Thanks, Dick. I haven't been checking out Mudcat lately, so just found this thread. Was wondering why nobody remembered our (myself & husband George) contributions to the Cronin book. I think there's a long thread about it, written just after the book's publication). In 1952 I had a Fulbright Scholarship to trace the sources of our family songs in the British Isles and Ireland. We had about a week's visit with Elizabeth Cronin who was staying at that time with her sister in Lisbee Muir, near Macroom. They gave us a warm and wonderful welcome, played music and sang, danced, took us to a wedding-in-straw as guests, made ceilidhs, told stories, listened to my Kentucky songs and stories, made us feel so much at home- what a week! And what memories we still have of those dear folks and good times.

When we got home we sent several sheets of bxw contact sheets of many of the photos which George had taken, to Bess and to her sister also. Years later, Bess's grandson Daibhi O'Cronin, a college professor, visited and saw the photos. Excited, he wrote to us and had us send some photos to him. We sent many more of our photos, and included some of the taped music also. He was thrilled with them, and he and his family came to this country and spent time in our home, examining all we had done. When he returned home he arranged that the James Hardiman Library, at the University in Galway, should acquire our collection of taped music and all the pictures taken in Ireland during that year. This became the Ritchie-Pickow Archive at that Library, and it's our understanding that it is on loan as an exhibit to be had by any school or art institution throughout Ireland.

Meanwhile, Daibhi did his book about his grandmother, Bess Cronin, using what he needed of George's 1952-53 photographs, and our tapes of the songs that Bess and others sang for us. Daibhi was much impressed with the quality of the photography and the sound. We used the first portable tape recorder of good quality, Magnacorder. George carried the recorder and I carried the speaker, when we had to walk. Each weighed about fifty pounds- the speaker was a bit lighter.
George's cameras I think were Rolliflex and Canon, the small ones, and a larger one whose name I forget- will find out if anyone wants to know, but his pictures were sharp and clear, and well composed.

I won't write any more- my postings usually "kill" a thread, anyway, and I don't ever know why. That's why I have not said much of late!