CENTERNEWSWINTER-SPRING 1997· VOLUME XIX, NUMBERS 1 AND 2

American Folklife Center • The Library of Congress

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The American Folklife Centerwas created in 1976 by the U.s. Con­gress to "preserve and presentAmerican folklife" through pro­grams of research, documentation,archival preservation, reference ser­vice, live performance, exhibition,publication, and training. The Cen­ter incorporates the Archive of FolkCulture, which was established inthe Music Division of the Library ofCongress in 1928 and is now one ofthe largest collections of ethno­graphic material from the UnitedStates and around the world.

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Doris Craig, Administrative AssistantMary Gainey, Clerk

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Nora Yeh, ArchivistPrograms

......Peter T. Bartis, Folklife SpecialistMary Hufford, Folklife Specialist

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HumanitiesAlan Jabbour, Director, American

Folklife Center

FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWSJames Hardin, Editor

jhar @ loc.govDavid A. Taylor, Editorial Advisor

John Biggs, Library of CongressGraphics Unit, Designer

Folklife Center News publishes ar­ticles on the programs and activi­ties of the American Folklife Cen­ter, as well as other articles on tra­ditional expressive culture. It isavailable free of charge from theLibrary of Congress, AmericanFolklife Center, Washington, D.C.20540-4610. Folklife Center Newsdoes not publish announcementsfrom other institutions or reviewsof books from publishers other thanthe Library of Congress. Readerswho would like to comment onCenter activities or newsletter ar­ticles may address their remarks tothe editor.

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EDITOR'S NOTES

Many Thanks!

Heartfelt thanks to all the mem­bers of the folklife communitywho have provided support andencouragement to the AmericanFolklife Center during the pastseveral years and taken time towrite to their members of Con­gress on our behalf. Through theleadership of Mark Hatfield and

continued on page 23

Cover: Three generations of women whoginseng together, Horse Creek, WestVirginia: Carla Pettry with her daughterNatalie and her mother, Shelby Estep,holding their seng hoes. Photo by LynthaEiler

Folklife Center News

Atnerican Ginseng and theIdea of the COInInons

Randy Sprouse, of Sundial, holding up a three-prong plant while ginsenging in Tom's Hollow. Photo by Lyntha Eiler

By Mary Hufford

The Sundial Tavern, known upand down Coal River as "Kennyand Martha's," is a mom-and-pop­style beer joint on Route 3, in Sun­dial, West Virginia, just north ofNaoma. Retired coal miner KennyPettry and his wife, Martha, nowin their sixties, have been the pro-

Winter-Spring 1997

prietors for nearly thirty years.The bar's modest facade belies theoften uproarious vitality of its eve­nings. On weekend nights themusic of Hank Williams, Bill Mon­roe, and Dolly Parton flows fromthe jukebox to mingle with thehaze of cigarettes, the clangor ofpinball, the crack and clatter ofpool, and the jocular talk and teas-

ing of friends from neighboringhollows and coal camps.

Like many taverns, the SundialTavern is a dynamic museum oflocal history, its walls coveredwith photographs, artifacts, andtrophies that register local per­spectives on national events, thetriumphs of patrons, and the pass­ing of eras. Among the items dis-

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There's an art to ginsenging now, but once you learn it, you neverforget it.

Ed Cantley,Rock Creek, West Virginia

Above the large specimen is alesser but still remarkable five­prong. The display speaks to thehigh status accorded to ginseng inlife and thought on Coal River.

Diggers call it "seng," and onCoal River the passion for sengruns deep. In 1994, the most recentyear for which figures are avail­able, the state of West Virginia ex­ported 18,698 dry pounds of wildginseng root from its fifty-fivecounties. l Though ginseng growswild throughout the mountainstate, more than half of the wildharvest came from eight contigu­ous counties in the state's south­western corner (Kanawha, Boone,Fayette, Raleigh, McDowell, Wyo­ming, Mingo, and Logan). "It's al­ways been like that," said BobWhipkey, who monitors the exportof ginseng for the state's Division

John Flynn's 1966 Pontiac was a familiar sight on CoalRiver. Wesley Scarbro, a citizen science volunteer fromRock Creek, inherited the vehicle, which now goes by thename "Mr. Flynn." Photo by Lyntha Eiler

from Sundial in his family cem­etery on Rock Creek, the hollow hewas born in fifty-seven years ago.

Tucked into the display on thewall behind the bar is a set offramed and laminated leaves.

Most peoplewould be hardput to identifythis specimen,but for manyof the tavern'sregular pa­trons it repre­sents an ex­traordinarytrophy and ob­ject of desire:the stalk froma rare six­prong ginsengplant, Panaxquinquefolia.

Science writer and forest activist John Flynn, in the JulieHoller above his homeplace on Rock Creek, a year beforean aneurysm claimed his life. He became well known in theseventies and eighties for his investigative reporting on en­vironmental issues, especially acid rain. Flynn's collabora­tion with Mary Hufford, which began in 1992, resulted in theCenter's Appalachian Forest Folklife Project. This documen­tary project on culture, community, and the mixed meso­phytic forest received partial funding from the Lila Wallace/Reader's Digest Community Folklife Program, administeredby the Fund for Folk Culture. Photo by Terry Eiler

played are photos of Dolly Parton(who is Martha's second cousin),an ingenious trigger-and-funnelmechanism for planting corn, anda souvenir cap that registers thepresent struggle of the UnitedMine Workers for survival on CoalRiver. On another wall hangs aphotograph of John Flynn, a be­loved science writer and forestadvocate, deemed one of the threebest pool players on Coal River.He spent many nights here talk­ing, sympathizing, arguing, jok­ing, and shooting pool. He died inMarch of 1996 and is buried not far

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Leaves from five- and six-pronged ginseng plants displayedas trophies at the Sundial Tavern. Randy Sprouse found thefive-prong and William Pyle found the six-prong. Photo byLyntha Eiler

of Forestry. "There are more dig­gers there because of the culture.People there grow up gatheringherbs and digging roots."

Because of wild ginseng's lim­ited range and extraordinary value(diggers are averaging $450 perpound for the dried wild root) thefederal government has beenmonitoring the export of ginseng(both wild and cultivated) since1978. Of nineteen states autho­rized to export wild ginseng, WestVirginia came in second, behindKentucky, which certified 52,993pounds. Tennessee came in third,with 17,997 pounds. In 1994 thesethree contiguous states certifiedmore than half of the 178,111pounds of wild ginseng reportedamong nineteen states. 2

Winter-Spring 1997

The Commons

There is a story in these figuresof a vernacular cultural domainthat transcends state boundaries.Anchoring this domain is a geo­graphical space-a de facto com­mons roughly congruent with twophysiographic regions recognizedin national discourse. One is thecoal fields underlying the ginseng,most of which are controlled byabsentee landholders. The other isthe mixed mesophytic forest,known among ecologists as theworld's biologically richest tem­perate-zone hardwood system.

