Metamorphosis of a Song: "What Do the Simple Folk Do?"
I've blogged before about my joy in finding something I never knew existed in the richly varied archival holdings of the New York Public Library, but while processing the James Barton Papers, I had an epiphany of another color: finding something I've wanted to get my hands on for nearly twenty years. Bear with me while I set the scene for this discovery with some personal history. It would be an understatement to sa…