Film, Video Folksongs of Another America: Field Recordings from the Upper Midwest, 1937-1946

About this Item

Title
Folksongs of Another America: Field Recordings from the Upper Midwest, 1937-1946
Summary
America's Upper Midwest is a distinctive region wherein a staggering array of indigenous, immigrant and enslaved peoples have collectively maintained, merged and modified their folk song traditions for more than two centuries. During the 1930s and 1940s, Sidney Robertson Cowell, Alan Lomax and Helene Stratman Thomas set up field studios in homes, hotels, community halls, church basements and parks throughout Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin to record roughly 2000 folksongs and tunes. Since the late 1970s, working incrementally with many generous individuals, partners, and organizations, folklorist Jim Leary has been part of a movement bent on bringing this body of extraordinary folk music of the Upper Midwest to the attention of the larger public.
Event Date
July 18, 2013
Notes
-  Jim Leary is the Birgit Baldwin Professor of Scandinavian Studies, a professor in the Department of Comparative Literature and Folklore Studies, and a co-founder of the Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is also a fellow of the American Folklore Society, co-editor of Journal of American Folklore, and a recipient of the Chicago Folklore Prize and the American Folklife Center's Archie Green Fellowship. Born in Rice Lake, Wisconsin in 1950, Leary grew up fascinated by the dialects, stories, music and customs of his culturally diverse neighbors. Leary has done research since the 1970s on the cultural traditions of workers, Native peoples, European Americans and new immigrants in the Upper Midwest, contributing to numerous folklife festivals, museum exhibits, films, public radio programs, documentary sound recordings and accessible archival collections. Since the 1970s, he has been part of a movement bent on bringing this body of extraordinary folk music from the Upper Midwest to the attention of the larger public.
Related Resources
American Folklife Center: https://www.loc.gov/folklife
Running Time
1 hours 22 seconds
Language
English
Online Format
video
image
Original Format
film, video

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Credit Line: Library of Congress

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Chicago citation style:

Folksongs of Another America: Field Recordings from the Upper Midwest, -1946. 2013. Video. https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-6013/.

APA citation style:

(2013) Folksongs of Another America: Field Recordings from the Upper Midwest, -1946. [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/webcast-6013/.

MLA citation style:

Folksongs of Another America: Field Recordings from the Upper Midwest, -1946. 2013. Video. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/webcast-6013/>.

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