CENTER NEWSWINTER-SPRING 1996 • VOLUME XVIII, NUMBERS 1 AND 2

American Folklife Center· The Library of Congress

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The American FolkHfe Center wascreated in 1976bythe U.S. Congress toupreserve and present AmericanfolkJi(e" through progr.lms of research,docu.mentalion, archival preservation,referenceservice, !i\'e pcrform.1nce, ex­hibition, publication, and training. TheCenter incorporates the Archiveof FolkCulture, which was established in theMusic Di\'ision of the Library of Con­gress in 1928 and is now one of thelargcst collections ofethnographic ma­terial from the United States andaround the world.

Administr.ltionAlan Jabbour, Dirtdor

Doris Craig, Anministralit>t AssistantMary Gainey, CftTk

Camila Brya--Laporte, ProgmmCoordinalor

AcquisitionsJoseph C. Hickerson, Ht:Ild

ProcessingStephanie A. Hall, Archivist Coordillalor

Catherine Hiebert Kerst, Archil'islPrograms

Peter T, Bartis, Folklife S,J«inlislMilry Hufford, Folklifr Sp«ialisl

OJvid A. Taylor, Folklifr Sp«inlislPublintions

James Hardin, EditorPublic Events

Theadocia Austen, CoordillatorReference

Judith A. Gray, FoIkJifr Sptril1islJennifer A. Cutting, Rlfrrmu Sptrir/isl

Adminislr.lltive OfficeTel: 202 7U7-6590Fax: 202 7U7-2f1l6Reference ServiceTel: 202 707-5510

Federal Cylinder ProjedTel: 202 707-1740

BGa.rd of TrusteesJudith McCulloh, Chair, II/inois

Carolyn Hecker, Vice-tlliIir, MaintNina Archabal, Mimll:':iO/1I

William L. Kinney Jr" Sol/til Cllroliua

Ada E. Deer, Wisconsin, Assistllnt~llry /IN fndilln A{frJirs, Dqvrtmenl

oflntmarJoseph D. Duffey, Wtsl Virginitl,

DiTtdor of tltt UnUtd Stlltts InformalionA8""'Y

Madeleine M. Kunin, Vmnonl, DrputyS«rt-Ill'Y of EdllCJltion

Shirley S. Sagawa, Virginia, aMllllllgingDiTtdor of tMCorpomlion for National

and Comlmlnity Snvia

Ex Officio MembersJames H. Billington, Ubrarum of

CorrgrtsSl. Michael Heyman, Stcrelary of /ile

Smit/Is<miml I"s/ill/tiollJane Alexander, Clla;mll111, Na/ional

Eudawmru/ for lire Ar/sSheldon Hackney, Chairman, Na/;Ollal

E"dowmellt for tile Humol1i/irsAlan Jabbour, Dimtor, Ammon

FoIkJifr emltT

TELEPHONE AND ONLINEINFORMATION RESOURCES

American FolklifeCenter publica­tions (including Folklift Cml" Neil'S),a calendarofevents,collection guides,general information, and connectionsto a S('lection ofother Internet servicesrelated to folklife are available on theInternet via the LC MARVEL GopherServer and the I.C Web World WideWeb Server. LCMARVELiSllvaiiablethrough your local Gopher scrver. Orusc your Gopher Client Software toconnect to marvel.loc.gov. From themain menu, choose "Research andReference,~ then "Reading Rooms,~

then"American FolkHfe Center."LC Web is a\'ililable through your

local World Wide Web service. TIleCenter's home page can be a«e>sedfrom the Library's main menu. Thedirect URLfor the Center's home pageis: hltp://lcwebJoc.gov/folklife

Folldine, an information servicepro\'k1ing timely information on thefield 01 folklore and folklife, includingtraining and professional opportuni­ties and news items of national inter­est, isavailable through both theabo\'eInterne! servers and by telephone. Forthe telephoneservice(availablearoulldthe clock, except during Ihe hours of 9A.M. until noon each Monday, whenit is updated), dial: 202 707-2000

FOLK LIFE CENTER NEWSJames Hardin, £Iilor

OiIvld A. Taylor, Edi/orilll AnVl5Ol'"John Biggs, LilmIry ofCongrrss

G"'Jilics Unit, Dtsigllrr

FoIkJlfr Ctrllrr NtlL'S publishes articleson the programs and .Klillities of theAmerican Folklife Center, as well asother articles on traditional expressiveculture. It is avaiLable free of chargefrom the Library of Congress, Ameri­can Folklife Center, Washington, D,(,

20540-4610. Folklifr Ctu/a Neu'S doesnot publish announcements from otherinstitutions or reviews of books frompublishers other than the Library ofCongress. Readers who would like tocomment on Center activities or news­letterarticles mayaddress theirrem.lrksto the editor.

EDITOR'S NOTES

The bill "to provide for the estab­lishment of the American FolklifeCenter in the Library ofCongress,"Public Law 94-201, was signed byPresident Gerald Ford on January2, 1976, the first working day ofthe Bicentennial year. It had beennearly a hundred years since Can·gress recognized the importanceof folk culture with an act to con·tinue the Bureau of American Eth­nology at the Smithsonian Institu­tion in 1897. This year has seen arenewed debate in Congress onthe role of the federal governmentin cultural programming (particu­larly in connection with fundingfor the ational Endowments forthe Arts and Humanities).

In this issue of Fa/Wle eelltltrNelvs, Alan Jabbour offers the firstof a two-part retrospective on theAmerican Folklife Center. He re·views the history of the legislationcreating the Center and describesIhe major accomplishments of thefield documentation projeets the

contilllled all page 19

Cover: Fannie Lee Teals with her red.white, and blue Bicentennial quilt.American Folklife Center, South·Cen­tral Georgia Project, 1977. (6-17617­29A) Photo by Beverly J. Robinson

Folklife Center News

The American Folklife Center:A Twenty-Year Retrospective

Linda Ganlai'iaga, Howard W. Marshall, and Alan Jabbour discuss fieldwork plans at a motel in Winnemucca, Nevada, 1978.Paradise Valley Folklife Project. Photo by Carl Fleischhauer

By Alan Jabbour

The American Folklife Preserva­tion Act

This year is the twentieth anni­versary of the birth of the Ameri·can Folklife Center. The AmericanFolklife Preservation Act, PublicLaw 94-201, passed both houses ofCongress at the end of 1975 andwas signed into law by PresidentFord on January 2, 1976. Twentyyears is a generation, by some sys-

Winter-Spring 1996

terns of reckoning, which invitesreflections on the course of theCenter's development-and thestate of folklife itself-as we ap­proach the millennium.

The bill that ultimately createdthe American Folklife Center wasoriginally inspired by the Festivalof American Folklife, first pre­sented by the Smithsonian Institu­tion in 1967. Conceived by theSmithsonian's Secretary, S. DillonRipley, and its director of perform­ing arts, James Morris, as a way of

making the museums "comealive"on the National Mall, the festivalwas created by Ralph Rinzler, whobrought to the challenge his previ­ous experience with the NewportFolk Festival. Its success drew theattention of members of Congress,and a bill was drafted that, afterseveral years of debate and nego­tiation, resulted in the creation ofthe Center.

