We begin with the first stanza of a ballad composed by a daughter, Peggy Seeger (b. 1935) about her mother, Ruth Crawford. Memory and reconciliation fill its poignant lyrics; a lingering modal tune makes them Anglo- American-timeless. Little did the daughter know the extent of her mother's “different tunes,” for Peggy Seeger, who has a long and distinguished career as a folk revival singer and songwriter, came to her understanding of Crawford's importance as a composer later rather than sooner, as an adult rather than a child.

That process of understanding has its parallels in the larger world of music history. To take one case in point: in 1964 no mention was made of Crawford in Wilfrid Mellers's Music in a New Found Land. Twenty-three years later, Mellers remedied his initial omission in the preface to the second edition (1987) of this highly regarded book, with a tribute to Crawford as “a composer of genius who, though a woman, might have stood craggily with the grand American eccentrics who were really central—Ives, Ruggles, and Varèse.”

How did this transformation from nobody to genius happen to “though a woman”? Looking back at the past seventy-five years or so, how has Crawford's historical reputation been constructed, her legacy assessed? What can be learned by exploring patterns of recognition, advocacy, and preservation? In answering these questions, my overview, which is suggestive rather than comprehensive, traverses several categories of music literature, including analytical literature, national surveys, recordings, and reviews. While it focuses on one composer, it sheds light on parts of a larger story.