Chelsea House Folklore Center collection

Between 1974 and 1981, the Chelsea House Folklore Center of West Brattleboro, Vermont, was a coffeehouse and resource center for area folk musicians. The Center sponsored concerts by local and itinerant musicians from the U.S., Canada, and the British Isles during a rich period in the history of American popular music. Performances at the Center were primarily in the popular folk idiom, although other genres of music were also represented. Nearly every concert at the Chelsea House was recorded. These (largely cassette) tapes were labeled and stored in an archive. Log books for these concert engagements were also preserved.

Additionally, as a local resource for area musicians and others interested in performances of popular folk music, the Center maintained a library of materials which included books and pamphlets on traditional music and regional folklife, posters, programs, as well as newsletters, concert announcements from regional folklore societies, coffee houses and folk festivals. Other materials retained by the Center include information on record production, as well as the master tapes and discs of selected performances at the Center and at the Brattleboro Folk Festival.