The family of Thomas Michael Martin, a 1st Lieutenant in the U.S. Army who was killed in Iraq, recently donated a collection of his papers that documented his life and service to the Veterans History Project.
This post by Stephanie Hall of the American Folklife Center was first published on the center’s blog, “Folklife Today.” An important new oral history collection documenting the lives and careers of home health-care workers in Oregon is now available on the Library of Congress’ website. The American Folklife Center recently announced the release of “Taking …
This is a guest post by Stephen Winick of the American Folklife Center. It was first published on the center’s blog, Folklife Today. A companion post about circus life in Hugo, Oklahoma, is available here. The American Folklife Center (AFC) is delighted to announce the online presentation of an important new oral history collection documenting …
On June 4 in the Madison Building’s West Dining Room, Dwayne Tomah of the Passamaquoddy Tribe of Maine stood to sing a tribal war song at a celebration organized by the American Folklife Center. It was an emotional moment for Tomah — the song hadn’t been performed publicly in 128 years. He was able to …
Margaret “Maggie” Kruesi is the first and, so far, the only cataloger to work at the Library’s American Folklife Center (AFC). Before starting in 2004, she earned a Ph.D. in folklore from the University of Pennsylvania and acquired considerable experience cataloging and otherwise processing archival collections at Penn’s Van Pelt Library. She will retire from …
An earlier version of this interview, conducted by John Fenn of the American Folklife Center, was published on “Folklife Today,” the center’s blog. A little over a decade ago, Brooklyn-based musician and promoter Eli Smith merged his passion for folk music with the inspiration he gets from fellow New York City artists and created the …
Judith Gray joined the staff of the American Folklife Center in 1983 with a goal in mind: she wanted to work on the Federal Cylinder Project. The Folklife Center launched the project four years earlier to preserve early field recordings of the sung and spoken traditions of Native American communities. Ethnographers had made the recordings on …
Born into one of folk music’s foremost families, Peggy Seeger has been a leading voice of the Anglo-American folk revival for more than 60 years. As a singer, songwriter, instrumentalist and political activist, Seeger is viewed as having forged an unconventional and artistically vibrant path. In “Peggy Seeger: A Life of Music, Love and Politics,” …