Top of page
Posted by: Stephen Winick
The Following is a guest post by Judith Gray, ethnomusicologist and coordinator of reference in the American Folklife Center. In the last decades of the 19th century, Thomas Edison and his contemporaries in Europe created various devices for capturing sound [1]. These inventions, in turn, led to the creation of audiovisual archives. The first two …
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by: Lisa Taylor
Today marks the 67th birthday of the U.S. Air Force. As the nation’s strategic, tactical and defensive force for the skies, the U.S. Air Force was officially founded by the National Security Act of 1947. Although they belong to the youngest branch of the U.S. armed forces, advancements in both science and society allow …
Posted in: Uncategorized, Veterans History Project
Posted by: Stephen Winick
August 22 is an important date to folklore fans. It is, in fact, the anniversary of the first appearance of the (originally hyphenated) word “Folk-Lore” in print. The medium was a letter to the editor of the Athenæum, a scholarly journal, and the author was William John Thoms, although he wrote the letter under his …
Posted in: England, Folklorists, Uncategorized
Posted by: Nicole Saylor
Folklorist Trevor J. Blank is an assistant professor of communication at the State University of New York at Potsdam. Readers of Folklife Today might enjoy a series of posts on the Library of Congress’s digital preservation blog, The Signal. In a two-part Insights Interview series, folklorist Trevor J. Blank talks about digital culture on the …
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by: Stephen Winick
The following is a guest post by Nancy Groce, Senior Folklife Specialist at the American Folklife Center. It originated as opening remarks for the forum Coffeehouses: Folk Music, Culture, and Counterculture, which was held last week in the Library’s Montpelier Room. Webcasts of the event will eventually be added to the Library’s website and accessible …
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by: Stephen Winick
In my last post, I discussed the more serious side of songs about Noah’s ark. As I mentioned, though, there are other songs too, often with more celebratory messages–or even silly ones. We’ll look at some of those Noah songs in this post. Celebratory songs tend to focus on the joy felt by Noah when …
Posted in: African Americans, Alan Lomax, Animals, Folk Music, Folksong, Languages and Dialects, Uncategorized
Posted by: Megan Harris
In a letter dated November 16, 1918, an Army Private First Class stationed near Verdun, France, wrote to his mother, Dear Mother: By firelight on the fought-over ground of this stricken country I pause to rush word to you of my safety + well being. The last three weeks were terrible + of them I …
Posted in: Uncategorized, Veterans History Project
Posted by: Nicole Saylor
During a recent trip to the University of Iowa at the invitation of the Digital Studio for Public Arts and Humanities, I took the opportunity to show off some of our recently digitized recordings made by folklorist Harry Oster (1923-2001), who was on the English faculty at Iowa for 30 years. The American Folklife Center …
Posted in: Folk Music, Folksong, Uncategorized
Posted by: Megan Harris
Though the recent polar vortex may have tempered my enthusiasm a bit, this January I’ve been pulling on my running shoes and hitting the pavement with renewed focus. The resolution to exercise more in the new year led me to think about the role that sports have played in military life over the years. Athletics …
Posted in: Uncategorized, Veterans History Project