Amy Shaw

Amy Shaw is the Head of Archives & Special Collections at St. Kate's, and for many years before this recent move she was the Systems Librarian. While new to the Archives, Amy has a lot of experience doing research to uncover the provenance for primary source material. Her book, Ole Hendricks and His Tunebook: Folk Music and Community on the Frontier (University of Wisconsin Press, 2020), reflects this. Starting from a fragile, nearly forgotten, and rather mysterious manuscript of fiddle tunes, Amy reconstructs the world of this Norwegian immigrant musician who settled in Minnesota's Red River Valley in 1890.

Amy has a Master of Library and Information Science degree from Indiana University, an MS in Music Literature from the University of South Dakota, and a BS in Music Education from Tennessee Technological University. Her master's thesis, "Transverse Flutes by London Makers, 1750-1900" led to a passion for playing the wooden flute, and that is what she is often doing when not working at the library!

Transverse Flutes by London Makers, 1750-1900

Publications

O’Rourke’s Feast. O’Rourke’s Feast. New Folk Records. CD. 2014. See more information.

Kreitzer, Amy. “Sweet Harmonies from Little Wooden Boxes: Mandolin Playing in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Minnesota History 75 (Spring 2001):218-235.

Kreitzer, Amy. "Serial Numbers and Hallmarks on Flutes from the Workshop of Monzani & Hill." The Galpin Society Journal 48 (March 1995):168-180.

Presentations

Shaw, Amy. “Vitality, Life, Soul: Building Up a Town with a Fiddle.” Paper presented at the biennial meeting of the Norwegian-American Historical Association, Northfield, Minnesota, October 29, 2016.

Shaw, Amy. “It really was a WOODwind: The story of the flute from 1550-1850,” Twin Cities Early Music Festival, Minneapolis, MN, 15 August 2015.

Shaw, Amy. “Winds of Change II,” a lecture recital presented at the National Music Museum, Vermillion, South Dakota, 25 April 2014.

Shaw, Amy. “Winds of Change,” a lecture recital presented at the National Music Museum, Vermillion, South Dakota, 5 April 2013.

Kreitzer, Amy. “The Mandolin in Minnesota: An Illustrated History.” Paper presented at the Classical Mandolin Society of America Convention, Minneapolis, MN, 5 November 1999.

Awards

Folk Arts and Cultural Traditions Fellowship from the American-Scandinavian Foundation – 2017-2018