Guide to the Jack Wolf Collection ARS.0088

Finding aid prepared by Franz Kunst
Archive of Recorded Sound
Braun Music Center
541 Lasuen Mall
Stanford University
Stanford, California, 94305-3076
650-723-9312
soundarchive@stanford.edu
© 2011
The Board of Trustees of Stanford University. All rights reserved.


Descriptive Summary

Title: Jack Wolf Collection
Dates: 1960-2004
Collection number: ARS.0088
Creator: Wolf, Jack
Collection size: 3 boxes : One hundred seventy-three (173) audiocassettes ; forty-five (45) open reel tapes
Repository: Archive of Recorded Sound
Abstract: Field recordings of environmental sounds from around the world, captured by hobbyist Jack Wolf.

Access

Open for research; material must be requested at least two business days in advance of intended use. Contact the Archive for assistance.

Publication Rights

Property rights reside with repository. Publication and reproduction rights reside with the creators or their heirs. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Head Librarian of the Archive of Recorded Sound.

Preferred Citation

Jack Wolf Collection, ARS-0088. Courtesy of the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

Source

The Jack Wolf Collection was donated to the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound by Judy Wolf Cannady in 2007.

Sponsor

This finding aid was produced with generous financial support from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.

Scope and Contents

Jack Wolf, who often referred to himself as "Bwana Jack," lived alone in Marina Del Ray, California until he passed away from cancer circa 2006. A Stanford graduate, Wolf was a banker by trade, as well as a world traveler, naturalist and animal lover. Beginning in the late 1960s, he began recording environmental sounds on his excursions abroad, mostly for his own enjoyment. Wolf collected sounds from Africa, Asia (particularly the South Pacific islands), Amazon, Costa Rica, and the United States.
In a memo Wolf wrote in 1992, he explained what motivated him: "they are by and large natural sounds, birds and animals, collected as a hobby and as a 'sound bank' for future generations so that they know what the world sounded like in the still-wild late 20th century." Through the 1990s, his tapes chronicle the encroachment of once-remote locales by motor noise, international jet travel, domesticated animals, and, of course, other people. Although an admitted amateur, he was proud to note that the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History used his recordings of Amazonian birdcalls. He also made a series of Amazon trips with UCLA professor Mildred Mathias. Wolf expressed a hope that his collection would someday be deposited in an archive.
The majority of tapes are from Sumatra, Borneo, and Malaysia, places Wolf returned to frequently. He also made many recordings in Tanzania and Kenya. However, he was not averse to exploring some of the more remote areas of the Western United States, including Montana, Arizona, New Mexico, Washington, Utah, Nevada, and California's Anza-Borreaga Desert. In his recordings, Wolf used a Sony portable recorder and Sennheiser microphones. He reviewed his work closely, edited tapes, and put his favorite recordings on special reels. Although there's little mention of the recordings, a chronology and other contextual information may be gleaned from copies of his annual Christmas letters from 1968 to 2004, included with the collection. There are many pages of personal notes about the tapes, though, and specific animals are sometimes identified.
Animals, especially insects, primates, and birds, are foregrounded, but the sounds of weather (wind, rain, thunder) and waterfalls are also prevalent. In the Amazon, Wolf wrote of "good rain storms," "night crickets...just dripping canopy...quacks on landing dock," and "frogs and dogs and drums...too many dogs!" Evocative descriptions of these moments continue in Costa Rica ("Toucans and mosquitos...Howlers, then hum of boat or car..."), and Africa ("Bird and cricket, mostly cricket," "Flamingos at night...emerald spotted wood dove," "Baboons grunting and barking," "Herd of zebra through camp, good sound," "Bush babies, woke me up!," "Snapping fire and birds," "Morning birds and dew dropping on tent," "Very close hyena," "Hyena growl at lion kill," "Hippo on the Mara.") On one trip to Kenya in 1991, Wolf "left the recorder going for one hour each day at remote Mukatan sites. Hiked while recording was going on, so no people, no cattle. Just the pure Mukatan-my favorite Earth spot." Of course, Wolf's mics also captured the sounds of his own presence: his campfire, his guides, conversations among companions, so much that some tapes could almost be called "Sounds of Men Camping." But there are many hours of undisturbed nature here, and from places where that might not be possible even ten years later.