This multi-layered region is in­creasingly the focus of debates pit­ting the short-term economicvalue of coal and timber against

the long-term value of a diverseforest system and topography. Be­cause the social and cultural sig­nificance of the geographical com­mons is unrecognized in nationaldiscourse, it is particularly at risk.As Beverly Brown points out inwriting about the rural workingclass in the Pacific northwest, theWidespread loss of access to thegeographical commons occurs intandem with a shrinking "civiccommons." 3

This loss of access is one effectof the privatization and enclosureof land that for generations hasbeen used as commons. Ruralpopulations with uncertain em­ployment have typically relied ongardening, hunting, and gatheringfor getting through hard times.Over the past decade, processes ofgentrification, preservation, andintensified extraction of timberand minerals have e'liminated thecommons in which communitieshave for generations exercisedfructuary rights. However, thisexercise is motivated by some­thing that goes beyond the pros­pect of economic gain.

Ginseng provides a case inpoint. Dollar for pound, ginseng isprobably the most valuable renew­able resource on the central Appa­lachian plateaus. 4 A linchpin inthe seasonal round of foraging,ginsenging is also essential to away of life. "I'd rather ginsengthan eat," said Dennis Dickens,eighty-five, of Peach Tree Creek."Every spare minute I had wasspent a-ginsenging."

"If you can't go ginsenging,"said Carla Pettry, thirty, of HorseCreek, "it totally drives youcrazy."

Ginseng's etymology and eco­nomic value both come fromChina and neighboring countries,where the root has long beenprized for conferring longevityand vigor of all sorts on its users.The term ginseng is an American­ization of the Chinese jin-chen L

meaning "manlike." The Latinterm Panax quinquefolia alludes to

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fFlG. l.-America,n ginseng.

fFIG.2.-:Fresh roots of ginseng from cultivated plQnt. a. One year old;b, two years old; c, three years old; d. four years old; I, bud; I, leafscar.

American ginseng, Panax quinquefolia. The term ginseng derives from the Chinese word pronounced "jin-chen," meaning"man-like." The Latin term alludes to the plant's function as a panacea, and its five-whorled leaves. Drawings from U.S.Department of Agriculture Bulletin 16, 1898

Doug Stover,Mullens, West Virginia

I'll tell you what's dying here: the concept that the forest itself.was open. ... It didn't dawn on me until a couple of years agowhen that began to change, that concept that the Native Ameri­cans had, that the land was like air or water-who could ownit?

the five whorled leaves on eachbranch and the plant's function asa panacea. The active ingredientsin the fleshy, humanoid root areginsenocides, chemical com­pounds celebrated for their capac­ity both to stimulate and soothe.Whether ginsenocides in fact war­rant such claims is a matter of con­tinuing controversy among scien­tists and physicians. 5

According to Randy Halstead,a Boone County buyer, "stressrings," which give the wild root itsmarket value, are linked with ahigher concentration of ginsen­ocides. Nearly impossible to repro­duce in cultivation, stress rings areproduced as the root pushesthrough soil just compact enoughto provide the right amount of re­sistance. The ancient, humus laden

soils in the mixed mesophytic for­ests of Tennessee, Kentucky, andsouthern West Virginia areginseng's ideal medium. "Themost prolific spreads of wild gin­seng," writes Val Hardacre, inWoodland Nuggets of Gold, "werefound in the region touched by theAllegheny Plateau and the se­cluded coves of the CumberlandPlateau." 6 Through centuries of

interaction with this valuable andelusive plant, residents of the pla­tea us ha ve created a rich andelaborate culture, a culture of thecommons.

Historical Background

The history of human interac­tion with ginseng lurks in the lan­guage of the land. Look at a

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detailed map of almost any por­tion of the region and ginseng isregistered somewhere, often in as­sociation with the deeper, moisterplaces: Seng Branch (FayetteCounty), Sang Camp Creek (LoganCounty), Ginseng (WyomingCounty), Seng Creek (BooneCounty), Three-Prong Holler (Ra­leigh). The hollows, deep dendriticfissures created over eons by wa­ter cutting through the ancienttable land to form tributaries of theCoal River, receive water fromlesser depressions that ripple the

"but not like in the swags there.""You just go in the darker

coves," said Wesley Scarbrough,twenty-five, who grew up on ClearFork, "where it just shadows theground so it'll be rich for ginseng."

Occupying higher and drierground are sandstone "campingrocks," formed on the bottoms ofancient seas. These natural ledgeshave sheltered people hunting andgathering in the mountains sinceprehistoric times, and during cen­turies of corn-woodland-pasture­land agriculture such ledges shel-

"Did you ever hear tell ofCharlie Rock?" asked WoodyBoggess, of Pettry Bottom. "That'sa famous place."

"I've camped out many a nightunder Charlie Rock," said RandySprouse, of Sundial. "People usedto live under Charlie Rock two orthree months at a time, camp outand dig ginseng."

The harvesting of ginseng (aswell as other wild plants) flour­ished within a system of corn­woodland-pastureland farming.Crucial to this system was re-

The upper elevation slopes and ridges, like those rising away from Peach Tree Creek and Drew'sCreek, have long served as a de facto commons. Names bestowed on every indentation register theseasonal exercise of fructuary rights since the late eighteenth-century. Photo by Lyntha Eiler

slopes. These depressions are dis­tinguished in local parlance as"coves" (shallower, amphitheater­shaped depressions), "swags"(steeper depressions, "swagged"on both sides), and "drains" (natu­ral channels through which waterflows out of the swag or cove). Theprime locations for ginseng arefound on the north-facing, "wet"sides of these depressions. "Oncein a while you'll find some on theridges," said Denny Christian,

Winter-Spring 1997

tered stock as well. Named byearly settlers who came to stay,sites like Jake Rock, John Rock,Turkey Rock, Crane Rock, andCharlie Rock served as bases forginsenging expeditions.

"My granddad and all themused to go and layout for weeks,ginsenging," said Kenny Pettry."A rock they stayed at, they calledit the Crane Rock, and they stayedback in under that. They'd be gonefor weeks ginsenging."

course to a vast, forested commonsrising away from the settled hol­lows. Though nineteenth-centurypatriarchs like "Mountain Perry"Jarrell homesteaded portions of it,the mostly unsettled higher eleva­tion ridges and slopes supplied thecommunity with essential materi­als and staples: wood for fires,barns, fences, homes, and tools;coal for fuel; rich soil for growingcorn, beans, and orchards; nuts,herbs, mushrooms, berries, and

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The face of John Rock, a sandstone "camping rock," inscribed with local history.More than fifty years ago, Covey Turner etched his initials on it with a carbidelamp while on a ginsenging expedition with his buddies and their dogs. The roadconnecting Drew's Creek to this site was recently closed for coal mining. Photoby Lyntha Eiler

right to continue using the surfaceresources in exchange for mineralrights.10 Hence, despite the flurryof "quit claim deeds" and "deedsin ejectment" on record for theearly decades of the century, thecondition of exile imposed onsome people by those transactionshas only gradually been realized.In the aggregate, whatever theterms of individual transactions,access to the land for fructuaryuses like hunting, gathering, andfarming has tempered the negativeeffects of corporate dominationover the past century. 11

