David C. Peterson Collection

(ca. 1960–1995)

David C. Peterson (b. 1935), a University of Wisconsin-Extension faculty member, retired in 1995. Peterson recieved his musical training at St. Olaf College and at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He did graduate work in theatre at Wisconsin, and in New York he studied composition at the Juilliard School of Music. He held teaching positions at Monona Grove High School and the University of Wisconsin-Madison and was Director of Production for the Wisconsin Idea Theatre.

Beginning in the early 1960s, Peterson began to write musical shows built around Wisconsin themes, and he carried forward the “Wisconsin Idea” by staging them at county fairs, state parks, schools, and other local settings around the state. Peterson’s shows also toured for the USO in Europe, the Carribean, and the Far East. There have been over 3400 performances of his works to Wisconsin audiences alone.

Description

The Peterson Collection consists primarily of materials related to his musical shows and plays, including scripts, musical scores, audio and video tapes, and research materials.

Box 1

1. Folder: Skillet, Ballot and Book; performance materials; video tape, cassette tape, and reel-to-reel tapes.
2. Folder: Milwauky’s All the Rage; performance materials and reel-to-reel tapes.
3. 72 audio cassettes containing recorded performances of Peterson’s works.
4. LP recordings: Hear That Whistle Blow (2); Badger Ballads (2); Ice Cream Seven Times a Day (2); Hodag (1).

Box 2

1. Folder: Sandburg Land; performance materials and reel-to-reel tapes. Rootabagas! performance materials.
2. Folder: Old World Wisconsin; performance materials.
3. Two 3-ring binders and one folder: The Devil to Pay; performance materials; 3 reel-to-reel tapes.

Box 3

1. Individual file folders of folksongs; many are mimeographed copies.

Box 4

1. To Find Our Piece of Ground; research materials; music; 3 audio cassettes.
2. Heritage Ensemble; programs and bookings; cast lists; kudos; promotional materials.
3. Folder: “Original Badger Folksong Society.”

Box 5

1. Audio reel-to-reel tapes (20); videocassette tapes (2); U-matic video tapes (7).

Box 6

1. Folder: To Find Our Piece of Ground; scripts; video tape performance.
2. Folder: To Find Our Piece of Ground; booking notes; photographs; Teacher Resource Manual.
3. Folder: To Find Our Piece of Ground; script; booking information; reviews.
4. Folder: Charles K. Harris; script & music; research materials.
5. Folder: Great Lakes folk song research.

Box 7

1. Folder: America’s Minstrel: A Musical Portrait of Woody Guthrie; performance materials.
2. Folder: Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory; performance materials.
3. Folder: Badger 49ers; performance materials.
4. Folder: Kaintuck on the Wolf; performance and research materials.
5. Folder: Hear That Whistle Blow! performance materials.
6. Folder: Door Folk; performance materials.
7. Folder: Great Dane; performance materials.

Box 8

1. Folder: The Canada I Know; performance materials.
2. Folder: How Now Sacred Cow; performance materials.
3. Folder: Daylight in the Swamp; performance materials.
4. Folder: Badger Ballads; performance materials; cartoons.
5. Folder: Song of the Inland Seas; performance materials.
6. Folder: And If Elected; performance materials.
7. Folder: Uncle Sam’s Farm; performance materials.

Box 9

1. Folder: Miss Lulu; performance materials.
2. Folder: Athens on the Isthmus; performance materials; programs; newspaper clippings.
3. Folder: Steamboat ’Round the Bend; performance materials.
4. Folder: Miscellaneous play scripts: Passions’s Poet; Cameron Dam; Maggie Mine; Miss Lulu Bett (new version).
5. Folder: Passion’s Poet; scripts; reel-to-reel and audio cassette tape.
6. Folder: Kilbourn Musical; performance materials; audio cassette.
7. Folder: Peddlers of Progress; performance materials.
8. Folder: Folk Carols of Christmas; performance materials.
9. Folder: Trail of the Serpent; performance materials.

Box 10

1. Ice Cream Seven Times a Day: performance materials; instrumental parts.

Box 11

1. Hodag: performance materials; instrumental parts.

Box 12

1. Folder : Town Hall Tonight; performance materials.
2. Folder : Straddlebug (series of musical plays adapted from stories of Hamlin Garland); “The Ripleys,” “Flaxen,” “Bacon and the Preacher.”
3. Folder: Tunes of Trial and Triumph; performance materials.
4. Folder: UW Songs, School of Music Anniversary, 1985; materials for performance at anniversary celebration and production of cassette tape; audio tape.
5. Folder: Miscellaneous manuscript songs, script for Rollin’ National Road, materials for Get Up and Go.
6. Folder. Dibadjimo; performance materials, 1 video tape.

Box 13

1. Down River; script, vocal book, instrumental parts, conductor’s score, misc, 45 rpm recording.

Boxes 14—15

1. Reel-to-reel tapes of performances.

Box 16

1. Down River; score (multiple copies); A film of Song of the Inland Seas.

Box 17

1. Posters

Box 18 ; photographs

1. Folder: Athens on the isthmus
2. Folder: Badger ballads
3. Folder: Ice cream seven times a day
4. Folder: Daylife, TV production
5. Folder: The Devil to pay
6. Folder: Down river
7. Folder: Fantasticks
8. Folder: Flaxen, TV production
9. Folder: Free train
10. Folder: Heritage Ensemble, 1985, Advocate
11. Folder: Heritage Ensemble, 1972
12. Folder: Heritage Ensemble, 1972, Peninsula Park
13. Folder: Heritage Ensemble, 1987, Spring
14. Folder: Heritage Ensemble, 1987 (?), 1
15. Folder: Heritage Ensemble, 1987 (?), 2
16. Folder: Heritage Ensemble, 1987 (?), 3
17. Folder: Heritage Ensemble, Misc., 1
18. Folder: Heritage Ensemble, Misc., 2

Box 19 ; photographs

1. Folder: Heritage Ensemble, Misc., 3
2. Folder: How now sacred cow
3. Folder: Misc.
4. Folder: Song of the inland seas, 1970, Summer
5. Folder: Song of the inland seas, TV
6. Folder: Straddlebug, stage production
7. Folder: Town Hall tonight, original studio production
8. Folder: Town Hall tonight, USO
9. Folder: Town Hall tonight, TV production
10. Folder: US Farm, TV production
11. Folder: Hear that whistle blow, TV production
12. Folder: Hear that whistle blow, 1972, Fall
13. Folder: Hear that whistle blow, 1973, USO

Items Deleted from the Collection

The donation came to the library in May and June 1995. Materials unrelated to Peterson’s creative output were placed in the general gift workflow (102 musical scores, 24 books, 65 LP recordings, and 1 filmstrip). Wisconsin-related materials went to the Wisconsin Music Archives. Ten issues of Badger Folklore were separated out and sent to State Historical Society of Wisconsin.