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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

The Importance of Capturing the Stories of Women Veterans

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. …

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

Celebrating All the Molly Pitchers

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 …

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

Jean Ritchie, 1922-2015

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 …

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

Narratives of Women and Girls: the Center for Applied Linguistics Collection

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

For Women’s History Month, I thought it would be interesting to highlight some examples of interviews with women and girls in American English Dialects: The Center for Applied Linguistics Collection. This online collection is one of several dialect collections in the American Folklife Center archive. With a little digging, such collections can yield exciting examples of …

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

Putting Foods By for Winter

Posted by: Stephanie Hall

This time of year in the northern hemisphere, agricultural communities celebrate the last harvest of the growing season. A great deal of work goes into the raising of food for our tables. Before electric refrigerators and local grocery stores, people also needed to work throughout the growing season to preserve food. The completion of that …