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Posted by: Meg Nicholas
Earlier this year, I had the chance to delve through the fieldnotes from the Pinelands Folklife Project for a post celebrating American Wetlands Month. I used a number of quotes from these accounts, but there were many more that I wanted to highlight and didn’t have space for. The prose – some humorous, some profound, …
Posted in: Uncategorized
Posted by: Douglas D. Peach
The American Folklife Center recently posted a new collection of interviews with workers at the Tillamook County Creamery Association (TCCA), a farmer-owned dairy cooperative in coastal Oregon, to its Occupational Folklife Project website. This post is an interview with Dr. Jared Schmidt, a public folklorist based in Oregon, who conducted the interviews with TCCA workers. In 2021, Schmidt received an Archie Green Fellowship from the American Folklife Center to undertake this research.
Posted in: Fieldwork, Foodways, Occupational Folklife Project, Oral History, Oregon, Uncategorized, Wisconsin
Posted by: Douglas D. Peach
The American Folklife Center is seeking an organization to conduct oral history interviews with Americans about the COVID-19 pandemic, as part of the COVID-19 American History Project. In this post, learn more the opportunity and how to apply.
Posted in: COVID-19 American History Project, COVID-19 pandemic, Fieldwork, Narratives, Oral History, Uncategorized
Posted by: Douglas D. Peach
In this post, Nancy Groce (Senior Folklife Specialist, American Folklife Center) highlights a new exhibition organized by Los Herederos -- a 2023 recipient of a Community Collections Grant (CCG) from the American Folklife Center -- that celebrates the cultural diversity of Queens, New York.
Posted in: Community Collections Grants, Cultural Heritage, Exhibits, Folk Art, Oral History, Uncategorized
Posted by: Nicole Saylor
In June 2024, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi had a special viewing of the AIDS Memorial Quilt Records stewarded by the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. This post details Pelosi's visit to the Library, her previous work to advocate for the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, and the work American Folklife Center staff to steward these valuable collections.
Posted in: AIDS Memorial Quilt, Folk Art, LGBTQ, Quilts, U.S. Congress, Uncategorized
Posted by: Douglas D. Peach
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.
Posted in: African Americans, COVID-19 American History Project, COVID-19 pandemic, Fieldwork, Folk Medicine, Narratives, Storytelling, Uncategorized
Posted by: Stephen Winick
The latest entry in our Homegrown Plus series features Celtic duo Rakish. As usual, it includes a concert video, an interview video, and a set of links to explore. Rakish is made up of violinist Maura Shawn Scanlin and guitarist Conor Hearn. Maura and Conor draw on the music they grew up with and perform it in a way that reflects their shared interest in and love for chamber music as well as improvised music. Maura Shawn, a two-time U.S. National Scottish Fiddle Champion, and a winner of the Glenfiddich Fiddle Competition, has the technical range of a classical violinist and the sensitivity of a traditional musician. Conor, a native to the Irish music communities of Washington, D.C. and Baltimore, MD, makes his home in Boston playing guitar for several traditional music acts and bands. Using musical form and harmonic language as focal points, Rakish demonstrate the influence and overlap between dance music and airs from Britain and Ireland and art music or classical music from surrounding countries. The concert included musical dance forms and tune types including jigs, reels, hornpipes, and airs, arranged from written collections to be performed on the fiddle and guitar. In the interview, we talked about how Rakish prepared for this concert. using musical transcriptions from The American Folklife Center and the Library’s Music Division, including late baroque and early galant music. Watch the concert and interview right in this blog post!
Posted in: Celtic Music, Folk Music, Irish American History, Scotland, Uncategorized
Posted by: Douglas D. Peach
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.
Posted in: Appalachia, COVID-19 American History Project, COVID-19 pandemic, Fieldwork, Folklorists, Kentucky, Narratives, Oral History, Storytelling, Uncategorized
Posted by: Douglas D. Peach
On June 13th, a new exhibition titled, “Collecting Memories: Treasures from the Library of Congress,” opened to the public in the new David M. Rubenstein Treasures Gallery in the Thomas Jefferson Building. This post highlights items from the collections of the American Folklife Center and the Veterans History Project featured in the exhibition.
Posted in: African Americans, AIDS Memorial Quilt, Civil Rights History Project, COVID-19 pandemic, Exhibits, Iraq War, LGBTQ, Maryland, Native American History, Oral History, Uncategorized, Veterans History Project, Vietnam War, Voices of Civil Rights Project collection, World War II