Photograph of a young boy and two men playing music. In the image, they are playing different instruments sitting in a circle. Bhine them is a dresser and mirror with newspaper covered walls.

Narrative by Junebug Clark in the summer of 2014 As the night rolls on out come the musical instruments, guitars, banjos, fiddles and the people who have come from miles around begging to dance and sing. Overall Background: These Molasses Making Stir-off photos were shot by Joe Clark HBSS in the early to mid-1940s. Either on the farm of Fred Whitaker about four miles southwest of Cumberland Gap, or in Cumberland Gap on the farm of Baptist preacher the Rev. Hugh Vancel. More information about these images can be found in scrapbooks in the Clark Family Collection at the University of North Texas Special Collections Library. Specifically in a Detroit news pictorial article published December 13, 1942 titles "stir-off party" where mountaineers make molasses and merriment. Also in life magazine published November 13, 1950 [page 156] titled “Stir-off Time in Tennessee, Fun Starts in Hills as Molasses Boils.’ Also in the library is the NBC Today Show story on Joe Clark HBSS by Bob Dotson. It features Joe Clark returning to Cumberland Gap Tennessee to photograph a molasses stir off taking place in the same location as some of these photographs and attended by some of the same people in …

Photograph of a family of ten sitting or standing around a stove. Five of them are playing instruments while the rest listen. The walls and ceiling around them are papered with pages from catalogs, magazines, or newspapers and the floors are made of wooden boards. On the back wall on the right side is a calendar with a gun hanging above it. In the corner on the same side is a standing mirror. On the right wall is a window covered with lacy curtains. Overtop the stove, on the mantle, are two oil lamps.

Photograph of a performance of an unknown ensemble at the band shell on the Michigan State Fairgrounds in Detroit, Michigan.

Photograph of a family posing with their instruments. In the image, the three males sit in chairs while the two girls stand in the back with a song book. The walls of the room are covered with newspapers and the room is lightly decorated.

Photograph of an unidentified young man playing guitar on his porch in Cumberland Gap, Tennessee. The typewritten poem "Pappy's Boy" is glued to the matte. Photo by: Joe Clark, HBSS. Signed by: Joe Clark, HBSS Clark PhotoFile: 0001-52

Photograph of a couple playing at the piano. In the image, standing next to the couple is a small girl, the woman is wearing a dress and watch with her hair done while the man is wearing a three piece suit. A large window with sheer curtains is behind them and a large amount of sheet music can be seen on the piano.

Photograph of two girls practicing in the parlor. In the image, one girl is on guitar and the other sitting at the piano, both are laughing and smiling at the camera. The parlor is decorated with hand-drawn portraits on the wall.

Photograph of singer, Dinah Shore, raising her arms and leaning back from the microphone as she sings.

Photograph of a girl playing guitar by a sunlit window in Cumberland Gap, Tennessee. Narrative by Junebug Clark: Girl is Ruby Smith Earl, Cora Smith's younger sister. This Photo appears in Joe's book, "Back Home" Photo by: Joe Clark, HBSS. Signed by: Joe Clark, HBSS

Photograph of a man singing from a old songbook. The man stands on the right side of the image and looks down to read the sheet music from the book, the book is tattered and he folds it over its spine to only look at one page. In the background a man is seen sitting in a pew staring directly at the camera, it is night time and a window is open behind him.

Photograph of a couple with an organ in the background. The woman is standing with her arms crossed while the man is seated at the stool for the organ.

Photograph of a choir conductor using a pitch pipe at the start of rehearsal. The man stands in the center of the image and looks off-camera to the left, he holds the pitch pipe to his mouth with his right hand and an open songbook in his left hand. A blackboard can be seen behind him on the left, and two hats hang on the wall on the right.

Photograph of a man singing from a song book at church. The man, presumably the choir director, stands on the right side of the image and holds an open song book that reads "Radio Revival Special" in his left hand, and conducts the choir with his right. Some of the choir can be seen sitting in pews in the lower left corner of the image, all of them focused on singing.

Photograph of an Margie Bowlin-Brown singing "Oh Promise Me" at the wedding ceremony of Hazel Petrey and Gilbert Dove at the Sunny View Methodist Church. Ruth Lambdin, church organist and Sunday school teacher, plays the organ to accompany her. Narrative by Junebug Clark: More images and information can be found in the July 28, 1941 issue of Life Magazine, pages 82-85 in the story “Life Magazine Goes to a Kentucky Wedding.” Also in the Joe Clark, HBSS book “ Country Wedding," published in 1974. All are in the Clark Family Photography Collection.

Photograph of a conductor waving his baton. The baton is in high in the air to signal an upbeat while his hand is palm up to signal a crescendo.

Photograph of a church choir in rehearsal. The choir sits in pews in the center of the image almost in the background, the rest of the choir sits on the left side of the image and the choir conductor stands on the right behind the altar. The choir conductor looks down at an open book he holds in his left hand and writes measures on the wall behind him in chalk, a furnace and empty pews can be seen in the foreground of the image.

Photograph of a man conducting an ensemble. His right hand is holding his conductor's baton up in the air and his left hand's palm is facing the ground to signal a decrescendo.

Photograph of two young men playing guitar as a group sits and stands around them as they sing together. The envelope containing the negative is annotated "stir-off".

Photograph of two young men playing guitar outside at night while molasses is being made in the background. The men are sitting on the ground on the left side of the picture, one focusing on his guitar and the other looking off camera. An older man and woman are in the background stirring the molasses, the woman is holding a tray in her left hand.

Photograph of a young group of men and women, presumably a youth choir, sitting in a congregation at church and singing. They sit on the left side of the image with an open pew separating them from a man with his back to the camera, conducting the on the right. On the wall to the right, there are measures of music written on the wall in chalk.

Photograph of a girl sitting in a chair and playing guitar. The girl looks off to the side with a serious expression on her face. She wears overalls and a collared shirt.

Photograph of Creete Russell singing at the Chapel Service. In the image Russell is standing next to the pew in a one piece patterned jumper.

Photograph of a woman singing from a hymnbook at church. The woman stands on the right side of image up in front of the congregation, and looks down at the open hymnbook in her hands, which is titled "Radio and Revival Special". A small portion of the congregation can be seen on the left, where another woman who sits in the pews looks directly at the camera.