously maintained with temperature and humidity controls, housing materials in formats that span nearly a century of recording technology. The collection includes 7,000 wax cylinders, 4,600 lacquer discs, 2,625 aluminum discs, 250 wire recordings, 18,000 open-reel tapes, 7,500 audiocassettes, 911 films, and 1,500 video recordings. Nearly half of these are unique field recordings that document the expressive cultures and languages of communities around the globe. Beyond the vault, the archive offers a public Listening Library where visitors can access recordings with staff reference assistance, a dedicated Reading Room, and specialized studios. The Hoagy Carmichael Room adds a distinctive cultural dimension, hosting performances, lectures, and receptions while displaying artifacts, photographs, and manuscripts from the composer's life, accessible by appointment during regular hours.

The Media Preservation and Digitization Initiative

A turning point in the archive's preservation history arrived after the Sound Directions Project revealed a looming crisis in the long-term survival of time-based media. In 2008, ATM staff joined a small coalition of Indiana University archivists and librarians to survey the campus's audiovisual holdings. The findings were alarming: Bloomington held more than half a million recordings across eighty units, with large portions at serious risk of deterioration or playback obsolescence. A 2009 survey report led the Office of the Vice Provost for Research to commission a preservation planning document. Acting on those recommendations, President Michael McRobbie announced a fifteen-million-dollar commitment to preserving audio and video recordings on campus. The effort, renamed the Media Preservation and Digitization Initiative, partnered with Memnon Archiving Services to digitally preserve 280,000 recordings by 2020. In 2017, 12,000 films from the Moving Image Archives and other campus collections were added to the program. As the university's largest holder of unique and rare audiovisual recordings, the ATM expects nearly all of its 100,000 recordings to be digitized through this initiative, which as of 2018 remains the only university-based media preservation effort of this scale in the United States.

Research Projects and Scholarly Contributions

The archive extends well beyond passive storage, actively generating research resources that serve scholars worldwide. The Archive of Historical and Ethnographic Yiddish Memories stands out among its flagship projects, having collected nearly 400 interviews conducted primarily in Yiddish with speakers from small towns across Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Hungary, and Slovakia. These recordings document Jewish daily life, foodways, religious practice, and experiences before, during, and after World War II, and are organized for exploration by location, person, or subject. Preservation and cataloging of this collection received funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The EVIA Digital Archive, born from a collaboration between Indiana University and the University of Michigan, hosts ethnographic videos specifically designed for educational use. Ethnomusicology Multimedia, a joint venture between Indiana and Temple Universities, publishes books and supplemental audiovisual material while providing access to an Annotation Management System that lets authors link uploaded recordings directly to their written text. The Hoagy Carmichael Online project, funded by IMLS between 1999 and 2000, digitized the composer's extensive collection of sound recordings, letters, photographs, lyric sheets, correspondence, and personal effects, offering a virtual tour of the Carmichael Room alongside a full biography.