Top of page
Posted by: John Fenn
This is a guest post by recent AFC intern, Riley Calcagno, who spent the month of January 2018 working on recordings by Robert Winslow Gordon that date back to the mid-1920s. In the fall of 1925, Robert Winslow Gordon set up a tent in the mountains outside Asheville, North Carolina. Determined to document the music …
Posted in: Caught My Eye
Posted by: Lisa Taylor
The following is a guest blog post by Owen Rogers, a Liaison Specialist for the Veterans History Project (VHP). This is the final post in a six-part Women’s History Month series. Through VHP’s online database, we learn about the women veterans who make history. What about the women who record it? In addition to the …
Posted in: Narratives, Oral History, Storytelling, Veterans History Project, Women's History
Posted by: John Fenn
This is a guest post by Josie Morgan, an undergraduate student at UCLA who interned at the American Folklife Center from September to December 2017. Flying from sunny Southern California to bustling Washington D.C. for the first time this past September, I began my experience at the Library of Congress with a welcome tour, a …
Posted in: Internship program
Posted by: Kerry Ward
In honor of Women’s History Month, a time to celebrate historic women’s achievements, the Veterans History Project (VHP) presents a six-part series of blog posts highlighting the many amazing accomplishments of the women who bravely volunteered for our Armed Services. The following is the fifth post in this series. This year’s National Women’s History Month theme …
Posted in: Korean War, Oral History, Veterans History Project, Vietnam War, Women's History, World War I
Posted by: Stephen Winick
This blog post about the hidden spirituals sung by Becky Elzy and Alberta Bradford for E.A. McIlhenny is part of a series called “Hidden Folklorists,” which examines the folklore work of surprising people, including people better known for other pursuits. In preparing this post, I was greatly aided by Shane K. Bernard, the archivist at …
Posted in: African American History
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
Come and see Professor Horn’s Punch & Judy Show on May 2! There will be two shows, a children’s show from 10:30-11:00 am (co-sponsored with the Young Readers’s Center) and a talk and show for adults from noon to 1:00. Have you ever played with dolls or action figures, making them move and talk? How about wearing a …
Posted in: Folk Drama, Material Culture
Posted by: Megan Harris
You might have already seen Lisa Taylor’s blog post on female code breakers in World War II—but the topic is so rich, I couldn’t resist revisiting it in my own post! Read on for more details about VHP’s holdings of women cryptanalysts and an upcoming book talk by author Liza Mundy. This is the fourth …
Posted in: Veterans History Project, Women's History, World War I
Posted by: Stephen Winick
This is a guest blog post by Carl Fleischhauer. It presents a version of the talk he gave at our Alan Jabbour tribute event earlier this year. It has been edited for presentation in this blog. These remarks are about Alan Jabbour as founding director of the American Folklife Center: his thinking, activities at the …
Posted in: AFC History
Posted by: John Fenn
Back in December 2017, a colleague of ours here at the Library published a short piece in the Music Educator’s Journal highlighting the many video recordings of musical performances at the Library of Congress hosted on the Library’s YouTube channel. Focusing on videos documenting the American Folklife Center’s Homegrown concert series, Lee Ann Potter (Director, …
Posted in: Homegrown Concert Series