The "Great Folk Scare" of the 1930s-1950s had few surnames more prominent than Guthrie, Lomax, or Seeger. They were multi-generational families who today continue to practice folk music and illuminate tradition bearers. The American Folklife Center holds archival collections documenting these families and so we have produced guides to aid research access. This blog post explains and introduces the new guides.
The following is a guest post by American Folklife Center head of reference, Judith Gray. Staff at the American Folklife Center continue to use new digital tools to support remote discovery and access for our resources by users of all kinds. Whether you are a community scholar, a teacher, an academic researcher, a creative artist, …
As our readers may remember, we've been working with No Depression, The Journal of Roots Music, which is published by the nonprofit Freshgrass Foundation. They're publishing a column called Roots in the Archive, featuring content from the American Folklife Center and Folklife Today. The latest Roots in the Archive column is about the Arlo Guthrie birth announcement, a fantastic manuscript item from the Alan Lomax Collection. The Arlo Guthrie birth announcement is a handwritten, illustrated letter created by Woody Guthrie to announce the birth of his son Arlo. It was sent by Woody to his friend Alan Lomax in 1947. Typed and embellished with finger-painted lettering, the announcement is in the form of a handmade greeting card, a single sheet folded in half to form a front and back cover and a center spread. The front consists of stylized line art representing a mother and baby, a greeting to the Lomax family, and the name "Arlo Guthrie," painted in several different styles and colors. The back consists of the words "Here I Am" in large painted letters. Both sides bear the date, and the name "Arlo Guthrie" written in Woody’s handwriting. Read more about it at the link!
The column also features the whimsical text of the birth announcement, which is written in the voice of baby Arlo, and my own thoughts on this one-of-a-kind manuscript. Of course, the American Folklife Center also has many more resources related to Woody Guthrie, and you can find out more about those in the column too.
Note: this is the first in a series of posts about a classic item from the AFC archive, “The Dodger.” [See the first post here.] [See the second post here.][See the third post here.] Second note: we’ve also created a podcast version of these stories. Download our “Dodger” podcast here! As Election Day draws near, …
During the 1940s, singer, songwriter, and author Woody Guthrie carried on a lively correspondence with the staff of the Archive of American Folk Song (now the American Folklife Center archive) where many of his songs are housed. He had recorded songs for Alan Lomax at the Library of Congress in March of 1940, and so …
Note: This post was co-written with AFC Folklife Specialist Jennifer Cutting. It is part of series of blog posts celebrating the centennial of Alan Lomax’s birth, and also part of another series celebrating the 40th anniversary of AFC! Part Two of this series of posts is now available, featuring videos of contemporary artists performing French …
As we approach the end of the centennial year of the birth of Alan Lomax, it seems appropriate to look at recordings of songs and music he collected celebrating Christmas, the new year, and Epiphany. The recordings presented here are all part of the collections of the American Folklife Center, but many have been put …
This is the fourth in a series of six posts presenting AFC’s new traveling exhibit Treasures of the American Folklife Center Archive. The exhibit takes the form of lightweight, colorful vinyl banners containing information about AFC, the Library of Congress, and (as the title suggests) some of the treasures found in our archive. Originally conceived …
