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

Computing culture in the AFC Archive

Posted by: Nicole Saylor

  This week we’re hosting three digital humanities scholars at the American Folklife Center to discuss potential research projects that would draw upon AFC collections. It got me thinking about digital humanities inquiry in developing and understanding the AFC Archives. Across our history, we have embraced new media, explored data- and metric-driven approaches to studying and computing …

A groundhog

Groundhog Day: Ancient Origins of a Modern Celebration

Posted by: Stephen Winick

Most of us know the tradition: on February 2, our old friend the groundhog will emerge from hibernation, come out of his den, and predict whether winter will deliver more cold weather this year. If the groundhog sees his shadow, the story goes, cold weather will persist another few weeks. If not, warm weather is around the corner. If you like the folklore of holidays, you may be interested to know that Groundhog Day is related to two of the other holidays we have written about extensively on this blog: Halloween and Mayday. In this post, we'll look at the ancient origins of the Groundhog Day tradition in Celtic and Germanic culture. We'll also present two fun groundhog songs from AFC collections, and links to further reading and exploration of this seasonal observance.

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

American Folklife Center Fellowships and Awards 2020

Posted by: Stephen Winick

The American Folklife Center (AFC) at the Library of Congress is pleased to announce the 2020 recipients of its three competitive annual fellowships and awards programs: the Archie Green Fellowships, the Gerald E. and Corinne L. Parsons Fund Award, and Henry Reed Fund Award. This year, these three awards went to twelve projects throughout the …

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

Summer 2019 Intern Reflection: Tali Gelenian

Posted by: Stephen Winick

This is a guest post from one of the 2019 Folklife Interns at the American Folklife Center, Tali Gelenian. This internship program was launched in the summer of 2018 through a generous gift from the late Peter Bartis, a long-time staff member at the AFC and a tireless proponent of folklife–as well as a fieldworker …

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

AFC’s James Madison Carpenter Collection Is Online

Posted by: Stephen Winick

On behalf of the American Folklife Center, I am pleased to announce that our James Madison Carpenter collection is now online. The collection, which consists of manuscripts, audio, photographs, and drawings documenting British folk music, song, and drama in the first half of the 20th century, is available worldwide through the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library’s …

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

Botkin Lectures to Go!: African American Online Cultural Resources

Posted by: John Fenn

The following is a guest post from AFC Folklife Specialist Nancy Groce. A previous Folklife Today blog, “Botkin Lectures to Go!,” drew readers’ attention to an engaging and readily accessible AFC resource:  the more than 100 AFC Botkin Lectures on a wide variety of folklore and folklife topics that are currently available free-of-charge through the …