The legislation had an impacteven before its final enactment. Itwas initially drafted to create a

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Occupational lolklile expert Archie Green stands beside "Mr. Dixie" at DixieSheetmetal, Falls Church, Virginia, November 1995. In the 1970s, Green walkedthe halls 01 Congress to lobby lor the creation of the American Folklile Center.Photo by David A. Taylor

grant-giving foundation, but itsgrant-giving provisions drew op­position from the National Endow­ments for the Arts and Humani­ties, which had been created in the1960s to provide grants in the cul­tural sphere. The endowments ar­gued that their legislation alreadyprovided a mandate for grantsdealing with "folklife"~the termwas then novel in the public

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sphere, but folklore had a vener­able history in both public pro­grams and the academy in theUnited States. Folklorists advocat­ing passage of the legislation re­torted that, since the endowmentsfavored "elite culture" over "folkculture," a third agency commit­ted to folk culture was necessaryto balance the cultural equation.The endowments protested that

they had already given grants deal­ing with folk culture; the folklor­ists insisted that they had not, andthat in any case they lacked theexpertise to determine whetherthey had.

The debate triggered by con­gressiona Iconsideration of the leg­islation led Nancy Hanks, chair­man of the National Endowmentfor the Arts, to call a formal meet­ing on the subject, and then tolaunch the Folk Arts Program atthe Arts Endowment in the springof 1974. That program has had aprofound effect on the develop­ment of folk arts programmingaround the country. Unfortu­nately, though the Humanities En­dowment has hired folklorists toserve on its professional staff, itdeveloped nocomparableprogramduring the past generation.

The legislation itself remainedin Senate committee until late in1975. Sen. Claiborne Pell, whochaired the committee and hadbeen a key sponsor of the enablinglegislation for the two endow­ments, had grown sympathetic tothe folklife bill but felt that federalgrant-giving for cultural activitiesshould be confined to the existingendowments. After a compromisewas negotiated deleting the grant­giving provisions from the folklifebill, Senator Pell reported it out ofcommittee, and it passed the Sen­ate at the end of the first session ofthe 94th Congress.

On balance, many factors wereconjoined in passage of the legis­lation. The intrepid advocacy offolklorist Archie Green kept thebill alive through years of back­stage debate and steadily broad­ened congressional support for theconcept. Theargument that the billwould right the balance culturally,counteracting the elite bias of thetwo endowments, proved effec­tive, advancing the legislationwhile simultaneously pressing theendowments to pay more seriousattention to folk cultural traditions.Theconjunction of the bill with theapproaching Bicentennial of theAmerican Revolution was likewisehelpful, for the celebration of theBicentennial in 1976 took agrassroots turn, emphasizing thevariety of local, ethnic, and othercultural traditions as strands inthe fabric of the nation. The 1970s111 general were a period of in-

Folklife Cellter News

WI!lIdy Leeds-HllnvitzTe.ms A&M UlliversityCollege Station, TexasFelmulrY 2, 1996

It is lIard to believe tllM it lIas been twenty years sillce I worked at ti,eArc/live lof Folk Cliiture] tlS tl vollmteer . ... I remember feelillg tlltlt IWtlS workillg tlt the ceuter of tl ltlrge IIetwork of colleagues. Every daysomeolle jllterestillg stopped by to look at materials at ti'l! Arellive, orwrote or called with a question . ... I also lea TIled abollt "illvislblecolleges" tlrollgh 1 did I/ot yet kllow tile term. I discovered lrow impor­taflt it is to mnilltai" cOIlI/ectiolls witll tl wide vtlriety ofpeople wllo aresepaTtlted geographically bllt IIIllted by their interests. You were thecellter of tllnt particular iI/visible college-the Archive had illformatiolleveryone wtlllted, alld you were always avai/able to Ileip people dis­cover resources tllflt would ellriel, their projects.

creased attention to "roots"-thoseaspects of heritage that lie betweenthe individual and the nation, andthat connect individuals to com­munities while defining the na­tion as a whole pluralistically.

The definition of folklife in theAmerican Folklife PreservationAct anchored the Center firmly inthe expressive culture of the fam­ily,ethnic, religious, occupational,and regional groups thai make upAmerica. When the Senate sud­denly appeared about to move onthe legislation, Archie Green, thebill's key lobbyist, anxiously con­tacted a Senate aide with the solepurpose of modifying certainphrases in the legislation's defini­tion of folklife. The aide later ex­pressed wonderment that thecriti­cal issue in the final moments wasrefining the concept, not arguingfor more money. But the defini­tions and justifications of the act,apart from shaping the directionof the Center, have influencedother federal agencies, state legis­lation, and even the legislation ofother nations in the twenty yearssince passage of the act.

Birth of the Center

The legislation had originallyconceived of a foundation withinthe Smithsonian Institution, but fora variety of reasons the host agencybecame the Library of Congress,which since the 19205 had built afamous archive of folk music andfolklore. The Library had sup­ported the legislation from theoutset, but final passage of the billcaught the institution in a momentof transition between retiring li­brarian of Congress L. QuincyMumford and the new Librarian,Daniel ]. Boorstin. Arrangementsfor launching the Center were un­dertaken by Elizabeth HamerKegan, who had served the Libraryfor many years as Assistant Li­brarian of Congress. A recertionwas arranged in honor 0 thelegislation's passage; the board oftrustees was appointed by theSpeaker of the Houseand the presi­dent pro tempore of the Senate;Dr. Boorstin convened the boardfor its inaugural meeting, duringwhich it elected distinguished folk­lorist Wayland D. Hand as its firstchairman; and in September of1976 the Librarian appointed me

as the director. I had formerlyserved as head of the Library'SArchive of Folk Song and had beendirector of the Folk Arts Programat the National Endowment for theArts from 1974 through 1976.

Starting up an office-espe­cially one with no precedent ingovernment-has its special ad­ministrative challenges. One must,for example, fashion job descrip­tions for positions that have neverbefore existed, such as "folklifespeCialist" Early staff appOint­ments to the Center induded sec­retary Paula Johnson (now at theSmithsonian's National MuseumofAmerican History); research sec­retary Carol Armbruster (now withthe European Division of the li­brary of Congress); secretary-edi­tor Brett Topping (who later ac­cepted a position at the NationalMuseum of Women in the Arts);folklife specialists Carl Fleisch­hauer(now with the National Digi­tal Library program of the LibraryofCongress), Erena Bradunas (nowresiding in Hawaii), and HowardW. Marshall (now at the Univer­sity of Missouri); executive assis­tant Eleanor Sreb (now retired);deputy director Ray Dockstader(now retired); secretary (now ad­ministrative assistant) Doris Craig;and researcher (now folklHe spe­cialist) Peter Bartis.

At the end of the first partialfiscal year of the Center's history,not all the funds for staffing couldbe spent, so equipment was pur­chased for the purpose of future

fieldwork. A bit of money still re­mained, so the Reverend HowardFinster of Summerville, Georgia,was commissioned to paint twosigns and two paintings in honorof the Center's creation. ReverendFinster, who has subsequently be­come nationally famous, calls thecommission his first recognitionoutside of Georgia. The two paint­ings hang in the director's officetoday-when they are not beingexhibited by various museumsaround the country.

