Collections by Name | Collections by Region

Richard M. Dorson Michigan State College Folklore Collection

Richard Mercer Dorson (1916-1981) is called the "father of folklore studies in the United States." The foundations of his career were in Michigan, where Dorson worked as a tireless researcher and professor at Michigan State College (University) where he taught from 1944-1957. Dorson traveled throughout Michigan documenting the folklore and folklife of the state's citizenry for the next thirteen years.

The collections housed at Michigan State University Museum constitute folklore collections made by Dorson and his students in the classes he taught at Michigan State and include oral histories, local legends, folksongs, fiddle tunes, college and high school songs and narratives, jokes, beliefs, and folk dance. When he left MSU to head the Ph.D. program in folklore at Indiana University, he took his collection with him but left a duplicate copy at Wayne State University Folklore Archive which was transferred to Michigan State University Museum in 2001.

Donors and Fieldworkers

Wayne State University Folklore Archives Richard M. Dorson and students enrolled in his classes at Michigan State College

Publications

Many of Dr. Dorson's voluminous number of publications drew upon the research that formed this collection.