Ronald Richard Smith papers, 1973-1996, bulk 1978-1985
A Guide to the Papers at the Indiana University Archives
Finding aid prepared by Bergis Jules and Rebecca
Smith
Summary Information
Repository:
Indiana University Archives
1320 East Tenth Street
Herman B Wells Library E460
Bloomington, IN 47405-7000
Phone: 812-855-1127
Email: archives@indiana.edu
http://www.libraries.iub.edu/archives
Creator
Smith, Ronald Richard,
1938-
TitleRonald Richard Smith papers, 1973-1996, bulk 1978-1985
Collection No.
C143
Extent
2 cubic feet (2 boxes)
Language
Materials are in English
Abstract
Ronald Richard Smith was a member of the
Folklore faculty at Indiana University from 1978-1997. His research centered around
traditional music, festivals, movement and dance, and religion within the African
Diaspora, with a focus on Caribbean peoples. In addition to his teaching
responsibilities at IU, Smith also served as associate dean of the Office of
Research and University Graduate School from 1988-1996, headed the IU
Ethnomusicology Program, and spent one year as director of the Archives of
Traditional Music. This collection consists of Smith’s papers and lectures,
dissertations of some of his students, correspondence, committee files, and some
classroom materials. Prominent in the papers are Smith's files on the Folklore
Institute and department, such as teaching files, meeting minutes, and curriculum
reviews.
Access Restrictions
The Theses and dissertation series is closed to researchers at this time.
Advance notice required for access.
Biographical Note
Ronald Richard Smith was born in New York on October 29, 1938. He was one of five
children (four boys and one girl) born to Arthur Smith and Lucille Locket Smith. He
attended New York’s Music and Art High School before going on to study
ethnomusicology at Hunter College of the City University of New York. He graduated
from Hunter cum laude with a Bachelor of Science degree in music in 1960. From there
he went on to teach music, math, and general science courses in the New York Public
School system for ten years. During his time with the New York Public Schools he
served as an assistant school principal, conducted two choruses and directed a
creative arts program for disadvantaged youth.
Smith also continued his education during this time. He attended classes at Hunter
College, Brooklyn College, and the Mannes College of Music, studying music and
ethnomusicology. In 1970, he received an IU fellowship to study ethnomusicology
under folklorist George H. List, and in 1971 Smith earned his master’s degree. Two
Ford Fountain fellowships and a year in Panama and Columbia on a Fulbright-Hayes
fellowship allowed Smith to continue on towards his doctorate, which he earned from
IU in 1976.
After teaching music at Middlebury College and Bowdoin College, Smith joined the IU
faculty in 1978. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he served as
associate dean of the IU Office of Research and University Graduate School from
1988-1996. He also directed the Archives of Traditional Music from 1981-1982 and the
Ethnomusicology Program from 1979-1981, 1983-1984 and 1987-1988. Additionally, Smith
was a member of the program faculties of Latin American and Caribbean Studies and
African Studies.
Smith was a member of several of the fellowship programs at IU. He directed the
Committee for Institutional Cooperation Minorities Fellowship Program (IU Archives
Collection C144) and served as a member and chairperson of the Ford Foundation
Fellowship Selection Panels in the areas of music, art, communication, folklore, and
ethnomusicology.
One of Smith’s noteworthy accomplishments during his time at IU includes the
development of several computer databases that were used in cataloging extensive
collections of data in various IU archives. These databases were a product of his
work teaching students and faculty how to apply computer-assisted analysis to the
study of folk music, literature, and material culture.
Smith’s research centered on traditional music, festivals, movement and dance, and
religion within the African Diaspora; he was especially interested in Caribbean
peoples. His research took him outside of the United stated to Panama, Columbia,
Spain, Ghana and Malawi. His research projects included the Festival of the Black
Christ in Panama, and the history and development of religious brotherhoods for free
and slave blacks in Spain. His research was published in various book chapters,
articles and reviews.
Smith was a member of the American Musical Instrument Society, the American Folklore
Society, the National Council for Black Studies, the American Association for State
and Local History, the Society for Ethnomusicology, the Association of African and
Afro-American Folklorists, and the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.
Prof. Smith passed away in Bloomington on June 18, 1997.
Arrangement
Organized into four series: Research and writings; Correspondence; Indiana
University; and Theses and dissertations.
