Ronald D. Cohen, professor of history at Indiana University Northwest-Gary, 1970-2005, wrote and edited numerous books and articles, many about American folk music, and co-produced compilations of folk and topical songs. He edited Red Dust and Broadsides: A Joint Autobiography, written by Agnes Cunningham (Sis) and her husband Gordon Friesen. Sis Cunningham was a songwriter and musician who performed with the Almanac Singers, a 1940s group of folk musicians, and the Red Dust Players, a 1939 radical agitprop group that performed plays in aid of the Southern Tenant Farmers Union. Gordon Friesen was a newspaper journalist and artist. Cunningham and Friesen fled anti-Communist harassment in Oklahoma and moved to New York City where they founded and published Broadside, a magazine that documented topical and folk songs, beginning in the early 1960s. The collection consists of papers, photographs, and audiovisual materials relating to Ronald Cohen, Sis Cunningham, Gordon Friesen, and Broadside. People figuring prominently in the collection include Barbara Dane, Josh Dunson, Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, Janis Ian, Ernie Mars, Phil Ochs, Richard Reuss, Malvina Reynolds, Pete Seeger, Irwin Silber, Sammy Walker, Alan J. Weberman, and Izzy Young. Broadside papers, 1957-1999, include original artwork; operations correspondence; transcriptions of songs; articles; press releases; and concert flyers. Cohen papers, 1932-2005, include correspondence; materials related to recording and book projects; and research files documenting his studies of American topical songs and protest songs, the folk revival movement, and McCarthy-era Communism. Sis Cunningham papers, 1914-1998, include correspondence, family memorabilia, and original songs, plays, and writings. Some materials relate to the Red Dust Players. Gordon Friesen papers, late 1930s-1983, include correspondence, drawings, and writings, many documenting his career as a newspaper journalist and novelist. Photographs consist of family photographs of Sis Cunningham, Gordon Friesen, and their family. There are also a few unidentified images of old downtown storefronts and cars. Audiovisual materials include Cohen's collection of audiocassettes with recordings of folk music radio programs, copies of 78 rpm records, interviews, and commercial recordings. Microcassettes include recordings of Cohen's interviews with folk musicians and others associated with folk music. Other audiovisual materials include Cunningham and Friesen's family films and videocassettes documenting the 1991 Richard Reuss Memorial Folk Music Convention.

From: http://www.lib.unc.edu/mss/inv/htm/20239.html