Before the development of awage-labor economy, ginseng wasthe most reliable source of cashincome on Coal River. "The wholeeconomy was built up around gin­seng," said Quentin Barrett, ofBeckley. "They had a few eggs andchickens, but most of it was-the

game, an open-range for hogs andcattle, and spaces for anonymousstills. Because of the abundantsupply of tree fodder (wild nutsand fruit) the central Appalachianplateau in the nineteenth centuryfurnished some of the bestpastureland in the country. A sea­sonal round of plying the com­mons is registered in many of thenames for swags and coves: Wal­nut Hollow, Paw-Paw Hollow,Beech Hollow, Red Root Hollow,Sugar Camp Hollow, and so forth.During the turbulent early de­cades of industry the suppressedcivic commons survived in loftythickets where miners met in se­cret to organize their union.

As practice and concept, thecommons is ancient, pre-datingthe idea of private property, 7

which began exerting pressure onlocal commons in England at thetime of the Norman Conquest.Since then history has beenmarked by recurrent efforts to en­close the commons for use bywealthy non-local interests. 8 InEngland the social and environ-

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mental effects of suchuse included irrevers­ible deforestation,degradation of soilsand water, homeless­ness, and the emer­gence of the world'sfirst industrial work­ing class. 9

What happened inthe late nineteenthcentury on Coal Riverand throughout theplateaus may beviewed as an episodein the continuing his­tory of transnationalappropria tion andenclosure of the com­mons. Throughoutcentral Appalachia,newly formed landcompanies surrepti­tiously subverted thesystem of the com­mons, taking outdeeds on its un­claimed portions, of­fering small amountsof money and the

Quentin Barrett, Beckley, West Virginia. Photo byLyntha Eiler

Folklife Center News

Opened by R.E. Barrett in 1871, the Charles Jarrell Store at the mouth of DryCreek is the oldest commercial establishment in Raleigh County. "Just about[Barrett's] only source of cash was from the sale of ginseng," said Bob Daniel,Barrett's great-grandson. Photo by Lyntha Eiler

speaking of his great-grandfather."His name was Griffin Stallings.And he was a wheeler and dealer.He was wealthy. So he puts up astore at Whitesville and he buys allthe seng at Whitesville, and hebuys all the seng at Madison andputs up another store somewheretoward Logan up in the head ofPond Fork.

"So he buys all the seng com­ing and going. So come fall, he'sready to ship it. How do you getyour seng to market? Only placeyou could sell it, really a bigbunch, was Philadelphia or Cin­cinnati or someplace like that. Sohe loads up his hired man, thewagons, and takes all the sengdown to Huntington, puts him ona boat. The hired man was sup­posed to take all this seng, a year'ssupply of seng and sell it and bringthe money back. He never saw thehired man again. He never got itback.

"Well, after the Civil War wasover, he had a boy [Joel], and theboy was a high-ranking man in theConfederate army and so his sonran for office. Along about thattime, he got elected, he goes to

ginseng and theywould buy theirshoes and salt andstaples and so forthand he in turn sold itto exporters in NewYork or a broker, andthat sent some cashdollars back here." 12

Fortunes and po­litical careers werebuilt on ginseng inthe nineteenth cen­tury. Daniel Booneon a bad day lost twotons of the root whenthe barge carrying itsank in the OhioRiver. Ginseng mon­ey helped build thefortune of John JacobAstor as well as thepolitical career of anearly senator fromCalifornia, accordingto a story QuentinBarrett called a "gin­seng tale."

"There was an oldman at Madison,over on Little CoalRiver," said Barrett,

Randy Halstead, owner of "Randy's Recycling" inPeytona, buys and sells ginseng. Photo by LynthaEiler

whole crew would go out andhunt ginseng in the fall."

"That's all my grandma used todo, years ago, she'd ginseng," re­called Shelby Estep, who nowginsengs with her daughter andgranddaughter on Coal RiverMountain. "That's the way shebought the kids clothes. She hadtwelve."

Around the export of ginsenga class of entrepreneurs emergedwho would buy the ginseng fromdiggers and get it to the metropoli­tan centers to trade for goods thatcould not be produced locally. In1871 Quentin Barrett's grandfa­ther, R.E. Barrett, began tradingmerchandise for ginseng from hisstore on Dry Creek. "Just about hisonly source of cash was from gin­seng sales," said Bob Daniel, R.E.Barrett's great grandson, "Thepeople would come out of the hol­lows in the fall and sell him their

Winter-Spring 1997 9

Washington. And the first man heran into was a senator from Cali­fornia, and that senator from Cali­fornia was the hired man who'dleft with his daddy's ginseng!" 13

During the first half of thetwentieth century, ginseng contin­ued to infuse cash into the scrip­driven economy of the coal camps."My dad was a coal miner whenthe union was organizing," saidRandy Halstead. "He was in­volved in that, so a lot of times hewas out of work. So you send tenchildren to school, and workingnow and then, you had to makemoney whatever way you could.We would dig ginseng to buy ourschool clothes and buy our booksso we could go back to school inthe fall."

In the coal boom of the 1990s,when the coal industry no longerdepends much on a resident popu­lation, many roads leading into thecommons have been gated off.Ginseng nonetheless contributes avital piece to an economic patch­work that includes recurrentoutmigration to find temporaryemployment, odd jobs, fishing,flea-market work, and raising pro­duce.

"Ginseng's getting rare becauseso many people's out of work andso many people's digging it," saidRandy Sprouse, who was himselfunemployed at the time.

Joe Williams, who ginsengswith Randy, disagreed. "1'd saymost of the people that ginseng arepeople that works. They just loveto ginseng. I miss work to goginsenging."

"What do you like about it thatyou'd miss work for it?" I askedhim.

"Well, it's really something tofind a big old stalk of seng. That'sw ha t you're looking for. Fiveprongs. If you'd ever get into it,you'd like it."

Stalking the Wily Seng

ginsengers' world it behaves likefauna. Ginseng is not merely "har­vested," it is "hunted," and raresix-, seven-, and eight-prong speci­mens are coveted like twelve-pointbucks. There is an agency assignedto ginseng unparalleled among themany plants valued on Coal River."It hides away from man withseeming intelligence," wroteArthur Harding in a 1908 manualfor diggers and cultivators. 14

"You never know where you'regoing to find ginseng," said ErnieScarbrough, of Rock Creek.

Seng is a verb as well as a noun."I senged in there, and senged inthere, and senged in there," re­ported Cuba Wiley, of Peytona,"and I didn't find any." In storiesabout ginseng the plant appearsunbidden, almost like a quarrysneaking up on its stalker. "I wasstanding there looking around,"said David Bailey, of Stickney,"and there was a big four-prong

brushing my britches legs before Ilooked down and saw it."