Scope and Content Note
This collection is organized into four series: Writings and presentations;
Correspondence; Indiana University; and Theses and dissertations. The Indiana
University series is further organized into three sub-series: Committees and
programs; Folklore Department; and Teaching materials. The collection spans the
years 1973-1996.
The first series in this collection is entitled Writings and presentations,
1974-1994, and includes papers and articles written by Smith, papers from
conferences he attended and participated in, a folder of lectures and presentations
that he gave both to his classes and at various conferences, and a diary that he
wrote while on a research trip in Africa. The series is arranged alphabetically by
folder title.
Correspondence is the next series in this collection, arranged alphabetically by the
surname of the correspondents except in the cases of the “general correspondence”
folders and one folder entitled “Elaine” in which a last name could not be
discovered. Any individual having at least three pieces of correspondence in this
collection received their own folder. Some frequent correspondents are fellow IU
folklorists Richard Dorson and W. Edson Richmond. The series spans the years
1974-1995.
The third series in the collection is entitled Indiana University, and it spans the
period from 1973-1996. This series is organized into three sub-series: Committees
and programs; Folklore department; and Teaching materials. The Committee and
programs sub-series spans the years from 1973-1996 and is comprised of records of
the various IU committees that Smith served on outside of the Folklore Department.
Many of the groups represented here are committees related to minority students on
campus. The tenure committee file from this series is restricted. This sub-series is
arranged alphabetically. The next sub-series is entitled Folklore department. This
series contains records, not including teaching materials, that Smith acquired as a
faculty member within the Folklore Department. It includes minutes of meetings,
curriculum reviews and graduate studies papers. This sub-series contains records
from 1978-1986 arranged alphabetically. Teaching materials is the last sub-series.
This sub-series is comprised of records that Smith created for courses taught in the
Folklore Department. It includes syllabi, course descriptions, and course
information packets. These materials span the years 1977-1993 and are arranged
alphabetically.
The last series contains theses and dissertations dating from 1976-1996 written by
students in the Folklore Department at Indiana University. At this time, this series
is restricted since each folder also contains the reviews that each student received
from the review committees, and some include forms for fellowships containing social
security numbers. This series is arranged alphabetically.
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Indexing Terms
-
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
IUCAT, the IU Libraries'
online catalog. Materials about related topics, persons or places can be found by
searching the catalog using these terms.
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Separated Material
Duplicate materials were pulled and discarded.
Administrative Information
Acquisition Information
Accession 97/085
Usage RestrictionsThe donor(s) of this collection have not transferred their copyrights for the materials to the Trustees of Indiana University.
For more information, please contact the Indiana University Archives staff.
The Indiana University Archives respects the intellectual property rights of others and does not claim any copyrights for
non-university records, materials in the public domain, or materials for which we do not hold a Deed of Gift. Responsibility
for the determination of the copyright status of these materials rests with those persons wishing to reuse the materials.
Researchers are responsible for securing permission from copyright owners and any other rights holders for any reuse of these
materials that extends beyond fair use or other statutory limitations.
Digital reproductions of archival materials from the Indiana University Archives are made available for noncommercial educational
and research purposes only. If you are the copyright holder for any of the digitized materials and have questions about its
inclusion on our site, please contact the Indiana University Archivist.
Preferred Citation
[Item], Ronald Richard Smith papers, Collection C143, Indiana University Archives, Bloomington.
Provenance
Transferred to the Archives on 4 Sept. 1997 by Ruth Aten at the Folklore
Institute.
Processing InformationProcessed by Archives staff; revised by Bergis Jules and Rebecca Smith.
