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Posted by: Meg Nicholas
On the day after National Coffee Day, AFC Folklife Specialist Meg Nicholas chases down references to the popular caffeinated drink in the Center’s archival collections.
Posted in: Collection Highlight, Foodways
Posted by: Stephen Winick
In a recent lecture in our Benjamin A. Botkin Lecture Series, Conspiracy Theories, Folklore and Belief: Birds Aren't Real, Loch Ness Monsters and Microchips, folklorist Andrea Kitta discussed some definitions of conspiracy theories and how they fit into other belief traditions and narratives with a focus on understanding why people believe in conspiracy theories and how they function. This blog post includes the lecture video, an interview video with Dr. Kitta, and a set of links to related collections and programming.
Posted in: AFC Events, Beliefs, Benjamin Botkin Folklife Lecture Series, Botkin Folklife Lectures Plus, Legends
Posted by: Meg Nicholas
The American Folklife Center marks National Lobster Day by sharing collections of lobstermen oral histories, photographs of the Aquidneck Lobster Company, and lobster recipes found in its archive.
Posted in: Collection Highlight, Foodways
Posted by: Douglas D. Peach
The American Folklife Center recently acquired the collection of Tom Pich—an acclaimed photographer of traditional artists. Pich is best known for his photographs of recipients of the National Heritage Fellowship—the nation's highest honor in the traditional arts presented annually by the National Endowment for the Arts. In this celebratory post, AFC Folklife Specialist Nancy Groce highlights the importance of this acquisition, contextualizes Tom Pich's work, and details the beauty of his photographs.
Posted in: Acquisitions, Folk Art, NEA National Heritage Fellowship, Photographs
Posted by: Douglas D. Peach
The first interviews documented for the COVID-19 American History Project--an initiative of the American Folklife Center to create an archival collection of Americans' experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic--are now available in the online collections of the Library of Congress. In this post, learn more about the workers featured in the interviews, find out how to access their stories, and explore how you can have your pandemic story preserved as part of the COVID-19 American History Project.
Posted in: Acquisitions, African Americans, COVID-19 American History Project, COVID-19 pandemic, Fieldwork, Oral History, Tourism
Posted by: Stephen Winick
"These should rank with the best shanty and sea-song recordings ever made." So said the sea shanty expert William Main Doerflinger in May, 1942, describing the recordings he had recently made of the retired sailor Patrick Tayluer. Circumstances have conspired to keep those recordings under wraps, until this blog series. In this second post, we’ll hear another of his shanties (“Paddy Lay Back” or “Mainsail Haul”) and one of his sea stories. Then, we’ll use available evidence to create a new biography of Patrick Tayluer (1856-1948), a multifaceted sailor, soldier, singer, storyteller, model-builder, long-distance walker, and, of course, shantyman.
Posted in: Folksong, Patrick Tayluer, Sea Shanties
Posted by: Meg Nicholas
Earlier this year, I had the chance to delve through the fieldnotes from the Pinelands Folklife Project for a post celebrating American Wetlands Month. I used a number of quotes from these accounts, but there were many more that I wanted to highlight and didn’t have space for. The prose – some humorous, some profound, …
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by: Douglas D. Peach
In this post, the American Folklife Center (AFC) highlights a May 2024 concert performance and oral history interview with the Somapa Thai Dance Company and Orchestra--an ensemble performing traditional music from Thailand, whose members now predominately live in the Washington, DC metropolitan region. The AFC organized Somapa's performance in celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month and as part of the 2024 Homegrown Concert Series.
Posted in: Asian American History, Asian Americans, Cultural Heritage, Dance, Folk Music, Folksong, Homegrown Plus
Posted by: Stephen Winick
This is the first in series of blog posts looking at the sea shanties, songs, and stories sung and told by retired sailor Patrick Tayluer for collector William Main Doerflinger in 1942. Many lovers of sea shanties have heard of Patrick Tayluer; in 1942, the old salt recorded 66 songs and stories on disc and a further 13 on cylinders for Doerflinger. Doerflinger transcribed and published many of these items in his 1951 book "Shantymen and Shantyboys: Songs of the Sailor and Lumberman," and through those transcriptions Tayluer has become a well-known source for nautical singers around the world. But Doerflinger was only able to provide a single paragraph of biography and no photos or other images of Tayluer, and since his book was about songs, Doerflinger didn’t include any of Tayluer’s stories. More importantly, until now, very few singers or researchers have been lucky enough to hear Patrick Tayluer’s voice. This series of blogs aims to remedy that, presenting a biography of Tayluer, several photos, and (most importantly) a selection of his songs and stories. This post introduces Tayluer and presents a photo and two of his best shanties.
Posted in: Folksong, Patrick Tayluer, Sea Shanties