The Mary Elizabeth Barnicle and Tillman Cadle Recordings, held by the Archives of Appalachia at East Tennessee State University, consists of more than 550 audio discs containing field recordings made by Barnicle and Cadle from 1935 through the early 1950s, black and white photographic prints, 4 audio tapes containing an interview with Cadle in 1989, and paper materials including record jackets and song lyrics.

The field recordings include spirituals, blues, ring shouts, and game songs recorded in Georgia, Florida and the Bahamas, as well as traditional folk songs, sermons, bawdy songs, shanties, and political songs recorded in Kentucky, Tennessee, Virginia, and New York.

The current digital collection contains surrogates of 565 original field recordings.