Collection Items

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    Biography
    Stetson Kennedy (1911-2011) Biography. Stetson Kennedy, one of the pioneer folklore collectors during the first half of the twentieth century, was born in Jacksonville, Florida in 1916. As a teenager he began collecting Cracker and African-American folksay material while he was collecting "dollar down and dollar a week" accounts for his father, a furniture merchant. He left the University of Florida in 1937 to join the WPA...
    • Contributor: Kennedy, Stetson
  • Article
    Regional Song Sampler: The Southeast Alabama, Arkansas, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
  • Article
    Seminole and Miccosukee Songs The Seminole people are related to the Creek tribes who once inhabited what is now Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. The indigenous peoples of Florida were greatly reduced in number as a result of illness from and conflicts with Europeans in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Intertribal and European-Indian conflicts caused a group of the southern Creeks to move south into Florida along with smaller...
  • Notated Music
    First to Berlin For voice and piano. "Respectfully dedicated to my first Commander, Capt, E.D. Vestal 124th Infantry 31st (Dixie) Division. The One Hundred and Twenty Fourth Infantry, Florida"--Page 2. Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress Web site. Staff notation.
    • Contributor: Pooley, Alexander Beach
    • Date: 1918

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  • Article
    Bahamian American Song Poet James Weldon Johnson, who, with his brother, composer J. Rosamund Johnson, wrote the civil rights song, "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing." [1] The brothers were born in Florida to an American father, James Johnson, and Helen Louise Dillet, a native of Nassau, Bahamas. Portrait by Carl Van Vechten, 1932.
  • Article
    Spanish American Song Spain was the first European power to establish an empire in the New World. This had an impact on the regions that later became part of the United States, as Spain established colonies and laid claim to much of the land west of the Mississippi River, along with Florida and Puerto Rico. Spanish settlement of North America began in the sixteenth century and immigration...
  • Audio Recording
    Helleno-Americanike Nea Genia
    Translated title: Greek-American New Generation
    • Contributor: Kennedy, Stetson - Anastassiou, George - Morris, Alton Chester - Cook, Robert Harrison
    • Date: 1939-08-28
  • Article
    " John Henry" Several versions of the ballad "John Henry" may be found in the collections of the American Folklife Center. The recordings available online include Arthur Bell singng the song while beating time as if hammering and Harold Hazelhurst singing "John Henry" as a work song for driving railroad spikes. The song probably originated as a work song, like these versions, for work involving the use...
  • Audio Recording
    I Heard a Sweet Robin
    Sweet Robin, One Morning in May
    • Contributor: Kennedy, Stetson - Roberts, Wilbur - Cook, Robert Harrison
    • Date: 1940-01-16
  • Audio Recording
    Jump Isabel, Slide Water Comment
    • Contributor: Kennedy, Stetson - Cook, Robert Harrison
    • Date: 1939-08-14
  • Notated Music
    Arcadia, "the aviation city of Fla." For voice and piano. Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress Web site. Staff notation.
    • Contributor: Payne, Jack
    • Date: 1919

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  • Notated Music
    America will fight for you For voice and piano. Manuscript in ink. Vocal line lacks words. Also available in digital form on the Library of Congress Web site. Staff notation.
    • Contributor: Shaw, Florida
    • Date: 1918

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  • Biography
    Willis Laurence James (1900-1966) Biography. Willis Laurence James. Photo from The Peachite Vol. II, No. 2, Folk Festival Number, March 1944.
    • Contributor: James, Willis
  • Article
    Italian American Song The Italian American population numbers more than fourteen million through the fourth generation. The largest wave of immigrants (around four million) arrived in the United States at the end of the nineteenth and start of the twentieth century. The majority hailed from the largely overpopulated and poor central and southern parts of Italy, where the populace had been impoverished by centuries of foreign misrule,...
  • Article
    Songs of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl Migrants Poster for the Los Angeles production of Hall Johnnson's "Run, Little Chillun". Prints and Photographs Division POS-WPA-CA.01 .R96, no. 1 (H size). Select the link for more information and a larger image.
  • Article
    Songs of the Temperance Movement and Prohibition "The Lips that Touch Liquor Shall Never Touch Mine," sheet music by George T. Evans, 1874. Select the link to view the sheet music.
  • Article
    Greek American Song Sophia Bilides and Mike Gregian performing Smyreika songs at the Library of Congress, August 24, 2011. Not pictured, Mal Barsamian.
  • Biography
    Charles Lafayette Todd (1911-2004) Biography. Charles "Lafe" Todd at the recording machine surrounded by a group of Mexican boys and men. Photo by Robert Hemmig, El Rio F.S.A. Camp, California, 1941. AFC 1985/001: P16.
    • Contributor: Todd, Charles L.
  • Biography
    J. Rosamond Johnson (John Rosamond), 1873-1954 Biography. Biography. John Rosamond Johnson was one of the more important figures in black music in the first part of the 20th century, usually in partnership with Bob Cole or with his brother James Weldon Johnson. While he is chiefly remembered today as the composer of the Black National Anthem, "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," he had a varied career as a pianist, songwriter,...
  • Biography
    Stephen Collins Foster, 1826-1864 As one of America's principal and most influential songwriters, Stephen Foster shares his birthday with that of the nation. Born on 4 July 1826 in Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, Foster revealed an early interest in music but received little formal training. Primarily self-taught, Foster displayed an affinity for "Ethiopian" and minstrel songs (he performed in minstrel shows as a boy), yet he also incorporated...
  • Article
    The Chicano Civil Rights Movement Agustín Lira performing songs from the Chicano Civil Rights Movment at the Library of Congress, September 14, 2011. Select the link to view the webcast.
  • Manuscript/Mixed Material
    Over There Article. Over there, over there! Send the word, send the word, over there!
    • Contributor: Library of Congress
    • Date: 2002
  • Article
    Blues as Protest Prisoners at Cummins State Farm, Arkansas who were recorded by John Lomax in 1934, where he later recorded "I Don't Do Nobody Nothin" sung by C.W. "Preacher" Smith (A.K.A. Rev. Nathanial Hawkins) in 1939. Select the link for more information and a larger image.
  • Manuscript/Mixed Material
    Victory at Sea Article. In the fall of 1951 the NBC-Television executive Sylvester "Pat" Weaver asked the well-known Broadway composer Richard Rodgers, "If you were approached to do some work for the United States Navy, we'd like your assurance that you wouldn't refuse to consider it." "Well, of course I wouldn't refuse to consider an offer from the United States Navy," Rodgers replied. It was six years...
    • Contributor: Library of Congress
    • Date: 2002
  • Audio Recording
    Let the Deal Go Down
    • Contributor: Kennedy, Stetson - Halpert, Herbert - Hurston, Zora Neale
    • Date: 1939-06-18