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diaries. While the collectors' introductions to their publications are informative on their
collecting method and their response to what they found in the field, a deeper investigation
of their primary sources still needs to be made in order to assess the objective value of the
published results. Many of these primary materials have been acquired by MUNFLA, but
have not generally been researched in any depth. l There are various reasons for this
neglect. Karpeles' nOlations are in shorthand, and no-one yet has been found to decipher
them.2 Leach's Newfoundland collection is unpublished and although the texts and music
of the songs have been transcribed, this sizeable data including the handwrillen nOles, nOI
yel fully catalogued, remains in a confusing state. 3 A copy of Peacock's tape collection
has been recently acquired from the Canadian Museum of Civilization but is
unaccompanied by any of his papers. 4
To complete this overview of published sources, a few minor and less academic
publications still need to be mentioned. Mercer's Index lists an unsuspected source for the
ballad "The Unquiet Grave" (Ch 78).5 This source has. to my knowledge. the earliest
record of a classical ballad in the province. This pamphlet is filled with advertisements for
several $1. John's trades, which fact suggests that, like the earliest songbooks published in
the province, it was probably distributed free to get notice for its many advertiscl11cnts. 6
1This is with the exception of my article devoted to Greenleaf quoled already. Some of
Greenleaf's manuscripts, deposited by Robert D. Madison, and including pcrsoTl;!l
correspondence, IraTlscriptions and fieldnotes are catalogued as MUNFLA ms 82-189:
taped interviews of Greenleaf by Carole Carpenter are catalogued as MUNFLA lapcs 78­
57/C3962, C3965, C6198 and C3966.
2Karpeles' manuscripts, including her diaries and notations of the songs, are catalogued as
MUNFLA ms 78-003.
3 Leach's Newfoundland Collection, including his fieldnotes. transcripts and recordings, arc
catalogued as MUNFLA ms 78-54.
4 Peacock's original tape collection is kept at the Canadian Centre for Folk Cullure Studies,
Canadian Museum of Civilization, Ottawa; the set of copies recently acquired by MUNFLA
is catalogued as MUNFLA 87-\57.
5 pJ. Kinsella, Some Superstitions and Traditions of Newfoundland (51. 10hn's: Union,1919)
listed in Mercer, Newfoundland Songs and Ballads 76 and 190. The only information I was
able 10 find about the author comes from two obituaries clipped from a local ncwspapcr,
Daily News, 51. 10hn's, 29 Sept. 1924, p. 3, kept in the Provincial Reference Library, $1.
10hn's. Thc pamphlel seems to be his only publication, a photocopied copy of which is
beld by the Centre for Newfoundland Studies of Memorial University of Newfoundland.
One song text, "lust Forty Years Ago" appears under his name in 10hn While's songs
manuscript, MUNFLA 85-343 pp. 14 and 779-80.
6Leach mentions the free distribution of lhese popular songSlers in his foreword to the
reedition of Greenleaf and Mansfield's collection, v. He refers to lames Murpby, Son8s and
Ballads of Newfoundland. Ancient and Modern (St. 10hn's: parnes Murphy], 1902); Gerald
S. Doyle, Old Time Songs and Poetry of Newfoundland (St. John's: Gerald S. Doyle, 1927)