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Category: Women’s History

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

AVIATORS WANTED: Training Those Willing to Fly to Fill the Sky

Posted by: Kerry Ward

This is the second blog in a series marking the 75th Anniversary of the End of World War II and will feature an “Aviator Flight Log Book” which will be available during the Arsenal of Democracy Flyover in September 2020. If you were offered a chance to learn to fly at little to no cost, …

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

Caught My Eye: Keepsakes of Motherhood from Bess Bauman Brown Lomax

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

Although the Library of Congress is temporarily closed to the public and staff are, as possible, working from home, the work of the Library continues. It is heartening to see that one of the most labor intensive areas of work, putting archival collections online, continues in spite of the precautions against the COVID-19 pandemic. The …

Songs and Tunes from “Fearless: A Tribute to Irish American Women”

Posted by: Stephen Winick

Recently, I had occasion to compile a curated set of recordings from the American Folklife Center relating to Irish American women. The recordings were put together as a special gift for some VIP guests, but it occurred to me that we could share them with everyone else too, via the blog. And what better time …

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

Winding Down the Civil Rights History Project: A Retrospective and Appreciation

Posted by: Guha Shankar

As African American History Month concludes in 2020, the AFC is proud to announce the culmination of the Civil Rights History Project (CRHP) with the online release of the last batch of the 145 video interviews recorded with veteran activists for the collection. All the interviews are available on the Civil Rights History Project page, at …

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

The Terrain of Freedom: Mapping Stories about People and Places in the African American Struggle for Justice, Rights, & Equality

Posted by: Guha Shankar

I wish I knew how It would feel to be free I wish I could break All the chains holding me I wish I could say All the things that I should say Say ’em loud, say ’em clear For the whole round world to hear Nina Simone, I Wish I Knew How It Would …

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

Snapshots of AFC Women in the Field: Celebrating Our Own

Posted by: Stephen Winick

The following is a guest post by Jennifer Cutting. Continuing on the momentum set by the American Folklife Center’s symposium Women Documenting the World: Women as Folklorists, Ethnomusicologists & Fieldworkers (September 26, 2019), we’d like to showcase some women ethnographers who are very close to home. This blog post takes a scrapbook-style look at photographs …

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

D-Day Journeys: Nurses on the Ground and in the Sky

Posted by: Megan Harris

June 6, 2019, marks the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the Allies’ famed invasion of the beaches of Normandy. In honor of this momentous occasion, the Veterans History Project (VHP) is publishing a special series of blog posts revealing hidden facets of D-Day illuminated within VHP’s collections.  This post is the fourth in a six-part series, …