Historical Portrait
Otto Bardarson, portrait, photograph
Archive record
Photograph caption: "Mr. Bardarson is of Icelandic extraction." Forms part of a group of field materials documenting Otto Bardarson performing Icelandic songs on January 17, 1939, collected by Sidney Robertson Cowell in Carmel, California.
About this photograph
This portrait documents Otto Bardarson, a singer of Icelandic songs recorded in Carmel, California on January 17, 1939. The photograph and related field materials were collected by Sidney Robertson Cowell as part of the W.P.A. California Folk Music Project.
The project, which Cowell directed from 1938 to 1940, recorded and photographed traditional musicians across Northern California's immigrant communities. Rather than focusing on a single tradition, Cowell worked with performers from Armenian, Icelandic, Italian, Portuguese, Mexican, Irish, and Serbian backgrounds. The recordings and photographs are held by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress.
The archive's original caption notes that Bardarson was of Icelandic extraction. His session was among those documenting the varied musical traditions that immigrants maintained in California during the late 1930s.
Compiled from the catalogue record and reference notes on the formats and events involved. The archive record above is the primary source.
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