The LOC.GOV Wise Guide : Who Put the “Life” in “Folklife”?

The words “folklife” and “folklore” have often been considered synonymous. “Folklife” gained usage in the United States in the 1960s from folklore scholars who wished to recognize that the study of folklore goes beyond oral genres to include all aspects of everyday life, including material culture. In Europe, especially Great Britain, Ireland and the Scandinavian countries, the study of folklife, called European ethnology, manifests itself in folk museums. In the U.S., the term is often used in the title of research-based folklife festivals presenting the full range of traditional culture, including music, dance, storytelling, crafts, costume, foodways, holidays, life-cycle rituals and occupational skills. Folklife also includes the study of belief systems, including folk religion, folk medicine and popular beliefs or superstitions.

Researchers in the American Folklife Center Reading Room can access manuscript and print materials as well as audio-visual documentation

First home of the Archive of Folk Song. Robert W. Gordon is shown here in the southwest attic of the Library of Congress building. ca. 1930

When the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress was created in 1976, Congress used the following definition in Public Law 94-201, which created the center:

"The term 'American folklife' means the traditional expressive culture shared within the various groups in the United States: familial, ethnic, occupational, religious, regional; expressive culture includes a wide range of creative and symbolic forms such as custom, belief, technical skill, language, literature, art, architecture, music, play, dance, drama, ritual, pageantry, handicraft; these expressions are mainly learned orally, by imitation, or in performance, and are generally maintained without benefit of formal instruction or institutional direction.”

However, the center’s creation can really be traced back to 1928, when folklorist Robert W. Gordon established the Archive of American Folk Song in the Library’s Music Division. In addition to the recordings Gordon made while touring the country, the archive, now known as the Archive of Folk Culture, included the pioneer cylinder recordings of Jesse Walter Fewkes (the first ever made in the field), Frances Densmore and Helen Roberts, and the field recordings of ex-slaves and others made by the WPA and other New Deal agencies during the 1930s. Thus preserved are performances by both Native Americans known only within remote tribal communities and the legendary greats of the national folklore pantheon like Woodie Guthrie, Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter and Jelly Roll Morton. Today, the archive holds approximately 2,500 collections consisting of more than 100,000 sound recordings and three million items.

The American Folklife Center is also home to the Veterans History Project (VHP). Established in 2000 by Congress to collect and preserve the recollections of Americans who served during wartime, VHP relies on volunteers to interview veterans and submit their recollections, along with letters, photographs, memoirs and other documents, to be archived and shared with future generations.

A. Researchers in the American Folklife Center Reading Room can access manuscript and print materials as well as audio-visual documentation. Stephen Winick. American Folkife Center. Reproduction Information: Not available for reproduction.

B. First home of the Archive of Folk Song. Robert W. Gordon is shown here in the southwest attic of the Library of Congress building. ca. 1930. Prints and Photographs Division. Reproduction Information: Reproduction information not available.