Title: Badger State Folklore Society Records
Inclusive Dates: 1946-1956

Creator:

• Badger State Folklore Society

Call Number: Mss 174

Quantity: 1.2 c.f. (3 archives boxes)

Repository:

Wisconsin Historical Society, Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Archival Locations:

Wisconsin Historical Society (Map)

COLLECTION MAY BE STORED OFF-SITE: see catalog entry to request materials and for additional information.

Abstract:

Records of the Badger State Folklore Society, an organization designed to encourage the collection, preservation, and publication of Wisconsin folklore. Included are correspondence, folk tales, and a subject file. The correspondence documents the Society's initial organization and internal operation; discussions about the intended scope and focus of the group; efforts to solicit membership; the problems the Society faced in publishing Badger Folklore; and its attempts to popularize folklore by organizing ethnic exhibits and sponsoring speakers, folk plays, and folk dancing. The folktales are composed of essays on various ethnic customs, local legends, place names, and cemetery inscriptions not only in Wisconsin but throughout the United States.

Language: English

URL to cite for this finding aid: http://digital.library.wisc.edu/1711.dl/wiarchives.uw-whs-mss00174

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The Badger State Folklore Society, an organization designed to encourage the collection, preservation, and publication of Wisconsin folklore, was organized in Madison, Wisconsin, on June 7, 1947 as an affiliate of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin. An earlier folklore organization, the Wisconsin Folklore Society, had ended in 1946 with the death of Charles E. Brown. Rather than resurrect the old organization, interested folklorists organized a new group to preserve those Wisconsin traditions reflected in tall tales, legends, beliefs, customs, proverbs, songs, arts, and handicrafts.

The new group elected a 12-member Board of Directors and talked of establishing regional societies throughout the state to report on regional festivals and to gather materials for publication. The Society also planned to regularly issue Badger Folklore, a publication that would preserve and popularize Wisconsin traditions. However, although membership grew from 41 in 1947 to 129 in 1950, the Society could not solicit enough quality work from its membership for regular publication. Although its publication program proved sporadic, the Society did organize exhibits, sponsor speakers, folk plays, and folk dancing, and encouraged its members to participate in folklore conventions. Eventually it also published jointly with the Wisconsin Idea Theater Wisconsin Through the Comic Looking Glass.

Annual meetings were planned regularly but in 1953 not enough members were present to elect officers. No meeting was held in 1954. In 1955 the remaining members voted to make the Society a paper organization and to transfer funds to the Wisconsin Rural Writers, Inc. in exchange for an annual subscription to Creative Wisconsin.

The records of the Badger State Folklore Society are organized into correspondence, folktales, and an artificial subject file containing all remaining papers.

The correspondence, 1946-1956, documents the Society's initial organization and its internal operation. Founding members discussed the intended scope and focus of the new organization, its affiliate relationship with the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, whether to establish regional societies throughout the state or to initially concentrate on the parent organization, ways to solicit membership and to advertise the Society's existence, and the format of a publication program. The correspondence details the Society's efforts to publish Badger Folklore including requests for quality articles from the membership, the problems in soliciting a sufficient quantity of folk material to regularly publish the magazine, and subscription requests from members and other organizations. It also reveals the Society's efforts to popularize folklore by organizing ethnic exhibits and sponsoring speakers, folk plays, and folk dancing. Routine requests about membership are also included.

The folktales, written by University of Wisconsin students as class projects and by folklorists as entries submitted for possible use in the Society's publications, contain essays on various ethnic customs, local legends, place names, and cemetery inscriptions not only in Wisconsin but throughout the United States. They are arranged alphabetically by author.

The subject file is an alphabetical listing of the remaining records. Included are agenda and programs, ballots, clippings, financial records, lists of officers and general membership, minutes, newsletters, nomination forms, notes, organizational information, publications, questionnaires, reports, and writings pertaining to the Badger State Folklore Society.

Acquisition Information

Presented by Howard Kanetzke, Madison, Wisconsin, May 2, 1967. Accession Number: M67-140

Processing Information

Processed by Christine Rongone, July 6, 1976.

	Series: Correspondence
Box   1 Folder   1	1946-1948
Box   1 Folder   2	1949
Box   1 Folder   3	1950
Box   1 Folder   4-5	1951
Box   1 Folder   6	1952
Box   1 Folder   7	1953-1956
Box   1 Folder   8	Undated
	Series: Folktales	⇧
	Class projects
Box   1 Folder   9	A-B
Box   2 Folder   1	C-J
Box   2 Folder   2	K-M
Box   2 Folder   3	N-S
Box   2 Folder   4	T-Z
	Submitted for publication
Box   2 Folder   5	A-F
Box   2 Folder   6	H-Z; unidentified
	Series: Subject File	⇧
Box   3 Folder   1	Agenda and programs, 1947-1948, 1950, undated
Box   3 Folder   2	Ballot for transfer of funds and nomination forms for Board of Directors, undated
Box   3 Folder   3	Clippings, 1947-1952, undated
	Financial records
Box   3 Folder   4	Daybook, 1947-1952
Box   3 Folder   5	Miscellaneous, circa 1947-1954
	Lists
Box   3 Folder   6	Board of Directors and officers, 1948-1951, undated
Box   3 Folder   7	Mailing list, circa 1947-1950
Box   3 Folder   8	Membership cards, alphabetical, 1947-1952
Box   3 Folder   9	Membership lists, 1947-1952, undated
Box   3 Folder   10	Minutes, 1947, 1949, undated
Box   3 Folder   11	Miscellaneous, 1947, 1952, undated
Box   3 Folder   12	Newsletter, 1949, 1951, undated
Box   3 Folder   13	Nomination forms for Board of Directors, 1948, 1951
Box   3 Folder   14	Notes, circa 1950
Box   3 Folder   15	Organizational information, e.g., articles of incorporation, constitution, 1947
Box   3 Folder   16	Publications, 1948, 1950-1952, 1955, undated
Box   3 Folder   17	Questionnaires re folklore interests, undated
Box   3 Folder   18	Reports, undated
Box   3 Folder   19	Writings re Badger State Folklore Society, 1947, 1950