Completed in 2007
Container List
Series:
Box 1
Writings and presentations,1974-1994
Bibliographies, 1969-1979
Canto, Letra, y Ritmo (manuscript), 1974
Christopher Columbus, conference, Minnesota, 1989
Consultancy-Reader, journals and books, 1979-1985
Diary: trip to Africa, 1977
“Ethnomusicology: A discussion”, 1980
HBC-ETS Collaboration Georgia Cluster Workshop V, conference,
1989
“Handbook of American Folklore”, 1980
Indianapolis Children’s Museum, consultant, 1993-1994
“Latin American Lectures and presentations”, 1978-1987
Publications, Dr. Ronald R. Smith, 1980-1984
Research Statement- Latin American music and folklore, 1983-1985
Reviews, 1980-1985
SEM (Society for Ethnomusicology (mirror))- Panels, Abstracts,
1980-1985
Southern Christian Leadership Conference, 1994
“They Sing with the Voice of the Drum”, by Ronald Smith
(manuscript), 1985
“Trees, Stones, Bones, and Brass: Our Musical World in
Instruments”, 1985
Zoomorphic Project and lecture presented to friends of Mathers
Museum, 1987-1990
Series:
Correspondence, 1974-1995
Box 1
General correspondence, 1974-1995
Bauman, Richard, 1987
Cioffi, Frank, 1979
Conrad, Geoffrey, 1984
Crabbe, Emelinda, 1980
Degh, Linda, 1981-1984
Dorson, Richard M., 1978-1981
“Elaine”, 1985
El-Shamy, Hasan, 1978-1981
Hudson, Herman, 1979-1980
Johnson, John William, 1985
Jones, Bridget, 1979-1980
Knight, Annette, 1979
Ledang, Ola Kai, 1984-1985
Louis, Kenneth R. Grosundated
McCure, Polley A., 1987
Merriam, Alan P., 1979-1980
Miller, Lewis H., 1987
Moore, Hon. Bai T., 1983
Nelson, Cynthia, 1978
O’Meara, Patrick, 1981
O’Neil, Robert, 1979
Parker, Richard, 1986
Polson, Adam, 1980
Price, Edgar H.M., 1980
Read, Glenn, 1979-1984
Reveres, Peter, 1980
Richmond, Edson, 1986
Rice, Camille, 1993
Robertson, Carol E., 1981
Sebeok, Thomas E., 1978
Seeger, Anthony, 1983-1987
Sheey, Daniel, 1979
Simmons, R.M., 1981
Simmons, Tanya L., 1985
Smith, Norma M., 1987
Snugg, Fran, 1988
Solt, Leo, 1978-1981
Solt, Mary Ellen, 1978-1982
Soto, Mario, 1987
Spear, Louise, 1978-1983
Spitzer, Nicholas, 1981
Stahl, Sandra, 1979
Stanwood, Michael, 1986
Stone, Ruth, 1978-1981
Washington, Donald Eno, 1986
Webb, Charles, 1986-1987
Wertheim, Albert, 1986
Zeff, Robin Lee, 1984
Zemp, Hugo, 1987
Series:
Indiana University, 1973-1996
Subseries:
Committees and Programs, 1973-1996
Box 1
Advisory Committee - Students and Scholars from Abroad
(ACSSA), 1995-1996
African American Affairs - Black Faculty, 1979-1993
Black Film Center, 1992-1993
Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies - Policy
committee, 1987-1992
Groups committee, 1995
Groups Program advisory committee, 1993
International Enhancement Program (grants), 1995-1996
IUURC (IU undergraduate research conference), 1995
Latino Research Project, 1991-1992
Lima Program, 1989-1990
Mathers-Zoomorphic Instruments, 1987-1989
Mathers Museum Policy Committee, 1991-1993
Box 2
Multidisciplinary Seminars Committee, 1984-1992
Museum Studies, 1991-1992
SPEA programs and funding, 1995
Task Force - Spanish/Portuguese culture, 1991-1992
Zoomorphic Institutional Program. Layout #2, report format,
1987
Tenure committee letter of recommendation, 1973-1987
RESTRICTED
Subseries:
Folklore Department, 1978-1986
Box 2
Curriculum revision, 1986
Departmental meetings, 1978-1988
Departmental review, 1983-1984
Graduate Handbook for the Folklore Institute, 1982
Subseries:
Teaching Materials, 1977-1993
Computers in Folklore Research,
Summer 1985
1988-1989
Box 2
Course Descriptions, 1978-1984
Course Information, 1977-1982
Course Packet F351/F625, 1993
Course Syllabi, 1984-1987
I.U. Course Prep, 1977-1978
Syllabi, F404/604 SSII, 1985
World Folk Music Traditions F211, 1978-1979
Series:
Theses and Dissertations, 1976-1996
Series is RESTRICTED at this time.
Box 2
Avery, Thomas Leroy, 1979-1980
Avorbedor, Daniel, 1979-1983
Bezoor, Nina, 1981-1983
Bornim, Mellonee, 1976-1980
Darrius Joiner, 1992
Grims, Terry, 1982-1984
Hall, Raymond, 1995-1996
Keys, Cheryl, 1985-1991
Largey, Michael, 1985-1988
Rahkonen, Carl, 1982-1987
Review Board, 1989-1991
Selwyn, Ahyong, M.A. Thesis, 1978-1981
Ware, Kenneth, 1983-1986