Digital Collections

A number of American Folklife Center collections are available as online presentations, and we continue to add new materials and update existing collections. Digital collections generally contain photographs, audio recordings, and manuscript materials such as field notes or logs for recordings and photos. Note that in many cases the full collection is not online, and in order to access some materials-such as administrative records for projects-you would need to visit the AFC Research Center.

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    After the Day of Infamy: "Man-on-the-Street" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor After the Day of Infamy: "Man-on-the-Street" Interviews Following the Attack on Pearl Harbor presents approximately twelve hours of opinions recorded in the days and months following the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, from more than two hundred individuals in cities and towns across the United States. On December 8, 1941 (the day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor), Alan Lomax, then "assistant in...
    • Date: 1941

    Collection Items: View 139 Items

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    Alan Lomax Collection The Alan Lomax Collection includes ethnographic field documentation, materials from Lomax’s various projects, and cross-cultural research created and collected by Alan Lomax and others on traditional song, music, dance, and body movement from around the world. Lomax conducted fieldwork in the Bahamas, the Caribbean, England, France, Georgia (Republic), Haiti, Ireland, Italy, Morocco, Romania, Russia, Scotland, Spain, the United States, and Wales from the 1930s-1990s....
    • Contributor: Association for Cultural Equity - Archive of American Folk Song - Lomax, Alan - American Folklife Center
    • Date: 1933

    Collection Items: View 6,612 Items

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    Alan Lomax Collection of Michigan and Wisconsin Recordings In 1938 the Library of Congress dispatched the pioneering folklorist and song collector Alan Lomax—already a seasoned field worker at age 23—to conduct a folk song survey of the Great Lakes region. He traveled in a 1935 Plymouth sedan, toting a Presto disc recorder and a movie camera. When he returned nearly three months later, having driven thousands of miles on barely paved roads,...
    • Contributor: Pope, Allan C. - Fredrickson, John - Vizina, Adelore - Delmas, Adolphus - Carrière, Fred - Hulan - Guzal, Frank - Dragić, Todor - Marttila - Leclaire, Leilia ... Pope, Allan C. - Fredrickson, John - Vizina, Adelore - Delmas, Adolphus - Carrière, Fred - Hulan - Guzal, Frank - Dragić, Todor - Marttila - Leclaire, Leilia - Scheffer, Peter - Baratono, Art - Styes, Archie - Maté - Larson, John - Frazier, Clara - Marinetti, John - Norman, John - Szabo, Andy - Strzelecki, Tony - Wallen, Mr - Bellaire, Exilia - Allen, Perry - Kallio, Kalle - Miron, Joe - Pischner, Helen - Cadeau, Ed - Korvenpaa, Charles - McCauley, Edward - Thrasher, Ed - Bonner, Patrick - Niewiadomska, Frances - Marczis, Joseph - Szilagyi, Dizso - Frazier, Calvin - Similä, Gusti - Erickson, Max - Gallagher, Dominic - Frazier, Lonnie - Velin, Maria - Floriani, Margaret - Cadeau, John - Floriani, Veko - McBride, Bill - Nemeth, Kalman - King, Edward - Berky, Nandor - Härkönen, Amanda - Pohjala, Aina - Tomić, Pajo - Olah, Julius - Kania, Felix - Lomax, Alan - Green, John W. - Happy Jack Woodward - Frazier, Belle - Maki, Frank - Lathrop, Carl - Bellaire, Mose - Frazier, Viola - Bangac, Petar - Vujanović, Stjepan - Wells, Lester - Dobričan, Lazar - Larson, Nils - Aho, Pekka - Ricksgers, Joseph - Maki, Emil - Romel, Adolph - Romel, Ted - Pol, Thomas - Sielvankiewiez - Krawezak, B. - Gaza, V. Sipoo - O'Donnell, Mike J. - Kruczynski, Clara - Cadeau, Mathilda - Preda, Emil Milan - Bonner, Daniel - Archive of American Folk Song - Romel, Leo - Rajčević, Stepan - Hirvelä, Wäin - Ketvirtis, Charles - Marinetti, Victor - Mahoski, Henry - Jackson, Andrew - Juhani, Aapo - Halinen, Selma Elona - McCarthy, Barney - Basrak, Stjepan - Fredrickson, Kaisa - Romel - McDonough, Patrick - Pittman, Sampson - Graham, Bert - Meyers, Herman - Lewandowski, Stephanie - Trivanović, Stefan - Cloud, Joe - Warslzyk, Tony - Rautanen, Vernon - Kubesh, John G. - Gallagher, Andrew E. - Lewandowski, Stephan - Romel, Sylvester - Larson, Steen - Grbić, Ludevit - Viita, Frank - Palmer, Mason - Forster, Yalmer Eino - Cloud, Clarence - Vasvary, Steve - Sainović, Ilija - Gallagher, Emerald - Lewandowski, Edwina - Carrière, Dolphis - McCormick, Ed - Kubien, Rose - Lewandowski, Ted - Floriani, Vladimir - Aho, Lillian - Hyvönen, John - Trueblood, Asel - Rudzinski, Alex - Brideup, Louis
    • Date: 1938

