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Posted by: Stephanie Hall
Note: a second part of this article is available presenting further research: “Who Were Those Gals?: Buffalo Gals Revisited,” Folklife Today, August 17, 2020. “Buffalo Gals” is an example of a song with a complicated “life.” Tracing the background of an old folksong or folk tune can be difficult, and often its origins can only …
Posted in: Alan Jabbour, Folksong, Pete Seeger, Sidney Robertson Cowell
Posted by: Stephen Winick
This post looks at the origin of "Ring Around the Rosie" and its history. It asks whether there is any reason to believe the story that the rhyme is about the plague. And it introduces the idea of metafolklore, folklore about folklore.
Posted in: Folksong, Legends, Medieval Folklore, Metafolklore (Folklore about Folklore), Poetry
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
March 14 (3/14) is Pi Day and July 22 (22/7 in the European date style) is Pi Approximation Day. In mathematics a common shortened figure for pi is 3.14 while the most well-known “approximate pi” is 22 divided by 7 (3.1428571428571428). These two celebrations of the most famous irrational number on dates related to that …
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
Caribbean American Heritage Month is a relatively new commemorative month, first created in June, 2006. The American Folklife Center has many collections that document aspects of Caribbean cultures and some of these are available online. This essay can only touch on a few examples, but I hope it will provide ideas on how to explore …
Posted in: African Americans, Caribbean Americans, Folksong, Herbert Halpert, Native American History, riddles, Sidney Robertson Cowell, Stetson Kennedy, Zora Neale Hurston
Posted by: Stephanie Hall
June eighth is World Oceans Day, and an opportunity to look at a few examples of folksongs that relate to the interconnection between humans and the sea from the mid-nineteenth century to the present day. In this recording, available via the link, James H. Gibbs of Nantucket, Massachusetts sings an untitled song about sperm whaling, …
Posted in: African Americans, Animals, Folk Music, Folksong, Massachusetts, Stetson Kennedy
Posted by: Stephen Winick
In honor of Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month, we present this vintage AFC researcher photo. (And by “vintage,” I mean “prior to the existence of Folklife Today.”) This photo shows the stage, film, and television actor George Takei, best known as Mr. Sulu from the original Star Trek, who visited the AFC Reading Room on April …
Posted in: AFC Reading Room Visitors, Asian American History, Veterans History Project
Posted by: Stephen Winick
NOTE: After the concert video went online, we updated this blog post to feature the concert itself after Solomia’s essay. Scroll down to the bottom to watch it! On Thursday, May 22, at noon, in the Library’s Whittall Pavilion (right next door to the Coolidge Auditorium in the Library’s Thomas Jefferson Building, which is 10 …
Posted in: AFC Events, Folk Music, Folksong, Ukrainian Americans
Posted by: Stephen Winick
It’s not often a fiddle tune becomes controversial, but that’s happening this week, thanks to a blog post by Theodore R. Johnson, III over at National Public Radio. Johnson discusses a well-known tune, with many versions in Library of Congress collections, and raises interesting and important issues, so I thought we might feature the piece …
Posted in: African Americans, England, Folk Music, Folksong, Old Time Music
Posted by: Stephen Winick
[This post is part of a series of blog posts about the song “Hal An Tow.” You can find the whole series at this link.] As you can read in Stephanie Hall’s Post “May Day: A Festival of Flowers,” on May Day, or May 1, people in Europe traditionally celebrated the coming of summer …
Posted in: Celtic Music, Dance, England, Folk Drama, Folk Music, Folksong, Hal An Tow, Holidays, May Day