Early Initiatives

One of the first initiatives ofLibrarian Daniel J. Boorstin was toopen up the main front entrance ofthe old Library of Congress build­ing, now known as the ThomasJefferson Building. For years themain entrance, which opens intotheCreat Hall and the Main Read­ing Room, had been closed as aneconomy measure. Opening thedoor, for Dr. Boorstin, symbolizedmaking the Library a more openand accessible institution. Since theAmerican FolklifeCenter had beencreated just as he arrived at theLibrary, he suggested that theCen­ter sponsor a public event on theplaza in front of the main entranceto Vivify its grand opening. TheCenter responded with a noontimeconcert on September 23,1976, fea­turing Washington bluesmen BigChief Ellis, John Cephas, PhilWiggins, and James Bellman. Theconcert was arranged by Richard

Winter-Spring 1996 5

Board of Trustees Meeting, September 1,1976. From left to right: Ned Danson, David Voight, Alan Jabbour, Wayland Hand,Daniel J. Boorstin, and Elizabeth Hamer Kegan. Library of Congress photo

K. Spottswood-now the host of aweekly folk-music program onWashington's WAMU-FM-whoat the time was completing hisediting of the fifteen-volumerecord series Folk Mllsic i/1 America,issued by the Library in celebra­tion of the Bicentennial. The eventwas 50 successful that there wasan immediate clamor for more con­certs on the front steps of the li­brary. Thus was born a twenty­year series of programs on whatwas dubbed "Neptune Plaza," inhonor of the fountain featuringNeptune between the plaza andFirst Street.

TheCenter's next initiative wasmore ambitious and again drewupon the ideas and energies of DickSpottswood. On January 24-26,1977, the Center sponsored its firstconference, on the subject of "Eth­nic Recordings in America: A Ne­glected Heritage./I The conferencesought to highlight the importanceof the vast corpus of ethnic record·ings produced by American com­mercial recording companies in thefirst half of the twentieth century.Though scholars and collectors hadpaid attention to the "hillbillyrecords" and the African-Ameri-

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can "race records" of the same era,the stunning variety of recordingsfrom various ethnic groups in theUnited States had not been col­lected, archived, analyzed, or reis­sued. They rerresented an un­tapped trove 0 heritage, and thegathering of scholars, collectors,ethnic record producers, and oth­ers was calculated to bring thisheritage to the attention of a wideraudience. Theconference was aug­mented by an exhibit on the sub­ject and an evening concert featur­ing Texas border singer LydiaMendoza and the Polish Highland­ers of Chicago.

In retrospect, the ethnic record­ings conference succeeded in thetongterm results for which it wasdesigned. A few years later theCenter published a book drawnfrom the conference, Ethllic Record­ings ill America: A Neglected Heri­tage (1982). A further outgrowth ofthe conference was Spottswood'sdiscography Ethllic Music 011Recorcrs (7 vols.; Urbana and Chi­cago: University of Illinois Press,1990), a monumental work ofscholarShip assembled with assis·tance from the Library's Informa­tion Technology Services office and

still maintained and updated as aLibrary computer database. In theyears following the conference,many ethnic records from the earlytwentieth century were reissued,fueling a renaissance of interest inand performance of any numberof ethnic music traditions in theUnited States. The initiative wasthe Center's first major undertak­ing, and it illustrates how theCen·ter from its inception establishedand cultivated points of continu­ity between itself and the Archiveof Folk Song, which had precededit at the Library.

The first full year of the Center'soperations was 1977, and in thatyear it launched two field docu­mentary projects, the Chicago Eth­nic Arts Project and theSouth-Cen­tral Georgia Folklife Project. Theyset into motion a pattern of fielddocumentary projects that hascharacterized the Center's work forthe two decades of its existence.Both projects were arts-connected.The Chicago project, coordinatedby Elena Bradunas, responded toarequest from the Illinois ArtsCouncil, which had been mandatedby its state legislature to begin aprogram in support of ethnic arts

folkli[e Cellter News

and asked for guidance on the net­works and artistic traditions ofChicago's many ethnic groups. TheGeorgia project, coordinated byHoward W. Marshall, respondedto an invitation from the Arts Ex·periment Station, based atAbraham Baldwin AgriculturalCollege and operating programsin an eight-county area of 50uth­central Georgia.

Though one was urban and onerural, both projects emphasized theimportance of documenting artis­tic traditions professionally, usingsound recordings and still pho­tography, with an eye both to cre­ating public products and to build­ing an archive for the future. Inthis respect they bore the imprintof the Center's media specialist,Carl Fleischhauer. Both projectsalso were designed with the strat·egy of leaving behind a permanentposition in the region after theCenter's work was over.

The Chicago project led to alengthy final report with recom­mendations to the Illinois ArtsCouncil for future programming.At the same time, the contribu­tions of project photographerJonasDovydenas were highlighted in theexhibition and catalog Inside OllrHomes, Outside Our Willdows,which opened at the Museum ofContemporary Art in Chicago in1979 and later traveled to the Li­brary of Congress, then to Spring­field, Illinois, Milwaukee, and(with the help of the USIA)Dubrovnik. The Georgia projecttook another tack. After the field­work was completed, the Centerheld a series of workshops in theregion to report to local citizens onthe results of the fieldwork. Abooklet of photographs entitledSketchesofSoutli Georgia Folklifewasdistributed to workshop attend­ees. The archive for the Chicagoproject includes extensive manu­script materials, 342 sound re­corded tapes, 8,000 black-and­white photographs, and 3,700 colortransparencies. The Georgia col­lection is similar but somewhatlarger and includes video record­ings. A reference archive of thecollection was prepared for an in­stitution in the project area-a cus­tomary procedure in later projects.

The South Georgia Project hadone further product not foreseenwhen the project was planned. In

Willter-Spri1Jg 1996

Cenler folklorist Elena Bradunas with Lithuanian weaver Kazys Bartasius and hiswife, Ida. Chicago Ethnic Arts Project, 1977. Photo by Jonas Dovydenas

I il/teml'd at tile Library dllrillg those goldell ye(lrs wile" eacll illtemreceived a stack pass. III tile et1enillgs, after ti,e Archive was closed, IIIsed to sit ill tile st(lcks ill frollt of ti,e GRs or tile GNs, losillg myself illfolklore books . ... III tIlOse evelli"gs I leamed IIOt ollly abollt folklore,bllt more importalltly abollt n,l' way ollr cultllre preserves and orga­nizes kllowledge. ... 1le(lmed to be selective alld fi"d tile best book alln,l' sllbject, and llOw to edit my researcll topics to a mallageable scope.I learl/ed-and 1believe Joe (Hickersonl pointed this 0I1l to me-tllat if1 realty wallted to, aud set my milld to it, 1could write tl' book somedtl'yaJld get it copywrittell alld It would whld lip 011 tllese slleltles, too. ...1 always lotled tlltl't Amy Lowell poem 011 tile Library-didn't sill' saysometllillg like, "Wi,erI' bllr IIere nrc we Americtl'lls so symbolized?"TIlCre was sometlling so dtl'l//IIed c1lflotlc Iwd democrtl'tic abo lit tllCwllOle tllillg, a"d for me, ti,e Arc1llve was fl,e crowllillg glory of til isastollisliillg il/stitl/Noll. ... For mallY years tlley lIad s/lellered ti,eArcllive of Folk Music to preserve cu/ture wilicli didll't Jl/ake It iI/tobooks, Ilelpillg to fill at least sOllie of tile gaps ill ti,e scllolarly record.And tile staff at tile Arc1live treated a letter wlliell asked (Ifter tile wordsto a sOllg "my gralldfalller llsed to sillg" Witll ti'e sallie cOllrtesy as aletter from a lIoted scllolar.