Indexing Terms

Field recordings
Nature sounds


 

Cassettes - Original Recordings

Box 1, Cassette Box 1

Cassette Box 1 [notes enclosed] 1981-1984

Scope and Contents

Costa Rica 1981 ; Amazon 1982 ; Borneo 1983 ; Amazon 1984
Box 1, Cassette Box 2

Cassette Box 2 [notes enclosed] 1973-1994

Scope and Contents

Africa 1973 ; Africa 1974 ; Africa September 1991
Box 1, Cassette Box 3

Cassette Box 3 [notes enclosed]

Scope and Contents

Kenya, Tanzania 1975 ; Africa 1976 ; Africa 1978 ; Anza 1991-1992
Box 3, Cassette Box 4

Cassette Box 4 [notes enclosed] 1979-1989

Scope and Contents

Amazon 1979 ; Amazon 1980 ; Amazon 1985 ; Amazon 1990 ; Montana 1988 ; Arizona, New Mexico 1989
Box 3, Cassette Box 5

Cassette Box 5 [notes enclosed] 1973-1991

Scope and Contents

Africa 1977 ; Best Quiet Sounds Master 1 and 2 ; Best American Tropics ; Africa Quiet Moods 1973-1976 I-III ; Africa 1978 ; Africa 1991 ; Mkutano Gorge, Kenya 1991 ; Best of Africa 1973-1991 ; Costa Rica Dec. 1979 ; Anza September 1993 ; Washington State June 1991
Box 3, Cassette Box 6

Cassette Box 6 [notes enclosed] 1981-1991

Scope and Contents

Angelina Springs March 1990 ; Organ Pipe National Monument April 1989 ; Amazon Quiet Moods, Rain 1984-1985 ; U.S. Birds - Mountain and Desert ; Okefanokee Swamp (from Beanie, Region II Xmas Party 1983) ; Fishlake National Forest, Utah 6/5/91 ; Mile High, Arizona 4/81 ; Jungle Rain 1990
 

Open Reel Tapes [Notes Enclosed]

Box 2

A. Sumatra - Borneo - Malaysia 1983 ; 1984 Amazon 1983-1984

Physical Description: 1 7" open reel tape
Box 2

B. Sounds of the Amazon and Costa Rica 1979 ; Amazon 1980 1979-1980

Physical Description: 1 7" open reel tape
Box 2

C. Amazon 1980

Physical Description: 1 7" open reel tape
Box 2

D. Amazon 1984 End ; Amazon 1985, 1987 ; Amazon 1990 Start 1984-1990

Physical Description: 1 7" open reel tape
Box 2

E. Amazon 1990

Physical Description: 1 7" open reel tape
Box 2

F. Amazon Quiet Tape 1990

Physical Description: 1 7" open reel tape
Box 2

G. Costa Rica 1981 part I

Physical Description: 1 7" open reel tape
Box 2

H. Costa Rica 1981 part II ; Amazon 1982 1981-1982

Physical Description: 1 7" open reel tape
Box 2

I. Domestic Birds 1988-1991

Physical Description: 1 7" open reel tape

Scope and Contents note

Montana, Idaho 1988 ; Arizona 1989 ; Nebraska 1989 ; Angelina Springs 1990-1991. Side two mostly desert sounds (organ pipe, Anza)
Box 2

J. Domestic Birds #2 1988-1991

Physical Description: 1 7" open reel tape

Scope and Contents note

Anza Desert 1991-1993 ; Northeast Washington and Utah 1991
Box 2

I. Africa - Songs and Animals 1972

Physical Description: 1 7" open reel tape
Box 2

II. Africa [Kenya] - Best of '72 1972-10

Physical Description: 1 7" open reel tape
Box 2

III-V. Africa II 1973

Physical Description: 3 7" open reel tapes
Box 2

VI. Africa 1974-1975

Physical Description: 1 7" open reel tape
Box 2

VII. Africa [Kenya and Tanzania] 1974

Physical Description: 1 7" open reel tape
Box 2

VIII. Africa 1975-1976

Physical Description: 1 7" open reel tape
Box 2

IX-X. Africa 1977 [Kenya]

Physical Description: 2 7" open reel tapes
Box 2

XI. Africa 1978

Physical Description: 1 7" open reel tape
Box 2

XII. Africa 1978, 1991 1978-1991

Physical Description: 1 7" open reel tape
Box 2

XIII. Africa 1991

Physical Description: 1 7" open reel tape
Box 2

XIV. Best of Africa 1973-1978

Physical Description: 1 7" open reel tape
Box 2

Best of Tahiti

Physical Description: 1 7" open reel tape
Box 2

Tahiti, 29th Birthday 1960-11-11

Physical Description: 1 5" open reel tape
Box 2

Tahiti #1 ; Reflections and Return to Tahiti ; Random Thoughts

Physical Description: 4 3" open reel tapes
Box 2

Tahiti - Samoa Originals

Physical Description: 5 3" open reel tapes
Box 2

Micronesia Oct. 1970 ; Hawaii ; Monologue May '69, etc. 1969-1970

Physical Description: 5 3" open reel tapes
Box 2

Africa 1972

Physical Description: 6 5" open reel tapes