Legendary American folk singer Pete Seeger, known for renditions of songs like If I had a Hammer and Where Have all the Flowers Gone, has died at the age of 94.

Seeger passed away on Monday in New York after being hospitalised for a week.

He is also known for popularising the hymn of the civil rights movement, We Shall Overcome.

His death was confirmed by his grandson, Kitama Cahill Jackson, who said he died of natural causes at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, the New York Times reported.

Seeger played 12-string guitar or five-string banjo.

He sang topical songs and children’s tunes as well as anthems, and often urged his audience to sing along.

The Times said his agenda mirrored the concerns of the American left.

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He sang for the labour movement in the 1940s and 1950s, for civil rights marches and anti-Vietnam War rallies in the 1960s.

He also intoned for environmental and antiwar causes in the 1970s and beyond.

He was a mentor to folk and topical singers in the ’50s and ’60s, among them Bob Dylan and Don McLean.

Bruce Springsteen drew on Seeger’s work in his 2006 album, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, from Seeger’s repertoire of traditional music about turbulent American life.

At a Madison Square Garden concert celebrating Seeger’s 90th birthday, Springsteen introduced him as “a living archive of America’s music and conscience, a testament of the power of song and culture to nudge history along,” The Times said.