The NCTA Collection

The NCTA’s archive of original audio recordings dates back to the 1930s, with a concentration of recordings from the 1960s to the present. The significance of the collection lies in its coverage of a broad range of traditional arts in music, dance, and narrative forms. It has been called “arguably the nation’s most important private collection . . . that collectively define the essence of America’s cultural legacy to the world,” and “one of the. . . major cornerstones of twentieth century American folk music documentation.” 

The archive contains classic recordings of now legendary artists as well as the only extant recordings of many artists. The recordings are of higher quality than are found in most archives because the NCTA has had a long-standing commitment to employing the best available technologies for documentation, and began using professional portable recording equipment in the field decades before other presenters of folk and tribal arts.  The NCTA archive demonstrates not only a great diversity of cultures and art forms, but also NCTA's seminal role in bringing traditional arts to the public for more than 70 years.

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