    Collection Items: View 444 Items

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    American English Dialect Recordings: The Center for Applied Linguistics Collection The Center for Applied Linguistics Collection contains 118 hours of recordings documenting North American English dialects. The recordings include speech samples, linguistic interviews, oral histories, conversations, and excerpts from public speeches. They were drawn from various archives, and from the private collections of fifty collectors, including linguists, dialectologists, and folklorists. They were submitted to the Center for Applied Linguistics as part of a project...
    • Contributor: Mele, Joseph C. - Mencken, H. L. (Henry Louis) - National Endowment for the Humanities - Aspinall, Wayne N. - Earhart, Amelia - Library of Congress. National Digital Library Program - Marshall, Fred - La Guardia, Fiorello H. (Fiorello Henry) - Abbott, Fortis - Emerson, Lee - American Folklife Center - Christian, Donna - Center for Applied Linguistics
    • Date: 1935

    Collection Items: View 506 Items

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    Ancestral Voices Among the very first activities of the American Folklife Center (AFC) -- created in 1976 -- was the Federal Cylinder Project (FCP), a large-scale initiative to preserve and provide access to historic and fragile field recordings captured on wax cylinders, many dating back to the late nineteenth century. The goal of the FCP (1977-1987) was to gather together thousands of such historical recordings held...

    Collection Items: View 26 Items

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    Bess Lomax Hawes Collection The Bess Lomax Hawes collection is comprised of papers, photographs, and audiovisual materials relating to the career and personal life of folk arts administrator, folklorist, ethnomusicologist, filmmaker, musician, and teacher Bess Lomax Hawes, most from 1960-2001. It includes work produced by Hawes when she was a professor at San Fernando Valley State College in Northridge, California, and as head of the National Endowment for...
    • Contributor: National Endowment for the Arts. Folk Arts Program - Hawes, Bess Lomax - Hawes, Butch
    • Date: 1894

    Collection Items: View 365 Items

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    Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project The Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project was conducted by the American Folklife Center in cooperation with the National Park Service. Ten folklorists from the American Folklife Center conducted fieldwork in August and September 1978, and collected related materials from 1977 to 1981. The materials were collected for use in designing and improving National Park Service interpretive programs along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
    • Contributor: Mullen, Patrick B. - Richardson, Larry - Bryan, Mamie - Jarrell, Tommy - Severt, Carrie - Wolfe, Charles K. - Owen, Blanton - Archive of Folk Culture (Library of Congress) - United States. National Park Service - Todd, Zenna ... Mullen, Patrick B. - Richardson, Larry - Bryan, Mamie - Jarrell, Tommy - Severt, Carrie - Wolfe, Charles K. - Owen, Blanton - Archive of Folk Culture (Library of Congress) - United States. National Park Service - Todd, Zenna - Marshall, Howard W. - Owen, Margaret Counts - Wilson, Joe - Shockley, Maggie - Jabbour, Alan - Choate, Donna - Eiler, Terry - Fleischhauer, Carl - American Folklife Center - Johnson, Geraldine Niva - Adler, Thomas A. - Patton, Ila - Ray, Roxie - Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project - Eiler, Lyntha Scott - Cruise, Crystal - Stanley, Lura
    • Date: 1977

    Collection Items: View 2,103 Items

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    Buckaroos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada, 1945-1982 Includes 41 motion pictures and 28 sound recordings, motion pictures produced from 1945 to 1965 by Leslie Stewart (owner of the Ninety-Six Ranch), 2,400 still photographs drawn from the Center's ethnographic field project conducted 1978-1982 and from historic photos dating 1870-1958. Background essays provide historical and cultural context for this distinctive northern Nevada ranching community. Buckaroos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada, 1945-1982...
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. National Digital Library Program - American Folklife Center
    • Date: 1998

    Collection Items: View 2,441 Items

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    California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties Collected by Sidney Robertson Cowell This online presentation, California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties, comprises 35 hours of folk music recorded in 12 languages representing numerous ethnic groups and 185 musicians. It includes sound recordings, still photographs of the performers, drawings of folk instruments, and written documentation from a variety of European ethnic and English- and Spanish-speaking communities in northern California in the 1930s.
    • Contributor: Cowell, Sidney Robertson - American Folklife Center - Library of Congress. National Digital Library Program
    • Date: 1997

    Collection Items: View 1,246 Items

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    Captain Pearl R. Nye: Life on the Ohio and Erie Canal Captain Pearl R. Nye: Life on the Ohio and Erie Canal captures the culture and music of the men, women, and children who worked and lived along the Ohio and Erie Canal. Nye, who was born and raised on a canal boat, never lost his love of the "Big Ditch." After the canal closed permanently in 1913, he devoted considerable time and energy to...
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. National Digital Library Program - Lomax, John A. (John Avery) - Nye, Pearl R. - Archive of American Folk Song - Lomax, Alan - American Folklife Center
    • Date: 1937

