By Margaret Foote
Title: Homer Ledford Papers, 1952-2011
Predominant Dates:1952-2009
Primary Creator: Ledford, Homer (1927-2006)
Other Creators: Ledford, Colista
Extent: 2.39 Cubic Feet
Arrangement: Although it is not standard archival practice, scrapbooks were taken apart and arranged chronologically with other materials of like types.
Date Acquired: 09/01/2010
Subjects: Appalachian dulcimer., Bluegrass Music., Cabin Creek Band., Eastern Kentucky University--Alumni and alumnae., Folk art - Kentucky., Ledford, Homer., Music instrument makers - Kentucky., Old-time Music.
Languages: English
The Homer Ledford Papers document his career as a musician and as a luthier. His luthier activities are documented with sketches and designs for some of his instruments, photographs, news clippings, contracts and correspondence, an inventory of instruments he owned and two ledgers documenting sales of his numbered instruments (note that the first ledger with instruments 1-2396 were not included with this donation).
Ledford was a talented musician and played many instruments solo and with the Cabin Creek Band which he organized in 1967. The collection includes contracts, correspondence, news clippings, program and audio recordings from his musical activities.
This collection should be used in conjunction with the Homer Ledford Instrument Photographs, the Ledford vertical file and his biography--Dulcimer Maker: The Craft of Homer Ledford by R. Gerald Alvey.
Homer C. Ledford (1927-2006) is recognized throughout Appalachia and beyond as a master craftsman of dulcimers and other instruments, a skilled musician, and a creative man filled with joy and gentle humor. Born in Ivyton, TN, Ledford showed a strong talent for carving and music at an early age. At 15 he made a fiddle out of curly maple from a tree in his father's hog lot. In 1946, while attending the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, NC, he crafted his first mountain dulcimers.
Ledford attended Berea College in 1949, later transferring to Eastern Kentucky University, where he received a BS degree in industrial arts in 1954. He taught industrial arts in high schools in Jefferson County and then in Clark County until, in 1963, he left teaching to become a full time luthier. During his lifetime Ledford completed 6,014 dulcimers, over 500 banjos, 36 guitars, 36 mandolins, 4 fiddles, 2 bowed dulcimers, and an autoharp. He invented the dulcitar, the dulcibro, and the ducijo. A fretless dulcimer, a dulcitar, and a fretless banjo by Ledford are a part of the musical instrument collection at the Smithsonian.
In addition to his work as a luthier, Ledford was an accomplished musician, able to play 13 different instruments. In 1976 he organized a bluegrass group, Homer Ledford and the Cabin Creek Band, which performed throughout Kentucky for well over a quarter century. The band performed in Ecuador in 1989 and at the Ireland International Bluegrass Festival in the early 1990s.
Appalachian dulcimer.
Bluegrass Music.
Cabin Creek Band.
Eastern Kentucky University--Alumni and alumnae.
Folk art - Kentucky.
Ledford, Homer.
Music instrument makers - Kentucky.
Old-time Music.
Repository: Eastern Kentucky University - Special Collections and Archives
Acquisition Source: Colista Ledford
