A few weeks ago we published two blog posts introducing the American Folklife Center's rich folktale collections. We focused on "Jack Tales," those stories telling the adventures of a tricky, resourceful young man named Jack. We included audio of many Jack tales within those posts, but length limitations prevented us from embedding the texts of the stories as well. So, to make the stories more accessible to a wider audience, we'll be posting a few blogs with transcriptions of some of the stories we presented in those blogs. We'll begin with "Jack and the Northwest Wind," as told by Maud Long.
Join us as we continue to explore Jack tales! Jack tales are adventure stories in which Jack is faced with various forms of adversity, and uses his wits and luck to win the day. Some of these stories feature magical elements such as silver swords and flying ships, but in others Jack uses only his brains, his hands, and his meager possessions. From the earliest Jack tale, a slightly bawdy medieval story, to the famous "Jack and the Beanstalk," and beyond to other tales, we'll look at old world and new world elements of the stories. Audio of three stories is embedded, with links to many more audio and text versions of traditional Jack tales.
An overview of "Jack tales" in the collections of the American Folklife Center. The phrase refers to a loose cycle of adventure stories featuring a young hero, most often named Jack, who makes his way in the world with cleverness and wit. This post introduces the genre and presents five tales told by four tellers: Samuel Harmon, Maud Long, Nora Hicks, and Ray Hicks, who all come from the same extended family.
On March 11, 2025, the American Folklife Center held a panel discussion with four cultural documentarians of the COVID-19 pandemic, as part of the COVID-19 American History Project. In this post, we feature the webcast of the panel discussion, alongside photos from the event.
As we stand at the threshold of a new year, it’s a fitting time to reflect on the remarkable stories of those who came before us, especially the courageous women of the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, highlighted in Tyler Perry’s recent Netflix film, The Six Triple Eight. Just like the beginning of a new …
We're back with another episode of the Folklife Today podcast in which John Fenn and Stephen Winick talk to Hanna Salmon about storytelling and folktale collections in the archive. Of course, we present excerpts and full performances of some great stories too, from storytellers such as Ray Hicks, Connie Regan-Blake, Barbara Freeman, Carmen Agra Deedy, and Tim Tingle. Hanna has created a new cross-collection research guide for the Center, titled "Folktales and Oral Storytelling: Resources in the American Folklife Center Collections." In this blog post, we provide links to the new podcast episode, to Hanna’s guide, to the full performances we excerpted for the podcast, and to web resources on the storytellers we featured.
In 2023, the American Folklife Center contracted Gran Enterprises LLC to conduct interviews with licensed funeral professionals about their COVID-19 pandemic experiences for the COVID-19 American History Project. This post is an interview with Anita Grant and Joél Maldonado of Gran Enterprises. In it, they detail their inspiration for the project, their initial findings, and why documenting licensed funeral professionals' pandemic experiences is important for understanding Americans' experiences with COVID-19.
In 2023, the American Folklife Center contracted folklorist Nicole Musgrave to conduct interviews with Appalachian-based child care workers about their COVID-19 pandemic experiences for the COVID-19 American History Project. The post, guest authored by Musgrave, details her inspiration for the project, the initial findings from her interviews, and why documenting child care workers' pandemic experiences is important for understanding Americans' experiences with COVID-19.
In this post, Nancy Groce (Senior Folklife Specialist at the American Folklife Center) highlights "Custodians and Janitors in Colorado" -- a new collection available from the American Folklife Center's Occupational Folklife Project. The collection, documented by Cynthia Torres, features interviews about the occupational culture and experiences of custodians and janitorial workers in the state of Colorado. The post gives an overview of the collection and features an interview with Torres about her field research. Torres was awarded an Archie Green Fellowship by the American Folklife Center in 2021 to undertake research for this collection.