    Collection Items: View 141 Items

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    Chicago Ethnic Arts Project Collection The Chicago Ethnic Arts Project survey was conducted in 1977 by the American Folklife Center at the request of the Illinois Arts Council to assess and document the status of ethnic art traditions in more than twenty ethnic communities in Chicago, and was jointly sponsored by both organizations.
    • Contributor: Swenson, Greta E. - Moloney, Mick - Robinson, Beverly J. - Mathias, Elizabeth - Epstein, Shifra - Archive of Folk Culture (Library of Congress) - González, José Gamaliel - Kalčik, Susan J. - Kubose, Minnie Somi - Fleischhauer, Carl ... Swenson, Greta E. - Moloney, Mick - Robinson, Beverly J. - Mathias, Elizabeth - Epstein, Shifra - Archive of Folk Culture (Library of Congress) - González, José Gamaliel - Kalčik, Susan J. - Kubose, Minnie Somi - Fleischhauer, Carl - Mack, James - Dovydenas, Jonas - Brzovich, Mato - Trbuhovic-Grasa, Gordana - Choi, Chungmoo - Bradunas, Elena - Fiske-Rusciano, Roberta - Bartis, Peter - Hellenberg, Antony - Klymasz, Robert Bogdan - George, Philip B. - March, Richard - American Folklife Center - Chicago Ethnic Arts Project - Libonati, Roland V. (Roland Victor) - Metcalfe, Ralph H. - Klymasz, Shirley - Lund, Jens - Illinois Arts Council
    • Date: 1976

    Collection Items: View 1,138 Items

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    Civil Rights History Project On May 12, 2009, the U. S. Congress authorized a national initiative by passing The Civil Rights History Project Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-19). The law directed the Library of Congress (LOC) and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) to conduct a national survey of existing oral history collections with relevance to the Civil Rights movement to...
    • Contributor: Stewart, Eleanor - McDew, Charles - Hopkins, Evans D. - Magee, Clarence - Simpson, Euvester - Jones, Mary A. - Hicks, Gregory Vincent - Young, Sam - Tillow, Walter M. - Vivian, C. T. ... Stewart, Eleanor - McDew, Charles - Hopkins, Evans D. - Magee, Clarence - Simpson, Euvester - Jones, Mary A. - Hicks, Gregory Vincent - Young, Sam - Tillow, Walter M. - Vivian, C. T. - Mahone, Sam - Parker, Wheeler - Hill, Oliver W. - Anderson, Fletcher - Tillow, Kay - Dove, Samuel - Henderson, Juadine - Carlos, John - Adams-Johnson, Frankye - Funchess, Glenda - Derby, Doris Adelaide - Hicks, Robert Lawrence - Crosby, Emilye - Williams, Junius W. - Mulholland, Joan Trumpauer - Hrabowski, Freeman A. - Jenkins, Timothy Lionel - Jarmon, Charles - Tuttle, Rick - Library of Congress - McCarty, Michael D. - Montes, Carlos - Archive of Folk Culture (Library of Congress) - Grinnell, Gloria Claudette - Moldovan, Alfred - Arellanes, Gloria - Ackerman, Satoko Ito - Gaither, Thomas Walter - Browner, Clifford - Suggs, Harold - Abernathy, Donzaleigh - Miller, Carolyn - Zellner, Dorothy - Burras, Carol Cummings - Sobol, Richard B. - Abernathy, Ralph David - Walker, Wyatt Tee - Dahmer, Ellie J. - Holloway, Eddie A. - Zapata, Luis - McLaurin, Charles - Howell, Embry - Anderson, William G. - Saunders, William - Carter, Robert L. - Varela, Maria - Walter, Mildred Pitts - Simmons, Gwendolyn Zoharah - Hildreth, Marilyn Luper - Richardson, Gloria - Crosby, Patricia A. - Bailey, D'army - Suggs, Frances L. - Cox, Courtland - Ackerman, David M. - Greene, Freddie - Anderson, Cynthia Baker - Smith, Jeanette - Leventhal, Willy S. (Willy Siegel) - Dahmer, Vernon - Bassett, Emmett W. - Lucy, William - Hicks, Charles Ray - Young, Carrie Lamar - Dittmer, John - Carawan, Guy - Caldwell, Ben R. - Robinson, Reginald - McCullar, Johnnie Ruth - McKinney, Samuel Berry - Jones, James Oscar - Jones, Clarence B. - Newson, Moses J. - Sales, Ruby - Greenberg, Jack - Lowery, Joseph E. - Hamilton, Audrey Nell - Bennett, Geraldine Crawford - Ulmer, Joeann Anderson - Guyot, Lawrence - Head, Rosie M. - Alexander, Roberta - Glascoe, Myrtle Gonza - Duncan, Gwendolyn Annette - Cotton, Dorothy F. - Huggins, Ericka - Dixon, Elmer - Churchville, John Elliott - Cline, David P. - Siler, Charles E. - Brown, Amos C. (Amos Cleophilus) - Sherrod, Charles - Todd, Lisa Anderson - Broadway, Louise W. - George, Virginia Simms - Luper, Calvin - Holloway, Lucius - Branch, Raylawni G. - Crosby, David L. - Cleaver, Kathleen - Hutchings, Phil - Marshall, Cecilia - Burns, Julia Matilda - Brown, Robert J. - Griffin, Willie James - Finney, Ernest A., (Ernest Adolphus) - Noonan, Martha P. - Roxborough, Mildred Bond - Dudley, John F. - King, Lonnie C. - Perry, Matthew J. (Matthew James) - Jenkins, Willie Elliot - Jackson, Gertrude Newsome - Reece, Dwandalyn R. - McNichols, Steven - Hayling, Robert Bagner - Bassett, Priscilla - Russell, Bill - Seeger, Pete - Thelwell, Michael - Patton, Gwendolyn M. - Lawrence, William M. - Howell, Joseph T. - McClary, Robert - Fuller, Linda - Walker, Theresa Ann - Hicks, Darryl Robertson - Ladner, Dorie - Bates, Scott - Bruce, Walter - Blake, Harry - Bond, Julian - Miller, Grace H. - Long, Worth W. - Carawan, Candie - Conway, Purcell Maurice - Mtume, Norma - Paysour, Lafleur - National Museum of African American History and Culture (U.S.) - Williams, Cecil J. - Diamond, Dion T. - Mosnier, Joseph - Robinson, Betty Garman - Lawson, Jennifer - Guster, Leesco - Moore, E. Maynard - Ladner, Joyce A. - Miller, James E. - Branch, Taylor - Terry, Esther M. A. - Civil Rights History Project (U.S.) - Jeffries, Hasan Kwame - Sellers, Cleveland - Hicks, Valeria Payton - Rosenberg, Jean Voelker - Strickland, William - Jenkins, Mary F. - Becton, Julius W. (Julius Wesley) - Richardson, Judy - Connor, Peggy Jean - Rosenberg, John M. - Sobol, Anne Buxton - Wright, Simeon - Collins, Barbara Maria - Sherrod, Shirley - Booker, Simeon - Southern Oral History Program - Sullivan, Patricia - Howard, Elbert - Bishop, John Melville - Taylor, Kieran Walsh - American Folklife Center - Jones, Jamila - Geiger, Jack - Jones, Nathaniel Hawthorne - Vickers, Barbara Edna - Breaux, Toni - Camarillo, Mateo - Clark, Robert George - Brown, Harold K. - Avery, Annie Pearl - Holloway, Emma Kate - Abernathy, Juandalynn R. - Dixon, Aaron
    • Date: 2010

