Collector of Great Lakes folklore, with emphasis on sailors’ songs. As a teenager in
Ludington, Michigan, Walton visited the docks and listened to songs and stories of
sailors. In the 1920s, he was already documenting these performances, and by 1932 he
was spending summers on ships or around the lakes and on Beaver Island, Michigan,
collecting the folklore of sailors, fishermen, and their families.
After receiving his B.A. in 1919 at the University of Michigan, Walton taught English
literature while he continued graduate work for a time at the University of Chicago and
the University of Illinois. In 1938 Walton and other Michigan folklorists, including
Thelma James, E.C.Beck, and Emelyn Elizabeth Gardner, formed a folklore interest
group, and in 1940 Walton founded the Michigan Folklore Society. In 1955 he
established and taught the first folklore course at the University of Michigan.
Along with Beck, Walton participated in the song-collecting project of Alan Lomax,
one result of which was the Library of Congress recording Songs of Michigan
Lumberjacks (AFS L56).
When Walton died in 1968, he was one of the leading experts on Great Lakes folklore.
Although he had not completed the manuscript of his life’s work, he had presented papers
at conferences and written articles based on his research. Walton’s legacy, a vast
collection of materials from more than thirty years of research, is housed at the Bendey
Historical Library at the University of Michigan. An inventory compiled by Wil Rollman
and Cheryl Baker was published by the libraryin 1979.
Yvonne R.Lockwood
References
McEwen, George M. 1970. Ivan H.Walton: A Pioneer Michigan Folklorist. Michigan Academician
2:73–74.
Walton, Ivan. 1941. Marine Lore. In Michigan: A Guide to the Wolverine State. Comp. Works
Progress Administration. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 113–134.
——. 1952. Folk Singing on Beaver Island. Midwest Folklore 2:243–250.
——. 1953. Sailor Lore of the Great Lakes. Michigan History 19:359–369.
——. 1955. Eugene O’Neill and the Folklore and Folkways of the Sea. Midwest Folklore 14:153–
169.