On September 25th, the American Folklife Center and the Library of Congress’s Hispanic Division brought together eight scholars and activists for a day-long symposium titled Organizing Across the Boundaries: Strategies and Coalitions in the Struggle for Civil Rights and Social Justice. It was the last event for this fiscal year in our public programs series, …
The following is part of a series of guest posts by Carl Fleischhauer of the Library of Congress’s Office of Strategic Initiatives. Carl is a former staff member of the American Folklife Center and participated in many of the Center’s field collecting projects. All the photos embedded in this post were shot by Carl in …
The following is a guest post from Trevor Owens, Digital Archivist in the Office of Strategic Initiatives. Trevor has been consulting with the American Folklife Center on born-digital collection development initiatives. I have recently had the pleasure of helping to develop and curate the American Folklife Center’s digital culture web archive. Nicki Saylor announced this …
The collections of the American Folklife Center reflect a long history of ethnographic interest in Luso-Hispanic American music and song. Much of the early collecting work focused on peoples of the regions that formerly belonged to Spain. In this post I’ll provide a quick overview of the Hispanic-American music in AFC’s online collections. Spanish Songs …
The following is part of a series of guest posts by Carl Fleischhauer of the Library of Congress’s Office of Strategic Initiatives. Carl is a former staff member of the American Folklife Center and participated in many of the Center’s field collecting projects. All the photos embedded in this post were shot by Carl in …
Though it sounds a bit illogical, I consider myself lucky to have a job in which I am moved to tears on a regular basis. Working with Veterans History Project collections–whether they are made up of oral histories, manuscripts, or photographs–and the life stories they contain can sometimes elicit a strong visceral reaction. Granted, it …
Today marks the 67th birthday of the U.S. Air Force. As the nation’s strategic, tactical and defensive force for the skies, the U.S. Air Force was officially founded by the National Security Act of 1947. Although they belong to the youngest branch of the U.S. armed forces, advancements in both science and society allow …
The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom opened at the Library of Congress on September 10th. This exhibit draws from collections across the library to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the act. It covers America’s long history of discrimination and segregation, the grassroots movement for civil rights, and the efforts of …
We are happy to announce today that 50 new video oral histories are now available on the Civil Rights History Project website. Here are a just a few highlights from this extraordinary group of interviewees: Luis Zapata describes his childhood in Orange County, California, and how he came to join the labor movement as a …