Katllleell COlldollBrooklYII Cllildrell's MuselllllBrooklYI/, New YorkJalluary 31,1996

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First Lady Rosalyn Carler visits the exhibit Folk Art and Folklife, oneproduct of the South-Central Georgia Folklife Project, al the library ofCongress, January 1978. From left 10 right: Ruth Boorslin: Amy Carter;Librarian Daniel J. Boorstin; Mrs. Carter; and Michael Carrigan. the Library'sexhibits officer. library of Congress photo

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1978 the Center drew upon theresults of the project to create aphotographic exhibit on SouthGeorgia folklife. The idea cross­pollinated with an Atlanta-gener­ated exhibit on Georgia folk art,"Missing Pieces," and theLibrary's exhibits officer, MichaelCarrigan, decided to fill the entireground floor of the Library'sJefferson Building with both ex­hibits. The First Lady and AmyCarter helped open the double ex­hibition. Rev. Howard Finster,who had sent his art by Grey­hound bus to help launch theCenter not long before, still talks

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about the Georgia contingent'shair-raising airplane ride toWashington to see the exhibition.

The Center and the Archive

On November 17-18, 1978, justover two years after its creation,the Centerorganized a symposiumon the Archive of Folk Song inhonor of the Archive's 50th anni­versary.lmplicit in thecelebrationwas the fact that a few monthsearlier, onjuly 31, the Archive hadbeen transferred from the Library'sMusic Division to become part ofthe Center.

Founded in 1928 within theMusic Division, the Archive madeimportant contributions to ethnog­raphy, folklore and folk music re­search, public programming, andcultural documentation and pres­ervation in every decade of its dis­tingUished history. Its heads in­cluded Robert W. Gordon, john A.Lomax, Alan Lomax, Benjamin A.Botkin, Duncan Emrich, RaeKorson, Alan jabbour, and Josephc. Hickerson. Thollgh originallynamed the Archive of AmericanFolk-Song, it had begun document­ing folk music beyond the bordersof the United States as early as1935, when Alan Lomax recordedin the Bahamas, and by 1940 it hadexpanded its documentary scopewell beyond folk music into folk­lore, verbal arts, and oral history.Since the 1950s it had been namedsimply the Archive of Folk Song.

The 50th anniversary sympo­sium marked a turning point fortheCenter'sdevelopment. The leg­islation specifically authorized thecreation of an archival center forfolklife. Center field projects wererapidly generating a large new ar­chival corpus of documents in sev­eral media. It made no sense toduplicate the efforts of an existingarchive within the Library by cre­ating a separate archive for theCenter. Further, the Center staffbelieved in a cycle of activity mov­ing from field documentation toarchival preservation and accessto public programming. Lackingan archive meant lacking a criticalstage in that cyclical process. Atanother level, so long as the Cen­ter was separate from the Archive,it was in a real sense separatedfrom its institutional history withinthe Library and seemed extrane­ous to the institution. The concep­tually logical and economical so­lution was to merge the Archive ofFolk Song with the Center, at oncemaking the Center whole and wed­ding it to the history and missionof its host institution.

Joining the Archive fully to theCenter was a long process. Initiallyit was simply an administrativematter: the three staff members ofthe Archive-Joseph C. Hickerson,Gerald E. Parsons Jr., and PatriciaMarkland-weretransferred to theCenter roster. But in time each"part" of the Center inevitably be­gan to influence the other. The first

Folklife Center News

Four heads of the Archive of Folk Culture assembled for the Archive's 50thanniversary celebration, November 16-17, 1978. From left to right: Alan Jabbour,Rae Korson. Joseph C. Hickerson, and Alan Lomax. Library of Congress Photo

important step toward integratingtheir missions was changing thename of the Archive. In 1979, re­flecting both the historical broad­ening of the Archive's purview andthe Center's need to deal archivallywith all aspects of folklife, the namewas changed to the ArchiveofFolkCulture.

Field Projects, East and West

One way the Center immedi­ately changed the Archive was byinfusing into its collections themultiformat documentary resultsof field projects representing apanoplyoffolklifetraditions. Fieldprojects were a major activity ofthe Center over its first two de­cades. They may have seemed torepresent a new direction, but inreality they restored an activitythat had characterized the Archivein the 1930s and again in the 19705.Looked at in that light, the Center'sinnovation was not in institutingfieldwork, but in expanding it toinclude nol only music but verbalarts, material culture, occupational

Joseph C. Hickerson and Gerald E. Parsons, at the Archive of Folk CUlture, 1975, when it was still part of IheLibrary's Music Division. Photo by Carl F!eischhauer

Winter-Spring 1996 9

traditions, and other aspects ofculture not documented by theArchive in an earlier generation.Similarly, the basic tools of docu­mentation expanded to include notonly sound recordings but pho­tography. And finally, the processof fieldwork expanded from theclassic one or two workers to teamsof several professionals workingin close interaction. Yet the idealof field work~generating a perma­nent body of knowledge for thearchive through documentation inthe field--ean be said tocharacter­ize the whole history of folkloreand folklife activities at the Libraryof Congress, from the Archive'sinception in 1928 through theCenter's work in the last quarterofthe century.

The early field projectsmounted by the Center in Chicagoand South Georgia were followedby a project in 1978 in the BlueRidge Mountains of Virginia andNorth Carolina. The area is leg-

endary for its musical traditions~well represented in the early re­cordings of the Archive of FolkCulture-but that was not why theCenter chose the Blue Ridge for amajor project. Instead, the choiceof locale was made by the Center'spartner in the project, the NationalPark Service. The director of thePark Service, William Whalen, hadbeen named by President Carter tothe Center's board, and discussionsbegan on collaborating to studythe folk cultural traditions withinand surrounding a national park.Planning focused on two possiblesites, Olympic National Park andthe Blue Ridge Parkway; the BlueRidge Parkway was finally se­lected.

The Blue Ridge ParkwayFolklife Project focused on a bandof counties bordering the BlueRidge in northwestern North Caro­lina and southwestern Virginia.The project team documented awide range of Blue Ridge tradi-

tiona I life, from festivals and jamsessions through church servicesand religious narratives to cropharvesting and food curing. Incomparison to the Center's 1977projects, the Blue Ridge project wasmore comprehensive: artistic ex­pression remained the central fo­cus of the documentation, but thesweep of fieldwork was broaderthan in South Georgia and muchbroader than in Chicago. A pe­rusal of the photographs revealsnot only music, dance, crafts,preaching, stories, and commu nitycelebrations, but beans drying inthe back window of a car in a park­ing lot, Mexicans harvesting cab­bages, and teenagers at a drive-in.The Center was merging theArchive's tradition ofartistic docu­mentation with the concept of eth­nography.

A goal of the Blue Ridge re­search was to provide the NationalPark Service with knowledge ofthe living cultural traditions along

Terry Eiler (with camera) and Bob Fulcher videotape Veoma and Josh Easter. Surry County, North Carolina. as they peelapples for drying with the assistance of field researcher Wally Macnow (left). Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project. 1978.(BR8-16-20543-26) Photo by lyntha Scott Eiler

10 Folklife Cellter News

/The Archive of Folk ClIlturelllOlds a special place ill Illy Ileart. I discovered it sOlllewlwt by c/ulI/ce, as a lIiglrschool stl/dellt seeki"g refuge from til(! da""ti"g formality of ti,e lLibrary'sl Maill Readi"g Room. Years later Irediscovered the Arc/lives as a" illtem. Illspired a"d guided by Joe Hickerson mrd Gerry Parso"s, IUIldertook mauytasks-filillg, researclliflg public illqlliries, tra"scribing field recordings, allswerillg plrolle calls. Eaclt job becameal/otller elltryway i"to the treasures of American wlhlre cOlltailled withill tIle Arc1Jives. Each accomplisillne'ltgave me a growing sellse of cOllllecteduess to tile sillgers, collectors, alld researc1/ers who had cOllie before.

