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Posted by: Stephanie Hall
Puppeteer Professor Horn, also known as Mark Walker, gave a talk on the history and art of Punch and Judy and puppet shows at the Library of Congress on May 2, 2018. He also talked about his art with folklorist Michelle Stefano. For professional reasons, Walker preferred not to have the puppet shows video recorded. But …
Posted in: Folk Drama, Material Culture
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
On August 30th, 1979, a group of hardy adventurers left Dewey Hart Ranch in the Larb Hills, Phillips County, Montana, in covered wagons and other horse-drawn vehicles to meet the Milk River and travel along it to Malta. The goal was to experience the wagon train as Montana pioneers once did, and to arrive in …
Posted in: Cowboy and Western Music, Material Culture
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
Come and see Professor Horn’s Punch & Judy Show on May 2! There will be two shows, a children’s show from 10:30-11:00 am (co-sponsored with the Young Readers’s Center) and a talk and show for adults from noon to 1:00. Have you ever played with dolls or action figures, making them move and talk? How about wearing a …
Posted in: Folk Drama, Material Culture
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
In 2014 I wrote a blog for Folklife Today called, “From Snowballs to Sculptures: Material Culture that Melts.” It dealt with several kinds of traditional uses of snow as a construction material and as a projectile for snowball fights. I came across one type of snow sculpture that I didn’t know very much about, so …
Posted in: Asian American History, Material Culture, Narratives, Storytelling
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
If you have decorated an egg, then you have participated in one of the oldest decorative arts. Archaeologists have long known of decorated ostrich shell pieces and empty eggs in Africa of great antiquity, found in tombs or archaeological digs, but they did not know how old this custom really was. In 2010 an important …
Posted in: Easter, Eggs, Holidays, Material Culture, Ukrainian Americans
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
Before the industrial era, much of the work of the creation of clothing was done at home or at small shops. Spinning was a daily activity. Depending on one’s culture, the production of thread and yarn might be entirely women’s work, or work done by the whole family. In northern Europe, spinning was so closely …
Posted in: Folksong, Material Culture, Narratives, Oral History, Textiles, Women's History
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
When I was a kid, March signaled kite-flying time. A girl between two boys, I did what my brothers did, and the three of us would go to a large field near our home where kites had less chance of winding up in a tree. We flew diamond shaped kites that my mother favored, or …
Posted in: Games, Legends, Material Culture, Myths, Proverbs, Toys
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
“A lot of things come out of my chest,” Agnes Vanderburg explained in 1979 when folklorist Kay Young asked about her reasons for starting a school to pass on her knowledge of Salish Indian traditions (recording at the link, go to 1:50 minutes). She had felt frustrated at carrying knowledge that was disappearing as Indians …
Posted in: Folk Medicine, Foodways, Material Culture, Native American History, Women's History
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
Making things from snow and ice no doubt dates from very ancient times. But snow leaves no artifacts and so we can only imagine the surprise of the first human pelted by a snowball. In spite of its temporary nature, things made of snow are part of material culture: the traditions related to physical objects …
Posted in: Folk Art, Games, Material Culture