Top of page
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
This weekend there will be barbecues, pies, home-made strawberry soda, and other treats that have become common features of Juneteenth, a celebration of the end of slavery in the United States that has its roots in the joyful celebrations of newly-freed slaves in Texas at the end of the Civil War. It is thought to …
Posted in: Foodways, Holidays, Juneteenth
Posted by: Stephen Winick
The following guest post by Ann Hoog is part of a series of blog posts about the 40th Anniversary Year of the American Folklife Center. Visit this link to see them all! The American Folklife Center is pleased to announce a new online presentation of the Chicago Ethnic Arts Project Collection. The photos and audio …
Posted in: AFC 40th Anniversary, AFC History, African Americans, Asian American History, Austrian Americans, Chinese Americans, Croatian Americans, Cuban Americans, Czech Americans, Danish Americans, Finnish Americans, Folk Art, Folk Music, Folklorists, Folksong, Foodways, German Americans, Greek Americans, Hispanic American History, Irish Americans, Italian Americans, Japanese Americans, Jewish American History, Jewish Americans, Korean Americans, Lithuanian Americans, Macedonian Americans, Native American History, Norwegian Americans, Polish Americans, Puerto Rican Americans, Serbian Americans, Slovak Americans, Slovenian Americans, Swedish Americans, Ukrainian Americans
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
Note: This is part of a series of blog posts about the 40th Anniversary Year of the American Folklife Center. Visit this link to see them all! The American Folklife Center’s archive was founded as part of the Music Division in 1928, primarily as a repository for recordings of American folk music and songs. The …
Posted in: AFC 40th Anniversary, Foodways
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
Cultures that rely on limited local sources of food in the winter often have traditions about the restorative and curative powers of foods and herbs that become available in the spring. The American Folklife Center’s Coal River Folklife Project, headed by Mary Hufford, documented folklife in West Virginia’s Coal River Valley (1992 to 1999). The …
Posted in: Folk Medicine, Foodways
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
The earliest East Asian immigrants often had a difficult journey making their way to the United States. Many carried little with them but the cultural traditions they knew, such as language, stories, religious customs, foodways, music, song, and dance. Chinese Americans Chinese immigrants, mainly Cantonese speakers from Guangdong, were among the first Asians to come …
Posted in: Asian American History, Cultural Heritage, Dance, Folk Music, Folksong, Foodways, immigration, Religion
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
My mother did not like the taste of game, and wouldn’t cook it. To her wild meat recalled childhood poverty, when her father was short of work and so would pick up his rifle and go into the Maine woods to hunt. As an adult I had opportunities to try several kinds of wildfowl prepared …
Posted in: Animals, Foodways, Hunting, Mary Hufford, Narratives, Storytelling
Posted by: Megan Harris
One of the standard questions that we suggest Veterans History Project interviewers ask veterans is, “How was the food?” This simple question can yield surprising answers, and uncover fascinating elements of the military experience. After seeing my blog post about holiday menus in the military, VHP director Bob Patrick mentioned a specific food memory to …
Posted in: Foodways, Oral History, Veterans History Project
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
March 14 (3/14) is Pi Day and July 22 (22/7 in the European date style) is Pi Approximation Day. In mathematics a common shortened figure for pi is 3.14 while the most well-known “approximate pi” is 22 divided by 7 (3.1428571428571428). These two celebrations of the most famous irrational number on dates related to that …
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
For Women’s History Month, I thought it would be interesting to highlight some examples of interviews with women and girls in American English Dialects: The Center for Applied Linguistics Collection. This online collection is one of several dialect collections in the American Folklife Center archive. With a little digging, such collections can yield exciting examples of …
Posted in: African Americans, Foodways, Holidays, Languages and Dialects, Native American History, Oral History, Women's History