Harold A. ClosterNaHOlial Museum of America,l HistorySmithSOllia" I1lstitutiollJalluary 30, 1996

the Blue Ridge Parkway for use inpark interpretation and planning.The Park Service has a long-stand­ing interest in traditional culture,but cultural interpretation had of­ten been filtered through a lensthat, in theCenter'sopinion, some­times made traditional cultureseem solely a function of the his­torical past. Countervailing with avigorous portrayal of the present­ness of culture-no less alive, dy­namic, and developing for beingtraditional-was perhaps the cen­tral thrust of Center documenta­tion in such projects.

The Blue Ridge work yieldedtwo significant products, both re­flecting the tenor of the fieldworkitself. B/ue Ridge Harvest, edited byCarl Fleischhauer, provided a bal­anced photographic statement notonly abottt the project but aboutthe texture of culture and commu­nity in the region. It is, surpris­ingly, a rare instance of a photo­graphic publication making a bal­anced, comprehensive statementabout American grassroots culture.Children of ti,e Heav'llfy King isequal1y unusual, presenting a spe­cific subtheme of the project, reli·giousexpressive traditions. Editedby project coordinator Charles K.Wolfe, its two long-playing record­ings, coupled with a lengthy tex­tual and photographic booklet,bring together not only religiousmusic but sermons, prayers, reli­gious narratives, and (through thephotographs) religion in the cul­tural fandscape. No such multi·media statement on American re­ligious expression had appearedbefore, to the best of our know I·edge, but its influence is discern­ible on laler publications fromother institutions. It provided no

Willter-Sprillg 1996

little satisfaction to Center staffthat subsequent visits revealedboth publications in the homes ofmany Blue Ridge citizens.

In 1978 the Center launched itsfirst Western project. Center staffhad been eager to expand theCenter's westward purview, andthe national media were just be­ginning to focus, under the head­fine "Sagebrush Rebellion," on thefeelings of national neglect, fed­eral encroachment, and culturalendangerment in the ranchingcountry of the inland West. Walk­ing into a sagebrush rebellion car­rying a federal banner might seemimprudent, but Center staffwanted to try their documentaryskills on traditional ranching andfelt that the rising concerns aboutthe future of ranching in the Westprovided a potential policy back­drop for Center fieldwork. Thequest for a site narrowed to Ne­vada, and then, in consultationwith Nevada university col­leagues, toan old and multi-ethnicranching community in the north­central part of the state, ParadiseValley.

Paradise Valley was the firstCenter project that stretched field­work beyond a single season. Italso became the first project to in­clude extensive documentationwith 16-mm film. The principalethnographic subject of the mo­tion picture film was a trail drivebringing cattle from the mountainsdown to the home ranch of LesStewart in the valley. Stewart washimself a close observer of tradi­tion who had documented tradi­tional ranching practices on 16­mm film in the 1940s and oftenprovided his own narration whenhe screened the film for 4-H classes

and other groups. Carl Fleisch­hauer responded with a strategyof documentary collaboration: henot only recorded Stewart's con­temporary narrations for the olderfilms but showed him sequencesof the newly shot footage andfilmed his insider's commentaryon the buckaroo arts capturedtherein.

Despite the Center's emphasison the importance of planningprod ucts for each project, the Para­dise Valley work was begun with­out a clear product in mind. As itturned out, it has been one of themost product-rich Center efforts.That was a time when exhibitionsattracted a great deal of energywithin our field and in Washing­ton. Howard W. Marshall, theCenter's project coordinator, hadpersuaded Smithsonian colleagueRichard Ahlborn to join the fieldteam, and soon a plan was afoot toproduce an exhibit featuring theirwork. The final result was an un­usual collaboration: the Smith­sonian's National Museum ofAmerican History presented theexhibit Buckaroos ill Paradise, andthe Library published the compan­ion volume of the same title.

In 1983 the Center produced acomprehensive exhibition on TI,eAmerical/ Cowboy, and the sectionon contemporary cowboy life fea­tured the Paradise Valley collec­tion again. President Reagan pre­sided over the opening of the exhi­bition in the Library'S Ilew Madi­son Gallery. One of the highlightsof the exhibition, an interactivedisplay using a videodisc pro­duced by Carl Fleischhauer, pre­sented the film sequences shot withLes Stewart and his hands in Para­dise Valley. It marked the first use

11

We were really deligltted to see fi,e enormolls works done by fi,e Libraryof COl/gress at Was/,iI/stOll tlurillg our visit iI/ August 1990. Tile Fo/klifeCellter is 110 doubt tI resource /rollse of folk/ore of tlris world. We wouldlike to be tlssocitlted win/ this eellter.

Siltl BtlsakRetlder, Departmellt of Bel/gtlliS/lsi/ktlr College, University of CtI/ClItttlMay 31,1991

of what are now referred tOns "newtechnologies" for public presenta­tion by the Library.

After the exhibition, the Centertook the technology a step farther,publishing a double-sided video­disc with a lengthy booklet en­titled TIle Ninety-Six Ranch. Thetitle names Les Stewart's ranch,and the disc features his ranch bothtoday and through his 19405 film.In fact, the publication encom­passes more than a single ranch; itis a multimedia encyclopedia ofParadise Valley in film, photo­grahy, and recorded sound. Overa decade later, another facet of theproject-the architecture of Para­dise Valley, with special attentionto the traditional Italian stonema­sonry dotting the valley and theWest generally-received atten­tion in Howard W, Marshall's bookParadise Valley, Nevada: the Peopleand Buildings of all American Place(995). Perhaps the Paradise Val-

ley collection will next appearonline, continuing its productivehistory as a documentary collec­tion into the next century.

Cultural Conservation

The Blue Ridge and ParadiseValley projects both drew theCen­ter into the array of cultural issuesassociated with what is sometimescalled "land-use planning." In ad­dition, the Blue Ridge project was

the first of a series of collabora­tions between the Folklife Centerand the National Park Service. Thesecond was not so successful.

[n 1979 the Center was ap­proached by Park Service officialsregarding the pOSSibility of mount­ing a research, programming, andplanning effort in the countiesalong the Tennessee-TombigbeeWaterway. The waterway, wl,ichwas already under construction,was to run through northeastern

...