    Collection Items: View 157 Items

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    Colorado Folklife Project Collection The Colorado Folklife Project was sponsored by the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, working with John D. Farr, representative of the Rocky Mountain Continental Divide Foundation, Frisco, Colorado, to assist in developing plans for an outdoor museum and educational center. The project was led by Howard W. Marshall for the American Folklife Center from August 18-30, 1980. Intended in part to demonstrate folklife...
    • Contributor: Natanson, Barbara Orbach - American Folklife Center - Emrich, Ron - Dettmer, Elke - Marshall, Howard W. - Archive of Folk Culture (Library of Congress)
    • Date: 1980

    Collection Items: View 130 Items

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    Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools in America Project The Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools in America Project was conducted in 1982 by the American Folklife Center to survey selected religious and secular ethnic community-based schools conducted, at least in part, in a language other than English to document the continued ethnolinguistic and cultural diversity of the United States.
    • Contributor: Long, Lucy M. - Proschan, Frank - Deak, Frank - Marks, Morton - Cech, Barbara - Leung, John - Skillman, Amy E. - McCallum, Brenda - Arocho, Rudy - Davis, Lee ... Long, Lucy M. - Proschan, Frank - Deak, Frank - Marks, Morton - Cech, Barbara - Leung, John - Skillman, Amy E. - McCallum, Brenda - Arocho, Rudy - Davis, Lee - Bromberg, Joann Berlin - American Folklife Center - Gates, Bob - Fleischhauer, Carl - Vidutis, Richard - Basa, Peter - Fast, Jana - Kloberdanz, Timothy J. - Penti, Marsha Elizabeth - McClain, Margy - Fish, Lydia M. - Baird, Scott J. - Webber, Philip E. - Bradunas, Elena - Bell, Carole O. - Tarhan, Lance - Archive of Folk Culture (Library of Congress) - Seipel, Sandy - Topping, Brett - Feintuch, Burt - Westover, Victoria - Sacks, Maurie - Dwyer-Shick, Susan - Conklin, Nancy Faires - Miller, Jefferson - Haas, Mary-Louise - Nagy, Susan Mary
    • Date: 1982

    Collection Items: View 788 Items

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    Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier: The Henry Reed Collection Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier: The Henry Reed Collection presents traditional fiddle tunes performed by Henry Reed of Glen Lyn, Virginia. Recorded by folklorist Alan Jabbour in 1966-67, when Reed was over eighty years old, the tunes represent the music and evoke the history and spirit of Virginia's Appalachian frontier. Many of the tunes have passed back into circulation during the fiddling revival...
    • Contributor: Jabbour, Alan - Reed, Henry - Ricci, Glenn - Glenroy, William B. - Reed, Watha - Reed, Gene - American Folklife Center
    • Date: 2000

