In 2014 the Gloucester-Mathews Gazette-Journal published the “Days Past” column about musical recordings that were done at Emmaus Baptist Church in the fall of 1938. At our weekly Rotary Club meeting that day in 2014, Dr. Art Miller approached me and asked me if I could find the original recordings. I accepted his challenge and went to work.
In November of 1938, Roscoe E. Lewis of the Hampton Institute on behalf of the Virginia Writers project came to Mathews County to record the traditional hymns of formerly enslaved people in Mathews County. The concert was held at Emmaus Baptist Church at North. This was documented by the Gloucester-Mathews Gazette Journal on Nov. 17, 1938.
After extensive research, I located the recordings at the Library of Congress American Folklife Center. There were several different cataloged recordings from Emmaus Baptist Church equaling 28 minutes of recorded music. Correspondence with the Folklife Center was very positive and they were able to send me the mu...