Negro Workaday Songs (1926)

Howard W. Odum and Guy B. Johnson's sociological folk-song collection documents African American work songs, blues, spirituals, and related oral traditions in the American South. (Open Library)

Watches

Elgin watch: One collected blues text names an Elgin watch in a first-person refrain. The Elgin line belongs to the printed Florida blues fragment, following verses about having no money or place to stay. It records the brand in sung language. It does not independently establish which watch the performer owned, nor describe a case, movement or reference that would identify a particular Elgin. (Project Gutenberg source text)

Source text: "I got Elgin watch / Made on yo' frame." (Project Gutenberg ebook 69378, "Florida Blues")