Diana Davies photographs

Object Details

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Diana Davies photographs

Identifier

CFCH.DAVIE

Photographer

Davies, Diana, 1938-

Biographical/Historical note

Diana Davies is a well-known photographer of folk performers and festivals. Davies photographed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in its earlier years. Born in 1938, Davies grew up in Maine, the Catskills, New York City, and Boston. Her grandparents were local union organizers and Debs socialists; one grandfather was a gandy dancer with the railroad, and her grandmother was a textile worker in Massachusetts, New York, and Pennsylvania. Davies finds that her family background was later expressed in her own activist efforts. Davies left high school at 16, and worked sweeping out coffeehouses, which gave her the opportunity to listen to music while she worked. She became interested in theater and music. In Greenwich Village, she began doing some sound technician work, and then got interested in photography. She taught herself how to develop and print photographs in a darkroom, and began photographing in theaters, shooting from behind the scenes. Her theater photos are at Smith College in Northampton, where she presently lives. In the early 1960s, she began working with the editors of Broadside Magazine, Sis Cunningham and Gordon Friesen. She developed an interest in human rights work, which grew from her contact with Sis and Gordon, and also her own family background. She also worked as a photographer in a wide range of settings, including night clubs, weddings, and doing portrait photography. This led her to work for major national and international media including the New York Times, covering such events as the war in Biafra, and traveling to Mexico, Cuba, and Portugal on assignment. Davies' folk photographs represent about one-quarter of her body of work; her other major photographic work includes the Civil Rights Movement, the Peace Movement, and theater. Davies began photographing at the Newport Folk Festival in 1964, which she covered for a number of years. She knew Ralph Rinzler, and found him a vibrant, alive person excited by all aspects of culture. He introduced her to Bessie Jones from the Georgia Sea Islands, and in 1966 she made a photographic journey to the islands. Her work from this trip is included in the collection. Davies has also been a musician. She became involved with the punk rock movement of the 1970s, and felt that there was a connection between the hard-hitting songs from the punk world and the songs being published in Broadside Magazine. In 1975, she became part of a folk/punk women's band in Boston, and later moved to Western Massachusetts. In addition to being a photographer and musician, Davies is also a writer. She wrote a play entitled "The Witch Papers" in 1980, which was produced in Boston and other locations. The play was a vehicle for her human rights activism, comparing the technology of inquisition with labor sweatshops. In 1998, her play "The War Machine" was produced in Amherst, Mass. She lives in Northampton, and enjoys and participates in street performance, which she describes as the "most essentially communicative stuff you can come up with."

Processing Information note

The records were processed in 2004-2005 by Stephanie Smith, Joyce Capper, Jillian Foley, and Meaghan McCarthy. Encoded by Brittany Dunton, December 2011.

Date

1963-2009

Provenance

The Smithsonian Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections acquired portions of the Diana Davies Photograph Collection in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Ms. Davies photographed for the Festival of American Folklife. More materials came to the Archives circa 1989 or 1990. Archivist Stephanie Smith visited her in 1998 and 2004, and brought back additional materials which Ms. Davies wanted to donate to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. These two more recent donations of additional photographs (contact sheets, prints, and slides) consisted of documentation of the Newport Folk Festival, the Philadelphia Folk Festival, the Poor People's March on Washington, the Civil Rights Movement, the Georgia Sea Islands, and miscellaneous personalities of the American folk revival. In a letter dated 12 March 2002, Ms. Davies gave full discretion to the Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage to grant permission for both internal and external use of her photographs, with the provison that her work be credited in any use.

Extent

3.83 Cubic feet (8 binders containing contact sheets, slides, and prints; 7 boxes (8.5"x10.75"x2.5") of 35 mm negatives; 2 binders of 35 mm and 120 format negatives; and 1 box of 11 oversize prints.)

Summary

The Diana Davies photographs consist of images taken by Diana Davies at various stages of her career. Locations include the Festival of American Folklife, the Newport Folk Festival, the Philadelphia Folk Festival, the Poor People's Campaign, various peace and protest marches and outdoor performances, New York City, and the Georgia Sea Islands. The collection includes contact sheets, negatives, photographic prints, and slides. Original photographs, negatives, and color slides taken by Diana Davies. Materials date from 1963-2009. Bulk dates: Newport Folk Festival, 1963-1969, 1987, 1992; Philadelphia Folk Festival, 1967-1968, 1987.

General note

All contact sheets from the collection are digitized and accessible through this finding aid. Series-level slideshows accessible through this finding aid represent a small sampling from the collection.

Restrictions

Access by appointment only. Contact the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections at 202-633-7322 or rinzlerarchives@si.edu for additional information. Permission for the duplication or publication of items in the Diana Davies Photograph Collection must be obtained from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections.

