Many of the images that came to define "hillbilly" or country music can be found in the promotional materials that record companies and record dealers used to sell the 78 rpm records at the core of the business. The images were striking, employing easily identifiable characteristics of the "country" persona (not always terribly complimentary) that are still used today.
Contact the Southern Folklife Collection for further information on the images used in this site.
Columbia Records Advertisement (featuring Gid Tanner, Riley Puckett, Samantha Bumgarner, Eva Davis, and Ernest Thompson)
Below: Victor Talking Machine Company Old Time Fiddlin' Tunes Catalog 1924
Warner's Seven Aces (including a smaller ad for Fiddlin' John Carson's "Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane")