Sociologist and folklorist noted for his studies of the American Southern Black and his
extensive collection of popular beliefs and superstitions from Ohio. As a young man
working for his bricklayer father, Puckett (nicknamed “Barry”) became fascinated with
the stories of his Black coworkers. This experience later helped shape the focus of his
research. Deciding to seek a career in sociology and folklore, he enrolled at Yale
University, receiving his Ph.D. in 1925. During his course of study, he began recording
and classifying the folk beliefs and traditions of the American Black. He published the
results of this research in Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro (1926). His findings also
allowed him to contribute to the study of onomastics, producing the articles “Names of
American Negro Slaves” (1937), and “American Negro Names” (1938).
Throughout his career, Puckett was active in the Ohio and Cleveland folklore
sociedes, ultimately being honored as a Fellow of the American Folklore Society. In his
tireless search for early superstitions remembered by the natives of Ohio, he traveled
thousands of miles, collecting more than 10,000 different superstitions. At times, in order
to obtain beliefs from informants, he would even pose as a conjurer. Wayland D.Hand
presided over the posdiumous publication of a compendium containing this information,
titled Popular Beliefs and Superstitions (1981) from Ohio. Hand noted diat Puckett
regarded this work as a companion piece to his Folk Beliefs of the Southern Negro.
S.Spencer Cannon
References
Kummer, George. 1967. In Memoriam: Newbell N. Puckett, 1889 [sic]–1967. Journal of the Ohio
Folklore Society 2(1)42–44.
——1981. Newbell Niles Puckett (Barry), 1897–1967: An Appreciation. In Popular Beliefs and
Superstitions: A Compendium of American Folklore from the Ohio Collection of Newbell Niles
Puckett. 3 vols. ed. Wayland D. Hand, Anna Casetta, and Sondra B.Thiederman. Boston:
G.K.Hall, pp. 1533–1536.
Utley, Francis Lee. 1968. In Memoriam: Newbell Niles Puckett, 1897–1967. Names 16 (1):68–69.