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Posted by: Stephen Winick
With Halloween just around the corner, the Library of Congress is gearing up for an exhibition of our best spooky treasures. The event is called LOC Halloween: Chambers of Mystery, and it’s sure to add both cheer and chills to your All Hallows season. As part of the effort, I’ve been looking through AFC’s collections for …
Posted in: Halloween, Halloween Stories, Narratives, Storytelling, Women's History
Posted by: Nicole Saylor
This is a guest blog post by American Folklife Center archivist Marcia Segal. In the business of processing a collection – from the earliest stages of unpacking and assessment, to the point when researchers can access the contents, in physical or digital form – there comes a moment when a processor becomes the advocate for a …
Posted in: Archival Practice, Women's History
Posted by: Guha Shankar
This guest blog post comes to us courtesy of Catherine Turner, a high school senior working at the American Folklife Center this Spring on her service project for Park School in Baltimore, MD. Catherine is entering Brown University in Fall 2017, and has spent the last six weeks diving into the collections at the Library …
Posted in: African American Heritage Month, African American History, African American History Month, African Americans, Civil Rights, Civil Rights History Project, Freedom Summer 1964, Oral History, Women's History
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
Tea began as a medicine and grew into a beverage. In China, in the eighth century, it entered the realm of poetry as one of the polite amusements. The fifteenth century saw Japan ennoble it into a religion of aestheticism—Teaism. Teaism is a cult founded on the adoration of the beautiful among the sordid facts …
Posted in: Asian American History, Beliefs, Foodways, Japanese Americans, Religion, Women's History
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
Before the industrial era, much of the work of the creation of clothing was done at home or at small shops. Spinning was a daily activity. Depending on one’s culture, the production of thread and yarn might be entirely women’s work, or work done by the whole family. In northern Europe, spinning was so closely …
Posted in: Folksong, Material Culture, Narratives, Oral History, Textiles, Women's History
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
“A lot of things come out of my chest,” Agnes Vanderburg explained in 1979 when folklorist Kay Young asked about her reasons for starting a school to pass on her knowledge of Salish Indian traditions (recording at the link, go to 1:50 minutes). She had felt frustrated at carrying knowledge that was disappearing as Indians …
Posted in: Folk Medicine, Foodways, Material Culture, Native American History, Women's History
Posted by: Lisa Taylor
The Importance of Capturing the Stories of Women Veterans” is the second of three collaborative blog posts featuring authors from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Center for Women Veterans, the Library of Congress Veterans History Project (VHP) and a sailor whose story is preserved among the permanent collections of the Library of Congress. …
Posted in: Narratives, Oral History, Storytelling, Veterans History Project, Women's History
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
On June 28, 1778, at the Battle of Monmouth, New Jersey, women brought aid to the wounded, assisted doctors as nurses, did laundry, made clothing, brought food and water to soldiers, brought more water to cool the cannons, and more. These were the most common tasks performed by the wives and families of the soldiers …
Posted in: Legends, U.S. Revolution, Women's History
Posted by: Stephen Winick
Note: The whole AFC staff was saddened by the death of Jean Ritchie earlier this month. We paid tribute to her immediately in a Facebook post, which you can see here, and the Chairman of our Board of Trustees, C. Kurt Dewhurst, made a moving statement about Jean at the Board’s June meeting. However, I …
Posted in: Alan Lomax, Cultural Heritage, England, ethnomusicologists, Folk Music, Folklorists, Folksong, Games, George Pickow, Jean Ritchie, Women's History