Centennial Celebration of a Beloved Bridge

Fall–Winter 2003 Volume 29: 3–4

The Journal of New York Folklore

Images from the Alan Lomax Festival Concert

American Devotional Art

The Northeast’s Own Song Collector

Archiving the Norman Studer Papers

National Honor for a City Lace Maker From the Director

This fall the New Upstate Fall Conference keepsie, Susan Chodorow of Rochester, and York Folklore Society Sackets Harbor proved to be a lovely set- Elena Martínez of New York City. Retiring embarked on a strate- ting for the 2003 Annual Conference of the was Madaha Kinsey-Lamb of Brooklyn, who gic planning process New York Folklore Society, and Traditional has been a member of the board for three to set priorities and Arts of Upstate New York (TAUNY) was a two-year terms, the maximum term one can goals for the next sev- gracious host. Supported by a grant from the serve as a regular board member. Madaha en years. Our last stra- New York Council for the Humanities, the Kinsey-Lamb played an important role in the tegic planning pro- conference presentations were part of the planning and execution of the 2000 confer- cess, in 1996–97, had resulted in a number council’s Humanities Month. Beginning on ence, “The Dynamics of African American of actions, the most visible being the cre- Saturday, October 25, the conference, enti- Folk Culture,” which was held at the Schom- ation of Voices: The Journal of New York Folk- tled “Common Places, Uncommon Stories: burg Center for Research in Black Culture. lore. Following this success, the Board of Cultural Landmarking and Cultural Conser- The New York Folklore Society has benefit- Directors and staff of the New York Folk- vation in Upstate New York Communities,” ed greatly from her insights and direction, lore Society wished to draft a new strategic featured presentations by architectural advo- and we wish her all the best for the future. plan that would give us a vision and direc- cates Steve Zeitlin of City Lore on his pro- tion for the future of the Society. gram “Place Matters,” Nancy Solomon of Shop the NYFS Gallery Online We began our process with planning con- Long Island Traditions on her advocacy work The New York Folklore Society announc- sultant Diane Strock-Lynskey of S-L Asso- with bay houses, Steve Engelhart of Adiron- es the creation of an online shop to sell folk ciates of Rensselaer, who involved many of dack Architectural Heritage, and Jane Busch, art, books, tapes, and CDs from our gallery our supporters and members through target- an independent architectural historian. in Schenectady. Our website has proved to ed surveys, focus groups, and personal phone After a morning of provocative presenta- be an important resource and has prompted calls. The data she collected were then col- tions, we loaded a tour bus for visits to sev- inquiries and responses from throughout the lated and presented to the board in a two- eral sites included in TAUNY’s inventory of world, all via the Internet. Several recent in- day retreat in September. The result was the “Very Special Places”: The Crystal Lunch quiries concerned items that were pictured drafting of a “vision statement” for the New Room in Watertown, the Burrville Cider Mill, on the website or mentioned in the text. To York Folklore Society, as well as a reworked Marilley’s General Store in Croghan, and respond to the growing interest, Patti Ma- mission statement. Thousand Island Park. The day’s events con- son, our web consultant, has created an on- The creation of a vision statement and cluded back at Sackets Harbor with a dinner line shop from which we can ship items from mission statement for the New York Folk- at the 1812 Steak and Seafood House and a the Gallery of New York Traditions. We have lore Society is important as a first step in presentation by Mary Hufford of the Uni- installed a shopping cart and can accept credit determining priority areas for the Society for versity of Pennsylvania. card payments online. Purchases support the the next seven years. Priorities for the future See NYFS News, pages 2–3, for photos work of the New York Folklore Society, and might include a stronger statewide presence; from the conference. members receive a ten percent discount on increased visibility; enhanced services to folk- the listed prices. Please visit our online Gal- lorists, folk artists, and community scholars; NYFS Annual Meeting lery Shop and see what’s for sale at and greater diversification of our funding The annual meeting of the New York Folk- www.nyfolklore.org. sources. We thank all of our members and lore Society took place on Sunday, October Ellen McHale, Ph.D. supporters who have contributed to this pro- 26, at the Ontario Place Hotel. Elected to Executive Director cess, and we look forward to better support- two-year terms on the Board of Directors New York Folklore Society ing the endeavor of folklore in New York were Karen Canning of Piffard, Greer Smith [email protected] State. of West Park, Sherre Wesley of Pough- www.nyfolklore.org

A principal task for folkloristics today is the study of the relations of transformation that occur when cultures converge. —Lee Haring, “Pieces for a Shabby Hut,” in Folklore, Literature, and Cultural Theory: Collected Essays (1995) Contents Fall–Winter 2003

6 Features 6 Alan Lomax by Ray Allen and Ronald Cohen 11 Scientists as Storytellers by Steve Zeitlin 14 Helen Hartness Flanders: The Green Mountain Songcatcher by Nancy-Jean Ballard Seigel

22 Sacramental Artwork in American Churches: A Disappearing Heritage by Marek Czarnecki 30 Happy Birthday, Willy B! by Kay Turner with Kathleen Condon 34 Folklore in Archives: How the Norman Studer Papers Came to the University at Albany by Amy C. Schindler 40 The Queen of Mundillo Rosa Elena Egipciaco 14 by Elena Martínez

44 The Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann Archive of Traditional Irish Music by Ted McGraw Departments and Columns 2 New York Folklore Society News 4 Upstate by Varick A. Chittenden 5 Downstate by Steve Zeitlin 22 13 Eye of the Camera by Martha Cooper 21 Foodways 30 by Lynn Case Ekfelt 29 Lawyer’s Sidebar by Paul Rapp Cover: Faux Real Theater members improvised characters based on New York Times articles written about the 43 Archival Questions Williamsburg Bridge during the time of its by Nancy Johnson construction, 1896–1903. Here, “Woman’s Daring Feat on Bridge Cable.” 46 Book Reviews Photo: William King

Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 1 New York Folklore Society News

Arts Day Breakfast involving Mexican communities in New of collecting maritime narratives from Building on the overwhelming success York State to share ideas and information. that region’s fishing community. of last year’s first Arts Day Breakfast at Meeting with staff of the Mexican consu- Center for Traditional Music and the New York State Legislative Office late were Jean Crandall, folklorist for the Dance. The Center for Traditional Mu- Building in Albany, the New York Folk- Dutchess County Arts Council; Karen sic and Dance received mentoring from lore Society will host a second event on Canning, folklorist for Genessee, Orleans, database consultant Benjamin Shen, who Tuesday, March 9, 2004, to highlight some and Wyoming Counties; Emily Socolov, worked with the staff in the redesign of NYFS NEWS of the work in the folk arts field in New folklorist with the Center for Traditional the center’s extensive database holdings York State. This is a great opportunity for Music and Dance; Ladan Alomar and of folklore documentation. folk arts supporters and Society members Karen Kelly of Centro Civico of Amster- Historical Society of Rockland Coun- to meet informally with their elected offi- dam; Ellen McHale, folklore consultant for ty. The Historical Society of Rockland cials and let them know about the the National Museum of Racing and Hall documentation and preservation work be- of Fame; Robert Baron of the New York ing pursued throughout the state by State Council on the Arts, Folk Arts Pro- folklorists and community scholars. There gram; Tom Van Buren, folklorist for will be ethnic and regional foodways as well Westchester County Arts Council; and Fall–Winter 2003 · Volume 29: 3-4 as performances by folk artists. Plan to Kate Koperski, folklorist for Castellani Editors Felicia Faye McMahon come and celebrate the folk arts with us! Arts Center of Niagara University. ([email protected]) and Sally Atwater ([email protected]) Details will be sent to members by e-mail. Ramon Ponce. A community scholar and Photography Editor Martha Cooper founder of the Mariachi Academy of New Design Mary Beth Malmsheimer Printer Digital Page, Inc. Mentoring Grants York, Ramon Ponce received professional Editorial Board Varick Chittenden, Amy Godine, With support from and the collabora- development funds to attend and partici- Kate Koperski, Cathy Ragland, Kay Turner, Dan Ward, Steve Zeitlin tion of the Folk Arts Program of the New pate in the annual meeting of the

York State Council on the Arts, the New Mid-Atlantic Folklore Association, “Alive Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore York Folklore Society offers technical as- and Kicking: Strategies for Cultural Con- is published twice a year by the New York Folklore Society, Inc. sistance support to folklorists, community tinuity,” held at Wheaton Village, New 133 Jay Street P.O. Box 764 scholars, and traditional artists who need Jersey. Schenectady, NY 12301 folk arts mentoring, assistance in profes- Ruby Marcotte. Ruby Marcotte, commu- New York Folklore Society, Inc. sional development, or help with issues nity scholar and board member of Black Executive Director Ellen McHale Director of Services Dale Johnson relating to fieldwork documentation or Crow Network, received professional de- Administrative Assistant Deborah Mustico Web Administrator Patti Mason presentation. In a new initiative begun in velopment funds to attend and participate Voice 518 346-7008 2003, mentoring grants are now available in the annual meeting of the Mid-Atlantic Fax 518 346-6617 Website www.nyfolklore.org for community-based folk arts organiza- Folklore Association, “Alive and Kicking: Board of Directors tions to work with consultants in the areas Strategies for Cultural Continuity,” held at President Mary Zwolinski Past President Todd DeGarmo of strategic planning and other organiza- Wheaton Village, New Jersey. Vice President Hanna Griff tional issues. This program is also Nancy Solomon, Long Island Tradi- Secretary-Treasurer Ladan Alomar Karen Canning, Susan Chodorow, Pamela Cooley, James generously supported by the National En- tions. Nancy Solomon, executive director Corsaro, Eniko Farkas, Nancy Johnson, Elena Martínez, Ted McGraw, Stan Ransom, Bart Roselli, Greer Smith, dowment for the Arts. For program details of Long Island Traditions, received pro- Midge Stock, Sherre Wesley, Lynne Williamson or to receive additional assistance, please fessional development funds to travel to Advertisers: to inquire, please call the NYFS visit our website, www.nyfolklore.org, or Seattle to attend the 2003 Northwest Folk- 518 346-7008 or fax 518 346-6617

call us at 518 346-7008. life Festival. This year’s theme was the Voices is available in Braille and recorded The New York Folklore Society an- maritime culture of east and west coasts, versions. Call NYFS at 518 346-7008.

nounces the following mentoring grants and her attendance at the program is help- The programs and activities of the New York Folklore Society, and the publication of Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore, are made awarded for 2003: ing her in programming for her own possible in part by funds from the New York State Council on the Arts. Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore is indexed in Arts & Humanities Consulate General of Mexico, New organization’s Maritime Folklife Festival. Citation Index and Music Index and abstracted in Historical Abstracts and America: History and Life. York City. The Cultural Affairs Division East End Seaport Museum. East End Reprints of articles and items from Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore are available through the ISI Document Solution, Institute for Scientific Information, 3501 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104. 215 of the Mexican consulate convened a Seaport Museum of Greenport, New York, 386-0100. meeting of folklorists working on projects received mentoring support in the basics ISSN 0361-204X © 2003 by The New York Folklore Society, Inc. All rights reserved.

2 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore County received support so that folklorist Mary Zwolinski can advise the staff on is- VERY SPECIAL PLACES: sues of folk arts collection, exhibition, and Fall 2003 Conference in presentation. She will help the historical society plan for the incorporation of folk Sackets Harbor arts within its mission. PHOTOS BY Traditional Arts of Upstate New York. ELLEN MCHALE Traditional Arts of Upstate New York (TAUNY) will receive assistance in retail skills—inventory evaluation, resource development, marketing, advertising, mail and web sales, and shop display—for its North Country “Folkstore.” The mentor Above: Fred Higby of Black River, is Dawn Rusho, a retail consultant. recipient of a TAUNY North Country Heritage Award in 2002, performed Utica Monday Nite. This heritage arts on the harmonica at the Society’s fall program in Utica received support for folk conference. Left: Conference participants—here, Steve Zeitlin, arts mentoring with Felicia Faye McMahon, Amanda Dargan, and Mary Hufford— who will help plan strategies for the devel- took a bus trip to sites designated by TAUNY as the North Country’s “very opment of a folk arts series. special places,” including the Crystal City Lore, Inc. City Lore will receive Restaurant of Watertown. mentoring from Andrew Kolovos, an archiving specialist and folklorist, who will be consulting with City Lore on the digiti- zation of its photographic and audio collections. Michael J. Quill Irish Cultural Center. The Michael J. Quill Irish Cultural Center in East Durham will receive assistance from Nancy Groce, folklorist and ethno- musicologist, to plan a thematic direction for its folk arts program. Groce will also Above: Stanley Ransom, who serves assist the staff in developing supplemen- as a board member for NYFS and tal educational materials. TAUNY, performed music from the Lake Champlain region for conference Jill Gellerman, Long Island Traditions. participants. Right: Inside Marilley’s The folklorist for Long Island Traditions General Store in Croghan, New York— will receive technical assistance mentoring another of TAUNY’s “very special places”—are (from front) Pamela from Amanda Dargan for the development Cooley, Brenda Verardi, Stan Ransom, of ethnic folk arts programs at Long Is- and Makalé Faber. land cultural institutions and in elementary schools. Capacity-building support. Recipients were Black Crow Network, Cypreco of America, New York State Old Time Fid- dlers’ Association, West Indian American Day Carnival Association, and the Yeh Yu Chinese Opera Company.

Varick Chittenden moderated a panel discussion, “Common Places: Uncommon Stories,” with (from left) Steve Zeitlin, City Lore; Steve Engelhart, Adirondack Architectural Heritage; Nancy Solomon, Long Island Traditions; and Jane Busch, architectural consultant.

Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 3 Funny Cide: Hometown Hero with Four Legs BY VARICK A. CHITTENDEN

It was spring 2003 when the world came age to spend time with, she would invite me buddies; he was trained by a horse-whisperer to know about Funny Cide, the previously to go along. Nearly every Sunday of my eccentric and ridden to victory by a Chil- undistinguished three-year-old colt who summer vacations and every day during fair ean immigrant with few major victories. It UPSTATE rushed from behind to win the Kentucky week, she’d pack a picnic of sandwiches, was a Horatio Alger story in the twenty-first Derby in mid-May. Two weeks later, he iced tea, and ginger or sugar cookies fresh century, appealing to all red-blooded Amer- pulled out all the stops and won the Preak- from her kitchen, and we’d follow Uncle icans. ness, going away. Then he was two-thirds Lyndon to the track. There we’d watch him But for us in the North Country, the sto- of the way to the pinnacle of racing, the and his fellow-traveler hobby horsemen dis- ry had a special twist. Funny Cide’s owners Triple Crown. cuss their horses, the track, the weather. are from Sackets Harbor, a small village near I usually don’t pay much attention to Aunt Charlotte handed him bridles or Watertown on Lake Ontario. The only oth- horse racing, especially the thoroughbreds sponges or other things he needed and chat- er time this town made history was when a at the flat tracks. It’s a bias I have from my ted with other racetrack wives (not “widows,” battle was fought there during the War of boyhood, when my favorite uncle, Lyndon I stress). I helped when I could, mostly by 1812. Suddenly a four-legged creature who Miller, raised and trained and drove harness staying out of the way. By the time the first had never set hoof in town was the local horses at county fairs, for a hobby. These races began, we’d eaten our lunch and were hero. The six men, middle-aged and in ca- were trotters and pacers, and their drivers— ready to be serious spectators. No grandstand reers as ordinary as teaching and optome- not jockeys—would ride two-wheeled “bikes,” for us. We staked out our positions at the try, who had invested $5,000 each to buy or sulkies, behind them, for Sunday enter- rail, in the paddock, along the backstretch. Funny Cide as a colt, were featured in news- tainment. Harness races were small-town From such favored spots we cheered on papers and television appearances around sport; the thoroughbreds were for million- Uncle Lyndon in his homemade blue-and- the world. aires and city swells. white silk jacket, with the large letter M on In a place where sports heroes—or ce- Uncle Lyndon was great with animals. his back, and shouted to Kay or Billy at the lebrities of any kind—are rather rare, here Dairy farming was his living but horses were top of our lungs. It was a scene from a nine- was a chance to brag. And brag we did! In his passion. He would keep one or two in teenth-century Currier & Ives print. early June there was hardly a North Coun- his stable at a time, mostly has-beens or also- Although most racing fans like the excite- try household that wasn’t tuned to the rans to the truly serious competitors, but I ment of gambling at least as much as they broadcast of the Belmont Stakes, the final didn’t know that at the time. I remember like horses, I never got into the betting spirit. leg of the Triple Crown. Though disap- my fascination with Billy Song and Kay It may have been my puritanical grandmoth- pointed at our hero’s third-place finish, we Ensign and how Uncle Lyndon would care er or my post-Depression childhood that were thrilled to have a “hometown kid” do for them. Time in the barn or at the little held me back. so well. And as everyone around here says, country tracks is indelibly etched in my After my early teen days, my interest in “You can’t take that away from us.” memory. The pleasantly sharp smell of lin- horses waned. The little racetracks of my Yes, I know Funny Cide wasn’t born in iment, the glisten of sweat, the neatly youth are now gone, and most county fairs the North Country. And I know that Chur- wrapped leg bandages, and insistent whin- have replaced the afternoon programs of chill Downs, Belmont Park, and Saratoga nying from box stalls are with to me to this trotters with roaring, smoking demolition are hardly the small-time tracks I frequent- day. Billy or Kay would occasionally win a derbies or mud bog races. Like many other ed with Uncle Lyndon. But if I stretch my heat, maybe even beat their own time record, Americans, I’d follow the news when a Sec- imagination, this story was a little like Billy and that would be exciting, but being around retariat or a Seattle Slew or a Native Danc- Song’s. Is that horse liniment I smell? I guess the horses was pleasure enough to my er was making headlines. Otherwise, I paid you’re never too old for heroes. uncle…and to me. little attention. Then came Funny Cide. I myself never became a horseman (or Why did I suddenly care? It was his story Varick A. Chittenden is professor emeritus much of a participant in any sport, for that that caught my attention, and the attention of English, SUNY matter). Instead, I became a fan. I learned of many others around me. This underdog Canton College of Technology, and that from Aunt Charlotte. As loyal as any gelding will never be part of the high-stakes, executive director of political spouse, she would devote her sum- high-priced breeding world. He had been Traditional Arts in Upstate New York mer weekends to going to the races. Since I sold as a yearling for $22,000 and ended up (TAUNY). Photo: lived next door and had few kids my own owned by six men who had been high school Martha Cooper

4 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore On the Bowery BY STEVE ZEITLIN and MARCI REAVEN

The Bow’ry, The Bow’ry! the Depression. Today only a few “flops” about the streets and boulevards in every They say such things, and they do strange things on remain, along with the Bowery Mission, city that cater to transients, often stretching the Bow’ry which has been caring for people on the from the bus depot and train station to low- —Harry Conor, from the musical street for 125 years. cost hotels, pawn shops, and greasy spoons. A Trip to Chinatown, 1891 Our walk takes us past the buildings To ignore them on behalf of “convenience, where modern artists Mark Rothko and Roy cleanliness, and safety” and to distrust ev- Come! Walk with us the length of New Lichtenstein lived and worked after the el erything “vulgar and small and poor” are York’s famed Bowery, past the statue of came down. And it takes us past one of symptomatic of “a very lopsided view of Confucius on Chatham Square, the great old Manhattan’s last industrial markets—“still urban culture.” Instead, he suggests, we need Bowery Savings Bank at Grand Street (now the place to go,” as Kevin Baker writes in to tease out their vitality. home to the glitzy Capitale Restaurant), past the New York Times Magazine (October 5, Out west, you can stand on the edge of Delancey, Rivington, Stanton, Houston, and 2003), “when you want to buy a lamp, or a the Grand Canyon or drive the Great Salt Great Jones streets up to Cooper Square. dough retarder, or maybe a life-size resin Flats in Utah and feel the terrain zooming The distance is only a mile, twenty minutes based caricature of an Italian waiter.” Even out away from you for miles up to a sky full at a brisk walk. But our walk is not just an the days of the lighting district are dimming of stars. You can sense the magnitude of exercise in getting from point A to point B, on the Bowery, as new condos and office the landscape, and the layers of its history it’s a journey through urban time and space. buildings are built or planned for every measured in the geology of rocks and tree Places that resonate have temporal depth, block, threatening to obscure its history. rings, as if you were smack at the center of their significance understood if we move “As usual in New York,” wrote poet James the universe. Walking along the Bowery, with not only horizontally across the city, but Merrill, “everything is torn down/Before your head down, trying not step on anything, vertically, through decades and centuries. We you have had time to care for it.” As we can be a desultory experience. Without feel the weight of time and the texture of cross Grand Street and head toward Hous- guideposts or prior knowledge, none of its experience. Our personal memories, good ton, we glimpse the Bowery’s future as well history or grandeur registers. and bad, are inscribed on the built environ- as its past: the lot for the New Museum of But a great city makes its collective histo- ment. Depending on our circumstance, they Contemporary Art’s $35 million building at ry legible on its building and its streets, so might take us back to the Amato Opera (the 235 Bowery. “The New Museum will be a that the urban experience is layered with per- world’s smallest opera house) or CBGBs defining moment,” says folklorist Barbara ceptions, memories, and histories—what (the birthplace of punk rock), to a free meal Kirshenblatt-Gimblett, who lives a few might be called place memory. We experi- at a mission or a hotel room for 99 cents. doors away on the Bowery, “between the ence place memory in the faded paint, in The Bowery took its name from bowerij, Sunshine Hotel and Daroma Restaurant the cornice or the art deco façade, reading Dutch for “farm,” from the farm of Peter Equipment!” the historical plaque, in conversation with a Stuyvesant, who bought the land in 1651. Although we cover only eighteen city tour guide or a shopkeeper. A great city al- We pass the buildings that housed China- blocks, the establishments we pass connect lows the walls to speak. Sense of place is in town’s first bachelor society; the graves of us to all parts of the city. The Amato Op- the details, in the layers of history, lore, per- Sephardic Jewish settlers in colonial Amer- era draws its performers from the same pool ceptions that constitute place memory. The ica; McGurk’s “Suicide Tavern,” where, leg- as the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Cen- work of folklorists, historians, and preser- DOWNSTATE end says, prostitutes poisoned themselves ter; the Sephardic synagogue has ties to its vationists is to find the tools—markers, with carbolic acid when they reached the uptown congregation and the Sephardic public programs, preservation of those piec- end of the line; we walk in the footprints communities of Brooklyn; the new Bowery es of the built environment that tell its sto- of “Mose the Bowery boy,” whose exploits Poetry Club is part of a network that in- ry—to make the pageant of urban life and as a volunteer fireman and strongman were cludes the Nuyorican Poets Café, the Cor- the network of urban affinities visible to celebrated in the city’s nineteenth-century nelia Street Café, and St. Mark’s Church; and passersby. In that way, we can experience rowdy theater district at places like the old the restaurant supply shops are frequented the layers of history and meaning as we walk Bowerie Theater (46-48 Bowery, 1826–79), by restaurants in all five boroughs. The paths the eighteen blocks of the Bowery and now a Duane Reade; we walk in the shade traveled by urban communities intersect on traverse an urban universe. of an elevated railroad line, then an elevat- the Bowery, bringing together worlds only ed subway that darkened the street from dimly aware of the others’ comings and Steve Zeitlin serves as the executive director, and Marci Reaven, the managing 1878 to 1955, with reminders of the bars, goings. The urban affinities multiply. director, of City Lore: the New York missions, tattoo parlors, and flophouses of In “A Stranger’s Path,” J.B. Jackson writes Center for Urban Folk Culture.

Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 5 Alan Lomax BY RAY ALLEN AND RONALD COHEN PHOTOS BY MARTHA COOPER

Alan Lomax was born in Austin, scores of black and white folk musicians, urban folk music revival. The Lomaxes’ early A Texas, on January 31, 1915, the son including the legendary Huddie “Leadbel- folk music collections, including American of the distinguished folk music collector ly” Ledbetter. In 1935 Alan and his father Ballads and Folk Songs (1934), Negro Folk Songs John Avery Lomax. In 1933, eighteen-year- brought Leadbelly to New York City, where as Sung by Leadbelly (1936), and Our Singing old Alan joined his father on a folk music they promoted him to leftist audiences as Country (1941), brought significant attention collecting trip that took them across the the living embodiment of American folk- to the underrepresented traditions of Afri- American South to discover and record song—a move that helped spark the first can Americans and ultimately redefined the

The Lomax Tribute Concert finale featured (from left) Tracy Schwartz, Odetta Holms, Honey Boy Edwards, John Cohen, Mike Seeger, James Cecil Haga, Jean Ritchie, John Cohen, Arlo Guthrie, Spencer Moore, and Pete Seeger. Right: Mike Seeger of the New Lost City Ramblers was inspired as a youngster by John and Alan Lomax’s song books and field recordings.

6 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 7 popular and scholarly canons of American folk music. In 1937 Lomax was appointed assistant archivist at the Library of Congress, and for the next five years he made hundreds of field recordings for the Archive of Ameri- can Folk Song. He spent much of the 1940s in New York City, where he wrote and directed four national radio programs on folk music, produced commercial albums, including Negro Sinful Songs by Leadbelly and Dustbowl Ballads by Woodie Guthrie, and wrote Mister Jelly Roll (1949), an oral history biography of jazz legend Jelly Roll Morton. During this period he helped promote the careers of numerous New York City–based folk singers, including Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, Josh White, Aunt Molly Jackson, Burl Ives, Pete Seeger, and the Almanac Singers. Disillusioned by McCarthyism, Lomax spent much of the 1950s in England and Europe, where he expanded his research to include European folk music. He produced several BBC network shows as well as the first comprehensive audio survey of world music styles, the eighteen-volume Columbia World Library of Folk and Primitive Music (1955). In the late 1950s he returned to the American South for an extended documentation project that yielded the twelve-volume Southern Journey (1959) and the seven- volume Southern Folk Heritage (1960) recordings. Upon his return to New York City in the early 1960s, Lomax plunged into the folk music revival. In 1961 he became a research associate at Columbia University and began his efforts to classify the world’s folksong styles (cantometrics) and folk dance styles Folk singer Odetta Holms was a pivotal figure in the early 1950s folk music revival. (choreometrics). The result was his provocative book, Folk Song Style and Culture (1968), a pioneering effort to link folk music styles directed the five-part PBS-TV Series, Amer- His seven decades of relentless advoca- with social structure on a global scale. Lo- ican Patchwork, and three years later pub- cy for “people’s music,” stretching from the max continued his collecting and media lished Land Where the Blues Began, a stirring Great Depression through his passing in projects, visiting the Caribbean for an ex- account of his early southern fieldwork 2002, made Alan Lomax a legend among tended documentation project in the early trips. In 1997 Rounder Records began issu- scholars and enthusiasts around the globe. 1960s and eventually developing the global ing The Alan Lomax Collection, a projected His efforts as a folksong collector and pub- jukebox, an interactive, multimedia database series of more than one hundred CDs lisher, music promoter, world music re- for tracking and comparing world folk mu- drawn from the archive of Lomax field re- searcher, and radio, record, and TV produc- sic and dance styles. In 1990 he wrote and cordings. er have immeasurably enhanced our under-

8 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Irwin Silber (left), the longtime editor of Sing Out! magazine, was a confidant of Alan Folk revival pioneer Pete Seeger, here Lomax during the 1940s and 1950s; Spencer Moore, a Virginia-born folk singer, was performing with Arlo Guthrie, was a first recorded by Lomax in the 1950s. longtime friend of Alan Lomax.

John Cohen of the New Lost City Ramblers accompanies Kentucky-born folk singer and collector Jean Ritchie; she coedited Folk Songs of the Southern Appalachians with Alan Lomax in 1965.

Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 9 Above: David Honey Boy Edwards of Shaw, Mississippi, was recorded by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress in 1942. Left: Folk music star Arlo Guthrie carries on the tradition of his father, the legendary songster Woody Guthrie, who was recorded and promoted by Alan Lomax in the 1940s and 1950s.

standing and appreciation of folk music and its place in the modern world. In April 2003 a coalition of organizations including City Lore, the Lomax Archives, and the Institute for Studies in American Music at Brooklyn College coordinated a two-day festival in honor of Alan Lomax’s enormous contributions to the field of folk music. The final concert featured many renowned folk artists with whom Lomax had worked—and whose work he had influenced—over his illustrious career.

Ray Allen is an associate professor of music and American studies at Brooklyn College, CUNY. Ronald Cohen is a professor of history at Indiana University Northwest.

