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 …
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 …
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 …
Summer is almost over. Just thinking about that makes me kind of sad. The giddiness I shared with you in May is starting to fade. I recognize that I am not among the majority when it comes to my love for D.C.’s trademark heat and humidity. For many parents, however, summer’s end is the best …
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 …
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 …
The following installment in Botkin Folklife Lectures Plus post introduces James P. Leary, a distinguished folklorist and researcher who has published extensively on Library of Congress collections in the American Folklife Center. In addition to his lecture video, it includes photos, audio, and video from AFC's collections of Midwestern folk music, including Croatian, French, Scandinavian, Oneida, English, Welsh, and other ethnic groups. Most of the quotations from Leary in this article come from an email interview we did in July 2015, but I also quote occasionally from the lecture itself, which is also here as an embedded video.
Sixty-two years after the armistice was signed ending the Korean War, on July 27, 1953, the conflict remains slightly hazy for many Americans. Sandwiched between World War II and Vietnam, and involving fewer service members and battle deaths than either, the Korean War may seem a bit of an enigma. There are not as many …
Part two of this article is available at this link. Part One: The Development of the Railroads The advent of railroads in the United States is part of the country’s coming-of-age story as an industrial power during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Because of this, trains and people associated with the developing railways became …
