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Howard W. Marshall, PhD enjoyed a long career as a professional folklorist in both the public sector (e.g., Smithsonian Institution, American Folklife Center) and in academia, especially in the Department of Art History & Archaeology at the University of Missouri, where he also directed the cross-disciplinary Missouri Cultural Heritage Center for a decade. Marshall’s academic career included teaching courses that centered folklife in material culture, vernacular architecture, and historic preservation.
For the Living Traditions Fellowship, though, nominator Thomas Coriell extoled Marshall’s contributions as an award-winning old-time fiddler and ethnographer who exhaustively practices, documents, and promotes the old-time music traditions as they have evolved in Missouri, including writing a three-volume book series published by the University of Missouri Press.
In May, Coriell visited Marshall at home and recorded a narrative history for the project now available on Missouri Folk Arts’ YouTube channel.
On September 14, Dr. Marshall was recognized by Missouri Folk Arts during the live KOPN 89.5 broadcast of the 2025 Missouri State Old Time Fiddlers Association Fiddle Contest in Columbia, Mo. in Sheryl Crow Hall at Mizzou’s Sinquefield Music Center. Missouri Folk Arts director later posed with Marshall for a photo at with his custom plaque by Perry County’s Fresh Sawdust.