Type

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Contact sheets

Slides (photographs)

Black-and-white negatives

Photographic prints

Arrangement note

Each item in the Diana Davies Photographs has been assigned an accession number, and like materials have been put together such as the Newport Folk Festival photographs, in a chronological sequence as much as possible. Materials in the three more recent donation batches (1998, 2004, and 2006) were numbered and integrated into the collection. In some series, the accession numbers are in numerical order, and in others, the numbers are random because like items with different number sequences were pulled together in a series for subject coherence. The best way to find occurrences of a particular subject is to use the ctrl+F function. Please consult the archivists if you have any questions about the collection contents. Contact sheets, slides, and prints arranged in 8 binders; negatives and oversize prints are stored separately. Arranged in 14 series: Missing Title Series 1: Newport Folk Festival Series 2: Philadelphia Folk Festival Series 3: Broadside Magazine Series 4: -- Sing Out! -- Magazine Concerts Series 5: Miscellaneous Concerts and People Series 6: Festival of American Folklife Series 7: Recording Sessions Series 8: Instruction Book Shots Series 9: Jazz, Blues, and Salsa Musicians Series 10: Georgia Sea Islands Series 11: Social Justice Series 12: New York City Scenes Series 13: Miscellaneous Papers and Correspondence Series 14: Oversize Materials

Scope and Contents

The Diana Davies photographs, 1963-2009, consist of black and white negatives, contact sheets and prints, as well as color slides and negatives. The bulk of materials depict major festivals and protest movements (including the Poor People's March of 1968) documented by Diana Davies (located in Series 1: Newport Folk Festival, Series 2: Philadelphia Folk Festival, Series 6: Festival of American Folklife, and Series 11: Social Justice). Also well-represented are non-festival performances (in locations such as clubs, concert halls, and homes), recording sessions, and other music-related images, mainly of notable figures in the American folk music revival (located in Series 3: Broadside Magazine, Series 4: Sing Out! Magazine Concerts, Series 5: Miscellaneous Concerts and People, Series 7: Recording Sessions, Series 8: Instruction Book Shots, and Series 9: Jazz, Blues, and Salsa Musicians). Series 10: Georgia Sea Islands consists of photographs depicting the culture, environment, and daily life of these coastal islands in 1966. Series 12: New York City Scenes contains photographs taken on the street depicting everyday life in NYC in the 1960s and 1970s. The collection also contains related papers in Series 13: Miscellaneous Papers and Correspondence.

Genre/Form

Contact sheets

Slides (photographs)

Black-and-white negatives

Photographic prints

Rights

Copyright restrictions apply. Please contact the archives staff for further information.

Photographer

Davies, Diana, 1938-

Performer

Bread and Puppet Theater

Everly Brothers

New Lost City Ramblers

Names

Newport Folk Festival

Performer

Pentangle (Musical group)

Names

Philadelphia Folk Festival

Performer

The Pennywhistlers (Musical group)

The Young Tradition (Musical group)

Andersen, Eric

Names

Asch, Moses

Performer

Bikel, Theodore

Musician

Bosco, John

Performer

Brand, Oscar

Cameron, John A.

Chandler, Len

Names

Chandler, Nancy

Performer

Collier, Jimmy

Collins, Judy, 1939-

Names

Dunson, Josh, 1941-

Performer

Fuller, Jesse

Photographer

Gahr, David

Performer

Gerrard, Alice, 1934-

Guthrie, Arlo

Hartford, John

Hjorth, Ole

Joplin, Janis

Kennedy, Norman, 1934-

Kershaw, Doug

Killen, Louis

Names

King, Coretta Scott, 1927-2006

Performer

Kirkpatrick, Frederick Douglass

Koerner, John

McGhee, Brownie, 1915-1996

Mitchell, Joni

Monroe, Bill, 1911-1996

Ochs, Phil

Perkins, Carl

Proffitt, Frank, Jr., 1946-2005

Rachell, Yank

Raim, Ethel

Ramsey, Frederic, 1915-1995

Reagon, Bernice Johnson, 1942-

Rinzler, Ralph

Sainte-Marie, Buffy

Seeger, Mike, 1933-2009

Names

Silber, Irwin, 1925-2010

Performer

Stabi, Björn

Sykes, Roosevelt, 1906-1983

Taylor, James

Traum, Artie

Traum, Happy

Waters, Muddy, 1915-1983

Watson, Doc

Watson, Merle

White, Elaine, (Vocalist)

Wiseman, Mac

Names

Young, Izzy, 1928-

Topic

Peace movements

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Washington, D.C., 1963

Civil rights -- United States

Place

New York (N.Y.)

Saint Simons Island (Ga. : Island)

Citation

Diana Davies photographs, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.

Archival Repository

Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections

Record ID

ebl-1503513332931-1503513332960-0

Metadata Usage

CC0