"Now a lot of times," said JoeWilliams, "you'll walk up, bestanding there, and look rightdown at your feet and it'll bethere."

Ginseng's uniqueness is much­vaunted. "It's the most beautifulplant in the woods," said RandyHalstead. "Especially when itchanges its color and it's got theseed on it." In spring ginsengsends up a stem that branches intostalks, each terminating in a clus­ter of five-toothed leaflets. Theolder the root, the more stalks, or"prongs," it sends up. IS A clusterof yellow-green flowers, scentedlike lilies of the valley, appears inspring and matures through thesummer into the bright red "podof berries" that ginseng diggerslook for in fall.

In late September ginseng be­gins to turn an opalescent yellow,

Though in biological terms gin­seng is properly flora, in the

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Dennis Dickens, Peach Tree Creek. Photo by Lyntha Eiler

Folklife Center News

Joe Williams, digging ginseng in Tom's Hollow.Photo by Lyntha Eiler

utterly distinctive to diggers."That is a different color to anyother yellow," said DennisDickens. "You can spot that."

On a warm day in Septemberphotographer Lyntha Eiler and Iare clambering around on thenear-perpendicular slopes ofTom's Hollow near Whitesville.Joe Williams, of Leevale, selectedthis site because it contained pop­lar and sassafras growing on the"wet side" of the mountain. "Youdon't find it where oaks are at," hesays. He peers out through the col­umns of maples, hickories, sour­wood, black gum, walnut, poplar,and sassafras, searching for bril­liant red berries and the distinctiveyellow of ginseng:

Slung over Williams's shoulderis a bag for carrying ginseng, andin his hand he carries a "seng hoe."Seng hoes are essentially double­bladed mattocks modified to serveas walking sticks. You cannot pur­chase one. On Coal River senghoes are produced by remodellingimplements made for other pur­poses.

Taken as a collec­tion, seng hoes registerin concentrated form apool of experientialknowledge attached tothe commons. "Theyused to take old minepicks when they'dwear out and cut themoff at the blacksmithshop," said MaeBongalis, eighty, ofNaoma. "They make agood one."

Herman Williams,of Clear Fork, hasadapted a fire poker foruse as a seng hoe. BenBurnside's is made,like his father's, from arecycled automobilespring. A popularmodel generally has anaxe blade for cutting,and a mattock blade fordigging. Its longhandle serves as a

walking stick, and a weapon to bewielded in self-defense againstcopperheads and rattlesnakes.

"It's real light," said ShortyBongalis. "Something you cancarry through the woods."

"It's light," said RandySprouse, "to beat the weeds."

Brandishing his seng hoe, Wil­liams calls out in jest, "Here Mr.Four-Prong!"

Ginseng is notoriously unpre­dictable. It does not send up a stalkevery year. 16 Added to this is theappetite for ginseng shared bydeer, pheasants, groundhogs,squirrels, and other small birdsand mammals, which consumestalks and berries, unwittinglyconserving the plant both by hid­ing the roots and serving as agentsof dispersal. Thus theories ofwhere to look for this seeminglyperipatetic plant flourish.

"Everybody's got a differentway of fishing," said RandyHalstead. "You know: 'My baitworks.'"

Vernon Williams sengs in "theroughest, wildest, snakiest places"

he can find. Denny Christian looksaround "sugar trees" (Acersaccharum) and black walnut.

"If you look under the righttree," said Ernie Scarbrough, "youmight find a stalk of seng. There'strees I go for yet, ginsenging...sugar maples and black gum,whenever you can find one. Andthe hickories. Squirrels is in thehickories, and they eat the ripeginseng berries. So it makes a lotof ginseng around the hickories."

Ginseng orders the landscapearound itself, providing a basis foridentifying related flora. Look­alike plants like sarsaparilla andcohosh have been given nick­names like "fool's seng," "he­seng," and "seng pointer." "The

Randy Sprouse's seng hoe. The headcan be twisted to mimic a hen turkey.Photo by Lyntha Eiler

reason why they call it 'sengpointer,'" said Randy Halstead,"it's got three branches, one goesthis way, one this way, and onegoes straight out this way, and theold people would say that onewould be pointing towards theginseng plant. Of course it prob­ably is somewhere within a hun­dred miles out in front of it, butthat's how that got started. Theylike the same kind of a place togrow."

Winter-Spring 1997 11

Ginseng drying in a window. Photo by Lyntha Eiler

Halstead said experi­enced dealers can tellwhich county a root camefrom because differencesin soil conditions produceroots that are bulby likepearl onions, or elongatedlike carrots. "Now in thisarea we have dark, richer,loose soil, and the ginsenggrows longer, like a carrot.But you get into some ofthe neighboring countieswi th clay soil, it's realbulby because the ginsengcan't push down into thedirt."

Dealers can also tell ata glance whether a root is"wild" or "tame." "Wild"seng exhibits "stress rings"from pushing throughwild soils. "Loosening thesoil causes the roots togrow rapidly," explainedRandy Halstead. "Whatmakes the roots valuable isthe ringiness, the ringsthat's on the ginseng."

Pausing for breath inTom's Hollow, Joe Will-iams finds a four-prong, toppedwith a "pod of berries." Flailingaway at its base he discovers to hischagrin that someone else has al­ready taken the root, adhering tothe local practice of replanting thestalk attached to the dog-leggedrhizome pocked with stem scars."That's called the 'curl,'" says Wil­liams, carefully reinstating it. "1usually put maybe two joints of itback. It's a better way of keepingit going than the berries... .I'llcome back here some year and getanother root off of that."

Other strategies for conservingginseng include scattering seedswhere ginseng is known to grow,snipping the tops off of "five­leaves" and "two-prongs" so thatless scrupulOUS diggers won't findthem until they are bigger in fu­ture years, and transplantingyoung plants to sites closer tohome where they can be moni­tored. 17

12

Many residents on Coal Riverpropagate wild patches of ginsengin the woods surrounding theirhomes. "We didn't exactly culti­vate it," said Dave Bailey. "See ourback porch went up to here, andthen up here was the woods. Meand my brother, we just got someof it and we set it, to see if it wouldcome up next year, and when itdid, it accumulated and accumu­lated, and whenever I got marriedand left, why the whole back ofthat hill was ginseng."

Left to its own devices, ginsengsimply sheds the seeds for gravityto deliver downslope. Conse­quently, one mode of tracking gin­seng is to look uphill from any"five-leaves" or immature plantsfor the big progenitor. "I've donethat many a time," said DaveBailey. "You go up the hill, youcome to a little flat area and ifthere's any seng growing there youalways look above it for a big one."