    Collection Items: View 292 Items

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    Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections, 1937-1942 Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections combines sound recordings and manuscript materials from four discrete archival collections made by Work Projects Administration (WPA) workers from the Joint Committee on Folk Arts, the Federal Writers' Project, and the Federal Music Project from 1937-42. This online presentation provides access to 376 sound recordings and 106 accompanying materials, including recording logs, transcripts, correspondence between Florida WPA workers...
    • Contributor: Kennedy, Stetson - American Folklife Center - Library of Congress. National Digital Library Program
    • Date: 2000

    Collection Items: View 494 Items

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    Hispano Music and Culture of the Northern Rio Grande: The Juan B. Rael Collection Hispano Music and Culture of the Northern Rio Grande: The Juan B. Rael Collection is an online presentation of an ethnographic field collection documenting religious and secular music of Spanish-speaking residents of rural Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado. In 1940, Juan Bautista Rael of Stanford University, a native of Arroyo Hondo, New Mexico, used disc recording equipment supplied by the Archive of American...
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. National Digital Library Program - Rael, Juan Bautista - Lobato, Salomé - Martínez Y Lavadi, Samuel - Archuleta, Ricardo - American Folklife Center - Chávez, Adelaido - Romero, Alfredo - Lamadrid, Enrique R. - Lobato, Julián ... Library of Congress. National Digital Library Program - Rael, Juan Bautista - Lobato, Salomé - Martínez Y Lavadi, Samuel - Archuleta, Ricardo - American Folklife Center - Chávez, Adelaido - Romero, Alfredo - Lamadrid, Enrique R. - Lobato, Julián - Cantú, José Ignacio - Mares, Remigio - García, Pedro - Medina, Esteban - Espinosa, Rosabel L. - Montoya, Luis - Arellano, Narciso - Arellano, Esequiel - Archive of Folk Song (U.S.) - Trujillo, Amado - Chávez, Adolfo - Anaya, Nieves - Anaya, Ernestina
    • Date: 1940

    Collection Items: View 226 Items

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    Italian Americans in the West Project The Italian Americans in the West Project collection contains the sound recordings, photographs, video recordings, fieldnotes, publications, ephemera, and accompanying manuscript materials associated with the American Folklife Center's Italian Americans in the West project. The purpose of the three-year field research project was to document aspects of traditional cultural expression of Italian Americans in the western United States.
    • Contributor: Light, Ken - Taylor, David Alan - Frank, Russell - Williams, John Alexander - Carter, Thomas - Wood, Myron - Graham, Andrea - Owen, Blanton - Parks, Valerie - Manini, Paula Marie ... Light, Ken - Taylor, David Alan - Frank, Russell - Williams, John Alexander - Carter, Thomas - Wood, Myron - Graham, Andrea - Owen, Blanton - Parks, Valerie - Manini, Paula Marie - Siporin, Steve - Roeder, Beatrice A. - Lund, Jens - Notarianni, Philip F. - American Folklife Center - Archive of Folk Culture (Library of Congress) - DeNatale, Douglas - Tavarelli, Paola
    • Date: 1988

    Collection Items: View 1,516 Items

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    Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve Collection The Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve collection consists of interviews and photographs by Mary Hufford and Tom Tankersley in December 1985 for the American Folklife Center, comprising part of the preliminary fieldwork for a proposed cooperative project with the National Park Service's Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in southern Louisiana. The collection includes audio recordings of a tour of Plaquemines...
    • Contributor: Tankersley, Tom - United States. National Park Service - American Folklife Center - Hufford, Mary - Archive of Folk Culture (Library of Congress)
    • Date: 1985

    Collection Items: View 39 Items

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    John A. Lomax and Alan Lomax Papers John A. Lomax, Sr., and his son Alan Lomax became stewards of a nascent Archive of American Folk-Song in September 1933. Their tenure lasted until Alan separated from the Library of Congress in October 1942. During that period, they administered an archive that grew in scope and volume. The resultant manuscript material—correspondence, memoranda, reports, notes, and writings—was decades later collated into the John A....
    • Contributor: Archive of American Folk Song - Lomax, Alan - Lomax, John A. (John Avery) - Library of Congress. Music Division
    • Date: 1907

    Collection Items: View 415 Items

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    The Library of Congress Celebrates the Songs of America See and Hear American History Through Song "Know the songs of a country and you will know its history for the true feeling of a people speaks through what they sing."
    • Date: 1581

    Collection Items: View 52,139 Items

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    Living Nations, Living Words This collection—part of Poet Laureate Joy Harjo’s “Living Nations, Living Words” signature project—contains audio recordings of 47 contemporary Native American poets reading and discussing an original poem. Listen to Joy Harjo, Louise Erdrich, Natalie Diaz, Ray Young Bear, Craig Santos Perez, Sherwin Bitsui, Layli Long Soldier, and other featured voices.

