On January 18, 2018, AFC sponsored a special event in our Benjamin Botkin Folklife Lecture Series. Alan Jabbour, 1942 – 2017: His Legacy in Folklife and Traditional Music brought together speakers who worked closely with Alan to examine the contributions he made during his career to cultural documentation, the promotion of traditional music, and […]
The following is the third of a three-part blog post focusing on Military Photographers. You can read the original post HERE and the second post HERE. During the tremendous upheaval of the 1960s and with the Vietnam War in full effect, the country was in desperate need of emotive displays of patriotism while still accurately recording […]
The delight of opening a folder in the AFC reading room and seeing this treasure has, unfortunately, blurred my memory of the exact path of inquiry that led me to it! If you are a museology and/or museum history nerd like me, I think you may understand.[1] To be precise, it is two treasures, and […]
The following is the second of a three-part blog post focusing on Military Photographers. Some military photographers consider capturing the story of their fellow soldiers the greatest honor of their life. For others, the brutality of war remains frozen in their mind just as the images they produced. Four years after serving in World War […]
The following is the first of a three-part blog post focusing on Military Photographers. When you think of our American military history, what images stand out? Perhaps it is the black and white Joe Rosenthal photo of U.S. Marines raising a flag on Iwo Jima during World War II. Or maybe it is Nick Ut’s shot of “Napalm Girl.” These iconic images have both inspired hope as well as […]
AFC is calling for applicants for its 2018 fellowships and awards. Pending approval of the 2018 Federal Budget, March 12, 2018 will be the joint deadline for all three 2018 awards. The opportunities for funding are: Archie Green Fellowships of up to $35,000 each to support new, original, independent field research into the culture and […]
In 2014 I wrote a blog for Folklife Today called, “From Snowballs to Sculptures: Material Culture that Melts.” It dealt with several kinds of traditional uses of snow as a construction material and as a projectile for snowball fights. I came across one type of snow sculpture that I didn’t know very much about, so […]
The following is a guest post by Rachel Telford, Archivist for the Veterans History Project. While I often think of men of the greatest generation as more stoic than emotive, collections made up of wartime letters and diaries can tell a very different story. These collections are often filled not with the drama of combat, […]
Note: the following is a guest post by our colleague Kate Stewart, former AFC archivist and former Folklife Today blogger. If you have a memory of Peter to share, please do so in the comments on the blog post at this link. In the spring of 2011, I had just begun learning the ropes of working at […]
At the American Folklife Center, we regularly get questions from fieldworkers about how to find an archival home for their collections. This post aims to consolidate some of that information in one place, and benefits from thoughtful feedback from several staff members. Disclaimer: This is general guidance and does not necessarily reflect the Library’s acquisitions policies. You or […]