Korean dance students waiting to perform at a Silver Spring, Maryland, nursing home, photographed for the Center's EthnicHeritage and Language Schools Project, 1981. The study of culturallransmission as it takes place through regular, formalactivities grew out of the 1977 Chicago Ethnic Arts Project, where researchers were struck by the number of activitiesorganized for young people by some of the city's ethnic communities. Photo by Lucy Long

12 Folklife Center News

Harvesting cranberries at Haines's bogs in Chatsworth, New Jersey. Pinelands Folklife Project, 1983. Photo by JosephCzarnecki

Mississippi and southwestern Ala­bama, connecting the TennesseeRiver with Mobile Bay. Funds wereavailable through the Departmentof the Interior to conduct what aretermed "mitigation" efforts tocounteract any adverse impacts ofthe project on the region's culturalresources. "Cultural resources"were generally understood to con­sist of historic buildings and ar­cheological sites; the Center sawthe project as an opportunity tobroaden the concept to include liv­ing cultural traditions. But thoughconstruction was already under­way, part of the project was not yetfunded. Some environmentalistscontinued to oppose it, and theCenter found itselfdrawn intocon­troversy within the field of folk­lore and folklife studies aboutwhether accepting mitigationfunds lent support to a publicworks project the ultimate fate ofwhich was not yet determined. Inthe end, the Center withdrew. Butthe withdrawal did not signal the

Winter-Spring 1996

end of either the Center's involve­ment with the National Park Ser­vice or its exploration of the con­nections between living culturaltraditions and the large family ofactivities and issues involving his­toric preservation, natural conser­vation, and land management. Infact a new opportunity presenteditself within a year.

Federal historic preservation re­sponsibilities, which comprise animportant cluster of cultural pro­grams and activities, are managedprincipally within the NationalPark Service in the Department ofthe Interior. In 1980 the Commit­tee on Interior and Insular Affairsof the House of Representativesbegan consideration of a billamending the National HistoricPreservation Act, which is perhapsthe most important piece of na­tiona I legislation dealing with his­toric preservation. An early draftof the new legislation included aclause calling for a study of therelationship between living cul-

tural traditions and the preserva­tion responsibilities of the federalgovernment.

I immediately got in touch withHouse Interior Committee stafferLoretta Neumann to discuss theclause. In the ensuing months, theCenter was an active ingredient inthe parleys, negotiations, and hear­ings that characterize thecourseofa bill through the Congress. In theend, the clause remained essen 4

tially intact:

The Secretary lof the Illterior/, illcooperatioJl willt tile AmericnllFo/k/ife Cel/ter of the Library ofCOl/gress shall, witllill two yearsafter tile el/actmCllt of tllis Act,Sllbmit a report to tile PresidClltalld tlte COl/gress 011 preservillgalld cOllservillg tile intallgibleelemellts of Ollr wltura/heritage,such a5 arts, skills, folklife, alldfolkways. Tile report sllall takeillto accol/Ilf the view of oHlerpublic alld private orgallizatiolls,as appropriate. Tllis report slla/l

13

Sophia Pargas, on break. crochets at her work station in thecomputer sub-assembly area, Wang Laboratories. LowellMassachusetts. Lowell Folklife Project, 1978. (LFP-TR-B392­3) Photo by Tom Rankin

iI/ell/de recammel/da/iolls forlegislative find ndmillislrafiveactiolls by tlte Federal governmcllfill order 10 preserve, conserve, (lndencourage tIJe cOlllilll/alion of tilediverse traditional prehisloric,historic, ethl/ic find folk elllll/rattrndifiolls t!lat ul/derlie find flrcaliving expressioll ofol/r Americallheritage. (Na/iollal HistoricPreservation Act Amendments of1980, Title Ill, Sectioll 502)

The bill passed in the waningdays of the 96th Congress, withthe Carter administration depart­ing and the new Reagan adminis­tration prepariJ1g to arrive. Wash­ington waited for the dust to settle,but early in 1981 I met with BennieC. Keel, departmental consultingarcheologist for the Department ofthe Interior, and we resolved tocollaborate in fulfilling the man­date provided by the new legisla­tion. The proposed study needed afulltime coordinator, so OrmondLoomis was borrowed from theFlorida Folklife Program. A com­mittee of independent consu ltantswas constituted from the fields offolklore and folklife,anthropology,archeology, and historic preserva­tion, and the drafting of the reportbegan.

Exactly how the title of the finalreport came to be is a little myste­rious. But it was clear to many ofus that "intangibleelementso(ourcultural heritage" would not suf­fice. The term iI/tangible (whichcame from the world of archeol­ogy and historic preservation,where tangible culture is the focalsubject) is problematic in that it

ITlle Americall Folk!ife Cell­ter] IIOt Ollly !louses rmiqrlecollectiol/s .. it sllpportsscllo/ars/lip, research, educa­tiOIl, aud public awarelless ofol/r vast!y diverse traditiolla!mrd folk cllltrires. People allover tile cOlllltry depelld IIpO"tI/e staff aud collectiolls of tIl(!Cellter.

Paddy Bowllla/lAlexa/ldria, Virgil/iaJlllle 21, 1995

14

defines something by what it isnot. Further, there was a strongsentiment within the Center staff­corroborated by our independentconsultants-for making the reportdeal with the entire system ofworking with culture, not just aportion of it.

These matters must have beenon our minds one day when agroup of Center staff convened todiscuss the report (still at an earlystage of preparation) with OrmondLoomis. The question arose aboutgiving the report a stronger, morepositive title. A few words andphrases were kicked around. Thensomeone said "cultural conserva­tion"; none of us can now remem­berhow itcameup,or from whom.We all murmured the phrase, thenlooked at each other. Our newphrase was positive and focused;it provided an umbrella under

which the various disciplines con­cerned with cultural action couldunite; it chose a noun that reso­nated with the dynamic ecologicalmodels of natural conservation, asopposed to the static images offreeze-frame preservation; and fi­nally, it alliterated. The phrasestuck, and CIlIIl/raJ COllservatiollwas the title of the final report.Today, more than a decade later,the term has a life of its own and iscited by scholars and cultural spe­cialists from many fields as a de~

scriptive banner for their collec~

tive mission.TheCenter's next project, in the

Pine Barrens of southern New Jer­sey, carried the concept of culturalconservation a major step farther.The Cultural COllsenJflfioll reporthad sought to bring into a workingrelationship all the key profes­sional fields ofcultural endeavor-

Folklife Cellter News

Ti,e Americnll Folklife Cel/ter is, perllflps mort' t/rall allY otller orgmri:atioll ill tI,e cOlli/try, tire gunrdiall ofAmericn's folk Cliltl/re. ... All over Ameriw Ollr regiollal commrlllities, ollr loca/mrlsi, alld dallce forms aretllreatelled by the awesome powerof tire mass media. As Alall Loma.\" l,imse1f IIns written, "if we contilllle to allowtI,e erosioll of ollr cllltlira/ forms, soon t1ure will be 1I0wl/ere to visit alld 110 place to truly call1lOme.'' Ti,eA mericmr Fo/kUfe Cel/ter works with commllnities mrd etlm;c groups to ensllre t/rat t/reir clliture is documentedfor flltllrl' generatiolls alld remaills fl viable legacy for gellerations to come.

Steve" Zeitli"City LoreNew York, New York}lme 21,1995

Folklorists Howard W. Marshall (left) and Ray Brassieur examine furniture at theFred Albert House, a typical mid-nineteenth century Acadian house moved by theMadawaska Historical Society to SI. David Village, Maine. Maine Acadian Cul­tural Survey, 1991. (MAP-DW-B017-17) Photo by David Whitman

folklore and folklife studies, ar­cheology, historic preservation,and planning. But though the studyappropriated the term cOllsenmtioll,the report did not give as muchattention as it might have to theworld of natural conservation,ecology, and environmental re­search. The Pinelands FolklifeProject remedied that earlier ne­glect.