    Collection Items: View 49 Items

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    Lowell Folklife Project Collection The Lowell Folklife Project was conducted in 1987-1988 as a cooperative project of the American Folklife Center and the Lowell Historic Preservation Commission, with support from the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities, to document contemporary ethnic neighborhoods, occupations, and community life related to the history of industrialization in Lowell, Massachusetts.
    • Contributor: Rankin, Tom - Taylor, David Alan - Lowell Historic Preservation Commission (U.S.) - Wachs, Eleanor F. - Lueders-Booth, John - Bell, Michael Edward - University of Lowell - American Folklife Center - Bartis, Peter - United States. National Park Service ... Rankin, Tom - Taylor, David Alan - Lowell Historic Preservation Commission (U.S.) - Wachs, Eleanor F. - Lueders-Booth, John - Bell, Michael Edward - University of Lowell - American Folklife Center - Bartis, Peter - United States. National Park Service - Norkunas, Martha K. - Fleischhauer, Carl - Lowell National Historical Park (Lowell, Mass.) - Fertig, Barbara C. - Refugee Arts Group - Montaño, Mario - Archive of Folk Culture (Library of Congress) - DeNatale, Douglas - Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities
    • Date: 1987

    Collection Items: View 1,140 Items

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    Maine Acadian Cultural Survey Collection The Maine Acadian Cultural Survey was an eight-week study conducted in 1991 as a joint project of the American Folklife Center and the North Atlantic Regional Office of the National Park Service to research information to be used in planning an Acadian Cultural Center in Maine. Project personnel worked closely with the Archives Acadiennes, Maine Arts Commission, Maine Historic Preservation Commission, Northeast Archives of...
    • Contributor: Taylor, David Alan - Bayley, Julie - United States. National Park Service. North Atlantic Regional Office - Whitman, David A. - American Folklife Center - Ornstein, Lisa - Marshall, Howard W. - Archive of Folk Culture (Library of Congress) - Brassieur, C. Ray
    • Date: 1991

    Collection Items: View 270 Items

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    Montana Folklife Survey Collection The Montana Folklife Survey was conducted in the summer of 1979 by the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress, in cooperation with the Montana Arts Council. The survey was a field research project to document traditional folklife in Montana.
    • Contributor: McBride, Tom - Johnson, Paula J. - Young, Kay - Stanton, Gary Ward - Toelken, Miiko - Archive of Folk Culture (Library of Congress) - Dockstader, Ray - Toelken, Barre - Crummett, Michael - Wasson, George B. - Fleischhauer, Carl - American Folklife Center - Montana Arts Council
    • Date: 1979

    Collection Items: View 613 Items

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    New Mexico Folklife Project Collection The New Mexico Folklife Project was conducted by Carl Fleischhauer of the American Folklife Center, in the summers of 1984 and 1985. In 1984, the effort supported the work of the folklorist Laurie Beth Kalb, representing the Museum of International Folk Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and focused on three Hispanic santeros in northern part of the state: Felix Lopez, La Mesilla; Eulogio Ortega,...
    • Contributor: Kalb, Laurie Beth - New Mexico. Historic Preservation Division - Museum of International Folk Art (N.M.) - Fleischhauer, Carl - Pratt, Boyd C. - American Folklife Center
    • Date: 1984

    Collection Items: View 112 Items

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    Now What a Time: Blues, Gospel, and the Fort Valley Music Festivals, 1938-1943 Consists of approximately one hundred sound recordings, primarily blues and gospel songs, and related documentation from the folk festival at Fort Valley State College (now Fort Valley State University), Fort Valley, Georgia. The documentation was created by John Wesley Work III in 1941 and by Lewis Jones and Willis Laurence James in March, June, and July 1943. Also included are recordings made in Tennessee...
    • Contributor: Bond, James - Oak Grove Missionary Baptist Church (Peach County, Ga.). Choir - Richardson, Zema - Thomas, John Lee - Holloway High School Quartet - Winrow, Anthony - Parker, Cleve - Fisk University - Ezell, Buster - Smith Band (Musical Group) ... Bond, James - Oak Grove Missionary Baptist Church (Peach County, Ga.). Choir - Richardson, Zema - Thomas, John Lee - Holloway High School Quartet - Winrow, Anthony - Parker, Cleve - Fisk University - Ezell, Buster - Smith Band (Musical Group) - Gibson, Gus - Ellis, Charles - Library of Congress. National Digital Library Program - Stripling, Sidney - Mathis, Allison - Turner, Oscar - Monch, Matthew - Work, John W. (John Wesley) - Turner, Alma - Turner, Monroe - Chastain, Will - Bond, Edward - Chestain, Sonny - Ford, T. J. - Jackson, Deacon Sam - Heavenly Gate Quartet - Gaines, Elwood - Gregory, Richard - Johnson, Warren G. - Traveller Home Singers - Spiritual Four Quartet - Ford, Osa
    • Date: 1938

