Marlboro Morris Ale Archival Collection

Welcome to the page for the Marlboro Morris Ale Archival Collection.

In this Collection, you will find physical items and digital records of the Marlboro Morris Ale, which began in 1976 and celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2025.

The Collection includes:

  • photographs and videos of teams that have been to the Ale over the years
  • interviews with people instrumental in starting and running the Ale, and interviews with people who can tell some part of the story of the history of the Ale
  • documents describing the administration and organization of the Ale
  • printed materials such as lists of Ale participants, full-color program books, and team guide books for participating teams, and
  • an almost complete record of posters, t-shirts, buttons, and associated ephemera. 

The entire collection resides at Vermont Folklife in Burlington, Vermont, an organization which documents, preserves and shares everyday expressions of Vermont’s tradition, innovation and culture through oral history work, photographs, and recordings. (https://www.vtfolklife.org/)

How to Look at the Collection

Click here to view the index for the collection

We have created an index of everything that’s in the collection in a View-Only Google spreadsheet. You can look up specific items from the collection, or you can simply browse what’s there. There are links in the spreadsheet to take you to the digitized files.

You can easily search a Google spreadsheet by clicking on your keyboard:

  • (Apple devices) Command ⌘ — F
  • (Other devices) Control — F

You’ll get a small search window, and you can type any search term into that. Then hit “Return.”

What Can I See in the Collection?

While not everything in the collection has been digitized, a large majority of the collection has. If you’d like to view something that has not yet been digitized, you can contact Vermont Folklife to inquire further.
info@vtfolklife.org

Be sure not to miss the amazing collection of interviews in the Archive.

For Researchers

The spreadsheet provided here is a simplified version of a more detailed spreadsheet with additional metadata. If you have further questions about any items in the collection, please contact either marlboroale.archive@gmail.com or info@vtfolklife.org.

Want to Donate Material?

The collection is still accepting material for the collection through April 2026. If you have something you would like to donate, please email marlboroale.archive@gmail.com to find out more about whether we can accept your material and if so, how to get it to us.

Where Would I Find…

  • Tony Barrand’s video collection: In 2003, Tony’s collection of video documentation was donated to the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, though it may not yet be available online. This video collection can still be seen online through Boston University, though some videos are small or hard to view. https://www.bu.edu/dbin/dance/
  • Interviews with Tony Barrand: In 2003, the American Folklife Center interviewed Tony about his life and work. That interview, in 4 parts, is available online at the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. https://www.loc.gov/research-centers/american-folklife-center/collections/digital-collections/

Archival Interviews

The Marlboro Morris Ale Archival Collection contains a growing list of interviews with Ale organizers, performers, and attendees from the last fifty years. See below for a full list of interviewees—and click a link to view the interview!

  1. ADAMU, SEL (SELAM)  (Windsor Morris – UK)
  2. BAKER, MARK
  3. BARRAND, TONY
  4. BREUNIG, FRED
  5. CREIGHTON, DOUG
  6. CREIGHTON, DOUG & DANIEL POPOWICH (about “The Birth of the “Whiskey and Cigars” Tradition at the Ale”)
  7. DAY, CHARLIE
  8. DIAMOND, MITCH & JJ JONES
  9. DIAMONDSTONE, RACHEL
  10. ELLIOTT, JAN [Part 1] [Part 2]
  11. HENRY, SARAH
  12. HORTON, ANDRA / JULIANA STEVENS [Part 1] [Part 2]
  13. KRAUSE, RHETT
  14. KRUSKAL, TOM [Part 1] [Part 2]
  15. MAYBERRY, JOHN [Part 1] [Part 2]
  16. NEILL, BETH  (Windsor Morris – UK)
  17. NOLAN, MARTHA
  18. PILZER, SARAH
  19. PINDER, ALUN  (Berkshire Bedlam – UK)
  20. POPOWICH, DANIEL [about The Ale] [about Fooling]
  21. RADFORD, TIM [Part 1] [Part 2]
  22. SMITH, NATTY
  23. SMITH, PAUL ERIC
  24. STEWART, GILLIAN
  25. WALLACH, SUSAN
  26. WILKE, MARK
  27. YOUNGBERG, CRISPIN