The Legend of Monsieur Omnès
Posted by: Stephen Winick
This post examines the history of buses and of the word "bus," looking closely at a legend about a man named Omnes who was important in the naming of the "omnibus."
Posted in: Legends
Archive: 2020 (119 Posts)
News Coverage of Folklife Research for African American History Month
Posted by: Stephen Winick
The American Folklife Center has recently received some coverage for our efforts to research and recognize African American history which we'd like to tell you about. Last weekend the Atlanta Journal Constitution published this article about the spiritual "Kumbaya." In the article, Shelia M. Poole interviews AFC staff members John Fenn and Stephen Winick (hey, that's me) and even call me "the folklorist version of Sherlock Holmes" for locating what we believe to be the first sound recording of "Kumbaya" some years ago. She also interviews Griffin Lotson, who did research here and in Georgia, and who helped get the song declared the first State Historical Song of Georgia. We wrote about that research here on the blog. We also did a podcast about it, at this link. And we've previously been covered and interviewed by the New York Times, which you can find here.
Posted in: African American History
Intern reflection: Claire Denny
Posted by: John Fenn
This is a guest post by our Fall 2019 volunteer intern, Claire Denny. She is currently in her second term as a Master’s degree student in the Folklore Program at George Mason University. When I received a phone call this past summer from the Library of Congress’ American Folklife Center (AFC), I had to compose …
Posted in: Internship program
Folklife at the International Level: Intangible Cultural Heritage Defined
Posted by: Michelle Stefano
If this series is a mountain, I am pleased to say that we are now climbing up to its peak: an examination of the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). It is through the 2003 Convention that the concept and category …
Posted in: Intangible Cultural Heritage, WIPO
Lomax Birthday Challenge!
Posted by: John Fenn
This guest post from Todd Harvey, AFC reference staff member and Alan Lomax collection curator, is part of a short series related to the Library’s crowdsource platform and the campaign we helped launch in September 2019 focused on the extensive holdings AFC has of Lomax manuscript materials. The American Folklife Center wishes a happy birthday …
Posted in: Alan Lomax, Uncategorized
Of Babies, Buses and Barristers: How “Ridge’s Food” Caught My Eye AND Ear
Posted by: Stephen Winick
A little before Christmas, I published a blog featuring the above image of the Royal Exchange in London, which is an important location in Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol. At the time I didn’t notice a tiny detail: one of the horse-drawn buses in the center of the frame has an advertisement on it for …
Posted in: Folksong
Summer 2020 paid internships at the AFC!
Posted by: John Fenn
In summer 2018, the AFC at the Library of Congress launched a paid internship opportunity as part of a program established through a generous gift from the late AFC staff member Peter Bartis (1949 – 2017). These positions introduced interns to the research collections at the AFC and the Library; helped develop critical skills related …
Posted in: Internship program
Podcast: Episode 15, on Winter Songs, Is Ready for Listening!
Posted by: Stephen Winick
Episode Fifteen of the Folklife Today Podcast (or Season 2, Episode 3) is ready for listening! Find it at this page on the Library’s website, or on iTunes, or with your usual podcatcher. Get your podcast here! In the episode, John Fenn, Thea Austen, and I look at classic songs about winter. In the podcast, we …
Help Folklife Research by Reviewing Lomax Transcripts!
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
When I was writing my blog on “Great Lakes Ships and Shipping” in 2018, I naturally wanted to look at the field notes Alan Lomax wrote when he was collecting these songs. But this was no easy task. His field notes were online, but only as page image scans. The notes were handwritten and they …
Posted in: Alan Lomax