The Archives of Traditional Music is an audiovisual archive that documents music and culture from all over the world. With over 100,000 recordings that include more than 2,700 field collections, it is one of the largest university-based ethnographic sound archives in the United States.

Its holdings cover a wide range of cultural and geographical areas, vocal and instrumental music, linguistic materials, folktales, interviews, and oral history, as well as videotapes, photographs, and manuscripts.

See and hear highlights from our collections

Herbert Halpert Mid Atlantic collection. In 1939, while working for the WPA, folklorist Herbert Halpert (1911-2000) traveled through the New Jersey Pine Barrens, southeastern Pennsylvania, and New York recording individuals singing Anglo-American ballads, work songs, sea shanties, historical songs, bawdy songs, and game songs.