The following is a guest blog post by Candace Milburn, a processing technician for the Library of Congress Veterans History Project (VHP). It is the fifth in a series from VHP staff. Click on the following names to read previous articles in this series: Tamika Brown– Processing Technician Andrew Huber– Liaison Specialist Tracey Dodson– Administrative …
As our readers may remember, we've been working with No Depression, The Journal of Roots Music, which is published by the nonprofit Freshgrass Foundation. They're publishing a column called Roots in the Archive, featuring content from the American Folklife Center and Folklife Today. The latest Roots in the Archive column is about the Arlo Guthrie birth announcement, a fantastic manuscript item from the Alan Lomax Collection. The Arlo Guthrie birth announcement is a handwritten, illustrated letter created by Woody Guthrie to announce the birth of his son Arlo. It was sent by Woody to his friend Alan Lomax in 1947. Typed and embellished with finger-painted lettering, the announcement is in the form of a handmade greeting card, a single sheet folded in half to form a front and back cover and a center spread. The front consists of stylized line art representing a mother and baby, a greeting to the Lomax family, and the name "Arlo Guthrie," painted in several different styles and colors. The back consists of the words "Here I Am" in large painted letters. Both sides bear the date, and the name "Arlo Guthrie" written in Woody’s handwriting. Read more about it at the link!
The column also features the whimsical text of the birth announcement, which is written in the voice of baby Arlo, and my own thoughts on this one-of-a-kind manuscript. Of course, the American Folklife Center also has many more resources related to Woody Guthrie, and you can find out more about those in the column too.
This is the fourth blog post in a series marking the 75th Anniversary of the End of World War II, and will feature an “Aviator Flight Log Book,” which will be available during the Arsenal of Democracy Flyover in September 2020. There are certain moments in life that stay with you forever. “Flashbulb memories,” as Lisa Taylor points out in …
This guest post is by two of our current Archie Green Fellows, Joe O’Connell and Josephine McRobbie. They received a 2019 fellowship from the American Folklife Center to conduct an Occupational Folklife Project focused on midwives and doulas in North Carolina. You can read more about their award in a post from last year. We …
This is a guest post by archivist Maya Lerman. We’re pleased to announce that the finding aid for the National Council for the Traditional Arts (NCTA) collection is now online. The collection includes broad documentation from the National Folk Festival, the Lowell Folk Festival, and other major cultural events. Its acquisition marks a significant expansion …
In the Homegrown Plus series, we present Homegrown concerts that also had accompanying oral history interviews, placing both together in an easy-to-find blog post. (Find the whole series here!) We’re continuing the series with Lakota John Locklear and kin, a blues family band of Native American heritage. Lakota John, born in 1997, blends traditional styles of the …
The following is a guest blog post by Justina Moloney, an archivist for the Library of Congress Veterans History Project (VHP). It is the fourth in a series from VHP staff. Click on the following names to read previous articles in this series: Tamika Brown– Processing Technician Andrew Huber– Liaison Specialist Tracey Dodson– Administrative Officer …
The American Folklife Center (AFC) at the Library of Congress is pleased to announce the 2020 recipients of its three competitive annual fellowships and awards programs: the Archie Green Fellowships, the Gerald E. and Corinne L. Parsons Fund Award, and Henry Reed Fund Award. This year, these three awards went to twelve projects throughout the …
The following is a guest blog post by Tracey Dodson, an administrative officer for the Library of Congress Veterans History Project (VHP). It is the third in a series from VHP staff. Go here and here to read the first two articles. In my imagination, I can hear a deep-voiced narrator saying, “Tracey Dodson—a woman …