    Collection Items: View 181 Items

  • Collection
    Occupational Folklife Project The Occupational Folklife Project (OFP) began in 2010 as a multi-year project by the American Folklife Center (AFC) to document the culture of contemporary American workers during an era of economic and social transition. To date, fieldworkers across the United States have recorded more than 1800 audio and audiovisual oral history interviews with workers in scores of trades, industries, crafts, and professions. The completed...
    • Contributor: Aalund, Niels Anders - Thibodeaux, Terry James - Quesada, José Angel - Braun, Leo J. - Diehl, William J. - Holland, Benny - Larrimer, George - Seeba, Patrick - Martinez, Gilbert B. - Morrell, David C. ... Aalund, Niels Anders - Thibodeaux, Terry James - Quesada, José Angel - Braun, Leo J. - Diehl, William J. - Holland, Benny - Larrimer, George - Seeba, Patrick - Martinez, Gilbert B. - Morrell, David C. - Patton, William Benjamin - Dickens, Michael W. - Hilliard, Townsend W. - Olsen, Eric Carl - Glass, Matthew H. - Dodd, Harold L. - Potoczniak, Anthony - Gage, Charles H. - Hensley, James J. - Corgey, Dean - Kersey, Bobby C. - Blume, Dana - Henry, Mark - Usher, Michael Gene - King, Charles H. - Fitzgerald, Clyde - Thompson, Robert L. - Vest, Lou C. - Mayville, Donnie D. - Peterson, Betsy - American Folklife Center - Montgomery, Charles R. - Mims, Doug - Harris, Timothy C. - Burkett, Joe L. - Bennett, Steven R. - Halbert, David Maurice - Occupational Folklife Project - Shaffer, Harold L. - Lindahl, Carl - Jasper, Pat - Hausinger, William - Keenan, Gordie - Hennessey, William S. - Cooney, James Patrick - Lightsey, Thomas N. - Glass, Leonard - Robb, Alan A. - Paysse, Charlie Lou - Lebert, Lindberg A. - Hilliard, Henry - Ramirez, Gilda - Bludworth, Richard W. - Harris, Eugene - Patout, Rivers - Rousser, C. A. - Tray, James Thomas - Laws, Andrew L. - Houston Arts Alliance - Tellepsen, Tom - Postel, Adolph C.
    • Date: 2010

    Collection Items: View 1,202 Items

  • Collection
    Omaha Indian Music Presented here are selections from the American Folklife Center's collections documenting Omaha music traditions. The sound recordings include 44 wax cylinder recordings made in the 1890s (first published on a 1985 LP entitled Omaha Indian Music: Historical Recordings from the Fletcher/La Flesche Collection), 323 songs and spoken-word segments from the 1983 Omaha harvest celebration pow-wow, 24 spoken-word segments from an interview with an Omaha...
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. National Digital Library Program - American Folklife Center
    • Date: 2000

    Collection Items: View 873 Items

  • Collection
    Pinelands Folklife Project The Pinelands Folklife Project collection represents the culmination of a three-year effort to identify and record the cultural traditions in and around the Pinelands National Reserve in the Pine Barrens region of southern New Jersey in the mid-1980s. The collection comprises ethnographic documentation which examines the relationship between the local culture and the surrounding environment. It contains the administrative records, planning documents, and published...
    • Contributor: Thatcher, Elaine - Morgan, Elizabeth M. - Orr, Jay - Sinton, John W. - Parsons, Gerald E. - Pinelands Folklife Project (N.J.) - Ridgway, Arlene Martin - Tweed, Stewart M. - Ridgway, Merce - Little, Silas ... Thatcher, Elaine - Morgan, Elizabeth M. - Orr, Jay - Sinton, John W. - Parsons, Gerald E. - Pinelands Folklife Project (N.J.) - Ridgway, Arlene Martin - Tweed, Stewart M. - Ridgway, Merce - Little, Silas - Pinelands Cultural Society - Cervetto, Jack - Moonsammy, Rita Zorn - Cartwright, Christine A. - Fleischhauer, Carl - American Folklife Center - Cohen, David Steven - Rubinstein, Nora J. (Nora Jane) - Vivian, V. Eugene - McDonald, Dennis - Samuelson, Sue - Carroll, Thomas Deblasio - Czarnecki, Joseph P. - Glassie, Henry - O'Connor, Bonnie Blair - Shourds, Harry V. - Archive of Folk Culture (Library of Congress) - O'Connor, Malachi - Hunn, Eugene S. - Lund, Jens - Pinehawkers (Musical Group) - Hufford, Mary - New Jersey. Pinelands Commission
    • Date: 1983

    Collection Items: View 1,325 Items

  • Collection
    Quilts and Quiltmaking in America, 1978-1996 Contains 181 segments from recorded interviews with quiltmakers and 410 graphic images (prints, positive transparencies, and negatives) from two collections in the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress: the Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project Collection (AFC 1982/00) and the Lands' End All-American Quilt Contest Collection (AFC 1997/011). The images of the quilts convey the range of contemporary quiltmaking styles in the United...
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. National Digital Library Program - American Folklife Center
    • Date: 1999

