During 1974 and 1975, James S. Griffith collected field recordings while working for the Smithsonian Institution Office of Folk Life. Contributions of field recordings were made to the Bicentennial Festival of American Folk Life held in Washington, D.C., in 1976. The collection includes original copies of these tapes. Recordings made after 1980 were collected by James S. Griffith in southern Arizona, and relate chiefly to cowboy music and songs, corridos, oral history interviews about Tucson history and family life, and the annual Wa:k Powwow All O'Odham Fiddle Orchestra Contest. This collection is part of the Southwest Folklore Center collection. The Southwest Folklore Center was founded in 1979 after the dissolution of the University of Arizona Folklore Committee and collected information about folk communities, arts, music, and other humanities-related materials.