Top of page
Posted by: Stephen Winick
This is the third in a series of six posts presenting AFC’s new traveling exhibit Treasures of the American Folklife Center Archive. The exhibit takes the form of lightweight, colorful vinyl banners containing information about AFC, the Library of Congress, and (as the title suggests) some of the treasures found in our archive. Originally conceived …
Posted in: AFC History, Alan Lomax, Exhibits, Folk Music, Folksong
Posted by: Stephen Winick
Last month I had the sad duty of reporting the death of one of my mentors, the late folklorist Don Yoder. By coincidence, a couple of weeks after Dr. Yoder’s death, another of his former students came across new documents pertaining to his career as a folklorist. When going through old records of the Center …
Posted in: AFC History, Benjamin A. Botkin, Don Yoder, Folklorists, German Americans
Posted by: Stephen Winick
This weekend, the Library of Congress is excited to be producing the 15th annual National Book Festival, the most expansive event in the festival’s history. The festival is Saturday, Sept. 5, at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. (doors open at 9 a.m.). The event is free and open …
Posted in: AFC Events, AFC History
Posted by: Stephen Winick
Did you ever wonder why U.S. government institutions like the Library of Congress use the word “folklife” rather than the more common “folklore?” Largely, we can thank the influence of Don Yoder, the eminent Pennsylvania folklorist, who passed away Tuesday at the age of 93. Long before the founding of the Library of Congress’s American …
Posted in: AFC Events, AFC History, Don Yoder, Folklorists, German Americans
Posted by: Stephen Winick
The following installment in Botkin Folklife Lectures Plus post introduces James P. Leary, a distinguished folklorist and researcher who has published extensively on Library of Congress collections in the American Folklife Center. In addition to his lecture video, it includes photos, audio, and video from AFC's collections of Midwestern folk music, including Croatian, French, Scandinavian, Oneida, English, Welsh, and other ethnic groups. Most of the quotations from Leary in this article come from an email interview we did in July 2015, but I also quote occasionally from the lecture itself, which is also here as an embedded video.
Posted in: AFC History, Alan Lomax, Benjamin Botkin Folklife Lecture Series, Botkin Folklife Lectures Plus, Celtic Music, ethnomusicologists, Folk Music, Folklorists, Folksong, Michigan, Sidney Robertson Cowell, Wisconsin
Posted by: Stephen Winick
The American Folklife Center is pleased to announce the arrival of our new traveling exhibit, Treasures from the American Folklife Center Archive. The exhibit is a series of lightweight, colorful vinyl banners containing information about the American Folklife Center, the Library of Congress, and (as the title suggests) some of the treasures found in our …
Posted in: AFC Events, AFC History, Alan Lomax, Exhibits, Homegrown Concert Series
Posted by: Stephen Winick
The following is a guest blog post by Dom Flemons, a musician and singer who currently tours and records as “The American Songster.” Dom was one of the founders of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, with whom he has played at the Library of Congress’s Coolidge Auditorium, and with whom he won a GRAMMY Award. Dom …
Posted in: AFC History, African Americans, Alan Lomax, Civil Rights, Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter), Pete Seeger
Posted by: Stephen Winick
In my last post for Folklife Today, I shared some of the great recordings on the Library of Congress’s National Recording Registry, a program of the Library that honors historically significant recordings and draws attention to the importance of audio preservation and audio archives in the stewardship of American culture and history. Specifically, I discussed …
Posted in: AFC History, Folk Music, Folklorists, Folksong, Native American History, Preservation
Posted by: Stephen Winick
Last week, the Library announced this year’s inductees to the National Recording Registry. There, along with classics by The Doors, Radiohead, Steve Martin, and Joan Baez, was a fascinating AFC collection: The Benjamin Ives Gilman Collection Recorded at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition at Chicago. This collection of 101 wax cylinder recordings was created by …
Posted in: AFC History, African Americans, Alan Jabbour, Alan Lomax, Cultural Heritage, ethnomusicologists, Folk Music, Folklorists, Folksong, Narratives, Native American History, Oral History, Preservation