Background
Densmore, Frances was born on May 21, 1867 in Red Wing, Minnesota, United States. Daughter of Benjamin and Sarah (Greenland) Densmore.
anthropologist ethnomusicologist
Densmore, Frances was born on May 21, 1867 in Red Wing, Minnesota, United States. Daughter of Benjamin and Sarah (Greenland) Densmore.
Studied piano, organ and harmony Oberlin Conservatory Music, 1884-1886.
Densmore is known for her studies of Native American music and culture, and in modern terms, she may be described as an ethnomusicologist. As a child Densmore developed an appreciation of music by listening to the nearby Dakota Indians. During the early part of the twentieth century, she worked as a music teacher with Native Americans nationwide, while also learning, recording, and transcribing their music, and documenting its use in their culture.
She helped preserve their culture in a time when government policy was to encourage Native Americans to adopt Western customs.
Densmore began recording music officially for the Smithsonian Institution"s Bureau of American Ethnology (British Aerospace) in 1907. In her fifty-plus years of studying and preserving American Indian music, she collected thousands of recordings.
Many of the recordings she made on behalf of the British Aerospace now are held in the Library of Congress. While her original recordings often were on wax cylinders, many of them have been reproduced using other media and are included in other archives.
The recordings may be accessed by researchers as well as tribal delegations.
Densmore frequently was published in the journal American Anthropologist, contributing consistently throughout her career. She wrote The Indians and Their Music in 1926. She also was a part of "A Ventriloquy of Anthros" in the American Indian Quarterly along with James Owen Dorsey and Eugene Buechel.
Member 19th, 20th, 25th International Congresses of Americanists. Member national committee National Folk Festival, since 1933. Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Member National Association for American Composers and Conductors, Society Women Geographers (executive council, 1933-1942), Minnesota History Society (life), Minnesota Archeological Society (honorary), Sigma Alpha Iota (honorary), Thursday Musical (honorary Minneapolis).