10 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore ScientistsScientists as StorytellersStorytellers BY STEVE ZEITLIN

ow do you wear the universe? Does Once, human beings looked up into the they are vibrating not in four or five but in H it drape across your shoulders sky and imagined stories written in the con- ten dimensions. Now that is going to require loose or snug? Are you lost in it? Does it stellations, such as Orion and Gemini; sci- some megametaphor to explain—perhaps need some alterations? Is it a rag or shmatte ence and folklore were one and the same. something more than a metaphor—a whole thrown across your shoulder? Or are you Today, a folklorist sets forth on a journey story, in fact. life resplendent in that intergalactic diamond into the very different world of the scien- To explain it, scientists like Brian Greene cloak? I jotted down these lines, inspired by tist. I began by reading Michio Kaku’s Hy- and Michio Kaku are fond of drawing on a the new popular cosmologists—scientists perspace, Brian Green’s The Enchanted Universe, nineteenth-century novel by Edwin Abbott, like Stephen Hawking and Michio Kaku, and Gary Zukav’s The Dancing Wu Li Mas- headmaster of the City of London School, who use homespun metaphors to make the ters. I was struck by the way that scientists who used a powerful extended metaphor mysteries of the universe as comfortable as use similes and metaphors and stories. To or parable to convey the notion of a multi- a well-worn coat. understand the relationship between science dimensional universe. The characters are Scientists often use stories and parables and folklore, I sought out some of the sci- squares, lines, triangles. They live in a world to convey their theories to the public. But entists and asked them about the relation- with no height; they’re flat as a page. These unlike the ancient Greek and Babylonian ship between science and storytelling. figures could not picture what things look sages, who used tales and myths to bring Spending a few hours in the orbit of their like in our three-dimensional universe. One religion to the people, the new cosmologists universes was like being outside on a clear day, a sphere rolls across their world. The use the homespun metaphor to give the night of stars. In his book Hyperspace, Japa- novel’s hero, Mr. Square, can’t see the sphere gods of mathematics a human face. In this nese American Michio Kaku discusses how because he lives in two dimensions. But as new literature, a beam of light—almost cosmologists have replaced “‘faith’ in an all- the sphere moves through his world as if it impossible to catch because time slows powerful God with ‘faith’ in quantum the- were a flat piece of paper, he sees a circle down as you approach it—becomes a ghost ory and general relativity.” In an interview, that grows bigger and then smaller. Lord ship, the Flying Dutchman about whom old he reminded me that the gospel according Sphere, a character from a different uni- sailors once spun tall tales. The scientists to St. John, chapter one, verse one, reads, verse, called Spaceland, tries to describe claim credit for their own discoveries, their “In the beginning was the word.” “The phys- what he looks like to Flatland’s Mr. Square. own individual advances in scientific think- icists,” said Kaku, “say ‘in the beginning was He asks him to picture a direction that is ing, but they share an evolving body of sto- the quantum.’” “upward and not northward.” Mr. Square ries and metaphors—a kind of folklore of My favorite scientist-as-storyteller para- remains unconvinced. Frustrated, Lord science—that can convey their ideas in lay ble, used by many contemporary scientists, Sphere resorts to deeds to prove his case. terms. Cosmologist John Wheeler, for in- is the tale of Flatland, a favorite allegory for He peels Mr. Square off the page, who then stance, uses an old-fashioned image from theoretical physicists who explore string floats like a sheet of paper on the wind. his high school era to explain how a black theory. String theory posits that within the Returning to his flat world, Mr. Square is hole can be visible in the darkness of space. smallest units in the cosmos, quanta, are still thoroughly convinced. He tries to convert At a high school prom, when the lights are smaller units comprising tiny vibrating his fellow Flatlanders, but they label him a low, you can see the girls in white dresses strings. The notion of tiny vibrating strings heretic and throw him in jail. whirling around; the young men in black is not that hard to understand. We know Another science writer pictured a world tuxedos are barely visible. Yet the white that there are things so small we can’t see as flat as a pool table and suggested that a whirls give convincing evidence that there them—atoms, electrons—and so why not multidimensional world might seem to its must be something holding them in orbit. vibrating strings? But here’s where it starts inhabitants as alien as a misaimed pool ball The girls are like bright stars, the boys the to get a little dicey. The strings are not just jumping up off the table and over the side. black holes. vibrating in our three-dimensional world, In an interview, Brian Green talked with me

Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 11 about Flatland. “By exploring readjustments of world view that are required in moving …the struggle of scientists themselves from a two- to a three-dimensional universe,” he said, “we can get a sense for what to create metaphors and parables to it would be like for us to go from our three- dimensional world into four or five dimen- understand and explain the universe sions. Because it turns out that string theory demands that our world actually has attests to the universal need for stories. more dimensions than we are aware of from common experience.” The scientists I spoke with gave differ- me, is a language, just as English is a lan- Physicist Michio Kaku told me about the ent reasons for using stories. I was sur- guage. In English, metaphors are like equa- elegant formula that string theorists have prised to learn that their metaphors and tions, albeit a little less precise than a math- devised. He suggested that it has the beau- stories are more than a way to convey their ematician’s. Farmelo’s book begins with a ty of Einstein’s e = mc2 and can do what ideas to lay audiences. Brian Green said, discussion of the mother of all equations, Einstein tried to accomplish for the last thir- “I don’t feel I understand anything if I only Einstein’s e = mc2. He compares the equa- ty years of his life but never achieved: put- understand the mathematics.” Astrophys- tion to a powerful poem that, like a perfect ting together the insights of quantum me- icist Margaret Geller described how the sonnet, would be spoiled if as much as a chanics and general relativity, the theories creation of stories guides her research. In word or comma were changed. The premise of the smallest and the largest bodies in the her daily work, she posits a smooth-run- of the book, which presents essays by sci- universe. Before string theory, scientists ning story and then tests it against reality. entists from several fields, is that in mod- postulated a “unified field theory” that was It’s been said, she told me, that “science is ern science, the universe is explained by very a foot long, had dozens of variables, and ‘creativity in a straitjacket’ because you can simple equations, beautiful in their simplic- was anything but graceful. It was like “try- make up lots of stories, and the ones that ity, suggesting that God is either a mathe- ing to put together the most beautiful ani- don’t match nature are worthless. The only matician or a poet—or both. Paul Dirak, mal in the world by pasting together giraffes, ones that are good are the ones that are the Nobel Prize–winning Cambridge phys- whales, and mules with Scotch tape,” said consistent.” icist and creator of the Dirak formula, once Kaku. He then came up with his own twist Scientific theories have wreaked havoc said, “God used beautiful mathematics in on the Flatland story. Once, he told me, a with many of humanity’s most fantastic creating the world.” Margaret Geller recalls gorgeous gemstone fell to Flatland and myths, but the struggle of scientists them- him speaking to her class at Princeton. “I broke in two parts. One piece was general selves to create metaphors and parables to spent my life writing beautiful formulas,” relativity and the other quantum mechan- understand and explain the universe attests he said. ics. The Flatlanders simply couldn’t find a to the universal need for stories. The uni- As I read Farmelo’s book, Keats’s famous way to tape them together to create a universe goes on forever, and particles can line popped into my head: “beauty is truth, fied theory. Then a sage suggested that they grow endlessly small. As creatures trying truth beauty, that is all ye know on earth shift one piece not “left or right” but “up” to grasp it all with our mere kilogram of and all ye need to know.” It’s an equation: into another dimension—and the two parts brain, we cry out for a beginning, a mid- beauty = truth, truth = beauty. Although fit perfectly. dle, and an end. Perhaps we might think they don’t use the word truth, scientists seem So the constellations may have been a fig- of storytellers and scientists alike—as an- to be looking for the same elegant simplic- ment of the ancients’ imaginations, but there thropologist Barbara Myerhoff once put ity, the same beautiful formula, because ac- are still plenty of stories out there in the it—not as Homo sapiens but as Homo nar- cording to them, the physical principles of universe. And a folklorist can feel quite com- rans, human beings as storytellers. the universe are best expressed with elegant fortable under a canopy of beautiful stars But the search for beauty and meaning formulas. The beauty of the formula cap- in our humble corner of the Milky Way gal- in the cosmos goes beyond even storytell- tures what a poet might call “truth.” So sci- axy within the Virgo supercluster of galax- ing. Knowing of my passion for popular entists are using metaphor and story not ies within the known universe. science, this year for Father’s Day my wife only to convey their ideas to the public, not gave me a copy of It Must Be Beautiful: Great only to provide themselves with a deeper Steve Zeitlin is the Equations of Modern Science, edited by Gra- understanding of their own ideas, but also director of City Lore in New York City. ham Farmelo. The book suggested some to search for the elegant formulas and ideas other points where aesthetics and science that some scientists consider the hallmark intersect. Mathematics, Brian Green told of all truly great theories.

12 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore EYE OF THE CAMERA

Scanning (Somewhat) Simplified BY MARTHA COOPER

Folklorists often need to digitize slides so that if you do crop the image, you will strongly recommends freeware http:// and prints for publications, exhibits, Power- still have plenty of pixels to play with. www.irfanview.com; she calls it “a great im- Point presentations, e-mails, websites, and Scanner software also gives you a choice age viewer, instant webpage maker, and even grant applications. Unlike original pho- of formats in which to save your scan. I save excellent quick-and-dirty alternative to tos, scans can be duplicated without any loss all scans in a master file in TIFF format and Photoshop.” of information. Having a large, good-quali- adjust them later in Photoshop. TIFF is con- If you are unfamiliar with imaging pro- ty scan of a photo you are likely to use often sidered the most “archival” of digital formats. grams, I suggest that you send an unadjust- for different projects saves you the trouble Uncompressed TIFF files are too big to view ed scan to your publisher and let the design- of digging out the same slide or negative and quickly on many computers, so after adjust- er work on it. Color management, contrast, subjecting it to the wear and tear of repeat- ing size, color, and contrast, I resave the file sharpening, and converting to different im- ed printing, not to mention possible loss. as a medium-quality JPEG, a format that age modes can be tricky, so it’s best to leave Good flatbed scanners for scanning prints compresses the file. You can open, adjust, the adjusting to designers and printers. are affordable and easy to install on a home and resave a TIFF without losing informa- Everyday printing. Most photographers like computer. Some have attachments for film, tion, but adjusting and resaving a JPEG will to print from files scanned at 300 dpi. You but the results are not so good as those from degrade the image. Thus it’s best to preserve will not get better prints from a higher reso- expensive, high-quality scanners dedicated to your original, unretouched scan as a TIFF lution. (Do not confuse image resolution— slides and negatives. If you don’t want to file and make new JPEGS as necessary. the scan—with printer resolution.) invest in, say, the Nikon Coolscan 4000 or Scanners can do both black-and-white and When making prints on my low-end Ep- the Polaroid Sprint Scan, have transparen- color. Black-and-white images—especially son, I generally use a resolution of 180 dpi, cies for important projects scanned by a pro- vintage photos—often look richer when and the pictures look fine. The advantage of fessional with quality equipment. scanned in color. On a computer, we have a lower resolution is that the photo requires Scanning transforms images into pixels. the luxury of reproducing a wide range of less ink and prints faster. You will need to decide on a resolution (dots hues and tones at no extra cost. Exhibition prints. For prints larger than 16 or pixels per inch, abbreviated dpi or ppi) Projection. The PowerPoint program rec- by 20 inches, investigate having a drum scan and the desired size of the final image. Gen- ommends using images saved as 96 dpi made by a professional lab. Such scans are erally “low-res” scans are for images viewed JPEGS. They will not look better at a higher expensive (the equipment can cost around on computer monitors, and “high-res” are resolution. If your projected images look $100,000), and the quality of the scan de- for those destined for print. The end use of fuzzy, make sure your computer screen res- pends on the operator. Be sure to get a first- your photo will determine the ideal file size olution is set at 1024 by 768. Digital projec- hand recommendation before spending your and format of the scan. Here are some guide- tors also have zoom and focus adjustments money on a drum scan. lines. just like their old-fashioned counterparts. Electronic applications. Photos that will be Publications. The publication’s production Digitizing a photo requires skill. The bet- viewed on a computer monitor should be editor can tell you exactly what size and for- ter the scan, the better your picture will look scanned at 72 dpi because that’s the moni- mat to use, but newspapers generally use a in print or on a monitor. Scanning techniques tor’s screen resolution. Your pictures will not lower resolution than book publishers. Lack- will no doubt improve but now is the time to look brighter or sharper on a computer if ing this information, I usually make a 300 learn the basics. A good scan is at the heart you scan them at a higher resolution—they dpi scan about 19 inches wide saved as a of digital reproduction. will just appear bigger. Your scanner’s soft- TIFF—the standard format for printing. The ware will allow you to specify the size you file is big enough for a double-page spread want in either inches or pixels. Generally, I but can also be scaled down to a postage Martha Cooper is the director of make scans of about 400 pixels maximum stamp. Don’t plan on enlarging a small scan: photography at City dimension for websites, 500 for e-mail, and the photo will lose quality. Since a 19-inch- Lore. Her images have appeared in 700 for PowerPoint and grant applications. wide TIFF is a whopping 35 MB, it’s too big museum exhibitions, Although scanners allow you to crop, I usu- to e-mail, so I burn it onto a CD. books, and maga- zines. If you have a ally scan the entire photo and decide exactly All scans need to be adjusted and sharp- question that you’d like her to address, how to crop later. It’s also good idea to scan ened with Photoshop or similar software. send it to the editor photos a little larger than you think you need Folklorist Barbara Kirshenblatt-Gimblett of Voices.

Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 13 Helen Hartness Flanders The Green Mountain Songcatcher BY NANCY-JEAN BALLARD SEIGEL

The Flanders Ballad Collection, the largest archive of folk music and folklore mont Folk Songs and Ballads, Flanders contin- from the northeastern states, serves as a window through which we can ued to collect. She was hooked by the lure learn about the people of a region, their traditions, and their oral history. The of the chase, knew that time was running approximately nine thousand items amassed between 1930 and 1960— out, and was determined to repossess these including field recordings, manuscripts, song texts, broadsides, and hundreds songs for future generations. With dedica- of books relating to collections and studies about songs of Anglo-American, tion and vision, over the next thirty years she Canadian, and European origins—contain valuable and sometimes surpris- and her assistants fanned out over Vermont ing information about our region and our forefathers. For me, this study is a but also New York, Maine, New Hampshire, personal tour of folksongs from a bygone era with lively asides by collector Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Rhode Is- Helen Hartness Flanders—my grandmother. In reading her letters, diaries land. In their travels, they visited with the and papers, by going to the towns where she collected, through listening to last generation of people who sang for their field recordings and visiting with families of the people who recorded their own entertainment or to accompany their songs, I am following her experiences and retracing her footsteps—and day’s work. discovering that a simple committee assignment aroused such passionate The first recordings, in the 1930s, were interest that it became her life’s work. made on wax cylinders, and the car cigarette lighter was used as a source of electricity if n 1930, Gov. John Weeks, as part of his ing. Appliances we take for granted today the singer’s house had none. Between 1939 ICommission on Vermont Country Life, hadn’t yet appeared in the Sears and Roe- and 1949 aluminum and acetate discs were appointed Helen Hartness Flanders, along buck catalogue. Radios were a rarity in used, followed by reel-to-reel tapes. Initially, with several other artists and writers, to the Vermont, and many homes didn’t even have Flanders collected on her own or with the Committee on Traditions and Ideals. Her as- electricity. Singing as one worked or singing occasional help of musician George Brown signment was to find out what songs to unwind after the day’s work was as com- or her daughter, Elizabeth Flanders Ballard, Vermonters had learned by oral tradition. At mon then as it is uncommon today. who also transcribed the tunes. From approx- first, she wasn’t sure she could do the job— Electricity was coming to rural Vermont, imately 1940 to 1960, Marguerite Olney her background was in classical music. however, and Flanders understood the ur- served as her assistant. Olney supervised the Further doubts were raised by another com- gency of collecting folk music right then. Let collection at Middlebury, did transcriptions, mittee member, writer Dorothy Canfield a radio into the house and people would soon occasionally gave lectures on ballads in the Fisher, who declared, “Vermonters don’t stop singing their traditional songs—or worse literature classes, and was responsible for sing!” Within minutes, however, Fisher re- still, they would become entranced by popu- much of the fieldwork in later years. called a song that had been passed down lar music heard over the airwaves and lose When the collection outgrew Flanders’s through several generations of her family. their own style. If the old songs were not home, she donated it, in 1941, to Middle- Thus, the first song Helen Hartness Flanders collected soon, they would go to the graves bury College, where it is now housed in collected came from an informant who pur- with the people who knew them. In fact, most Special Collections. Listening copies of the ported not to know any music handed down informants were in their seventies or eight- nearly 4,500 field recordings are available through the oral tradition. This, of course, is ies, and many passed away within two or three there as well as at the American Folklife Cen- an important reminder: Those who say they years of the time Flanders met them. ter of the Library of Congress and at don’t know anything often do. Following her yearlong assignment with Harvard University. These recordings pro- The Vermont folk music project began the Committee on Traditions and Ideals and vide an overview of life and history in a when rural living was basically manual liv- publication of the first of nine books, Ver- particular region, all transmitted through bal-

