The last will and testament as a form of literature.

hou02050 Perrow, Eber Carle, 1880-1968. Eber Carle Perrow collection of Southern ballads (MS Am 1576): Guide. 12/15/2009 Bonnie B. Salt Finding aid prepared using DACS 11/07/2013 Loaded into OASIS 02/11/2011 Emilie Hardman added digital links MS Am 1576 Perrow, Eber Carle, 1880-1968. Eber Carle Perrow collection of Southern ballads: Guide. Houghton Library, Harvard College Library

Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 USA

Last update on 2011 February 11

Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University b MS Am 1576 Perrow, Eber Carle, 1880-1968. Eber Carle Perrow collection of Southern ballads, 1908-1909. 1 box (.25 linear ft.) Collection materials are in English. Southern ballads (folk songs), chiefly African-American, gathered by American scholar Eber Carle Perrow and others, as well as course papers written for Perrow by students taking Harvard College's English A in 1909.

Processed by: Bonnie B. Salt

*57M-247. Gift of Eber Carle Perrow, Talking Rock, Georgia; received: 1958.

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Preferred Citation for Publication:

Eber Carle Perrow Collection of Southern Ballads (MS Am 1576). Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Eber Carle Perrow (1880-1968) received an BA from Trinity College (North Carolina) in 1903, an MA in 1905, and in 1908 received a PhD from Harvard University in English Philology. His thesis at Harvard was: The last will and testament as a form of literature. Perrow was married to Bertha Perrow, was for a time an Assistant Professor at the University of Mississippi, and became a University of Louisville English professor. He was a lover of folk songs, and died in 1968 in Pickens, Georgia.

Arranged alphabetically by author or title.

Collection consists primarily of texts of lyrics of Southern African-American ballad folk songs, collected by Perrow, some pages apparently signed and in the hand of the local persons who related the text, but most in hand of Harvard students who wrote compositions for English A in 1909. Manuscripts are often only fragments, written in multiple hands, some are typed transcripts of lyrics, and there is one sheet of manuscript music of a ballad. There is also a 1908 letter from an unidentified person at Louisiana State University written to Perrow concerning text of Southern ballads.

(1) English A compositions : many variant manuscript hands, 1909. 2 folders.

Student compositions written for English A, a course at Harvard College, probably taught by Perrow, and are composed of ballad text. Some papers include autograph manuscript comments by Perrow along with assigned grades. See also fragments listed below which might include additional portions of students' work.

Includes the papers of the following Harvard and Radcliffe students: T. H. Ball Luther A. Harrison T. H. Holliman Maud A. Kent W. G. Pitts J. E. Rankin G. Turner Littleton Upjohn