Giles the Seng Man

One of the more famousbuyers who infused cashinto the economy duringthe boom-and-bust periodof coal was "Giles the SengMan." Diggers generallysell ginseng to centers thatrecycle scrap metal andbroker other non-woodyforest products like moss,mayapple, bloodroot, co­hosh, and golden seal.During the thirties, forties,and fifties much of the gin­seng on Marsh Fork wasbought by "Giles the SengMan," remembered for hiswoolly aspect and bibbedoveralls, and his annualtrek along the roads trac­ing the tributaries of theCoal River's Marsh Fork.

"There used to be agentleman," Denny Chris­tian said. "Old Man Giles,they called him. The SengBuyer. And he worebibbed overhauls. Had novehicle, no horse, nor

nothing. He always come in a­walking. Every fall he would makehis rounds. And I'd senged thatsummer with my grandpa, and oldman Giles, he came through."

"He was a legend," said JennyBonds, quilting with the womenwho gather weekly on Drew'sCreek.

"Nobody knows where that oldman come from," said MabelBrown, "and nobody-"

"-knows where he went,"Jenny finished. "He'd just walk byin his big old overhauls and strut,strut by."

"Old Man Giles many a timecome to our house," Dave Baileyremembered. "He'd keep changein his pocket. Wore overalls, had agray beard and an old hat andhere's the way he'd walk, youknow." Here Bailey demonstratesGiles' inimitable strut. "He'd say'Hubert, you got any seng?' AndDad would get wood all the time,

Folklife Center News

Jenny Bonds and Nancy Jarrell, of Drew's Creek. Photo by Lyntha Eiler

Woody Boggess, of Pettry Bottom, in the ramp patch he planted behind his homein Pettry Bottom. Photo by Lyntha Eiler

go out in the woods cut a little tim­ber, if he found seng he'd dig it.He'd have a handful dry, maybefifty cents worth."

"00 you remember Giles theginseng man?" I asked DennisDickens.

"Tommy Giles?" said DennisDickens. "1 remember him well. Iused to sell to him. He was origi­nally from Germany, I think.Someone told me that they got himas an alien and kept him in prisonthrough the war. I know he wasn'taround here through the war. Hewas a great big man, black beard,and he always walked. Some­body'd stop and ask him, 'Want aride Mr. Giles?' ... 'No, I'm in ahurry, I'll just walk!'"

Seng Talk and Ginseng Tales:Conjuring the Commons

For seng aficionados, the ongo­ing prospect of ginseng makes themountains gleam with hiddentreasure. "It's like catching a bigfish," said Randy Halstead."You're out here all day and youfind this big fish, and you knowit's everybody's desire to catch this

big fish in the lake. You find thisbig enormous plant and you knoweverybody that's out there dig­ging, this is the one that they'd liketo find. So you get an adrenalinrush when you find them, andwhen you find a big one it's likeshowing off your daily catch. You

bring it in and say, 'Look what Ifound today.'"

"You can't get out and dig it forthe money," said Joe Williams."It's like looking for Easter eggs.You're always looking for the bigone. If I found one eight ounces, Ibelieve I'd quit."

Winter-Spring 1997 13

Cuba Wiley, of Andrew. Photo by Lyntha Eiler

"The one that boy brought in

up at Flats weighed a pound," saidRandy Sprouse.

"I'd like to have seen that one,"said Williams.

"It was a monster," Sprouseemphasized.

"That's what you get out for,"Williams mused. "Always lookingfor the big one."

On Coal River, ginseng plays avital role in imagining and sus­taining a culture of the commons.Among the means of keeping thecommons alive is talk about gin­seng: where to hunt it, its myste­rious habits, the biggest specimensever found, and the difficulties ofwresting the treasure from an im­possibly steep terrain shared bybears, copperheads, rattlesnakes,and yellow-jackets. The ability andauthority to engage in this dis­course is indeed hard won.

Over generations of social con­struction in story and in practice,places on the commons accrue adense, historical residue. Everywrinkle rippling the mountainshas been named for people, flora,fauna, practices, and events bothsingular and recurrent: Beech Hol­low, Ma Kelly Branch, Bear Wal­low, Board Camp Hollow, and OldField Hollow. "I guess there musthave been a newground in thereat one time," said Ben Burnside, ofRock Creek, alluding to the old­time practice of clearing woodlandto grow corn and beans.

Overlooking the valley from itsgiant tightly crimped rim, placeslike the Head of Hazy, Bolt Moun­tain, Kayford Mountain, the Cut­ting Box, Chestnut Hollow, andSugar Camp anchor realities spunout in a conversation that WoodyBoggess Videotaped in Andrew,West Virginia. In one exchange,Cuba Wiley and Dave Bailey con­jure and co-inhabit a terrain sosteep that seng berries would rollfrom the ridge to the hardtop.

"You know where the mostseng is I ever found up in thatcountry?" asked Cuba Wiley. "I'mgoing to tell you where it was at.

14

You won't believe it."

"Chestnut Holler, I'll bet you,"guessed Dave Bailey.

"I found one of the awfullestpatches of it, left-hand side ofChestnut Holler," Cuba continued."I never seen such roots of seng in

my life, buddy. And where I foundall my seng, the good seng, comeright this side of ClydeMontgomery's, and come downthat first holler, and go up thatholler and turn back to the right.Buddy it is steep."

"Going toward the CuttingBox?" asked Dave Bailey, referringto a place named for a miningstructure.

"I senged that through there,"said Cuba, "from there to Stickney,

and I have really found the sengin there. One time me and GarGobel was in there, and Clydewould start up the mountain, andwe just kept finding little fourleaves, all the way up the moun­tain.

"Gar says, 'Cuba there's a bigone somewhere. It seeded down­hill.' We senged plumb to the topof the mountain, Cutting Box, goton top, and that old big nettleweedwas that high, Gar had him a bigstick, was hunting for the big one.Right on tip top the mountain, di­rectly beneath them, it was aboutup to my belt, buddy. It didn'thave such a big root on it, and Istill wasn't satisfied. Gar, hedropped over the Cutting Box, and

Folklife Center News

David Bailey, of Stickney. Photo by Lyntha Eiler

I still searched around up on top,parting the weeds, and directly, Ifound them about that high [indi­cates a height of about three feet],two of them right on top of themountain. It was so steep, [the ber­ries] rolled plumb down next to

the hard road, buddy. I got moreseng in there than any place I eversenged in that part of the country.It's steep, buddy."

''It's rough too, ain't it?" saidDave Bailey.

''It's rough, buddy," Cubaagreed. "But I swear I dug somegood seng in there, buddy. And Idug some good seng in SugarCamp."

Cuba's amazing account re­minds Woody Boggess of a tall tale

Winter-Spring 1997

he heard from his brother. "You re­member that time Bud and FrenchTurner was ... up there sawingtimber for Earl Hunter? Remem­ber Bud telling you about that? Hesaid he was sawing that big tree.Thought it was a buckeye. And

stuff like tomatoes started hittinghim in the head."

"It was seng berries," laughedDave.

''It was seng berries," Woodydead-panned.