14 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore lads and folksongs. The informants repre- ed Robert Winslow Gordon, then head of Hardy Eckstorm (1865–1946). Barry, sented every profession and every ethnic the newly established Archive of American founder of the Bulletin of the Folklore Society group in the population, and with few ex- Folk Song. He advised her to record rather of the Northeast, taught her the techniques of ceptions, they sang without instrumental than merely transcribe what she heard. Over fieldwork. Through extensive correspon- accompaniment. the next three decades, she kept in touch with dence and during his yearly visits to her home all the heads of the archive and made peri- in Vermont, he advised her on how to rec- The Education of a Collector odic reports on the collection. ognize song origins. Eckstorm, collector of Helen Hartness Flanders was born in Though she had no college education and Native American and Anglo-American Folk- Springfield, Vermont, in 1890. She lived in had not yet read Bishop Thomas Percy’s Rel- lore from Maine, became a close friend and Springfield all her life and was active in the iques of Ancient British Poetry (1765) or Francis collaborated with Flanders on folksong arti- community’s arts programs. It is no surprise James Child’s The English and Scottish Popular cles in Maine newspapers. that in 1930 she was appointed to the com- Ballads (1855), Flanders began studying bal- One of the people with whom she corre- mittee. She was both a pianist and a published lad source materials. She borrowed books sponded was collector Alan Lomax. She, like poet, so her love of music and enjoyment of from the Dartmouth College Library and several collectors of that era, felt territorial words easily translated into an interest in contacted folklorists and other collectors. The about the region where she was collecting. In ballads and folksongs. No sooner had she two people most responsible for guiding her a 1939 letter, she wrote to him, “I am recog- received the assignment than she began mak- early song-collecting experiences were Har- nizing that by November 3, I am letting you ing her Vermont project known. She vard scholar and collector Phillips Barry come into Vermont to go about as I do, with contacted the Library of Congress and visit- (1880–1937) and Maine collector Fannie potential addresses of unknown quantity.” The

Flanders (left) collected songs from Olive May in the 1940s. Photo: Bob Bourdon News Bureau, Mount Mansfield Co. Inc., Stowe, Vermont

Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 15 There was a squire liv’d in this town, He was a squire of high renown Had one daughter, a beauty bright, And he called her his “Heart’s Delight.”

[One or more verses are missing]

When her father came this to know, He sent his daughter far away, Sends her over fifty miles or more To detain her of her wedding day.

One night as she was for her bed bound, As she was taking out her gown, She heard the knock and the deadly sound, “Loosen those bounds that we have bound.

“I have your horse, and your mother’s cloak, And your father’s orders to take you home.” She dress’d herself in rich attire, And she rid away with her Heart’s Desire.

She kept on with him behind, They rode far faster than any wind, And every mile he would sigh “O my lovely jewel, my head it aches.”

A Holland handkerchief she then took out And tied his head with it around; She kissed his lips and she then did say, “Oh, my love, you’re colder than any clay.”

When they came to her father’s gate, “Come down, dear jewel,” this young man said, “Come down, my darling, and go to bed, and I’ll see your horse in his stable led.”

And when they came to her father’s hall, “Who’s there, who’s there?” her father called, “It is I, dear father, did you send for me, By such a messenger?”—naming he.

Her father, knowing the young man being dead, He tore his grey hair down from his head; He wrung his hands and he wept full sore; “Suffolk Miracle” was sung by Mrs. E.M. Sullivan, a native of And this young man’s darling cried more County Cork, Ireland, who lived in Springfield, Vermont, and and more. was bedridden at the end of her life, when Flanders collected The next day to the grave they went, this ballad from her. She published it in New Green Mountain And although this young man had been Songster with the following comment: “For true ballad lovers, nine months dead, this is one of the ‘big’ ballads. Child #272.” He had a Holland handkerchief Around his head.

16 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Flanders with Mrs. Eveline K. Fairbanks (right), one of the singers whose traditional songs she recorded. Photographer unknown. Mrs. Fairbanks was born in England, lived to the age of 91, and was active in civic, social, and church affairs in North Springfield, Vermont. She recorded “Little Harry Huston,” a ballad that predates Chaucer’s time and tells the same story as the “The Prioress’s Tale.” majority of recordings collected during Lo- asking their parents and their grandparents Flanders also lectured and wrote magazine max’s ten-day visit, by prior agreement, bear what songs they knew. articles. When she gave a ballad talk, she the names of both Flanders and Lomax. Other sources she solicited through New brought singers along to illustrate the songs England newspapers (such as the Springfield they had recorded for her. When she wrote In the Field Republican in Massachusetts). Enticing head- articles or was interviewed, she always talked Finding singers was a challenge. Close to lines, such as “Girl Spurned Love for Gold,” about her informants and described the types home was her own father-in-law. A Massa- introduced her articles, each of which would of songs they sang. In 1948, Flanders was chusetts subsistence farmer who late in life describe a singer and his or her ballad (in invited to give a lecture-concert at the moved to Vermont, Albert Wellington this case, “Gentleman from Exeter,” sung by Coolidge Auditorium of the Library of Con- Flanders liked to sing. His grandchildren still Josiah Kennison, a scissors grinder and clock gress—a landmark event for the Archive of recall his favorites: “Jolly Old Roger the Tin mender from Townsend, Vermont) and then American Folk Song. Presenting three sing- Maker’s Man,” which he recorded for the provide the text of the song. She closed by ers (Vermonters Asa Davis and Elmer collection, and “The Darby Ram.” encouraging people to contact her if they George alongside Charles Fennimore from Flanders spoke to friends and neighbors, knew different versions of that song or if Maine), she described their family back- asking if they remembered songs in their they knew people who sang old songs. Names grounds and the role of singing in their lives. families. Then she wrote messages to the and addresses poured in, and soon Flanders Everywhere she went, she honored the peo- granges and women’s clubs and placed an was collecting all over the Northeast. Even a ple who sang. She frequently reminded open letter in all the Vermont newspapers. soldier stationed abroad—who had received listeners that without their willingness to After she contacted school superintendents newspapers from home—wrote in about a share this music, there would not have been in Vermont, students went home and began song he knew. a collection.

Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 17 Examples from the Collection The northeastern states yielded far more than Child ballads, however. People sang about Old World history (“Bonaparte on St. Helena’s Shore”), local events (“The Strat- ten Mountain Tragedy”), and recent history (“The Last Fierce Charge”). Song stories took place on land, on sea, in people’s memories, and in their imaginations. The early part of the twentieth century was the heyday of lumber camps in remote for- ests. It was in the bunkhouse at night that the loggers sang, and a favorite theme was their daily encounter with danger. In “The Jam on Gerry’s Rock,” a river driver is killed when the logs break loose. “The Lumber- man’s Alphabet” lists things in the woodsman’s life—A is for axes, B for boys, C for choppers, D for dangers, and so forth. A singer often revealed that he’d heard a cer- tain song in the woods, identified the man he’d learned it from, and perhaps gave a little background on that person. Because laborers were desperately needed during the winter logging season, the woods became a melting pot of farmers, sailors, and mill workers—Englishmen, Scotsmen, French Canadians, and Native Americans. The rep- ertoire from a lumber camp was, as one might Helen Hartness Flanders about 1945. Photo: Clara Sipprell imagine, more male-oriented than what was sung back home with the women and children. Informant Marjorie Pierce, when inter- their songs back to a grandparent in Ireland Religion helped sustain people through the viewed in her ninety-sixth year, recalled the or Scotland, others to a visitor or relative hard times in rural Vermont, but they ex- collecting visits and spoke of Flanders’s gen- from a neighboring town. One man said his pressed their faith in different ways. Many uine interest in every member of her family. grandfather sang these songs to teach his hymns are included in the collection—for The informants shared their songs because children history. example, the singing of Belle Richards and Flanders let them know that they played an Thirty years, five hundred singers, and ap- Lena Bourne Fish from New Hampshire. important role in the preservation of a liv- proximately forty-five hundred songs later, Flanders heard Thomas Armstrong of ing legacy. When the head of one family Flanders had created a massive collection. The Moors Fork, New York, singing hymns on a passed away, she brought her equipment to list of song titles indicates an active transmis- radio program and arranged to meet him. the house so that the family could hear his sion of ballads from the settlers’ musical He told Flanders that he hadn’t sung hymns voice one last time. An old man in Maine, a heritage from the British Isles. Early on, her during his early manhood, when he had been former lumberjack, presented her with the major focus was on finding ancient Child bal- a cook’s helper in a Michigan lumber camp; skin of a bear he had shot; she had a rug lads such as “Gypsy Davy,” “The Farmer’s he was willing to be recorded for the collec- made and kept it next to her bed for the rest Curst Wife,” or “The Yorkshire Bite.” In study- tion—but only hymns. Uncle Tom, as he was of her life. ing the Flanders-Barry correspondence in the known, explained that following his conver- She invited singers to talk about their 1930s, one notes that this obsession inspired sion from a life of sin, he had not sung “a songs. A former lumberjack said he learned a lively competition between Vermont and Vir- worldly song” in twenty years. In the end, one song in the woods but another from a ginia to see which state had the larger number however, with some coaxing by Flanders, he relative in another state. Some singers traced of collected Child ballads. Vermont won. made forty-four recordings—among them

18 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore “The Farmer’s Son,” “John Barlycorn,” leaves his family to suffer and be forgotten. Lass of Mohea,” “Barbara Allen,” “On “Rooshian and Morressy,” and “Banks of the “The Bird Song,” an odd little temperance Springfield Mountain,” and “Frog Song”— Dee,” as well as his favorite camp meeting song, charmingly passes along its message in appear in the collection in numerous text and hymns. the chorus: “tea total tea total.” tune variants. Lily Delorme of Cadyville, “Wicked Polly” was collected from an Love stories—good and bad, true and fic- New York, recorded an example of another anonymous singer in Rhode Island. Polly at- tional—were immortalized in broadsides, form of variation, song localization. Her ver- tended dances but paid dearly for her ballads, and folksongs. In the high drama sion of “The Banks of Lake Erie” is a transgressions: She fell mysteriously ill, and genre, the collection includes several ballads regional cousin of “The Streets of Laredo.” with no time left for proper repentance, she in which a penknife is used for vengeance, Besides nonsense songs, riddles, and folk- was “undone” and died “in groaning despair.” and in at least one verse, blood oozes from a tales are songs that depict people having fun. It seems there was a circuit preacher who, in damsel’s pale bosom: She couldn’t escape her In “Jones’ Paring Bee,” neighbors gather to Flanders’s words, “sang this hymn eyeing the evil-minded lover, or her brothers failed to pare apples and end the evening dancing to congregations with hearsay [evidence] in the save her in time, or her father considered her a fiddle. “Green Mountain Boys” is about back of his mind.” He identified who in the lover unworthy and, when she wouldn’t obey, farmer boys who sneak away from their congregation had fallen beneath his standard “laid her in her gore.” “The Old Elm Tree” chores for a night on the town and end up at of moral living, and as he progressed through is about remembered love—the young wom- a dance, where they take a brief fancy to the verses, he substituted that church mem- an who was buried beneath the elm. In other French girls. ber’s name for “Polly.” ballads, a man goes off to war or ploughs Loss and nostalgia songs express many A beautiful and moving example of reli- the seas and (always after a seven-year ab- types of situations. The son leaving Ireland gious singing is the recording of Jessie sence) reappears in disguise or under another for America leaves the motherland as well as Anthony’s “Ain’t no grave gonna hold my name for the purpose of testing his lady’s his mother. In “No One to Welcome Me body down.” The daughter of a former slave, loyalty. Men were not the only ones to de- Home,” a weeping mother is left standing Jessie Anthony lived in Massachusetts. She vise strategies. A good example is “The on the shore, covering her face with her contributed two dozen gospel songs for the Rambling Female Sailor,” one of several bal- apron. “The Banks of the Potomac” is one collection and participated in at least one of lads in which the woman dresses as a sailor of many songs reminding us of the realities Flanders’s concert-lectures. to follow her lover onboard. In a love-gone- of war—the dying soldier gives final instruc- Though tourist brochures advertise the awry category is “The Smutty Logger”; its tions to his comrade about what to tell his Northeast for its natural beauty and dramat- counterparts in the war between the sexes mother, his sister, and sweetheart. “The ic autumn foliage, songs remind us that to might be “The Scolding Wife” and “My Brooklyn Fire” presents both the tragic event survive the long and harsh winters, one need- Mother-in-Law.” and a bold new hero. Songs also picture the ed to be brave and practical. Snowstorm Dozens of well-known ballads—“The plight of the Native Americans. “Indian Sit- ballads form a group all their own in the Flanders collection. “In the Dense Woods” is a true winter tragedy set to music. When Jim Furnald becomes lost in the forest, three hundred souls join the search party, and after three days he is finally found—sitting on a log frozen to death. Another winter ballad (known elsewhere, the text often localized) is “Fair Charlotte,” which serves as a warn- ing about both the rigors of winter and obeying one’s mother. Charlotte rides several miles by sleigh to a ball with her lover Charles. Having failed to heed her mother’s advice to take a warmer wrap, she arrives at her destination frozen as a statue, dead. New Englanders also had concerns about people being lost in the moral sense: suc- cumbing to the evils of alcohol. The

“Drunkard’s Dream” recounts the miseries In the field, Flanders used this Edison Dictaphone, Model 12, and a Soundscriber, which of a wayward father who, drink in hand, made seven-inch disks.

Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 19 In 1934, Amelia Stankiewicz of Springfield, Vermont, recorded Child ballad #10, ries about the person who used to sing a cer- “The Two Sisters,” in Polish. My interest in this variant of the ballad was the start of a tain song and, in their eyes, owned that song transatlantic adventure. When several years ago I was to visit friends in Warsaw, I is very much a part of the French American packed a copy of this field recording and the Polish text, with a translation. (The wax musical gatherings today. cylinder recording was badly damaged, but my mother had prepared a transcription In 1823 an unknown Vermont soldier from of the tune.) I wanted to learn whether Stankiewicz’s version was still known in Sandgate wrote in the preface to his Green Poland. My friends arranged a meeting with two English-speaking ethnomusicologists Mountain Songster, “Most people are fond of at the University of Warsaw. They couldn’t find Stankiewicz’s tune, but they did tell singing…Good moral cheerful songs are me that the ballad (known there as “Maliny”) is still sung and probably originated useful to cheer the drooping mind” (quoted from a folktale. At the end of our meeting, they presented me with a tape of Eastern in the preface to Flanders’s 1939 New Green European variants of “The Two Sisters.” I, in turn, gave them a tape I had made of four Mountain Songster). Flanders found that to be friends each singing a different version of “The Two Sisters.” true with the people she met. The volume and variety of materials in the Flanders Bal- ting in His Canoe” recalls the days before mentation and a tendency to hold on to the lad Collection are a testimony to that human the conflict between native peoples and the final note of a line—is heard in Maine sing- desire to express and transmit traditions, per- European settlers. er Hanford Hayes’s rendition of “The Rose sonal memories, and historical records. “Young Man Out West” is clearly a pio- of Tralee.” Between the lines of these songs are the leg- neer single’s ad set to music. A man heading Though not represented in great numbers, acies of human beings who lived in a time west is in search of a woman—preferably French Americans deserve mention. Of the when people sang, and when singing had the sixteen, with black eyes, and no fear of chas- singers recorded in 1954, four are still living power to enrich and define their lives. ing deer and hunting buffalo. and singing. The songs recorded by the sing- Some settlers were dissatisfied, dreamed ers from Hardwick, Vermont, are quite For further information of a better life, and conjured up reasons for different from French folksongs. Folksongs Flanders, Helen Hartness. 1931 Vermont Folk-Songs leaving wherever they were. In the dialogue often changed in character and rhythm as and Ballads (with George Brown) song “Rolling Stone Gathers No Moss,” a they crossed from France into Quebec, and ______1934. A Garland of Green Mountain Song (with Helen Norfleet). couple debates whether to remain on rocky with good reason. The men in the fur trade ______1937 Country Songs of Vermont (with Helen farmland or go west; in “Days of ’49” and who transported their goods downriver by Norfleet). “Klondike Vale,” the singer longs for a land canoe sang as they paddled. The rhythm of ———. 1939. The New Green Mountain Songster (with Elizabeth Flanders Ballard, Phillips Bar- far away where gold’s a-plenty but dangers the paddles, dipping in and out of the water, ry, George Brown). may lurk. On the other hand, “The Dying transformed “A la Claire Fontaine,” a lyrical ———. 1953. Ballads Migrant in New England (with Californian” suggests that moving may not tune, into a spirited work song. Marguerite Olney). always be the best solution. ———. 1960–65. Ancient Ballads Traditionally Sung in New England (4 volumes) (with Tristram During the Civil War, Vermont contribut- Sadly, the tradition of singing has not been Coffin and Bruno Nettl). ed a higher percentage of its male population carried down to the recent generation in the A description of the Flanders collection, includ- than any other state. Human loss was enor- informants’ families. Relatives of the singers ing an index of the songs and singers, is available online at ww.Middlebury.edu/~lib/ mous. Who would fill out the waning labor smile with pride as they reminisce about the FBC/index.htm. force in the woods, the mills, and the farms? old ones, but the young ones don’t know the Not surprisingly, immigrants were courted, traditional songs. Some children and grand- promises were made, men found work, and children weren’t even aware that their elders their songs traveled with them into new com- sang and were convinced only on hearing munities. tapes of the field recordings. The French The influence of the Irish in the Flanders Americans are the exception. During a col- Ballad Collection is tremendous. Coming to lecting session in the Lecours family’s kitchen New England in droves, the Irish sang an- last summer, I was told, “That’s what we do cient ballads, songs popular in Ireland be- when we get together.” Singing is still part fore they left, and once in America, new of their life even though the style has changed Nancy-Jean Ballard Seigel songs describing their own pioneer experi- with the times. The format is still call-and- ([email protected]) is a Vermonter ence—unemployment, poverty, and preju- response, but a cappella singing is less currently living in Bethesda, Maryland. In 2001 she received an award from the dice—as well as bouncy patter songs such as common, now that some family members Parsons Fund for Ethnography at the “Clancy’s Wooden Wedding” or “Mrs. Fog- play guitar. Before or after a song, someone American Folklife Center (Library of arty’s Christmas Cake.” The distinctive Irish is likely to mention the name of a family Congress) for her research on Helen Hartness Flanders. She is pictured here singing style—lilting, with grace note orna- member who has passed away. Swapping sto- with Alan Lomax.

20 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore FOODWAYS

Treasure from the Sugar Shack BY LYNN CASE EKFELT

This column is directed to all those gour- “We put out three thousand buckets this only a very late spring saved the syrup indus- met food shoppers across the country busily year. Some people use plastic tubing to col- try in the North Country. During the usual searching for “Vermont maple syrup” on the lect the sap nowadays; it goes right from the syrup-making weeks of late February, the Internet. The secret is out: Much of Ver- tree by gravity down to a holding tank at the days were much too cold for the sap to run. mont’s fabled syrup is actually shipped over sugar shack. We don’t like to do that, though; Then it looked as if the trees would begin to the border in huge tanks from New York some of the customers say they can taste the bud, making the sap “buddy”—strong and State. At least that’s what North Country syr- difference. Years ago we used a tractor pull- unusable—when it finally did begin to flow. up makers tell me. So…eliminate the ing a sled to collect the sap, but now we have But March stayed chilly, the trees stayed bare, middleman and send your orders straight to a wagon with wheels. and the producers let out a collective sigh of the Empire State. “Our evaporator is made of sheet metal; relief. We have the Iroquois and Ojibwa to thank it holds the steam down and makes the sap Sugaring is scarcely an easy source of infor teaching our ancestors how to notch sugar cook faster. We use a mixture of hard and come. Yet several years ago when the Watertown maple trunks and drive in wooden sticks to soft wood to heat it. If the sap starts to boil Daily Times predicted a terrible year for syr- carry the sap to bark containers. In fact, over, you can sprinkle a little milk in it.” up and quoted economists who speculated maple syrup was the only sweetener known Why an evaporator? When the sap comes that some farmers might not even bother on this continent until honeybees were in- out of the tree, it is almost all water, most to tap their trees, one syrup producer com- troduced into the colonies in the 1630s. The of which needs to be boiled away to pro- mented, “They may decide not to tap, but grading system used for syrup today dates duce the thicker, sweeter syrup. Because when the time comes, I bet they’ll be in the from the time when northern maple sugar forty gallons of sap must be boiled down sugar shed. It gets into your blood.” manufacturers were competing with south- to make every gallon of syrup, the family ern cane sugar growers for the national spends lots of time in the sugar shack. Luck- sweetener market, according to gardener and ily, late winter into early spring is an Maple Johnnycake cook Martha Rubin in her book Countryside, off-season for farmers, so neighbors are a Garden and Table: A New England Seasonal Di- little freer to drop by for a chat to help the Johnnycake was a staple of New York’s ary (Golden, CO: Fulcrum, 1993). The goal time pass. And of course there are tasty di- early Yankee settlers. The word may was a bland, flavorless sweetener for use in versions, such as eggs hard-boiled in the sap derive from journey-cake, a brick of coffee and tea and for baking, so the darker and—better yet—jack wax, or wax-on-snow. cornmeal and water that travelers could grades of syrup came to be considered infe- There’s nothing so good as that confection: bake over an open fire. This version, from rior. In fact, because they are more strongly thin ribbons of boiling syrup poured over a Iona Brewer of Canton, has a nice maple flavored and less sweet, many people—my- pan of clean snow, then twirled up on the sweetness that makes it delicious for self included—actually prefer them, so don’t tines of a fork. Or if that’s too sweet and breakfast. be scared off if your purveyor is out of Light sticky for your taste, you can try the tradi- 2 eggs Amber. Give Medium Amber a try, or even tional method of alternating bites of 1/2 cup milk Dark. wax-on-snow with bites of dill pickle. 1/2 cup maple syrup The following description of sugaring by A sugar bush is a treasure to be passed 1/2 cup butter, melted the Miller family of Hopkinton shows that down through the generations, since a ma- 1 cup flour the essence of syrup making has changed lit- ple must usually be thirty years old and at 1 cup cornmeal tle since the days of the Iroquois: least ten inches in diameter before it can be 3 teaspoons baking powder “There’s a lot of walking in- tapped. Like other forms of fam- 1/2 teaspoon salt volved in sugaring. You have ily farming, the maple syrup to go once around the bush business mixes hard work with Beat the eggs; add the milk, maple to drop off the buckets, once nail-biting in front of the syrup, and melted butter. Combine the to drop off the lids, once to Weather Channel. A flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and salt. drill the holes, and once good season lasts only Add the flour mixture to the liquid to pound the spiles. We two or three weeks and ingredients, beating until everything is used to tap our trees with an requires daytime temper- well blended. Pour the batter into a awl. Now we use a chainsaw atures in the forties and greased 8-inch pan. Bake at 400 degrees with a special attachment. nights below freezing. In 2003 for 25 to 30 minutes.

Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 21 Sacramental Artwork in American Churches

BY MAREK CZARNECKI

The heritage of Roman Catholic churches in the United States is at risk, adapted to the artistic process: Many sacra- and with the razing and renovations of its parishes, a religious patrimony mental statuary factories opened across the of artwork is being lost and destroyed. These structures, their furnishings, United States. Like everything else in Amer- and their decorations provide Catholics with a sense of place, self, and ica, art for sacred places was made in facto- sanctuary; the losses not only create a cultural vacuum but also affect ries, in a collaborative, industrial process. their faith. Cited as a positive example, a parish in Amsterdam, New York, And in a very democratizing way, the mass is among the few that have saved a richly ornamented historic church production of sacramental art created a rare with all its statues, murals, and icons. The art and architecture have their equivalence between artist and client: The roots in Europe, but as expressed in the New World, they assume a clearly workers who manufactured statues, sten- American form—and are thus worthy of study and preservation. ciled walls, and leaded windows were the same people who donated money to buy n the sixth century, when the Church al forms were not new but taken from re- these objects for their parishes, and prayed I was deliberating the propriety of im- gional European models. Each church was with them on Sunday. ages, it declared that icons were not an op- custom-made for its members, recreating a tion for teaching the faith—they were a ne- familiar liturgical and ethnic language, spe- Lost to Progress cessity. Through its need to instruct and in- cific to each community. Working-class im- Within the past thirty years, the once- spire mostly illiterate communicants, the migrants from Europe built their churches common sacramental artwork of those first- Church became one the greatest patrons of with meager donations, and the results re- generation Americans—an integral part of the arts. Some fourteen centuries later, we flect their economic station: plaster-mold- the great panorama of American life—has can still see this in our Roman Catholic ed statuary was used in place of marble or become scarce. And it is not just the ob- churches, both overseas and in the United wood; paper prints stood in for oil paint- jects and buildings that are disappearing, but States. The artwork in Europe is justifiably ings; and wooden surfaces were marbleized the subsequent living trails and histories of revered, yet here in North American one or gilded to give the impression of more immigrants’ lives. A legacy that they as- can begin to identify a specifically Ameri- costly materials. sumed would last in perpetuity for their can Catholic artistic heritage, with its own This young nation had no Beaux-Arts descendants is disappearing, because of unique characteristics. Much of it has been academies to train artists skilled enough to both external societal and economic factors undervalued because it is derivative of Eu- decorate churches in the European fashion, and, strangely, neglect and confusion with- ropean sources, of a lesser quality than its no artistic language of its own. With the in the Church itself. European prototypes, or mass-produced turn-of-the-century rush to build churches Much of the loss of sacramental art in and considered kitsch. However, it is these for the growing numbers of immigrants, the United States is attributable to the clos- very qualities that make it specifically Amer- many recent arrivals opened their own stu- ing of parishes and the subsequent demoli- ican. dio businesses to meet the demand of their tion of their churches. The first Catholic The American Catholic Church is import- communities as well as the needs of the parishes were built where immigrants set- ed, with European roots, founded by immi- nation. Demand was so great that typical tled to find work—in urban areas, especial- grants of the working class. Its architectur- American assembly-line processes were ly in larger American cities. First came the

22 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore The sanctuary of St. Peter’s in New Britain, Connecticut, was filled with devotional art when it was completed in 1875; its appearance today (right) is austere and abstract by comparison. Old photo: unknown; modern photo: Marek Czarnecki waves of Irish in the mid-1800s, then Ger- people moved away to find better work or, building or have it torn down. After it was mans and Italians, then eastern Europeans. with economic success, moved up into af- offered for sale for a dollar to anyone with Most of the oldest parishes were Irish, built fluent suburban neighborhoods. As immi- a viable renovation plan (estimated at $3 at great personal and communal sacrifice; grant families were assimilated into the million) and no buyers or alternative pro- because of a language barrier, later-arriv- American mainstream and distanced them- posals appeared, the church was first picked ing non-English-speaking immigrants were selves from their ethnic origins, the need apart by salvage companies, then torn down. discouraged from worshipping in the same for specifically ethnic parishes became less An empty lot is all that remains. sanctuaries. Frustrated and excluded, each and less vital. Every American city and town has such immigrant group, of necessity, established A good example of the phenomenon is stories: Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, its own parishes, with priests who were able in the American home of the Industrial Rev- and Detroit have closed dozens of parish- to preach, hear confessions, and perform olution, Lowell, Massachusetts. In 1927, es and demolished their churches. Al- the sacraments in their parishioners’ respec- Lowell had fourteen active Catholic parish- though the individual dioceses express re- tive tongues and who were sensitive to their es. One of its first Irish churches, St. Peter, gret over the pain these closings cause, the ethnic devotions and pantheon of saints. built in 1890, was closed in 1980 as the trend is likely to continue for financial rea- Even small American towns would have neighborhood population dwindled. This sons. Parishes are now organized as indi- many Catholic parishes, not necessarily to church, which seated twenty-one hundred vidual nonprofit organizations, and regard- accommodate huge numbers of worship- people, stood empty for nineteen years as less of their location or historical signifi- pers over a large geographic area, but more the diocese and the city deliberated what to cance, they risk being liquidated if they run for the sake of each ethnic community’s do with it. The leaded stained-glass win- in the red, lack an endowment, or fail to autonomy. dows, standing three stories tall, began to celebrate all seven sacraments. Added to But those neighborhoods have changed. bow and fall out onto the street; neglected this are dwindling attendance and the lack With concentration of industrialization and ceiling leaks became gaping holes. The city of vocations, with fewer and fewer priests relocation of factories south or overseas, notified the diocese to either repair the to staff all these parishes.

Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 23 A statue of St. Casimir, manufactured by Daprato in Chicago, stands ninety-six inches tall in the high altar of St. Casimir Parish, Amsterdam, New York. Restoration of the hundred-year-old piece involved stripping old paint, resurfacing, and repainting based on colors uncovered in the restoration. Photo: Marek Czarnecki

Nonadaptive Disuse salvaged and sold some of the thirty life- sonal depth when the sites that ground us With urban redevelopment in the 1960s, size, hand-carved German wood sculptures. in our history and spiritual ancestors disap- an elevated highway was built through one The following year, the church was razed; pear. Yes, the Church is its people, but the of Cleveland’s early German neighbor- what survived from inside is incomplete and churches are where those people’s lives are hoods, destroying its residential character has been dispersed piecemeal. lived and where the most important mile- and causing massive urban flight. With no A common pronouncement from the Ro- stones of life are marked, celebrated, and neighborhood left to serve, the parish man Catholic hierarchy on such occasions blessed. A very private, intimate, and vital church of St. Joseph’s closed soon after. As is that a church is not a building, it is its side of any Catholic is expressed in these in many cases, there were no offers to buy people. When a parish closes, that commu- sanctuaries, and it disappears with their dis- the property. Its architectural form and fix- nity of people disperses into other parish- mantling. tures did not lend themselves to any other es. Without our physical sites and signs, how- The Church also sacrifices some of its purpose, and demand for real estate in this ever, we forget who we are, and we lose the credibility; as an institution, it stands for now-industrialized desert was nominal. The material objects that link us to a very deep, stability and eternal values, as do architec- original plan was to demolish the building historical communal identity. In American ture and statues—both of which are creat- with all its interior contents, but a local priest culture, we lose our personal and transper- ed to be stable and permanent. Instinctive-

24 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Without our physical sites and signs, we forget who we are, and we lose the material objects that link us to a very deep, historical communal identity.

ly, with the demolition of churches, its understanding its true scarcity. She was in- members sense that the institution and its terested in an aristocratic collection of rare dogma are less than permanent, and in the museum pieces, and not the reality of the hands of mercurial forces. How could a American Catholic experience. building like St. Peter’s in Lowell stand only The diocese of Philadelphia has taken an a hundred years? The intent of its archi- innovative and, I think, sensitive approach to tects and its donors was that it last forev- its church closings. One of its emptied er, not a mere lifetime. churches is used as a warehouse for removed Wandering through its vast abandoned sacramental fixtures. For a minimal donation interior, I understood that its extraordinary the articles can be resituated in another artistic language would disappear. Outside church anywhere in the United States. This were tenements and triple-decker houses. ensures that the artwork is saved, and donors Inside was an elevated order of space and are assured that their offerings are appreciat- beauty. Without traveling to Europe, where ed and will be used in houses of worship. can one find a classic Gothic church? And how wonderful to find it in a working-class Whitewashed Blankness Massachusetts town, where it served a con- Besides demographic and economic chang- gregation and not museum-goers. Rarely es, another factor in the disappearance of can abandoned churches be reused for sacramental artwork is the renovation of par- other purposes, and the same can be said ishes to meet the standards of the Second for much of the artwork inside. Vatican Council of 1963. The council’s aim The market for salvaged church goods was to open wide the doors of the Church, is small, catering mostly to eccentric col- to bring it into the twentieth century with an lectors and a subculture Catholic tradition- emphasis on the centrality of the Mass and alist movement. Sometimes devoted pa- the written gospel. “Paraliturgical” services— rishioners or the descendants of families novenas, stations of the cross, Marian devo- that donated articles will reclaim them, but tions, prayers to the saints, processions, the religious iconography does not cross over forty hours of devotion service, lighting of into a mainstream antiques market. Be- votive candles, and other popular practices cause most sacramental artwork in Amer- that occurred outside the Mass—were deem- ica was made of fragile, inexpensive ma- phasized, discouraged, or even discontinued. terials like plaster, it lacks the commodity Protests from parishioners notwithstanding, value to be placed in a museum or to at- much of the statuary made for these acts of The Daprato Company Statuary Company’s 1930 catalogue offered St. Patrick in a choice of sizes, finishes, and prices. tract a collector. Several years ago, I met a worship was placed in marginal areas (vesti- woman seeking to create an American bules, entrance ways, stairwells, choir lofts), plative environment.” One can step inside Catholic museum. She was looking for hidden away, or destroyed. Devotional side a church with an 1890 cornerstone to find wood and marble statues, oil paintings, and altars were also removed, and niches sealed the once-vibrant and highly decorated inte- gold and silver altar vessels. When I de- over with drywall. Narrative murals depict- rior stripped to its barest architectural ele- scribed to her my specific interests (mass- ing landmarks in the spiritual history of the ments, without any imagery. What was a de- produced plaster statuary), she said, “I can founding members were painted over to cre- fining characteristic of Catholic churches walk into any church and see that,” not ate a more neutral, contemporary “contem- is now vestigial.

Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 25 The sanctuary of St. Casimir is embellished with murals as well as statues. Left: The Lithuanian infantry is led to victory by a vision of the patron saint of the parish. Right: A dead child is miraculously revived through the intercession of St. Casimir. Photos: Marek Czarnecki

Although such whitewashing is often con- the human personhood of God becomes munal participation. Also influential was the sidered only a superficial change in decora- impersonal and purely intellectual. When the pervasive reductive modernism that affect- tion, the repercussions affect the devotion- saints’ images disappear, so do their stories ed all aspects of American design and ar- al life of the laity. When every church ser- and prayers. chitecture, especially during the fever for vice is the Mass, dependent on the admin- Still another reason for the change of ap- urban renewal in the 1970s, when everything istration of a priest, the laity loses some of pearance in Catholic churches is a shift in old (by American standards) fell into disfa- its own spiritual spontaneity, autonomy, and the identities of church-going people. As vor. Churches were not spared from this private devotional creativity; avenues of Catholics assimilated into American culture, trend, and historic buildings were refitted personal participation are limited. A philo- they no longer wanted to be identified as with incongruous contemporary fittings or sophical split occurs among church leaders immigrant. Churches were remodeled to empty blankness. and laity over the necessity of liturgical art, make them look more “American,” and less The need for liturgical arts declined with the laity often pro and administration working-class. Plaster statues in a Europe- the rate at which new Catholic churches against. A repercussion of this reductivist an neoclassical style were replaced with were built, and the few new structures were trend is the disappearance of religious pic- modern wood or marble interpretations. in a spare, reserved modern style. Thou- tures, statuettes, private shrines, and holy Murals and decorative elements were neu- sands of art-related businesses either closed water fonts in the home, and connected with tralized to give interiors a more mainstream or changed the direction of their work. Of this, the acts of private prayer that accom- American look—like a New England Con- the three largest manufacturers of religious panied them. The practice and forms of gregational church, or Shaker meeting statuary in North America, Daprato Statu- prayer are learned in public worship, then house. The spiritual experience now was to ary still exists as a firm but produces one- echoed in the home. With the removal of be more intellectual and less emotional or of-a-kind artwork and offers design and res- images, a Catholic can lose the immediacy visceral, focusing on the written text of the toration services (paradoxically, on much of of his faith, and a theology developed on gospel, the liturgy, and fellowship of com- its original output); Mayer & Company spe-

26 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore cializes in contemporary mosaics and stained glass; and Bernardini Statuary is out of business. Only two American factories remain that mass-produce statuary: Mazzo- lini Artworks, in Cleveland, which manufac- tures nothing taller than thirty-two inches (a size suitable for homes but not for eccle- siastical sites); and Institutional Statuary & Design in the Bronx, which recasts old forms in fiberglass. Today there is little demand for religious imagery, and most churches are built without them; occasionally, individual artists are commissioned to create one-of-a-kind artwork. An interest- ing phenomenon in both old and new sanctuaries is the appearance of painted Byzan- tine icons, whose stylized forms integrate well into both contemporary and traditional settings. It is indicative of the post–Vat- ican Council Church’s growing ecumenism and search for a more fundamental artistic language.

Models of Preservation In the familiar paradox of preservation, it is in the parishes that are too poor to renovate or even afford upkeep for their sanctuaries that one finds still-intact churches. St. Barbara’s in the Bushwick section of Brooklyn boasts one of the longest church aisles in New York City, with mosaics, painted ceilings, and six diorama side altars. Poor, This life-sized figure of Mary exemplifies the high quality of plaster statuary produced by turn-of-the-century factories—in this case, Mayer inner-city parishes, if they are still open and & Co. Once in a prominent place in the sanctuary of St. Francis in serving a community, are more likely to be Pittsburgh, the pietà has been relegated to a ledge over a radiator. Photo: Marek Czarnecki artistically intact (albeit in need of repair and conservation) than their sister parishes in more affluent neighborhoods. Scarce migrants—form a community hub that re- itself the “carpet-making capital of the funds are used for community outreach and inforces and preserves a cultural patrimo- world.” The carpet factories moved south social services rather than the building’s ny, which includes artwork, local cults of decades ago, and the population crashed. modernization. the Virgin Mary, and devotions to the saints Of the eight original Catholic parishes, all Another example involves American par- from the homeland. of them ethnic, the German parish, St. ishes with a continuing influx of immi- Some examples of preservation and con- Joseph’s, was closed first. According to grants, who seek to recreate the religious servation serve as beacons. These parish- canon law, parishes are not the property experience they left behind. Churches re- es are aware of their significance, both to of the parishioners but belong to the di- flect local tradition, and although the Cath- the local community and as remnants of a ocesan bishop, who may act as he sees fit olic Church is often perceived as a mono- vanishing religious patrimony. One of the for the benefit of the diocese. Despite pro- lith of conformity, each national constitu- best examples of this is the Lithuanian tests from parishioners, St. Joseph’s was ency leaves its unique mark, especially when parish of St. Casimir in Amsterdam, New demolished quickly after it had closed, and transplanted to the New World. Such York. On the Mohawk River between only a few of its marble statues were relo- churches today—no less than when Ellis Is- Schenectady and Utica, Amsterdam was cated to the neighboring parish of Our land processed throngs of Old World im- once a busy, prosperous town that called Lady of Mount Carmel. Half a mile down

Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 27 the street, on the east side, the Lithuanian dows, stenciled decorations, and a ceiling heritage thus becomes crucial. The insti- parish of St. Casimir was also facing clo- mural. It overwhelms a visitor with its tutions that one would assume would be sure. The church had a turn-of-the-centu- warmth and visual abundance. Many pa- the most protective and interested are of- ry sanctuary built without any internal rishioners say that although it is not their ten not, and parishioners themselves are posts to support its barrel-vaulted ceiling. taste, it is their responsibility to preserve it daunted by the task they face. When it was condemned as structurally un- as it was built. Others understand its his- Acts of conservation, protection, under- sound, many parishioners considered that torical and personal value. All know it standing, and interpretation need to be un- only an excuse to demolish the building. would be impossible to recreate, and they dertaken from many different perspec- Determined not to let their parish suffer had to work both with and against a hier- tives—they have relevance in many fields. the same fate as St. Joseph’s, they petitioned archy that was not eager to see it reopened. I ask readers to go into their own commu- the bishop to allow them to raise funds to At the rededication of the church, the nities, see what treasures still exist, and reengineer and renovate the structure. The bishop of Albany urged the parish to work think of these places as resources for the vault was reinforced with steel beams, and for vocations to the priesthood and engage multidisciplinary work of folklore. Further after three years of work, the parish won a in social outreach. A soup kitchen has study, discussion, and attention will con- prize from a national architectural firm for opened in the church hall, and local Lati- tribute to the understanding, cultural its preservation work. The restoration con- no and civic groups use the space for sum- weight, and value of these sites. tinued with the interior surfaces, in stages, mer children’s programs. Nevertheless, When faced with the closing or demoli- as funds were raised. Statues were cleaned, because of the shortage of priests, St. Ca- tion of a church here in the United States, restored, and repainted for the first time simir’s shares a priest with another parish, parishioners often say, “In Europe, they since the church’s opening more than a and because of vandalism, it is open only make places like these into museums. century ago. In 2002, the ceiling was re- for services. Churches there stand for hundreds of surfaced, loose plaster removed, and the years.” Why not here? murals reconstructed and repainted. In Conclusion: An Appeal St. Casimir’s as it stands today is a dense- Today it is uncommon to see Catholic ly decorated church, with a central high al- communities building churches, and cer- Marek Czarnecki (marekstudio4b@ tar containing eight-foot-tall plaster stat- tainly not with the same aesthetic sensibil- hotmail.com) is a liturgical artist who for ues, a poignant set of mass-produced Da ities embodied in the churches built by the the past fifteen years has been restoring, renovating, and creating new artwork for Prato stations of the cross, tall wooden first waves of immigrants. Preservation of American churches. He lives in Bristol, reredos and side altars, stained-glass win- our existing religious architectural and art Connecticut.

