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Posted by: Stephen Winick
A photo in the Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs Division (known colloquially around the institution as P & P) shows white men in formal attire, sitting row upon row at tables, apparently waiting to be served. The caption, which came to us with the photo itself, is “’Possum’ dinner tendered to President-elect William Howard …
Posted by: Stephen Winick
This is the third in a series of posts about folklife related to the Virginia Opossum, the only marsupial native to the United States. Find the series here! In 1910, Maggie Pogue Johnson, an African American woman from Virginia, published a dialect poem about classic African American cuisine, or what we would today call “soul food.” …
Posted by: Kerry Ward
The following is a blog post in honor of National Poetry Month. While walking the halls of the Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building, it is not difficult to be inspired by the Lyric Poetry Hall. I have often wondered what artists and poets have ventured through these halls for the past 122 years. Were …
Posted in: Oral History, Veterans Day, Veterans History Project, Vietnam War, World War I, World War II
Posted by: Megan Harris
This is a guest post by Sam Meier, a former LC Junior Fellow who is currently working on a variety of reference-related projects for the Veterans History Project (VHP). December 25, 1917 found William James Bean in quarantine at Fort Hamilton in Brooklyn, New York. Bean had been inducted into the Army a little more …
Posted in: christmas, Holidays, Jewish American History, Jewish Americans, Korean War, New Year's Day, Oral History, Veterans History Project, Vietnam War, World War I, World War II, Yom Kippur
Posted by: Stephen Winick
The Folklife Today Halloween Podcast is Live As we hope you’ve come to expect, we have something very special in store this Halloween. As I mentioned in our last post, we’re launching the Folklife Today Podcast on October 29, and hey…that’s today! The first episode is called “Haunting Tunes for Halloween.” It’s hosted by John …
Posted in: Halloween, Halloween Stories, Podcasts
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
This is part two of a three-part series presenting the lesson suggestions on the Explore Your Community Poster (PDF), designed for middle school and high school classrooms. Read Part One. Read Part Three. Community Culture: It’s All Around You One important aspect of culture that is hard to remember when when we go out to …
Posted in: AFC Publications
Posted by: Nicole Saylor
This is a guest post from Julia Kim, Digital Assets Specialist at the American Folklife Center. This Thanksgiving, StoryCorps invites everyone to take part in The Great Listen, a national movement that empowers young people–and people of all ages–to create an oral history of the contemporary United States by recording an interview with an elder …
Posted in: Acquisitions, StoryCorps
Posted by: Stephen Winick
For the last two weekends of November, 2016, AFC was honored to be featured on The Thistle & Shamrock, the long-running and popular Celtic music show produced and hosted by Fiona Ritchie and distributed by NPR. If you want to hear the shows, follow the links to part 1 here and part 2 here. The …
Posted in: Appalachia, Celtic Music, Fiona Ritchie, Folk Music, Folklorists, Folksong, ireland, Irish Americans, Jean Ritchie, Radio, Scotland, Thistle & Shamrock
Posted by: Nicole Saylor
Thanks to The Great Thanksgiving Listen, the StoryCorps collection of interviews has doubled! Since the launch of StoryCorps.me mobile app in March, more than 68,000 interviews have been uploaded as of today—the vast majority of them in the few days following Thanksgiving. The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress is the archival home …
Posted in: Acquisitions, Archival Practice, StoryCorps