"Said it was big as tomatoes,"said Dave, still chuckling.

"Boy, that was some stalk ofseng," allowed Cuba, his eyestwinkling.

Such stories conjure the com­mons as a rich social imaginary.

Through narrative the commonsbecomes a public space, its historyplayed out before audiences whoknow intimately its spaceswhether they have been there to­gether or not. Inhabiting the com­mons through practice and narra­tive confers social identity andmakes a community of its occu­pants. "I work in construction,"wrote Dennis Price, forty, ofArnett, on a petition to documentthe cultural value of the mixedmesophytic forest. "But really Iconsider myself a ginsenger."

In the realm unfolded throughginseng stories and other tales ofplying the woods, the commonsbecomes a proving ground onwhich attributes of courage, loy­alty, belonging, stamina, wit, fool­ishness, stewardship, honesty,judgement, and luck are displayedand evaluated. Collective reflec­tion on what it means to be aginsenger gives rise to reflectionon what in fact it means to be hu­man. It is through such a processthat the geographic commons nur­tures a civic commons as a forumfor consensus and dissent.

Ginseng and the Future of theCommons

"Understanding the commonsand its role within the larger re­gional culture," writes GarySnyder, "is one more step towardintegrating ecology with econ­omy." Environmental policy, fo­cussed too narrowly on physicalresources, loses sight of the web ofsocial relationships and processesin which those resources are em­bedded and made significant."They're taking our dignity by de­stroying our forest," as VernonWilliams, of Peach Tree Creek, putit.

Williams was referring to thelandscapes taking shape on theplateaus during the present coaland timber boom. Since 1990 thestate has permitted tens of thou­sands of acres in southern WestVirginia for mountaintop removal

15

Relatives gathered for a Stanley Family reunion on top of Kayford Mountain survey an eleven-mile-Iongmountaintop-removal project on Cabin Creek. "I've senged that mountain many a time," said an unem­ployed coal miner. "No one will ever seng there again." Photo by Lyntha Eiler

and reclamation. Mountaintop re­moval is a method of mining thatshears off the top of a mountain,allowing the efficient recovery ofmultiple seams of coal. 18 Whenthe "topped" mountains are rigor­ously reclaimed under the terms ofthe Surface Mining Control andReclamation Act of 1977, the richsoils essential to ginseng and hard­wood cove forests are gone, andwith them the multigenerationalachievement of the commons.

What is missing in the environ­mental debate is any recognitionof the commons and its critical rolein community life. Such recogni­tion, not unusual in the countriesof Europe, could reopen portionsof the civic commons that is sup­pressed in environmental plan­ning by an unwieldy and inacces­sible process of technical assess­ment. For instance, a slurry pondthat fills the evacuated hollow ofShumate's Branch was permittedon the grounds that there were no

16

endangered species, no historicartifacts (with the exception of acemetery, which was relocated),and no prime farmland (despite ahistory of subsistence farming atleast three generations deep). Withthat testimony, the commonsspecified in Cuba Wiley's narra­tives was quietly erased. 19

In the social imaginary shapedby narrative on Coal River, gin­seng, commons, and communitylife are inseparable, yet there arepresently no means available forsafeguarding that relationship. Astandard recourse, declaring gin­seng an endangered species,would clearly be culturally de­structive, since it would make avital cultural practice illegal. Wildginseng in fact would seem tomerit federal protection not be­cause it is endangered but becausewithin its limited range it is inte­gral to the venerable social insti­tution of the commons.

Ginseng may be a powerful tool

for resolving some very thornydilemmas. A touchstone for eco­nomic, cultural, and environmen­tal interests, ginseng provides atangible link between ecology andeconomy. Given ginseng's predi­lection for native hardwood forestand rich soils, national recognitionof its cultural value would be away to begin safeguarding both aglobally significant hardwood for­est and the cultural landscape towhich it belongs.

Notes

1. Since 1978 the U.S. Depart­ment of the Interior's Fish andWildlife Service has tracked thecertification of ginseng for exportunder the Convention on Interna­tional Trade in Endangered Spe­cies of Wild Fauna and Flora(CITES). Ginseng is listed in Ap­pendix II.

2. Ginseng can be cultivated,and in fact cultivated ginseng

Folklife Center News

A slurry pond constructed on Shumate's Branch. "Slurry," thefine wet refuse from the coal cleaning process, is stored behinda dam engineered out of the coarse refuse. Though the damsare highly regulated, slurry has been elsewhere linked with se­vere flooding and "blowouts." "There's a saying around here,"said one storekeeper. "We fear the river above more than theriver below." In the foreground is the Marsh Fork Middle School.Photo by Lyntha Eiler

comprises more than 90 percent ofAmerican ginseng exports (ASPIBulletin 38). However "tameseng," as diggers call it, com­mands an average price of thirtydollars a pound. That sector of theindustry is concentrated in Wis­consin, which in 1994 certifiedmore than 1,000,000 of the1,271,548 pounds reported nation­ally.

3. Brown, Beverly. "Fencing the

Winter-Spring 1997

Northwest Forests: Decline of Pub­lic Access and AccustomedRights," Cultural Survival Quar­terly (spring 1996), pp. 50-52.

4. According to a study directedby scientist Albert Fritsch, whoheads the Appalachian Center forScience in the Public Interest, theChinese market alone will bear 12billion dollars worth of ginsengannually. "Ginseng in Appala­chia," ASPI Technical Series 38 (Mt.

Vernon, Kentucky: Appalachia­Science in the Public Interest,1996). To provide a basis for com­parison, according to the West Vir­ginia Mining and Reclamation As­sociation in Charleston, West Vir­ginia, the coal industry meets adirect annual payroll of 1 billiondollars for the state of West Vir­ginia.

5. Ibid. "Though ginseng iscommonly prescribed by physi­cians in Asia and Russia for a num­ber of ailments, Western medicinehas been skeptical of the herb. Inthe United States it is illegal tomarket ginseng for medical pur­poses because it has not beentested by the Food and Drug Ad­ministration. Instead, it is mar­keted as a health food or with vi­tamin supplements."

6. Hardacre, Val, Woodland Nug­gets of Gold. New York: VantagePress, 1968: 56

7. Beryl Crowe writes that "thecommons is a fundamental socialinstitution that has a history goingback through our own colonialexperience to a body of Englishcommon law which antedates theRoman conquest. That law recog­nized tha t in societies there aresome environmental objects whichhave never been, and should neverbe, exclusively appropriated toany individual or group of indi­viduals." "The Tragedy of theCommons Revisited," in GarretHardin and John Baden, eds. Man­aging the Commons (San Francisco:Freeman, 1977).

8. Gary Snyder's brief historyof the six hundred year struggle inEngland highlights the historicaldepth of contemporary issues.Wool corporations, an early formof agribusiness, played a role infifteen th-century enclosures.Snyder writes, "The arguments forenclosure in England-efficiency,higher production-ignored socialand ecological effects and servedto cripple the sustainable agricul­ture of some districts." "Under­standing the Commons," in

17

Environmental Ethics, eds. Susan J.Armstrong and Richard G. Botzler.New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993:227-31.

