Use Restrictions

The copyright and related rights status of this collection have not been evaluated (See http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/CNE/1.0/)

Access Restrictions

There are no access restrictions.

Preferred Citation

Photograph of Carl Sandburg playing guitar and singing, C0467, Special Collections Research Center, George Mason University Libraries.

Acquisition Information

Purchased by Steve Gerber from Schubertiade Music on March 5, 2012.

Processing Information

Processing completed by Amanda Brent in February 2021. EAD markup completed by Amanda Brent in February 2021. This item was formerly part of the Performing Arts Manuscript Materials collection, C0215.

Biographical Information

Carl Sandburg was a Swedish American poet, historian, musician, and folklorist. Born in 1878 to poor Swedish immigrants in Illinois, Sandburg had a transient childhood, working odd jobs around the U.S. during his teenage years - as well as briefly serving during the Spanish-American War - before enrolling in college. It only took a few years before Sandburg became known for his writing, both prose and verse. Eventually he became "best known to America as the singing bard...Requests for his lectures began to appear as early as 1908. He was his own accompanist, and was not merely a musician of sorts; he played the guitar well enough to have been a pupil of Andres Segovia" (Poetry Foundation). Sandburg published many of his varied works during his lifetime to great success. He passed away in 1967.

Scope and Content

Photograph of poet Carl Sandburg playing a guitar and singing, taken in 1948 when Sandburg was 70 years old. The photo is inscribed and signed by Sandburg in the lower right front corner to his friend and editor Catherine McCarthy at the publisher Harcourt Brace, which reads "Catherine McCarthy/ who has heard all the songs and is a much cherished listener and friend/ Carl Sandburg/ 1948[.]"

Arrangement

This is a single item collection.

Related Material

The Special Collections Research Center also holds the Margaret W. Fisher papers and the Jay Bradford Fowler, Jr. papers. It also holds many rare books and artists' books on poetry.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• American poetry -- 20th century
• Music
• Photography
• Sandburg, Carl, 1878-1967