The Pine Barrens of South Jer­sey were the subject of much envi­ronmental discussion in the 1970sand early 1980s, culminating inlegislation creating the PinelandsNational Reserve to protect thespecial environment of the region,from its pristine aquifer through

its endemic species and archeo­logical and historic treasures. Thereserve was to be managed, not asa park or wilderness set-aside, butas a dynamic environment wherepeople had always lived andwould continue to live. ThePinelands Commission, made upof representatives from federal,state, and local governments,would manage the gradual andorderly development of the regionto ensure that its unique featuresare not obliterated by suburbandevelopment, industrialization,and other forces.

The commission promptlysponsored research on everythingfrom the endemic species to the

archeological and historic sites ofthe Pine Barrens, in order to factorknowledge of "natural and cul­tural resources" into a long-rangeplanning process. Butsomehow noone thought to study the livingcultural traditions of the regiontoday. The Center's PinelandsFolk!ife Project, launched in 1983under the direction of Centerstaffer Mary Hufford with assis­tance from several state agencies,sought to correct that oversight.

The Pine lands Folklife Projectwas broad in its sweep, and itprobed the interstices of what arenormally thought of as "nature"and "culture." It is not surprisingthat the fieldwork revealed a con­nection between the natural re­sources and the cultural traditionsof the region. What is surprising isthe depth of that connection. Some"natural resources," like white ce­dar, have been managed by hu~

man tending throughout the his­torical era-making them as muchcultural as natural resources. Someendemic species seem to owe theirexistence to the periodic burningof the land, which has been goingon at the hands of humans sinceprehistoric times. Contemplatingthe Pine Barrens, it is hard to sayprecisely where culture leaves offand nature begins.

The project had two tasks: tomake recommendations to thePinelands Commission about in­corporating Eroject findings intolong-range panning, and to sharethe findings more broadly with thegeneral public-including espe­cially the people of the region. Thefirst product was Olle Space, MrlllYPlaces: Folkli{;e and Land Use ill NewJersey's Pine flIlds Natiollill Reserve.Designed as a report to thePinelands Commission, it fulfilledthe first task and contributed to

Winter-Spring 1996 15

Folklife specialist Mary Hufford with Randy Halstead, who buys and sells ginsenggrown in the Central AppalaChian region, October 1995. Hufford interviewedHalstead for the Appalachian Forest Folklife Project. Photo by Lyntha Scott Eiler

the second as well. It has been apopular volume within the regionand has also found its way intoclassrooms and onto planners'desks as a model for dealing withsimilar issues in other regions. Butsomething more was called for tofulfill what the Center took to beits public mandate. Happily, theproject had stirred great interestamong various New Jersey agen­cies, and the New Jersey HistoricalCommision, New Jersey StateCouncil on the Arts, and New Jer­sey State Museum eventually col-

16

laborated in a major exhibitionand companion book, both entitledPillelllllds FolkllJe and both draw­ing heavily on the fieldwork of theCenter and the vision of theCenter's project coordinator, MaryHufford. Among the visitors to theexhibition at the state museum inTrenton were thousands of citi­zens of the Pinelands, excited and,we hope, empowered by the pub­lic evocation of their traditions andway of life.

A 1985 project in Utah permit­ted the Center to experiment

further with the connections andcompatibility between folklifeandhistoric preservation. The GrouseCreek Cultural Survey focused ona single community in northwest­ern Utah. Its field team wascomposed of folklorists, historians,and architectural historians repre­senting several Utah culturalagencies. Its goal was simply todemonstrate to historic preserva­tionoffices that a multidisciplinaryfield team would yield a deeper,fuller portrait of the salient cul­tural features of a community-inthis case, a community of Mormonbuckaroo traditions, lying ona cul­tural fault line between theMormon farming belt and theranching traditions of the GreatBasin.

The Park Service Connection

Cultural conservation as aworking concept has had manyfacets for the Folklife Center. Sohas the Park Service connection.The Blue Ridge Parkway FolklifeProject connected with the Na­tional Park Service's managementof national parks; the cultural con­servation study and the GrouseCreek Cultural Survey connectedwith a different network of profes­sionals, both within and outsideofthe National Park Service, con­cerned with archeology and his­toric preservation. The Center'snext project in Lowell, Massachu­setts, opened up yet another di­mension of cultural conservationto be explored with another net­work of professionals connectedwith the Park Service-planners.

Lowell, as an early mill town,is prominent in the history ofAmerican industry; it is perhapsless prominent as a multi-ethniccontemporary city. Ukeothersuchcities, it was in economic declinefor much of the twentieth century,but it was blessed by communityleaders who united to begin plan­ning the town's renewal. The plan­ning led to the creation of LowellNational Historical Park, and italso led tothe Lowell Historic Pres­ervation Commission, which wasto work in coordination with thepark but embraced directly thebroader goal of community rede­velopment. The Commission en­gaged the Folklife Center in aproject to identify, document, and

Folklife Center News

plan programs addressing theeth­nie and neighborhood traditionsof Lowell.

Lowell was not the Center's firsturban project. It had begun withan initiative in Chicago in 1977,and in 1979 it had undertaken afolklife field survey of Rhode is­land, a heavily urban state. Centerstaffer Peter Bartis, who hadworked on the Chicago project anddirected the Rhode Island effort,served as the key staffer fOT Lowell.The project brought to the fore therelevance of folklife to culturalplanning for a city, just as thePinelands project had pressed forthe inclusion of folklife in plan­ning for a rural region. Commu­nity cultural planning is a corner­stone in the architecture of cui·tural conservation, as envisionedin the Center's policy study of thattitle. From the mid-1980s on, anumber of Center field initiativesexplored in fuller detail the impli­cations of the idea.

The Maine Acadian CulturalSurvey of 1991, undertaken againat the invitation of the NationalPark Service, assessed and docu­mented the cultural traditions ofthe St. John Valley in far northernMaine. Center staffer David Tay­lor, himself a Maine native, di­rected the project. Congress hadpassed legislation mandating at­tention to Maine Acadian culturalheritage under the auspices of thePark Service, and the survey'scharge was to define the bound­aries and character of the region (avalley dominated by AcadianFrench traditions), enumerate itsprominent cultural resources, andprepare a report laying the foun­dation for future regional efforts.It is noteworthy that the MaineAcadian rroject followed the pre­cedent 0 the Grouse Creek Cul­tural Survey by defining itself as a"cultural survey," not a "folklifesurvey." The Maine legislationcited "folklore," but the Centerfound it more important to show areach and breadth of expertise, re­defining "cultural heritage" in theprocess, than to labor to assert theimportance and define the bound­aries of "folklife."

