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Category: Religion

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

AFC acquires the songbooks from your childhood

Posted by: Nicole Saylor

This is a guest post by Todd Harvey, acquisitions coordinator at the American Folklife Center (AFC). The American Folklife Center is pleased to announce a major acquisition, the Cooperative Recreation Service collection (AFC 2016/051) donated to the Center by fiddler, scholar, and publisher Bruce Greene. The Cooperative Recreation Service is a publishing company founded during …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Finding aid to Eleanor Dickinson fieldwork collection now online

Posted by: Nicole Saylor

The following is a guest post from AFC processing archivist Marcia Segal. The remarkable audio and video recordings in the Eleanor Dickinson collection (AFC 1970/001), recorded circa 1969-1980, capture a moment in time in the years before the Internet and other technological developments changed the way people communicate. The immediacy of religious services, (uninterrupted by …

Two full-length photos of a bearded man dressed in Ottoman attire.

The Faith of Far Away Moses: Yom Kippur, 1893

Posted by: Stephen Winick

Note: This is part of a series of posts about Far Away Moses, a fascinating celebrity of the 19th century, who served as the model for one of the keystone heads on the Thomas Jefferson Building.  Moses, a Sephardic Jew from Constantinople, knew some of the most prominent Americans of his era, including Theodore Roosevelt …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

‘Hacksaw Ridge’ Biopic Commemorates Selfless Service of Desmond Doss

Posted by: Lisa Taylor

The following is a guest post by Owen Rogers, Liaison Specialist for the Library of Congress Veterans History Project (VHP). To date, nearly 5,000 men (and one woman) have received the Congressional Medal of Honor, our nation’s highest military decoration. Within this exceptional minority, however, only one recipient was awarded with this honor while serving …

A fairy-like goddess plays a long pipe. A hare sits next to her on a mushroom, and a cherub and three more hares listen to her tune.

Ostara and the Hare: Not Ancient, but Not As Modern As Some Skeptics Think

Posted by: Stephen Winick

If you’re curious about modern holiday beliefs and calendar customs, you might be reading or doing research about them online. Chances are, you come across some stories that the presenters claim are ancient, and reach into the pre-Christian past. One popular story you might have seen recently involves the origin of the Easter Bunny. Essentially, …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

Native American Cultural Revitalization Today

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

I remember a history class my junior year in high school dealing with the period in United States history when Indian tribes were being forced onto reservations. Presented as a better option were Indian schools where children were taught to assimilate into American society. To ensure that they would learn English and American customs these …

A man playing a guitar and singing to a close crowd of a dozen or so men and women

East Asian American Traditions

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 …