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Archive: August 2015 (7 Posts)

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Rediscovering Lomax: Joshua Clegg Caffery and “I Wanna Sing Right”

Posted by: Stephen Winick

During the centennial year of the great folklorist Alan Lomax (1915-2002), we at AFC have been celebrating his legacy in all kinds of ways: digitizing collections, sponsoring performances, encouraging publications, creating web content, designing exhibits…even writing blog posts! One of the things we most loved about Alan was his concern that the field recordings he …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

The Folklore and Folksong of Trains in America, Part Two

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

This is the second part of a two-part article on the folklore of trains. Part one, focusing on the development of railroads in the United States and related songs and lore can be found here. Part Two: Trains and American Culture The coming of the railroads made profound changes in life and culture in the …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Collection Snapshot: Merle Korte and the End of WWII

Posted by: Megan Harris

This month sees a round of 70th anniversaries relating to the end of World War II–the release of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6th and 9th, and Japan’s announcement of surrender on August 15th. The Veterans History Project‘s (VHP) official commemoration will come next month, with the September 8th release of an …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Don Yoder (1921-2015): The Man Who Put the “Life” in “Folklife”

Posted by: Stephen Winick

Did you ever wonder why U.S. government institutions like the Library of Congress use the word “folklife” rather than the more common “folklore?” Largely, we can thank the influence of Don Yoder, the eminent Pennsylvania folklorist, who passed away Tuesday at the age of 93. Long before the founding of the Library of Congress’s American …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

AFC Junior Fellow April Rodriguez on Lomax’s Choreometrics

Posted by: Stephen Winick

The American Folklife Center is very grateful to April Rodriguez, one of this year’s 36 Library of Congress Junior Fellow Summer Interns.  April has been working with Alan Lomax’s choreometrics materials, a lesser-known but crucial aspect of his research. Her work has revealed aspects of the collection our own staff didn’t know about, and will …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Happy Birthday, United States Coast Guard!

Posted by: Lisa Taylor

August 4th marks the 225th birthday of the U.S. Coast Guard, the only military organization within the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. The men and women of the U.S. Coast Guard work tirelessly to safeguard our nation’s maritime interests and environment around the world. Click here to access digitized collections of more than 130 veterans …