Two projects in West Virginia,both directed by Mary Hufford,continued the trends discerniblein the Pinelands, Lowell, GrouseCreek, and the St. John Valley. The

Wi"ter-Spritlg 1996

Field Documentation Projects and Cultural Surveys

Chicago Ethnic Arts ProjectApril-July 1977

Coordinator: Elena Bradunas

South-Central Georgia Folklife ProjectJuly-August 1977

Coordinator: Howard W. Marshall

Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife ProjectJuly-September 1978

Coordinator: Carl Fleischhauer

Paradise Valley Folklife Projectseasonal visits 1978-82

Coordinators: Howard W. Marshall and Carl Fleischhauer

Rhode Island FoIklife SurveyJuly 15-December 31, 1979

Director: Kenneth S. GoldsteinCoordinator: Peter T. Bartis

Montana Folklife SurveyJuly l-September 15, 1979

Director: Barre ToelkenCoordinator: Carl Fleischhauer

Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools ProjectSpring 1982

Coordinator: Elena Bradunas

Pinelands Folklife ProjectSeptember-November 1983

Coordinators Sue Samuelson and Mary Hufford

Grouse Creek [Utah] Cultural Surveysummer 1985

Coordinator: Carl F1eischhauer

Lowell [Massachusetts] Folklife ProjectJune 1987-June 1988

Coordinators: Peter T. Bartis and Douglas DeNatale

Italian-Americans in the West ProjectMarch 1989-0ctober 1991

Coordinator: David A. Taylor

The Maine Acadian Cultural SurveyJanuary 1991-January 1992

Project Director: David A. TaylorField Coordinator: C. Ray Brassieur

New Rjver Gorge [West Virginia] Folklife ProjectDecember 1991-May 1992

Coordinators Mary Hufford and Rita Moonsammy

Working in Paterson [New Jersey1summer 1994

Coordinator: David A. Taylor

Appalachian Forest Folklife ProjectMay 1994-

Coordinator: Mary Hufford

17

Tile American Folkrife CeII~er;s file Ileartbeat of efforts across tilt l/atiOI/,efforts made by people of very diverse etlmic grol1ps alld walks of life, ~o

cOl/serve alld trallsllli~ lVltat is 1II0St vital ill IIteir Ilerilage . ... Ti,e agellcyCOl/senles alld makes allailafJle to scllolars and to il/terested citi:ellspriceless docl/mellts ill ollr I/titiol/'s /Iisfory-recordillgs, pllofograp/ls,maul/scripts-and fJrillgs tile", alive fltrOllgll creative programming alldOl/freach.

Folklife specialist David A. Taylor reviews color slides from the Working inPaterson project, 1991. Photo by James Hardin. 1996

first was the New River GorgeFolklife Project, undertaken in con·junction with a congressionalexpansion of the Nev,' RiverGorgeNational River (a national park).Its report and recommendationsdealt with a proposal to establish acrafts and folklife center at a sitewithin the park. The second, en­titled the Appalachian ForestFolklife Project, is exploring tradi­tional culture along WestVirginia'seoal River with particu­lar attention to regional culturalknowledge and use of the naturalenvironment. In it, theCenter findsitself in a mediating role betweenscientists concerned about evi­dence of forest health or sicknessand local people who representthe only ample reservoir of knowl­edge about the subject.

Finally, a recent project in Pater­son, New Jersey, in connectionwith an urban history initiative inNew Jersey mandated by congres­sionallegislationand administeredby the National Park Service, hasreturned to the urban planningmodel exemplified by the earlierLowell project. The Paterson work,however, has shifted from an eth­nic emphasis, as in Lowell, to afocus on occupational traditionsin a city that, since the dawning ofindustrial America in the lateeigh­teenth century, has symbolized the

importance of manufacturing andthe concomitant importance of la­bor and small business skills andtraditions.

From the New Jersey Pinelandson, these projects have explored anew approach to fieldwork. TheCenter found itself working in aworld of planners and scientificsurveyors, and its role has been tomediate between planners and lo­cal citizens by providing modelsthrough which local culture couldbe included in planning. Withinthe National Park Service, the plan­ners represent a new generation ofpark professionals who have beengradually abandoning the acquire­control-and-manage model fornational parks and exploring mod­els for cooperation with local coo1-

Harriet FeiJlbergCambridge, Massacll1lsclfsl/flle 26, 1995

munities,operatingon the premisethai local people should be en­listed, not evicted. Their attitudescoincided with a clear trend in C011­

gressionallegislation toward a newkind of park unit that blurred parkboundaries, extolled partnershipas a goal, sought cost-sharing withlocal and state governmental unitsand the private sector, and envi~

sioned the liVing culture of citi­zens as a resource worth celebrat­ing and conserving.

Characteristics of Center FieldProjects

Field projects, spanning as theyhave the entire first generation ofthe Center's existence, have in asense defined the Center, just asfield recording expeditions de­fined the great Lomax era of theArchive. The Center's fieldworkranged from documentation of folkarts in the early years to immer­sion in community culturalplanning in the later years. Broad­ening of purpose has been a cleartrend, though the projects neverlost sight of the power of expres­sive culture to define communitylife and values. Curiously, thetrend within the Center's historyparallels a noticeable broadeningof scope in the Archive from themid-1930s on. Perhaps there is animbedded impulse in the profes­sional occupation of folklore tobroaden scope.

Nevertheless, certain recurrentfeatures may be called the hall­marks of Center field projects,whether early or late:

• Use of teams working to­gether ill the field;

• Emphasis on professionaldocumentation, including

18 Folklife Ceuter News

high-quality sound record­ings and professionalphotography;

• Attention to the full span ofexpressive culture in allforms;

• Interest in documenting thefull range of everyday life;

• Development of publica­tions, exhibitions, and otherpublic products from thefieldwork;

• Cooperation with other fed­eral and state agencies;

• Involvement of local peoplein defining Ihe thrust of fie1d­work and in developing plansand recommendations;

• Creation of large multi-for­mat ethnogra phic collectionsas a major product of thefieldwork;

• Creation of reference ar­chives in regional reposito­ries;

• Strengthening local capacityto continue the work in thefuture.

In a century that might fairlybe described as the documentarycentury, the idea of document­ing and preserving culturethrough the use of new technolo­gies began the century in therealm of scientific and artisticexperimentation, and ended thecentury as a mode of human in­tercourse so widely diffused asto become a generalized culturalmechanism. In the late twentiethcentury, documenting culture isculture. If something is impor·tant, one should take photo-

graphs, make sound recordings,or aim a videocamera at it; next,by subtle inference, document·ing it symbolically affirms one'sbelief in its importance.

In this context, the Center hasreflected, and at times anticipated,the larger trends in culturaldocumentation in the laterdecadesof the century. Centerfield projectshave both broken new ground andcontinued a tradition of folklifefield documentation associatedwith the Library of Congress sinceearly in the century. In the process,the field projects also provided amajor infusion and caused asubstantive transformation of theArchive of Folk Culture, addingover a half million items in variousmedia to the Archive's collections.(To be continued)

Lindy Boggs, Judith McCulloh, and Robert Malir, at the February 1996 meeting of the Board of Trusteesof the American Folklife Center. Boggs and Malir just completed their terms as board members and werepresented with duck decoys carved by Leonard Burcham: McCulloh was elected the new chair of the board.Photo by David A. Taylor

EDITOR'S NOTES from !,age 2

Center has carried out over thepast twenty years. tn the second

Wi"ter-Spri"g 1996

part, he will look at the growthand development of the Archiveof Folk Culture and a number ofthe Center's programmatic activi-

ties and will consider the place offolklife on the national culturalscene "as we approach the millen­nium."

19

Documentary photographer Bill Smock filming a cattle drive, Paradise Valley, Nevada, for the Paradise ValleyFolklife Project, 1979. A list of American Folklife Center documentary field projects and cultural surveys from thepast twenty years appears on page 17. (NV-4367-28) Photo by Carl Fleischhauer

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESSAMERICAN FOLKLTFE CENTER

WASHINGTON, D.C. 20540-4610

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