Who Is Alan Lomax? Age, Biography, and Wiki
Alan Lomax was born on January 31, 1915, in Austin, Texas. He lived until 2002, leaving behind a rich legacy as a musicologist, folklorist, and ethnomusicologist. Lomax dedicated his life to the documentation and preservation of folk music and cultural traditions. He traveled extensively, recording traditional music from various cultures, with a particular focus on the United States. His work not only contributed to the understanding of American folk music but also provided invaluable insights into the cultural significance of musical traditions worldwide.
| Occupation | Historian |
|---|---|
| Date of Birth | January 31, 1915 |
| Age | 87 Years |
| Birth Place | Austin, Texas, U.S. |
| Horoscope | Aquarius |
| Country | U.S |
| Date of death | 19 July, 2002 |
| Died Place | N/A |
Popularity
Alan Lomax's Popularity over time
Height, Weight & Measurements
While detailed height and weight measurements for Alan Lomax are not widely documented, his presence and charisma were often noted by those who encountered him throughout his substantial career. His engaging personality and passion for music contributed to his distinctive figure in the field of musicology.
Family, Dating & Relationship Status
Alan Lomax's personal life was as rich as his professional endeavors. He was married multiple times, with his most significant partner being folklorist and writer Mary Elizabeth Lomax. They collaborated on various projects and had a deep mutual respect for each other's work. As of 2025, discussions surrounding his family and relationships examine not only the influence they had on his life but also the cultural contexts within which they operated.
Alan Lomax (January 31, 1915 – July 19, 2002) was an American ethnomusicologist, best known for his numerous field recordings of folk music during the 20th century. He was a musician, folklorist, archivist, writer, scholar, political activist, oral historian, and filmmaker. Lomax produced recordings, concerts, and radio shows in the U.S.
and in England which played an important role in preserving folk music traditions in both countries and helped start both the American and British folk revivals of the 1940s, 1950s, and especially the early 1960s. He collected material first with his father, folklorist and collector John Lomax, and later, alone and with others.
Lomax recorded thousands of songs and interviews for the Archive of American Folk Song, of which he was the director, at the Library of Congress on aluminum and acetate discs.
Net Worth and Salary
At the time of his passing, Alan Lomax's exact net worth was not widely publicized. However, considering his extensive contributions to musicology and the preservation of folk music, it can be assumed that his estate reflects the profound impact he had in his field. Lomax’s works, including recordings and books, continue to generate interest, ensuring a lasting legacy that can be seen in ongoing academic and creative projects inspired by his life's work.
Collins: He was on the dockside with Anne, his daughter...I think I arrived in April and I don't think we went south until August. It took quite a long time to get the money together; it kept falling through.
I think Columbia was going to pay for it at one point, but they insisted he have a union engineer with him and someone extra like that—in situations we were going to be in would have been hopeless. So he refused, and they withdrew their funding.
It was very last minute that the Ertegun brothers at Atlantic gave us the cash and we were gone within days of getting that money. Alan had wanted to do it earlier, but there was just no money to do it with. He had no money, ever. He was always living hand to mouth.
Career, Business, and Investments
Alan Lomax's career spanned several decades and involved various roles, from field collector of folk music to a prominent figure in music education. His most notable contributions included compiling ethnographic recordings and influencing notable musicians like Woody Guthrie and Muddy Waters. Lomax worked with organizations such as the Library of Congress and produced extensive archival materials that helped to establish the foundations of American folk music appreciation.
In addition to his music career, Lomax was involved in various educational initiatives, including creating programs that highlighted the importance of music as a vehicle for cultural expression. His investment in preserving cultural heritage through music continues to inspire scholars and musicians alike.
After 1942, when Congress terminated the Library of Congress's funding for folk song collecting, Lomax continued to collect independently in Britain, Ireland, Caribbean region, Italy, Spain, and United States, using the latest recording technology, assembling an enormous collection of American and international culture.
In March 2004, the material captured and produced without Library of Congress funding was acquired by the Library, which "brings the entire seventy years of Alan Lomax's work together under one roof at the Library of Congress, where it has found a permanent home." With the start of the Cold War, Lomax continued to advocate for a public role for fol
klore, even as academic folklorists turned inward.
He devoted much of the latter part of his life to advocating what he called Cultural Equity, which he sought to put on a solid theoretical foundation through to his Cantometrics research (which included a prototype Cantometrics-based educational program, the Global Jukebox).
In the 1970s and 1980s, Lomax advised the Smithsonian Institution's Folklife Festival and produced a series of films about folk music, American Patchwork, which aired on PBS in 1991.
In his late 70s, Lomax completed the long-deferred memoir The Land Where the Blues Began (1993), linking the birth of the blues to debt peonage, segregation, and forced labor in the American South.
Social Network
Alan Lomax's impact extended to various social networks, though the technology did not exist during his lifetime as it does today. However, his recordings and contributions have created a vast community of music enthusiasts and researchers dedicated to exploring his works. In the modern era, social media platforms are filled with discussions, posts, and groups dedicated to sharing Lomax’s legacy and the influential music he documented.
In December 1949, a newspaper printed a story, "Red Convictions Scare 'Travelers, that mentioned a dinner given by the Civil Rights Association to honor five lawyers who had defended people accused of being Communists. The article mentioned Alan Lomax as one of the sponsors of the dinner, along with C. B. Baldwin, campaign manager for Henry A.
Wallace in 1948; music critic Olin Downes of The New York Times; and W. E. B. Du Bois, all of whom it accused of being members of Communist front groups. The following June, Red Channels, a pamphlet edited by former F.B.I.
agents which became the basis for the entertainment industry blacklist of the 1950s, listed Lomax as an artist or broadcast journalist sympathetic to Communism.
(Others listed included Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, Yip Harburg, Lena Horne, Langston Hughes, Burl Ives, Dorothy Parker, Pete Seeger, and Josh White.) That summer, Congress was debating the McCarran Act, which required the registration and fingerprinting of all "subversives" in the United States, restrictions of their right to travel, and det
ention in case of "emergencies", while the House Un-American Activities Committee was broadening its hearings.
Feeling sure that the Act would pass and realizing that his career in broadcasting was in jeopardy, Lomax, who was newly divorced and already had an agreement with Goddard Lieberson of Columbia Records to record in Europe, hastened to renew his passport, cancel his speaking engagements, and plan for his departure, telling his agent he hoped to retu
rn in January "if things cleared up".
He set sail on September 24, 1950, on board the steamer RMS Mauretania (1938). Sure enough, in October, FBI agents were interviewing Lomax's friends and acquaintances. Lomax never told his family exactly why he went to Europe, only that he was developing a library of world folk music for Columbia.
Nor did he allow anyone to say he was forced to leave. In a letter to the editor of a British newspaper, Lomax took a writer to task for describing him as a "victim of witch-hunting," insisting that he was in the UK only to work on his Columbia Project.
Education
Alan Lomax attended the University of Texas at Austin, where he immersed himself in the academic study of music and folklore. His formal education laid the groundwork for his innovative approaches to ethnomusicology and folk studies, deeply influencing his future projects and collaborations. Lomax's commitment to education is evident in the numerous workshops and classes he initiated and participated in throughout his life, promoting folk music's value in understanding cultural identity.
The elder Lomax, a former professor of English at Texas A&M University and a celebrated authority on Texas folklore and cowboy songs, had worked as an administrator, and later Secretary of the Alumni Society, of the University of Texas.
