Historical Portrait
Captain Leighton Robinson, portrait, photograph
Archive record
Photograph caption: Shantyman from Cornwall. Forms part of a group of field materials documenting Captain Leighton Robinson, Alex Barr, Arthur Brodeur, Leighton McKenzie, and others performing Anglo-American ballads, shanties, and sea songs on November 12, 1939, collected by Sidney Robertson Cowell in Belvedere, California.
About this photograph
This portrait shows Captain Leighton Robinson, identified in the original caption as a shantyman from Cornwall. The photograph was made during a November 12, 1939 recording session in Belvedere, California, where Robinson and others performed Anglo-American ballads, shanties, and sea songs.
Sidney Robertson Cowell created the photograph as part of her fieldwork for the W.P.A. California Folk Music Project. Between 1938 and 1940, Cowell documented traditional musicians across Northern California's immigrant communities, producing recordings and portraits now held by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.
A shantyman led work songs aboard sailing vessels, setting the rhythm for coordinated tasks like hauling lines or raising anchor. Robinson's Cornwall origins and repertoire of sea songs suggest a background in maritime work, though the record provides no further detail about his life or career at sea.
Compiled from the catalogue record and reference notes on the formats and events involved. The archive record above is the primary source.
Rights & Attribution
Explore
More from the 1930s
