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Archive: December 2013 (8 Posts)

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

St. George and the Data Dragon: A Digital Assets Mumming

Posted by: Stephen Winick

St. George and the Data Dragon: A Digital Assets Mumming Performed by American Folklife Center Staff with Guests Script drawn from multiple plays in the James Madison Carpenter Collection. Compiled by Stephen Winick, with additional material by Stephen Winick, Jennifer Cutting, Theadocia Austen, Hope O’Keeffe, and the company. Digital assets jargon courtesy of Bertram Lyons.  …

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

Songs of the Winter Season Collected by Sidney Robertson Cowell

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

There are many examples of songs of the winter season available among the online presentations from the American Folklife Center’s archive, but the largest group of these is found in California Gold: Northern California Folk Music from the Thirties, a documentary project of the California Work Projects Administration headed by Sidney Robertson Cowell from 1938 …

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

Einstein’s Folklore

Posted by: Stephen Winick

Albert Einstein, the physicist behind the Theory of General Relativity and other crucial theoretical advances of the 20th century, is often considered one of the greatest scientists of all time.  But did you know that he also liked folklore? At least, he did according to some commentators.  A direct quotation, often attributed to Einstein, runs: …

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

Symposium sparks broad discussion of ethnographic archives

Posted by: Nicole Saylor

In the weeks since The American Folklife Center hosted the Cultural Heritage Archives Symposium at the Library of Congress, we have learned about several collaborations that developed at the event. Fellow panelists are now co-authoring an article, others are creating a consortial grant application, and attendees from the same city who first met at the symposium …

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

Buttered Fresh Frozen Lima Beans: Commemorative Holiday Menus in the Veterans History Project

Posted by: Megan Harris

Chow, c-rations, MREs—no matter the form it takes or the name given to it, food is important in military life. Materials within the Veterans History Project (VHP) collections are peppered with culinary references: the monotony of military rations, the ache of hunger when food was scarce, and often the longing and anticipation for home-cooked meals …