    Collection Items: View 605 Items

  • Collection
    Radio Research Project Manuscript Collection The January 1941 launch of the Radio Research Project marked the Library’s initial foray into broadcast media. Funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and supported by Librarian of Congress Archibald MacLeish, the project created numerous and diverse radio programs primarily relating to American history and folklore, and utilized groundbreaking recording and production techniques. In just over a year of operation, the project staff of Philip...
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. Radio Research Project - Lomax, Alan - Harrell, Charles Travers - Cohen, Philip H. - Liss, Joseph
    • Date: 1940

    Collection Items: View 168 Items

  • Collection
    Rhode Island Folklife Project Collection The Rhode Island Folklife Project collection resulted from a field survey project of the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, conducted in cooperation with the Rhode Island Heritage Commission, the Rhode Island Council on the Arts, and the Rhode Island Historical Society from July 15 to December 31, 1979.
    • Contributor: Bell, Michael Edward - Harley, Nancy - Burns, Thomas A. - American Folklife Center - Bartis, Peter - Horenstein, Henry - Glawson, Francis - Goldstein, Kenneth S. - Fleischhauer, Carl - Johnson, Geraldine Niva - Archive of Folk Culture (Library of Congress) - Rhode Island Folklife Project
    • Date: 1979

    Collection Items: View 979 Items

  • Collection
    Robert Winslow Gordon Songsters The Robert Winslow Gordon songster collection contains approximately 700 American songsters dating from 1844-1886, collected by Gordon. The word “songster” has been used for a wide variety of songbooks, but these are primarily pocket-sized pamphlets (approximately 3" x 5") collecting the texts of vaudeville, minstrel-stage, patriotic, humorous, religious, and traditional songs presented without music. Such songsters were popular in the United States in the...
    • Contributor: Archive of American Folk Song - Gordon, Robert Winslow
    • Date: 1844

    Collection Items: View 722 Items

  • Collection
    September 11, 2001, Documentary Project Flight Attendant. Photo by David A. Taylor, September 2001. September 11, 2001, Documentary Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress The September 11, 2001 Documentary Project captures the reactions, eyewitness accounts, and diverse opinions of Americans and others in the months that followed the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and United Airlines Flight 93. Patriotism and unity mixed with...
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. National Digital Library Program - Archive of Folk Culture (Library of Congress) - American Folklife Center
    • Date: 2001

    Collection Items: View 267 Items

  • Collection
    South-Central Georgia Folklife Project Collection The South-Central Georgia Folklife Project collection resulted from an ethnographic field project conducted in the summer of 1977 by the American Folklife Center of the Library of Congress and the Arts Experiment Station of Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia. The eight-county area chosen for the study is in the center of the "Wiregrass" region of Georgia.
    • Contributor: Jabbour, Alan - Lightfoot, William E. (William Edwin) - McGraw, Hugh - Adler, Thomas A. - Stanley, David - Archive of Folk Culture (Library of Congress) - Robinson, Beverly J. - Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College - Marshall, Howard W. - Fleischhauer, Carl - American Folklife Center - Blackmarr, Syd - Coelho, Dennis - Hamrick, Raymond C.
    • Date: 1977

    Collection Items: View 1,121 Items

  • Collection
    Southern Mosaic: The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip This recording trip is an ethnographic field collection that includes nearly 700 sound recordings, as well as fieldnotes, dust jackets, and other manuscripts documenting a three-month, 6,502-mile trip through the southern United States. Beginning in Port Aransas, Texas, on March 31, 1939, and ending at the Library of Congress on June 14, 1939, John Avery Lomax, Honorary Consultant and Curator of the Archive of...
    • Contributor: Archive of American Folk Song - Lomax, Alan - Lomax, John A. (John Avery) - Lomax, Ruby T. (Ruby Terrill)
    • Date: 1934

    Collection Items: View 895 Items

  • Collection
    Tending the Commons: Folklife and Landscape in Southern West Virginia This collection presents 718 excerpts of sound recordings, 1,256 photographs, and 10 manuscripts from the American Folklife Center's Coal River Folklife Project Collection. The project documented traditional uses of the mountains in the Big Coal River Valley of southern West Virginia, and explored the cultural dimensions of ecological crisis from 1992 to 1999. There are extensive interviews with local residents on the seasonal harvesting...
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. National Digital Library Program - American Folklife Center
    • Date: 2000

    Collection Items: View 2,017 Items

  • Collection
    Traditional Music and Spoken Word The audio recordings represented in the catalog were recorded between 1897 and 1962. The majority of these are lacquer and aluminum-based instantaneous disc recordings made between 1933 and 1950. The handful of collections that fall outside this date range is described at the end of this page. The card catalog represented in this online database was first created by Work Projects Administration (WPA) workers...
    • Date: 1897
  • Collection
    Voices from the Dust Bowl: the Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection, 1940-1941 Voices from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection is an online presentation of selections from a multi-format ethnographic field collection documenting the everyday life of residents of Farm Security Administration (FSA) migrant work camps in central California in 1940 and 1941.
    • Contributor: Library of Congress. National Digital Library Program - American Folklife Center
    • Date: 1998

    Collection Items: View 533 Items