From the Archives: Princess Red Wing Television Interview, December 19, 1971

Princess Red Wing. Tomaquag Museum, March 1973 Tomaquag Museum Archives.

Hello, this is the Museum Archivist, Anthony Belz and I would like to welcome you to the second installment in the Belongings Blog’s new series, From the Archives where I’ll share some of the interesting things I have found in the Tomaquag Museum’s collections. In this installment, I will highlight a cassette tape recording of a television interview with Princess Red Wing (Mary E. Gongdon) from WHDA in Boston on December 19, 1971.

Audio cassette housing, Princess Red Wing Interview, WHDA Boston, December 19, 1971. Tomaquag Museum Archives.

If you are unfamiliar with the history of the Tomaquag Museum, Princess Red Wing (Narragansett/Niantic, Pokanoket) was instrumental in establishing the strong educational and cultural foundations that are present in the museum today. Eva L. Butler, an archaeologist and historian worked closely with with Princess Red Wing co-creating a museum that was as an accurate a representation of Indigenous culture as possible. After Eva Butler’s death in early 1969, Princess Red Wing continued to serve as curator after the museum moved from the Tomaquag Valley to Dovecrest in Exeter in 1971 and did so for nearly 30 years until her death in 1987. Not only is she important to the history of the museum, but was also a strong voice who through educating the public championed awareness of Indigenous cultural, political and social issues.

Princess Red Wing is frequently part of our conversations at the museum, and for good reasons. In fact, her archival collection alone is estimated to be a quarter of the total archival materials we have in the overall collection. Princess Red Wing is still so present at the museum that undiscovered gems like this cassette are often found in the archives and help us learn more about her.

Tomaquag Archives has a small, but significant collection of cassette tapes that includes recordings of oral history projects, interviews and songs. These cassettes, the bulk of which are from the 1970s through the 1990s are either-not labeled or have information that is indecipherable or illegible. Unfortunately, at this time the Tomaquag does not have access to a reliable, working cassette player, so for the majority of the cassette collection it may take some time before we have knowledge of what is exactly contained on these one of a kind recordings.

This cassette in particular immediately stood out among those in the collection because it had handwriting on the cardboard housing in what I instantly recognized was Princess Red Wing’s. As you can see in the image to the right of the housing, all the information needed to identify the contents of the tape are present, which for an archivist doesn’t get much better! The cassette is a Crescendo brand C-60 Magnetic Recording Tape Cartridge Compact Cassette. The C-60 refers to both the amount of available recording time and the thickness of the tape.

According to the information written on the housing by Princess Red Wing, the interview was part of a series for WHDA Boston Channel 5 Classroom that aired on December 19, 1971. I can find no useful information on the television station as it is no longer in operation and the call letters are now defunct. As far as I know this is the only known recording of Channel 5 Classroom in existence! This means that this cassette recording is truly archival because it is a one of a kind piece of history, even if there is no visual component and it is only an audio recording of a television program. Perhaps somewhere there is an archive for WHDA broadcasts and one day we may be able to see the actual program as it aired.

Audio cassette casing, Princess Red Wing Interview. WHDA Television Boston. December 19, 1971. Tomaquag Museum Archives.

Due to the unique nature of being a television program recorded onto a cassette tape and an interview with Princess Red Wing, this quickly became the best candidate to be the first recording digitized using a cassette to digital converter. Recently, the Tomaquag was loaned a very inexpensive cassette to digital converter, which creates a simple direct digital mp3 copy of the original recording. This low-fidelity, “lossy format”, compressed mp3 file can then be edited and cleaned up using audio editing software. I cleaned up this particular recording by editing the silence out of the beginning and ending of the tape, limiting the “hiss” so it is clearer and also by boosting the sound level, which makes it louder.

Creating a copy of an analog medium such as an audio cassette is called a preservation copy, or digital surrogate (or sometimes simply referred to as a backup). The sole purpose of a digital surrogate is the preservation of the original, through transferring the information into a new digital format. Digital surrogates are especially important in the analog medium where repeated handling and/or use can cause irreversible damage either through machine malfunction or human error. A digital surrogate thereby preserves the original by extending its life through non-use.

Once a digital surrogate is created of this recording, it can be listened to over and over again without the fear of playing the physical cassette as long as the surrogate is used. For those of you who grew up using cassette tapes, you know that even the act of rewinding or fast forwarding it, even simply playing it- can break or stretch the tape, which then can cause irreversible damage. For a unique, and one-of-a-kind historical document such as this recording, any damage is a unnecessary loss and thanks to the creation of a preservation copy, is largely avoidable.

When I first listened to the cassette it begins with an abrupt start and some adjustment to the recorder before the quality of the recording becomes less muffled and clearer while a woman’s voice I do not recognize is speaking. (Bernice of North Shore Community College). It is definitely not Princess Red Wing, whose distinctive voice I have heard on other recordings. After another few seconds, the host interjects and when the woman finishes her thought the familiar voice of Princess Red Wing is present loud and clear. To me, it sounded like what a television interview would be. This is the confirmation I need that the written information on the outside of the cassette matches the contents of the recording.

This television program was broadcast on WHDA television Boston for Channel 5 Classroom on December 19, 1971. This is also confirmed at the very end of the recording, where there is a brief announcement for the next week’s episode. When you listen to the recording it definitely sounds like it was made in someone’s living room next to the television speaker during the broadcast. Whomever made this recording in their living room was not completely silent, either. Listen very closely and you can hear them in the background!

Over her lifetime Princess Red Wing undoubtedly made numerous appearances on both radio and television. Evidence of this is present in the archival collection through photographs and correspondence. However, no research has been done on the subject, so the Tomaquag Museum Archives does not have a comprehensive list of these appearances or even knowledge of whether or not it is possible that some of these other recordings exist. They may be either lost to history, in private hands or exactly like places like the Tomaquag Museum hiding in an archive somewhere waiting to be discovered. If you have any memories of these appearances please let us know.

The digitized recording is located on the Tomaquag’s YouTube Channel. Please give it a listen here or in the embedded video below! Don’t forget to subscribe!

Archival images and recordings such as those featured in this blog post facilitate conversations about Indigenous traditional lifeways, art, representation/stereotypes and pervasive historical and cultural misconceptions in modern society, as well as equity and sovereignty issues. Archival materials also aid greatly in research, exhibit development, publications, films and other collaborative projects.

If you would like to support the care of archival documents, photographs, maps & more at the Tomaquag Museum please Donate Now. If you have any ideas for what you would like to see as part of this blog series, please comment below. Thank you for reading and we hope to see you at the museum in the future!

Anthony M. Belz, Archivist/Collections Manager

This project is made possible in part by the Rhode Island Council for the Humanities, an independent affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

“Any views, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this (publication, program, exhibition, website, etc.) do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.”