Densmore, Frances (1867–1957)

From the 1890s through the 1950s, Frances Densmore researched and recorded the music of Native Americans. Through more than twenty books, 200 articles, and some 2,500 Graphophone recordings, she preserved important cultural traditions that might otherwise have been lost. She received honors from Macalester College in St. Paul and the Minnesota Historical Society in the last years of her life.

Densmore came from a successful middle-class family with New York roots that moved west with the growth of America. She was born in Red Wing on May 21, 1867, to Benjamin and Sarah Greenland Densmore. Her father, a civil engineer by training, and his brother Daniel had started Red Wing Iron Works the year before Frances’s birth.

The Densmore family believed in education and wished their daughters to be self-reliant. They supported Frances as she furthered her musical education at the Oberlin (Ohio) Conservatory of Music. The Densmores also acted on their beliefs of tolerance towards others. Both Benjamin and Daniel volunteered during the Civil War to serve as officers with African American troops.

The Densmores’ Red Wing home faced the Mississippi River and Trenton Island, next to the Wisconsin shore. The family could see campfires of eastern Dakota hunting parties on the Island and hear their drums. That intrigued the young Densmore. She later heard Native American and Filipino music when she visited the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair. That same year, she read A Study of Omaha Indian Music by Alice Cunningham Fletcher (1838–1923). Densmore contacted Fletcher, an ethnologist whose work had drawn praise.

Encouraged by Fletcher, Densmore began her own studies. In December 1895, she spoke about Native music to the Schubert Club of St. Paul. As part of the presentation, she played Omaha music on the piano while a club member sang. Densmore would make similar presentations over the next decade.

In 1905, Densmore decided to conduct her own field studies. She enlisted her younger sister, Margaret, to assist her. They traveled to Grand Marais and Grand Portage on Lake Superior’s north shore, where they introduced themselves to the Ojibwe people there. Frances explained her interest in their music and, after a lengthy conversation, the men agreed to share their songs.

Her work soon earned the respect of Frederick W. Hodge, editor of the Smithsonian-backed American Anthropologist. Hodge published one of Densmore’s articles. He would help get funding for her Native American music studies.

In 1907, the Smithsonian Institution’s Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE) paid Densmore $350 to record Ojibwe songs. The BAE later published more than a dozen of her studies on Native tribes. Fieldwork, writing, and lecturing kept the Red Wing researcher busy, and her reputation as an ethnomusicologist grew. The BAE increased its support. Densmore earned as much as $3,000 per year, enough for a comfortable lifestyle.

Margaret quit her job as a teacher and became Frances’ full-time assistant. The two lived together in Red Wing, where Margaret proved a valued aide and consultant.

The sisters survived the loss of Frances’s BAE business arrangement in April 1933, when America’s Great Depression brought hard times. Densmore spent long hours organizing her considerable notes and records on Native American music and customs. The sisters owned the family house and some securities upon which to live, while Frances earned a modest income from grants and lecturing.

Margaret Densmore died in 1947. The steadfast Frances labored on in Red Wing. She had written and published more than twenty books and 200 articles based on her wide-ranging research. She also preserved some 2,500 Graphophone recordings of Native music. She donated her records to the National Archives and the Minnesota Historical Society.

Densmore received accolades for her work late in her long life. St. Paul’s Macalester College awarded her an honorary doctorate in 1950. The Minnesota Historical Society presented her with its first “citation for distinguished service in the field of Minnesota History” in October 1954.