William R. Ferris, Jr., is a native of Vicksburg. He became interested in folklore at an early age, making recordings on his home place, a farm in the Jeff Davis Community. While a student at Davidson College, he started recording folk singers. Here he received his bachelor's degree and obtained his master's degree at Northwestern University. He later received his Ph.D. in folklore at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Ferris has published many books, one being entitled, Blues from the Delta, and numerous articles in folklore magazines.

This collection contains the following articles:

• Box 1:
• ff. 1: "Black Prose Narrative in the Mississippi Delta: An Overview," from the Journal of American Folklore, volume 85, number 336, April–June, 1972; "Folklore and the African Novelist, Achebe and Tutuola," from the Journal of American Folklore, volume 86, number 339, January–March, 1973
• ff. 2: Book reviews taken from the Journal of American Folklore, volume 86, number 341, July–September, 1973, pp. 305–307
• ff. 3: "Ulysses: A Reexamination of Artistic Rebellion," from the Jackson State College Review, volume IV, number 1, summer 1972
• ff. 4: "Records and the Delta Blues Tradition," from the Keystone Folklore Quarterly, winter issue, 1969, pp. 159–165
• ff. 5: "William Billings, The Musical Tanner," from the Keystone Folklore Quarterly, winter issue 1967, pp. 261–279; "Racial Stereotypes in White Folklore," from the Keystone Folklore Quarterly, winter issue, 1970, pp. 188–198. "The Negro Conversion," from the Keystone Folklore Quarterly, spring issue, 1970, pp. 35–51
• ff. 6: "Ray Lum: Muletrader," from the North Carolina Folklore Journal, volume XXI, number 3, September 1973
• ff. 7: "If You Ain't Got It in Your Head, You Can't Do It In Your Hand," from the Studies in the Literary Imagination, volume III, Number 1, April 1970
• ff. 8: Various articles and reviews taken from the Mississippi Folklore Register, summer 1968–winter 1973
• ff. 9: Blues in the Mississippi Delta, 1970
• ff. 10: "William Faulkner and Phil Stone: An Interview with Emily Stone," from the South Atlantic Quarterly, autumn 1969
• ff. 11 "The Blues Aesthetic," from the Blues World, spring–summer issue, 1972
• ff. 12: "The Collection of Radical Lore: Approaches and Problems," from the New York Folklore Quarterly, September 1971; "Folk Song and Culture: Charles Seeger and Alan Lomax," from the New York Folklore Quarterly, September 1973
• ff. 13: "Bifurcation and the Development of Cultural Anthropology," from The Institute of Archeology and Anthropology Notebook, University of South Carolina, volume IV, number 5, September–October 1972
• ff. 14: An article from the Southern Voices, volume 1. number 1, May–June, 1974
• ff. 15: "Mississippi Folk Architecture: A Sampling," from Mid-South Folklore, volume 1, number 3, winter, 1973; "Black Delta Religion," from the Mid-South Folklore, volume II, number 1, spring, 1974
• ff. 16: Various articles from the Journal of the Folklore Society of Greater Washington, volume IV, number 1, spring, 1973
• ff. 17: "Racial Repertoires Among Blues Performers," from the Journal of the Society for Ethnomusicology, volume XIV, number 3, September 1970
• ff. 18: "American Folklore," and "Don't Throw It Away," from the Folklore at Yale
• ff. 19: "Creativity and the Blues," and "Lee Kizart Recalls the Delta Blues," from Blue Unlimited, April–May, 1970
• ff. 20: "Parchman Penitentiary," taken from The New Journal, January 25, 1973