----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger and Allison Kulp" <thorenstd124@xxxxxxxxx>
I once was looking through one of those old reprints of a Sear's catalog from
the early 1910s,and I clearly recall seeing an ad for records of field
hollers,with a photo of blacks in a cotton field.I may have actually heard
somebody play these once.The Sear's Oxford label,that issued these,were pressed
by Columbia. Wasn't it Columbia,that issued the famous Booker T. Washington
cylinders ?
Well, during this early era, there were a number of records of "Negro
spitituals,"
in many cases performed by Black artists!
However, I don't recall there having been a reprint of a Sears catalog from
the "'teens"...I used to have reprints of the 1902 and 1908 catalogs, and
IIRC there was one from (c.?) 1927.
Were the records cylinders or discs? If the latter, they MAY be listed in
the "Abrams files"...either COLZERO.C8T or a .MX file...
Steven C. Barr