MacEdward Leach Papers

MacEdward Leach (1892-1967) was born near Bridgeport, Illinois to Edward P. Leach and Lillie May Madding. He graduated from University of Illinois in 1916, majoring in English and specializing in Middle English. Following U of I, Leach completed his MA at John Hopkins in 1917. A brief break in his intellectual journey, Leach served with the US Army during WWI from 1917-1919 as a C.O. in the Evacuation Ambulanceunit with both the French and Americans. After finishing his service, Leach worked as an assistant instructor at John Hopkins University from 1919-1921. From there Leach went on to teach at the University of Pennsylvania as an English assistant instructor from 1922-1926. Under the tutelage of Americanist, Cornelius Weygandt and anthropologist Frank Speck,Leach earned his PhD in 1930 from University of Pennsylvania,writing his dissertation on Celtic tradition in literature. Leach's personal interest in folklore burgeoned from his proclivities in Middle English, perhaps because the many early romances and epics were steeped in oral tradition. From this point, Leach devoted his life to folklore. Leach published over 15 articles and several books, gave substantial support to the American Folklore Society (AFS),in 1959 created a doctoral program in folklore and folklife, and established the Folklore Department at the UPenn in 1962. Leach remained there until his retirement in 1966.

Leach became very active in the establishment of the AFS, serving as the organization's secretary-treasurer from 1943-1962 and president from 1960-1962. His involvement in the AFS early on was influential in generating interest in folklore all over the country. Some of his duties included keeping track of the AFS fiscal records, garnering interest for the Journal of American Folklore, and maintaining a nationwide network of folklore professors. His efforts to get recognition for the AFS are apparent in the extensive amount of correspondence conducted between fellow colleagues, publishers, and outside organizations throughout his tenure. Away from the AFS, Leach spoke on several occasions, in particular at the Yugoslavia conference in 1965, about the history of folklore and the promotion of it as a discipline. Leach did a couple of freelance projects throughout his professional career, such as utilizing the AFS' knowledge and resources to contribute to the rebuilding of libraries destroyed in WWII and actively supporting the National Folklore Festival Association in 1966.

Supplementing his professional work were the several expeditions he took to discover more about folklore songs, oral traditions and proverbs in North America as well as in the Caribbean.Leach traveled to Appalachia, Lower Labrador, and Jamaica. In each region he recorded and collected ballads, songs, and proverbs of different folklore singers.Around 1949-1951, Leach went on another field expedition to Atlantic Canada (Nova Scotia, Newfoundland), to collect and record the folklore songs and stories of the region. Leach also spent some time in Jamaica, recording the Caribbean folklore traditions, especially the story of Anancy, ensuring the preservation of indigenous culture. Folk songs, ballads, and stories from his professional field expeditions are compiled in his publications including, but not limited to, Ballad Book (1955), Folk Ballads & Songs of the Labrador Coast (1965), and The Book of Ballads (1967). These books and other articles contributed to the preservation of ethnic culture in Canda, Europe, the United States, and in Jamaica for future generations of folklore scholars to appreciate and study from Leach's wide girth of knowledge.

In his personal life, Leach was married twice, first to Maria Doanne in 1917, a prominent folklorist in her own right, and had one child together, Donald. Leach married his second wife, Nancy Raffetto, a fellow UPenn professor, in 1950 and had one son together, Douglas. Leach was admired and respected by his many students and colleagues at Penn and throughout his professional career. Described as possessing an enthusiastic and charismatic lecture style, Leach garnered a large student following. Some of Leach's previous students described him as having a leonine-like appearance, great intensity, and a man who you could talk to about anything. Beyond his distinguished professional career, Professor Leach was a great humanitarian who had an impact on the lives of everyone he met. After four decades of teaching and a prolific folklore career, MacEdward Leach passed away at the age of 75 in 1967.

The MacEdward Leach papers were originally part of the Penn Folklore Archives. In 2011, the entire Folklore Archives were transferred to the Penn Museum Archives. The records contain information about Leach's long career as a folklorist, including his activity in the American Folklore Society (AFS), professional projects, personal data, photographs, and research materials from field expeditions in Lower Labrador and Jamaica.

The materials had previously been partially processed so we do not know the true original order. The basic order was retained as found, but some portions were split into multiple folders.

The Leach papers consist of 1.5 linear feet of records and are divided into eight series: AFS, Teaching, Professional, Jamaica, Lower Labrador (Canada), Ballads, Photographs, and Personal. The files in each series are arranged chronologically, except where noted. The AFS series is the largest and consists mainly of correspondence regarding Leach's duties as secretary-treasurer and organizationally directed projects.

The Teaching series has three files. Two contain syllabi and lecture outlines for the semester while the other contains five years of class records. There may be additional teaching records in the Folklore Department records (these are unprocessed).

The Professional series consists of records from a variety of projects, conferences and festivals, and different essays/talks about folklore. The next three series are larger bodies of records from Leach's two field expeditions and his research on ballads. The Jamaica (1956) series consists of field notes, reel-to-reel sound recordings (described separately) and logs, source materials about songs, as well as transcriptions of songs, stories, and proverbs.

The Lower Labrador (Canada) series consists of records from a project Leach undertook for the National Museum of Canada, and includes field notes, tape logs, and reel-to-reel sound recordings (described separately) from his Lower Labrador expedition (1949-1951).

The Ballads series consists of correspondence and notes relating to two of his books, Ballad Book (1955) and The Book of Ballads (1966), as well as other materials collected during his research. A folder of lectures is included in this series.

The Photographs series contains photos that parallel his professional trips to Jamaica and Appalachia, as well as studio portraits of MacEdward Leach, and a file of photographs taken by Frank G. Speck in the Cherokee nation in North Carolina, 1935.

The last series, Personal, consists of personal data, a research paper detailing Leach's work in Appalachia, and genealogical manuscripts of Leach's ancestral tree. Some of this material was added to the collection by the Penn Folklore Archives after Leach's death.

The collection also includes 149 reel-to-reel sound recordings made in Appalachia, Labrador, Newfoundland, and Jamaica, in the 1950s, which are catalogued separately. The Jamaican recordings have been digitized and may be accessed upon request. Copies of the Newfoundland and Labrador recordings can be found at the Memorial University of Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA): https://mmap.mun.ca/folk-songs-of-atlantic-canada/home.

Publication Information: University of Pennsylvania: Penn Museum Archives,

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