36.0 cubic feet (887 folders), 1387 audio discs, 135 audio tapes, 152 audio cassettes, 112 wire recordings, 3 film reels
The Christeson Collection contains sheet music, song books, and other publications related to square dancing and folk dances, publications on the history of violins and fiddles, catalogs of instruments and musical recordings, correspondence, photographs and family papers, fiddle organization newsletters, fiddle contest flyers and folk festival information, and the working papers of volumes I and II of The Old-Time Fiddler's Repertory. In addition, this collection contains Christeson's original wire recordings, audio tapes, and audio discs of fiddle tunes, jam sessions, fiddle contests, and other folk genres.
This collection can be requested to view at State Historical Society of Missouri research centers. Appointments are strongly encouraged to ensure that requested materials are available at the time of your visit. Make an appointment using the research request form.
The State Historical Society of Missouri collects materials documenting all aspects of Missouri history. Some of our paper and digital collections as well as older finding aids may include harmful or outdated language and could be considered offensive. SHSMO does not censor its collections, but we endeavor to be accurate and inclusive in how we describe them.
We are committed to revising and updating our descriptive language; however, with thousands of finding aids, this is ongoing and will take time. When processing new collections, we will occasionally re-use language provided by creators and former owners of the collection because it provides important context about the materials or appears in the formal names of organizations or titles of materials in the collection. In all finding aids, archivists work to contextualize the contents of manuscript collections.