9. Snyder, pp. 228-29.10. Consequently, according to

a study by the AppalachianLandownership Task Force,roughly 80 to 90 percent of theland is controlled by absenteeowners. See Who Owns Appala­chia? Land Ownership and Its Im­pact. Lexington: University Pressof Kentucky, 1983. For more de­tailed documentation of the oftenillegal means of land acquisition,see David Alan Corbin, Life, Work,and Rebellion in the West VirginiaCoal Fields, and Ronald Eller, Min­ers, Millhands, and Mountaineers.An abundance of stories persistin oral tradition on Coal Riverabout how the company "took"the land.

11. Paul Salstrom argues thatthis use of the land for farmingand hunting ultimately subsidizedthe coal industry. Compensatingfor depressed wages, it kept theunion out of southern West Vir­ginia longer than in other areas.Appalachia's Path To Dependency(Lexington: University Press ofKentucky, 1994). See also DavidAlan Corbin, Life, Work, and Rebel­lion in the Coal Fields: The SouthernWest Virginia Miners 1880-1922(Urbana: University of IllinoisPress) 1981: 37-38. Two local landcompanies have publically ac­counted for the recent enclosuresby citing instances of lawsuitsbrought against them by personsinjured while gathering wood on"the property."

12. Among the figures pub­lished by the U.S. Department ofAgriculture from 1858 to 1896 thehighest number of pounds ex­ported from the United States was630,714 in 1863; the lowest was110,426 in 1859. The total for thethirty six years was 13,738,415. Noofficial records were kept by stateor county in West Virginia."American Ginseng: Its Commer­cial History, Protection, and Cul-

18

tivation," Bulletin Number 16.Washington, D.C.: United StatesDepartment of Agriculture, 1896:16-17.

13. According to records com­piled by Janet Hager of Hewett inBoone County, Joel Stallings be­came an attorney following hisservice as a confederate captainduring the Civil War and was thenelected to the state legislature. Tra­dition holds that, on a trip toWashington, Stallings encoun­tered Senator James ThompsonFarley of California (Democrat,1879-85), and recognized him asthe hired man who never returned.The Biographical Directory of theUnited States Congress states thatFarley made his way fromAlbemarle County, Virginia, toCalifornia via Missouri.

14. Harding, Arthur, Ginsengand Other Medicinal Plants. Boston:Emporium Press, 1972 (reprint of1908 original).

15. "Our data show that on anaverage a one-pronged plant willbe 4.5 (plus or minus 1.6) yearsbefore it develops a second prong,that a two-pronged plant will be7.6 (plus or minus 2.4) years beforedeveloping a third prong, and thata three-pronged individual willaverage 13.5 (plus or minus 3.3)years before adding a fourthprong." Walter H. Lewis andVincent E. Zenger, "Ginseng Popu­lation Dynamics," American Jour­nal of Botany 69:1483-90, 1982, p.1485.

16. Diggers and dealers observethat because ginseng does notsend up a stalk every year, it isimpossible to calculate preciselythe age of a given specimen or toassess the extent of the population."Some of this wild ginseng couldbe thirty or forty years old," saidRandy Halstead. "If every plantwould come up one year it wouldbe plentiful. You have maybe 50percent of it that'll germinate eachyear. If it gets in a stressful situa­tion, it sheds its top." Research byLewis and Zenger on cultivatedginseng found 10 percent of the

population to be dormant in agiven year.

17. Such seng is termed "woodsgrown," and if properly set maybring top dollar. "If it looks wild,"said Halstead, "it sells for wild."

18. The present boom is an ef­fect of the Clean Air Act of 1990,which set acceptable levels forsulphate emissions from coal-firedfacilities and increased the na­tional demand for the low-sulphurbituminous coal found in the re­gion.

19. Because the region's low­sulphur coal has to be washed tocome into compliance with theClean Air Act, valleys must befound for storing the "slurry"­fine, wet, black refuse from thecoal cleaning and separation pro­cess. To contain the slurry, tower­ing impoundments are built at themouths of hollows out of thecoarse refuse. A similar structurecollapsed on October 30, 1996,near Pennington Gap, Virginia.See Spencer S. Hsu, "Rural Va.Coal Field Accident Turns StreamsBlack, Chokes Thousands of Fish,"The Washington PostL November I,1996, B4.

Folklife Center News

Atnerican Folklife CenterCelebrates Twenty Years

Senator Mark Hatfield addresses the assembled guests at the twentieth-anni­versary celebration of the American Folklife Center, September 18, 1996.

Story by Craig D'OogePhotographs by Larry Glatt

Approximately two hundredinvited guests assembled in thenorth curtain of the Library ofCongress's Jefferson Building,September 18, 1996, to celebratethe twentieth anniversary of theAmerican Folklife Center. TheGospel Pearls opened the eventwith a song called "Speak to MyHeart," an appropriate theme songfor the evening as one speaker af­ter another expressed heartfeltsupport for the Center. FolklifeCenter staff were stationed attables displaying the collections ofthe Archive of Folk Culture andexplaining the many programsand projects that have served thecongressional mandate of theCenter's legislation to "preserveand present American folklife."

Librarian of Congress James H.Billington welcomed the guestsand said he wanted to "reaffirmboth my personal and our institu­tional commitment to fosteringand supporting the mission of theAmerican Folklife Center." In hisremarks he called the Center "oneof our strongest and most effectiveprograms since its inception" in1976. Only two days before thecelebration, the President signedthe Legislative Branch Appropria­tions Act for 1997, which includeda clause authorizing the Centerthrough 1998. This took place onlyafter earlier proposals to downsizethe Center and fold it into the Li­brary as a division or move it tothe Smithsonian Institution werewithdrawn. A sustained round of

Winter-Spring 1997

applause answered the Librarian'sstatement that now was the timeto begin the task of seeking per­manent authorization for the Cen-

ter. Since it was founded, the Cen­ter has been periodically reautho­rized for periods of up to threeyears at a time.

19

Folklorist Archie Green reminisces about his work in lobbying for the creation ofthe Folklife Center, while Librarian of Congress James H. Billington looks on.

The Librarian then introducedSenator Mark O. Hatfield (R-Or­egon), one of the sponsors of theoriginal legislation to establish theCenter. Senator Hatfield also wasinstrumental in obtaining theCenter's most recent authoriza­tion. In his remarks, he shared hisviews on the importance of round­ing out our understanding of his­tory through the first-person nar­ratives of persons whose dailylives flesh out historical periods,citing the diaries of women whotraveled the Oregon Trail and theobservations of Samuel Pepys,whose diary provides a detailedrecord of life in seventeenth-cen­tury London.

What might be called the legis­lative utility of folklore was exem­plified in a story Senator Hatfieldtold about how opposing views ona piece of legislation came to beresolved. In the midst of a heateddebate, he was invited by Senator

20

The Gospel Pearls, from Washington, D.C., opened and closed the celebration. On display be­hind the group is the winning quilt in the "1996 All-American Quilt Contest" sponsored by GoodHousekeeping and Coming Home, a division of Lands' End. The quilt was made by Candy Goffof Lolo, Montana. Photographs of the contest entries and accompanying material have beendonated to the American Folklife Center.

Folklife Center News

Lindy Boggs, former trustee of the Folklife Center, accepts the thanks of celebration guests for all hermany contributions to the Center and to American folk culture.

Winter-Spring 1997

Robert C. Byrd (D-West Virginia)to come in on a Saturday and lis­ten to his recordings of West Vir­ginia fiddle tunes. And, Hatfieldsaid, "I believe that this time wespent together, preparing ourminds and our hearts to negotiate,helped us to resolve the issue byinjecting a piece of our commonheritage into our discussion."

Judith McCulloh, chair of theBoard of Trustees of the AmericanFolklife Center, and Jane Beck,president of the American FolkloreSociety, presented SenatorHatfield with a basket of samplepublications and recordings pro­duced by the Center and by

Stephen Wade demon­strates his skill as a"banjo dancer." Wadehas made a theatricalcareer telling storiesand playing tunes hediscovered in theArchive of FolkCulture.

folklife organizations all over theUnited States. McCulloh also readthe following resolution:

"For his dedication to the nur­ture of American culture at thegrassroots through the preserva­tion and presentation of Americanfolklife; and for his signal contri­butions to every stage of theAmerican Folklife Center's devel­opment, from conception throughbirth and into the challenges ofmaturity; the Board of Trustees ofthe American Folklife Center andthe Executive Board of the Ameri­can Folklore Society, on behalf ofall citizens who value Americanfolklife, offer their heartfelt grati­tude to Senator Mark Hatfield,whose vision and steadfast sup­port make him a friend of folklifeforever."

Craig D'Ooge is a public affairsspecialist at the Library of Congress.

21

First Parsons Fund Recipient Visits LibraryThe first recipient of an award

from the Parsons Fund for Ethnog­raphy in the Library of Congresswas Julia C. Bishop, Ph.D., a folk­lorist from Sheffield, England.Julia Bishop used the award totravel to Washington, D.C., for the

period of August 11-27, 1996, toconsult the original materials inthe James Madison Carpenter Col­lection, which is loca ted in theArchive of Folk Culture.

The Carpenter Collection con­sists of manuscript materials,

sound recordings, photographs,and drawings that document Brit­ish and American folk music anddance and British ritual drama.The bulk of the material was col­lected between 1928 and 1935 byJames Carpenter during field work

22

At the American Folklife Center, Julia Bishop shows materials from the JamesMadison Carpenter Collection to Peggy Parsons, whose late husband, Gerry,established the Parsons Fund for Ethnography in the Library of Congress. Fromleft to right: Judith Gray, chair of the Parsons Fund Committee; Bishop; AlanJabbour, director of the Center; and Parsons. Photo by James Hardin

Folklife Center News

in England and Scotland. JamesMadison Carpenter 0889-1984)was born in Booneville, Missis­sippi; studied at the University ofMississippi and at Harvard; andta~ghtat Duke, William and Mary,and Greensboro College.

Julia Bishop is working on anindex to the ballad tunes in thecollection and came to the Libraryin order to check the transcriptionson microfilm against the originals.She was also able to listen a few ofthe original cylinder recordingsand discovered that they were ofhigher quality than the Center'sreference copies, which were made

from the disc copies Carpenter hadmade himself from his originalDictaphone cylinders.

Bishop says that several publi­cations will result from her workwith the Carpenter Collection: (1)a biographical study of Carpenterand the context of his collectingwork and an article on the ChildBallad tunes in the collection, fora special issue of Folk Music Jour­nal devoted to the Carpenter Col­lection; and (2) an index to theChild ballad tunes in the collec­tion.

The Parsons Fund makesawards to individuals or organiza-

tions in the private sector to facili­tate their work with the ethno­graphic collections of the Library,and in particular the Archive ofFolk Culture. Persons who wouldlike further information shouldwrite the Center, to the attentionof the Parsons Fund Committee.Persons who would like to makea contribution to the Parsons Fundto support such research andprojects should make their checkspayable to the Library of CongressTrust Fund Board, with ParsonsFund for Ethnography written onthe memo line.

New Prices for Center Publications

The American Folklife Center offers a number of finding aids, pamphlets, and other publications freeof charge, including single copies of Folklife Annual 1985, 1986, 1987, and 1990. Call or write the Centerfor a complete list. In addition the prices have been reduced on a number of for-sale publications, asfollows:

GROUSE CREEK CULTURAL SURVEY: INTEGRATING FOLKLIFE AND HISTORIC PRESERVATIONFIELD RESEARCH (1988) by Thomas Carter and Carl Fleischhauer. $5

OLD TIES NEW ATTACHMENTS: ITALIAN-AMERICAN FOLKLIFE IN THE WEST (1992) by DavidA. Taylor and John Alexander Williams. $15

PENNSYLVANIA GERMAN FRAKTUR: A GUIDE TO THE COLLECTIONS IN THE LIBRARY OFCONGRESS (1988) by Paul Conner and Jill Roberts. $5

QUILT COLLECTIONS: A DIRECTORY FOR THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA (1987) by LisaTurner Oshins. $10 (softcover); $15 (hardcover)

Send orders to the Library of Congress, American Folklife Center, Washington, D.C. 20540-4610. Includecheck or money order payable to the American Folklife Center. Price includes postage and handling.

EDITOR'S NOTES from page 2

others in Congress, the Center wasreauthorized through 1998. Seepage 19.

In the American Grain

Mary Hufford's account of WestVirginia ginsengers is a portrait ofclassic Americana. Personal initia-

Winter-Spring 1997

tive, individual enterprise, and adelight in the activities of daily lifecharacterize the men and womenHufford interviewed as part of theCenter's Appalachian ForestFolklife Project. See page 3.

Support Ethnographic Research

The Parsons Fund for Ethnogra­phy supports the work of persons

from the private sector who wishto use the ethnographic collectionsof the Library of Congress, andparticularly those in the Archive ofFolk Culture. The Center would begrateful for contributions to thefund, which facilitate folklife re­search and projects, and are taxdeductible. A report on the firstaward from the fund appears onpage 22.

23

At the twentieth anniversary celebration of the American Folklife Center, Judith McCulloh (left), chair of theCenter's board of trustees, and Jane Beck (right), president of the American Folklore Society, presented aresolution of gratitude to Senator Mark O. Hatfield, retiring chairman of the Joint Committee on the Libraryand an original sponsor of the legislation that created the Center in 1976. See page 19. Photo by Larry Glatt

LIBRARY OF CONGRESSAMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER

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