A Portrait of the Artist To continue to receive As a Polish American liturgical artist—not an anthropologist, Voices historian or folklorist—I offer information that is more anecdotal and enjoy the than statistical. I speak from my experience in talking to hundreds full range of of clients, visiting hundreds of churches, and meeting with their New York Folklore parishioners, and from my own observations within the Church as Society programs, a practicing Catholic. I learned about beauty and art not from a become a member! museum, but from my parish church in Bristol, Connecticut. See page 48 for more Attending church and being in its environment made me want to information be an artist. I spend my time studying the variety of forms of liturgical art, its uses, and what makes it and American churches unique. I work to understand, preserve, and create meaningful art used within the context of worship, and to reeducate Catholics on its depth, meaning, and use. —Marek Czarnecki

28 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore LAWYER’S SIDEBAR “How Long Does Copyright

Protection Last?” BY PAUL RAPP

I get asked all the time about the length of or law (which dates to 1909) provided for a 2002, just went by, and a pile of unpublished copyrights. The questions generally arise copyright term of 28 years, with an exten- works just fell into the public domain. when a scholar wants to excerpt an old book, sion of another 28 years. Significantly, these Termination rights for copyright transfers or when someone discovers a song or story terms ran not from when the work was cre- for works with existing copyrights as of Jan- or photograph created years ago and wants ated but from when the work was published. uary 1, 1978, can be exercised 56 years after to incorporate the old work into a new work. So, for pre-1978 works it’s 28 plus 28, for the initial publication of the work. Are these old works covered by copyright, a total of 56 years, right? Well, no. Not ex- As arcane and arbitrary as this may all and if so, how long will the copyright last? actly. When Congress reworked the laws in seem, issues arising from these laws affect a The answers to such basic questions ought the mid-1970s, existing copyrights were ex- vast array of works and involve millions of to be easy, but often they’re not. The main tended to make things equitable between the dollars of royalty and licensing revenue. A problem is that when the copyright laws were old 28+28-year copyrights and the new life- hard-fought, big-bucks 1995 court case in- extensively overhauled in the mid-1970s, old- plus-50-year (now life-plus-70) copyrights. volved how the 1978 laws affected the ter- er works were treated differently than newer Equity, nice as it is, can be complicated. mination rights for the copyrights to the song works. The schizophrenic quality of the law For works that were still in their initial 28- “When the Red Red Robin Comes Bob-Bob- has led to a lot of confusion and lost oppor- year terms as of January 1, 1978, the new Bobbin’ Along.” Seriously. Imagine a room tunities for creators and their heirs. law provided that the renewal term would full of grownups arguing about that! The easy part first. The 1976 revision gave be not 28 but 67 years, so the full duration So the bottom line goes something like this: copyrights a duration of life of the author of the copyright would now be 95 years from If the work was published before 1922, plus 50 years (recently extended by Congress publication. For works already in their renew- it’s in the public domain. For a work with a to life plus 70 years). For works created after al term as of January 1, 1978, the renewal copyright still running on January 1, 1978 January 1, 1978, the copyright generally aris- term has been extended by 39 additional (which could be anything published after Jan- es upon the creation of the work. For an indi- years, so the full duration of the copyright uary 1, 1922), there could be an existing copy- vidual, the copyright then runs for the life would likewise be 95 years from publication. right on the work (if the initial 28-year term of the author plus 70 years. For a work “cre- As we’ve noted, the term of copyright was extended), and this copyright will run ated” by a “nonperson” (in a work-for-hire under the old law started the work was pub- until at least January 1, 2017. If you have an or employer-employee situation) or for a lished. What about a work created before 1978 unpublished work that predates 1978, the copy- pseudonymous work, the copyright runs for that hasn’t been published yet? The copyright right depends primarily on whether the cre- 95 years from the publication of the work for these works, no matter how old, hadn’t ator is still alive, and if not, when the creator (when the work was distributed to the pub- even begun to run as of January 1, 1978. The died. If the creator died anytime after 1933 lic) or 120 years from the work’s creation, new law provides that such works be treated (2003 minus 70 years), there is still some whichever is shorter. like post-1978 works—that is, copyright for copyright protection left for the heirs of the If copyright of a work created after Janu- pre-1978 unpublished works is life of the creator to enjoy. If the date of death was ary 1, 1978, is transferred (as when a writer author plus 70 years. However, the copyrights before 1933, you missed your chance to cap- transfers her novel to a publisher, a musician for all unpublished pre-1978 works was italize on the work about a year ago. transfers his recording to a record company, deemed to last until at least December 31, Aren’t you glad you asked? or a photographer transfers her image to a 2002, even for ancient works and even if the Paul Rapp magazine), the creator (or the creator’s heirs) creator was long gone. And if a pre-1978 ([email protected]) can get the copyright back after 35 years by unpublished work managed to get published is an attorney with the Albany law giving notice to the transferee. This is a nice before December 31, 2002, the copyright firm of Cohen Dax thing for the creator. Often rights are trans- automatically runs until at least December & Koenig. He also teaches art and ferred by the creator under duress and the 31, 2047. entertainment law need for fast money, and with this “termina- Consider the implications for really old, at Albany Law School. Write to tion right,” improvident and unfair deals can unpublished works. A work from the 1800s him or the editor if be undone. could get protection though 2047 upon pub- you have a general-interest What about works that existed before the lication. The operative word here is “could.” question for a future issue. 1978 change? Hold on to your hat. The pri- The magic publication date of December 31, Photo: Buck Malen

Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 29 Happy Birthday, Willy B!

BY KAY TURNER WITH KATHLEEN CONDON

A hallmark of industry, the Williamsburg Bridge symbolized New York City’s early twentieth-century desires for expansion, productivity, and democracy. Instrumental in creating the cultural diversity of New York, this “immigrant bridge,” known locally as the Willy B, has long served diverse working-class populations moving out of Manhattan to seek a better life in Brooklyn. In the 1980s it was threatened with demolition but instead is being restored. A birthday party in 2003 celebrated the history, occupational labor, and community arts that distinguish the culture of the Williamsburg Bridge. The Willy B was—and is—the people’s bridge, and it remains a symbol of the city.

hen the Williamsburg Bridge Building the Bridge Wopened to horse-drawn carriages, Construction began in 1896 under the pedestrians, and bicyclists in 1903, it was supervision of its designer and chief engi- hailed as a marvel of engineering innova- neer, Leffert L. Buck. No one had ever de- tion. Twenty years had passed since the signed and built a suspension bridge of this opening of the stone-arched Brooklyn size, let alone with steel. The success of Bridge. The much-needed new bridge— the bridge rested on Buck’s gauge of steel’s completed in a record seven years—had the true strength and his adoption of construc- longest suspension in the world: 7,308 feet tion techniques associated with wrought- with a 1,600-foot main span. Its great length iron structures, inspired by the Eiffel Tow- was supported by four massive cables, spun er. Buck’s design was widely disdained as from enough wire to stretch 17,500 miles, architecturally unappealing, however, and and its 118-foot width carried twice the load in the final building stages, architect Hen- of the Brooklyn Bridge. ry Hornbostel was engaged to add orna- The Williamsburg Bridge also boasted the mental flourishes. Nevertheless, the day first all-steel towers, each 310 feet high. after the bridge’s opening, the New York High-strength structural steel, reinforced Times criticized the thick look of the “ban- with 40-foot-deep stiffening trusses, made dy-legged towers.” A ten-foot-tall cake created by pastry the bridge both lighter and stronger, able The bridge was opened with an elabo- chef Anthony Smith was a scene of family photos throughout the celebration to withstand high winds and, through vari- rate celebration on December 19, 1903. day. The Maldanado family welcomed ous adaptations made from 1903 until the Hundreds of dignitaries in greatcoats and their mother, Mercedes, who raised them in Williamsburg and came back from 1940s, carry increasingly heavy car and sub- top hats processed across the garlanded Puerto Rico just for the celebration. way traffic. bridge, then returned to a grandstand on Photo: Martha Cooper

30 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore chaos but also served to demonstrate its importance as a major city artery. The transportation commissioner, Ross San- dler, addressed the crisis by appointing Samuel Schwartz to chair a panel of experts who would evaluate the future of the bridge. They considered replacing it with a new structure but in the end decided to rebuild and refurbish the historic structure—and, remarkably, to keep it open while doing so.

Builders and Rebuilders The workers who built the Williamsburg Bridge at the turn of the past century pos- sessed a combination of skill, agility, fear- lessness, and stubborn dedication. The four hundred to eight hundred who labored on The Williamsburg Bridge was built in less time than it is taking to restore it, but the bridge during most days of its construc- residents of the community for which it is named wouldn’t have had it any other way. This photo was taken in 1901, two years before the bridge connected Manhattan with a tion hailed from many countries—Germa- working-class neighborhood in Brooklyn. Photo: Courtesy of Parsons Transportation ny, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Lithuania; many Group belonged to the Housesmiths’ and Bridge- men’s Union. Particularly dangerous jobs included caisson work (for which workers spent their days in watertight boxes beneath the East River securing the anchorages), con- structing the towers, fitting the trusses, and spinning the cable wires. Many of the men were former ship riggers, accustomed to scal- ing heights, negotiating catwalks, and han- dling pulleys. Still, during bridge construction, thirty-one men died, most from falls. Folklore of the construction era indicates that workers played competitive games as a release from the dangers of their work, and that milestones were marked by ceremonies. An American flag was attached to the last cable wire, carried from Manhattan to Brooklyn on June 27, 1902. A game of Cap- In 1958, photographer Jerry Dantzic captured images of a gang of local boys making a raft under the bridge. Like his subjects, Dantzic lived in Williamsburg. Photo: Jerry ture the Flag followed. The winner was Dantzic. East River Raft (Series), Williamsburg, Brooklyn, 1958. Copyright 2003. Brooklyn’s Henry Johnson, who in 1933 Courtesy of Jerry Dantzic Archives. gave his trophy flag to C.C. Mollenhauer, president of Dime Savings Bank of Will- the Brooklyn side for a “Presentation of ed with a grand spectacle of fireworks. iamsburg. The same flag was recently dis- the Bridge” by the commissioner of bridg- The Williamsburg Bridge almost didn’t covered at the bank by its current president, es, Gustav Lindenthal, as well as speeches make its hundredth birthday. Years of ne- Michael Devine. by New York City Mayor Seth Low and glect and lack of maintenance resulted in Inspection, analysis, restoration, and re- the Brooklyn and Manhattan borough corroded cables and general deterioration. configuration of the bridge began in 1988. presidents. A civic parade followed, with In 1988 the bridge was shut down for al- The skills and applied knowledge of work- games and competitions, including “first most two months for emergency repairs. ers from many unions are required for such to cross backward on a bike.” The day end- Closing the bridge created headlines and major tasks as reinforcing the main towers,

Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 31 repairing broken cable wires, installing new industrial community dependent on ferry others joined the neighborhood. The Will- roadway decks, and renovating the ap- service, was home to mainly Irish and Ger- iamsburg Bridge connects these people to proaches and the footwalk. Hundreds of man immigrants, who worked in its brew- their past, present, and future, especially men and a number of women have worked eries and sugar refineries. Ten years after because it serves as a source of romance on the project—and not a single one has the bridge opened, its population had dou- and memory. A Yiddish poem from 1920 died. bled. Williamsburg soon became a place of ends, refuge and opportunity for Italian, Polish, …and I, out of loneliness and longing, Shaping the Community and East European Jewish families. In mid- must go walking on the Williamsburg Williamsburg, once a somewhat-isolated century, Puerto Ricans, Dominicans, and Bridge.

Bridge workers, engineers, Williamsburg residents, and artists were interviewed as part of the Will- iamsburg Bridge 100 project. The following excerpts from fieldwork are provided by folklorist Kath- leen Condon and oral historian Nadine Stewart.

Mike Canavan, electrician who works on the bridge, interviewed On the Willy B by Kathleen Condon The bridge is a road to everywhere. I mean, it’s an open door. On installing new security cameras at the top That bridge takes you to every place you want to go. Up there, there’s a room, that’s where the cables ride up and over. There’s windows—I would climb on the windowsill and Inez Pasher, long-time Williamsburg resident and cofounder pull myself up. I’ve got a harness on, tied to a piece of steel in the of Williamsburg around the Bridge Block Association, inter- room below. You feel like you’re on top of the world. You really viewed by Nadine Stewart can’t be afraid of heights. I find it exciting. I’m kind of adventur- On the decision to restore the bridge ous—I like the challenge. Not everybody’s cut out for it, that’s You don’t get to build a new bridge every day. And they had sure. I’m actually running a crew of guys doing this fiber optic people from all over the world submitting plans. And here we work. I know who to pick to go up in the towers. Only one or two were, this little community sitting here, and based on an archi- guys feel comfortable climbing up there. It’s a job just climbing tect’s design, they could move the bridge through your house! up there, because usually we have to bring working materials up with us—the camera we’re installing, pipes, wrenches, ratchets, On the sandblasting bolts, everything. One morning in June I came out of the house around the The last time I was up there, the weather changed on us really corner to the bridge to walk my dog. And all of a sudden, I’m quick. It was nice when we started, but as we went up, as we were walking down and I hear this noise ssssss and it’s like steam com- installing the new camera, a wind really whipped up. And I said ing out of some place, and I realize I’m being pelted. But it’s to myself, “I gotta get out of here, because there is really nothing not big pieces of stuff that’s hitting you. It’s like pinpricks— to hold on to.” your skin is getting hit by pinpricks. And I’m seeing this bounce It was a great sense of satisfaction getting these cameras up off—I had a large Akita, 120 pounds—and I see this crap bounce and running for them. off the dog! So I said to the dog, “Let’s get out of here!”

Lina Manino, owner of Aldo’s, a diner located near the entry- Comparing the Willy B with the Brooklyn Bridge way to the bridge; interviewed by Nadine Stewart It was the poor person’s bridge, where people just walked On the reconstruction over. Whereas you strolled on the Brooklyn Bridge and you had It was amazing the way the men worked. Everything was done parasols and long dresses. When you seen the humanity on the just so: One piece goes here, this one does this, and another crew Brooklyn Bridge—O.K., it was a different kind of human- does this, and it was just amazing how they put everything to- ity…the people are different on the Brooklyn Bridge. It’s a class gether. The excavation somehow did a job with the rats. Every- thing. That’s how it is. But then, that’s what this city is all about. body had rats. You have no idea what it takes for you to work in [The people on the Williamsburg Bridge] didn’t wear parasols, a restaurant and be so careful—close both doors, even though and you know what? They probably didn’t care to, so that’s O.K., it’s hot as hell. But you have to close the doors. too.

32 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore After having been rediscovered at the Dime Savings Bank, the flag that made its first trip across the East River when the final cable was strung in 1902 was carried across the bridge again in the centennial celebration. Joining in the procession were, from left, Samuel Fritsky of Dime Bank, Evan Korn of the Department of Transportation, Commissioner of Transportation Iris Weinshall, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz, Chief Engineer of East River Bridges Henry Perahia, and Mike Pucella of Dime Bank. Right: A child wears the crown she decorated as part of a Brooklyn Arts Council project. Photos: Martha Cooper

Many have walked the bridge. A Puerto ored the Williamsburg Bridge in a day-long bridge tours; and Williamsburg traditional Rican man remembers picnics at the Bridge festival marking its centennial. The coun- music, including merengue tipico and Chas- Plaza in the 1950s. An Italian man recalls cil’s folk arts director, Kay Turner, who sidic dance tunes, was performed. Galler- walking the bridge to save the nickel cost lives by the bridge, conceived the project ies featured bridge paintings, an exhibit of a ride. Jazz saxophonist Sonny Rollins’s and began fieldwork in 2001, interviewing highlighted construction laborers, kids 1962 recording “The Bridge” memorializ- workers involved in the reconstruction ef- played stickball and slapball, and the giglio es the time when he busked regularly on fort. Opening ceremonies imitated the was lifted. Atop a ten-foot-tall birthday the Willy B, in the late 1950s. Others recol- original inauguration and featured tributes cake was a model of the bridge. lect the spark of love ignited while prom- to the bridge by city leaders, including Reconstruction of the Willy B is sched- enading the bridge on hot summer nights. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg. A proces- uled for completion in 2006. And for reconstruction workers, there is sion across the bridge featured the histor- the memory of standing on the bridge and ic forty-five-star U.S. flag last flown from Kay Turner (kturner@brooklynartscouncil. watching the twin towers in horror on Sep- the bridge in 1902 by workers marking the org) is director of FolkArts at the Brooklyn Arts Council. She also teaches folklore and tember 11, 2001. run of the last cable wire. Throughout the gender courses in the Performance Studies On June 22, 2003, the Brooklyn Arts day, storytellers including ironworkers and Department at New York University. A traveling photo exhibit, “The Williamsburg Council, traditional artists and other pre- local merchants recounted personal tales Bridge at 100: Spanning a Century of senters, and eight thousand celebrants hon- of the bridge; engineers and historians gave Change,” is available from FolkArts.

Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 33 FolkloreFolklore inin

ArchivesArchives ○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○○ How the Norman Studer Papers Came to the University at Albany

BY AMY C. SCHINDLER

The papers of Norman Studer document the career of a progressive educator and folklorist at Camp Woodland in the Catskill Mountains and the Downtown Community School in New York City from the 1930s through the 1970s. Their original custodian, Joan Studer Levine, recognized that her father’s papers needed to be permanently housed in a repository that could both preserve the materials and ensure access for researchers. The collection came to the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives at the University at Albany in May 2001, and the work of cataloging and preserving its contents is ongoing. Important associations and connections between folklorists and archivists—in particular, their common interest in documenting the history of individuals, organizations, and the folk traditions of New York State—suggest opportunities for future collaboration.

orman Studer was an educator, folk- Irwin High School. Still later, as director of Catskill Mountains in a summer camp set- Nlorist, and author who spent most the Downtown Community School from ting. The curriculum and activities at Camp of his life documenting and educating New 1951 through 1970, Studer brought his in- Woodland were deeply rooted in the folk- Yorkers. Born in Ohio, Studer moved to terest in ethnic studies, folklore, field trips, lore and folk culture of the Catskills. The New York City in the 1920s to become an and racial integration to this progressive, co- campers became Studer’s assistants in the editor of The New Student, a newspaper that operative school, which had been founded collection of local folklore, music, and tra- called itself “the voice of the student re- in 1944 by a group of parents and educa- ditions. Folklore was an integral part of volt movement” in the city. After a brief tors. Studer’s education methodology—it was teaching stint in Erie, Pennsylvania, Studer Along with Rose Sydney, Regine Dicker both an instructional instrument at Camp returned to New York City to teach at the (Ferber), Sara Abelson (Abramson), and his Woodland and entertainment for the camp- Little Red School House, a cooperative, ex- wife, Hannah, Studer founded Camp Wood- ers, employees, and local residents. The perimental school founded by Elisabeth land in the Catskill Mountains in 1940 and summer camp concluded each year with a Irwin in lower Manhattan. Studer was at- served as director until its dissolution in weekend folk festival of music, drama, danc- tracted to the school’s experimental and 1961. Camp Woodland endeavored to bring ing, and storytelling. This annual folk festival progressive curriculum, which influenced together children of various religious, so- attracted such musicians as Pete Seeger, his own educational philosophy in succeed- cioeconomic, and ethnic backgrounds to Bessie Jones, Norman Cazden, and Herb ing years when he taught at the Elisabeth experience the ecology and culture of the Haufrecht as well as local talent that includ-

34 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore manuscripts in the Department of Special Collections and Archives at the University at Albany. Zahavi had a working relationship with members of the department’s staff and had previously assisted in the transfer of labor-related collections to the repository. As part of Joan Studer Levine’s initial consultation with the New York Folklore Society, James Corsaro, an archival consultant, met with Levine at SUNY New Paltz to evaluate the papers of Norman Studer and make recommendations for their transfer to an appropriate repository. Ar- rangements were quickly made to move the materials from the Carmer Center to the M.E. Grenander Department of Special Collections and Archives at the University at Albany by May 2001. A memorandum of agreement was also negotiated and signed between the donor and the repository at that time. A standard instrument in archival practice, the memorandum of agreement (also called a deed of gift) legal- ly transfers title when no monetary considerations are part of the arrangement. Such agreements establish conditions gov- erning the transfer of title and specifies any restrictions on access or use requested by the donor. Access to this collection was left relatively open, to enhance accessibility for researchers and fulfill the mission of the repository. The typical agreement also in- Norman Studer, late 1960s. cludes provisions for the rights held by each party, such as copyright and privacy rights, ed Grant Rogers, Harry Siemsen, George tion and use of the Studer papers was re- and in this case the copyright of Studer’s Edwards, Ernie Sagan, George Van Kleeck, duced and eventually eliminated. The unpublished materials was transferred to the and Etson Van Wagner (Runge 2003; English Department’s move to smaller of- University Libraries. Johnson 2002). fices in 2001 made the continued housing Besides the papers and photographs of the papers at SUNY New Paltz impossi- housed at SUNY New Paltz since 1978, Joan Accession of the Papers ble, so a new repository was needed. Studer Levine and her family had custody In 1978 Studer’s papers were transferred After consulting with the staff of the of films, audiotapes, Norman Studer’s li- by his daughter, Joan Studer Levine, to the New York Folklore Society, Levine contact- brary, additional paper records, and tradi- Carl Carmer Center for Catskill Mountain ed Gerald Zahavi, a professor in the tional Catskill tools collected by Studer and and Hudson River Studies in the Depart- Department of History at the University at campers for the folk museums created at ment of English at SUNY New Paltz. Prof. Albany whose research had previously Camp Woodland and the Downtown Com- Harry Stoneback acted as the collection’s touched on Norman Studer. Zahavi was munity School. The donor and the reposi- guardian during its residence in New Paltz aware of Studer’s work as a folklorist and tory’s archivists discussed the possibility of until 2001, when the university closed the educator and his peripheral involvement depositing these implements in another re- Carl Carmer Center. They remained at the with labor unions. He put Levine in touch pository or museum where they would more center even after funding for the preserva- with Brian Keough, then the curator of likely be displayed as well as relate to exist-

Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 35 draw largely on the folklore and history of the Catskills, and his research files are an excellent source of information on New York, particularly concerning Catskill Mountains history. Photographs in the Studer collection document the activities of campers and students at Camp Woodland and the Downtown Community School. Many have little or no identification, but as former students and campers continue to visit the department to use the collection, information is gath- ered on more and more images. The photographs of the Downtown Communi- ty School, largely from the 1960s, were used in school publications and depict students in classrooms. Many of the images from Camp Woodland were taken by Helene Pragen, a professional photographer who was both a parent and a counselor at Camp Woodland. She was hired in 1946 to document every aspect of camp life, including performances of Herbert Haufrecht’s can- tata “We Build a Land” and Catskill resident George Edwards’s storytelling and singing with campers, as well as typical summer camp activities. Pragen’s photographs were the subject of an exhibit in a New York City gallery in fall 1946; Norman Studer used the exhibit catalog to introduce viewers to Camp Woodland and its philosophy. Once deposited, the Studer papers had to be processed so that they could be used. The collection was approached in a man- Norman and Hannah Studer worked together for decades to share their passions for folklore and progressive education at Camp Woodland and the Downtown Community ner similar to any other collection of its size School. and breadth. Peter Runge, the graduate student assistant who completed the arrange- ing collections and exhibits. But eventually diaries, publications, research material, and ment and description, is not a folklorist, but all these materials were transferred to the related items. A selection of books from he learned what was necessary about Nor- Department of Special Collections and Ar- Studer’s library were also deposited with the man Studer, his interests, and accomplish- chives by the Levines during subsequent department. Together, these materials doc- ments to arrange the collection logically and visits to Albany, and photographs of the ument his work as director at the Downtown describe its contents. Multidisciplinary ex- implements were provided along with the Community School and Camp Woodland perience can actually benefit the processor tools themselves. through administrative records and objects because he or she can recognize and assess collected, used, and produced by the stu- topical areas of a collection perhaps not Contents of the Collection dents and campers. Studer’s utilization and previously considered by subject special- The Norman Studer Papers consist of integration of folklore as both activity and ists—in this case, folklorists. more than two hundred reel-to-reel audio- learning tool is apparent through students’ tapes, ten 16 mm films, three cubic feet of and campers’ publications, field trip notes, A New Subject for the Archives photographs, and eight cubic feet of addi- drawings, dramas, and compositions. Stud- The M.E. Grenander Department of tional paper materials, including Studer’s er’s own published and unpublished writings Special Collections and Archives at the

36 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore University at Albany did not initiate the acquisition of the Studer papers, and there was Partnerships between folklorists and archivists— no prior connection between the university and the Studer family. In fact, before the like that which has begun at the University at papers arrived, of the 450-plus manuscript Albany—will grow in importance, and it is the collections deposited in the department, only three included at least a minimal rela- responsibility of folklorists and archivists to con- tionship to folklore, and folklore had not been a focus in the collection development tinue to explore and expand those relationships. policy or past collecting efforts. The Uni- versity Archives was created in 1971 to document and preserve the institution’s his- cessible materials in a wide range of for- bachelor’s degree in library science. Cutting’s tory. Materials that related to the German mats and subject areas. Holdings with papers include manuscripts detailing her Intellectual Émigré Collection and the Ar- folklore content include the papers of Edith deep interest in the folklore of New York chives of Public Affairs and Policy became Cutting and Louis C. Jones, both of whom State and her correspondence with Harold the department’s other major collecting ar- had connections with the university. Edith Thompson, a founder of the New York eas, along with general manuscripts, unique Cutting, who wrote about the folklore of Folklore Society, and with others about folk- books, and the Miriam Snow Mathes His- New York and created scrapbooks docu- lore and the society. Louis C. Jones, another torical Children’s Literature collection. menting her career as a folklorist and founder of the New York Folklore Society, The mission of the Department of Spe- educator, graduated from the university was an instructor at the college from 1934 cial Collections and Archives is broad, when it was still the New York State Col- through 1946. His papers primarily contain however: to acquire, preserve, and make ac- lege for Teachers in 1938, after earning a correspondence with students serving in the

The folk culture of the Catskills was an integral part of the Camp Woodland experience, which concluded each summer with a folk festival of musicians, storytellers, and local traditions. This photograph is believed to date from 1946.

Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 37 military during World War II but also feature drafts and offprints of his publications about folklore and particularly the super- natural. (Jones’s personal collection is now part of the Archive of New York State Folklife at the New York State Historical Association in Cooperstown.) In neither case did the department seek out those collections because of their folklore content. Rather, it was Jones’s correspondence with college students during World War II and Cutting’s status as an alumna that prompted the acquisition. The department’s general manuscript collection also includes a scrapbook about the En- glish writer and folklorist Andrew Lang. Although folklore is the primary topic documented in Norman Studer collection, his experience as an educator fit within the collecting focus of the department’s Ar- chives of Public Affairs and Policy, which was established to document the work of individuals, community organizations, and political interest groups concerned with New York State public policy issues in the twentieth century. As the collection was The Downtown Community School, photographed here in the 1960s, was founded in 1944 as a progressive, cooperative, racially integrated school. Studer served as the director for arranged and described and the breadth of most of the years it was in operation. the folklorist’s work became evident, additional topics of relevance to the department’s collecting policy appeared. The re- Special Challenges Rights to the recordings are another con- search Studer conducted about the Catskill At the time of acquisition, the Studer tapes cern. Although the copyright for Studer’s Mountains included its changing commu- were the largest single acquisition of reel-to- unpublished materials was transferred to the nities and geography, which was then used reel audio recordings by the Department of University Libraries when the materials were in activities and lessons at Camp Woodland Special Collections and Archives, and provid- physically transferred to the Department of and the Downtown Community School. ing access to them raised an issue that staff Special Collections and Archives, the audio- These materials are of interest to research- had not previously been required to consid- tapes of musical performances and inter- ers working on topics related to the envi- er. The recordings document Catskill folk views are another matter. No signed agree- ronmental movement and conservation is- festivals, interviews with informants and per- ments between Studer and the performers sues in New York State. The administra- formers at Camp Woodland, and education or interviewees acknowledging who holds tive records from Studer’s four decades as conferences at the Downtown Community the rights have been found, and it appears an educator also are of broad interest, par- School. Their reel-to-reel format necessitat- that no such documents were ever created. ticularly the student publications, which ed an investment in equipment—a reel-to-reel The department has established policies for include Our Voice from the Little Red player and software to digitize audio—and researchers who wish to access and publish School House, and The Downtowner and The staff are now seeking appropriate servers and from its collections and is prepared to deal Scribbler from the Downtown Community a search interface for the digital audio files with requests from researchers for access School. Thus the educational, environmen- that will be created. The preservation con- to materials with unclear rights issues. Copy- tal, and political content of the papers is cerns surrounding reel-to-reel tapes and right can be one of the most challenging of interest to established users of the de- digital formats as well as the condition of the aspects of accessioning and providing ac- partment’s collections, but the folklore con- master tapes also required that the staff draw cess to folklore collections for archivists. tent of the collection—its primary on the expertise of professionals in advanced The New York Folklore Society’s publi- strength—is attracting new users. audio preservation. cations on folklore and archives have been

38 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore important tools for staff, particularly as in- creasing precision was required by the Bibliography creation of bibliographic records for the For Further Reading ———. 1960. Folk Festival of the Catskills. New collection in the University Libraries’ and Corsaro, James. 2001. Norman Studer Collec- York Folklore Quarterly XVI(1): 6–10. national online catalogs. These publications tion Survey Report. Schenectady, NY: New ———. 1962. The Place of Folklore in Educa- have also offered insight into future acqui- York Folklore Society. tion. New York Folklore Quarterly XVIII(1): 3–12. sitions considerations and decisions by the Corsaro, James, and Karen Taussig-Lux. 1998. Folklore in Archives: A Guide to Describing Folk- ———. 1988. A Catskill Woodsman: Mike Todd’s department and evaluation of rights issues. lore and Folklife Materials. Ithaca, NY: New York Story. Fleischmanns, NY: Purple Mountain Folklore Society. Press. Lessons for Archivists and Johnson, Dale W. 2002. Camp Woodland: Pro- Folklorists gressive Education and Folklore in the Catskill Selected Unpublished Works Mountains of New York. Voices 28(1-2): 6– The M.E. Grenander Department of 12. by Studer A complete list of the unpublished works in Special Collections and Archives is not an Mabee, Carleton. 1984. Margaret Mead and a the Norman Studer Papers is available in the “Pilot Experiment” in Progressive and Inter- established folklife center or archives, as are collection’s finding aid at http:// racial Education: The Downtown Community the Vermont Folklife Center Archive and library.albany.edu/speccoll/findaids/ School. New York History 65: 5–18. the Maine Folklife Center at the University apap116.htm. Runge, Peter. 2003. Finding Aid for the Nor- of Maine, both of which seek to preserve man Studer Papers, 1817–1988. Albany: M.E. Action on Dingle Hill, 1958. the folk history of their respective states. Grenander Department of Special Collections All the Homespun Days, 1961. The Vermont Folklife Center Archive, for and Archives, University Libraries, University Big Mose, 1951. at Albany. May 20. http://library.albany.edu/ Boney Quillen of the Catskills, 1951. example, is a multimedia ethnographic col- speccoll/findaids/apap116.htm (accessed 23 lection that emphasizes the preservation of June 2003). Cannonsville Story, 1957. the spoken word and contains research Suter, John W., ed. 1994. Working with Folk Mate- Captain Jack: War of the Lava Beds, n.d. Children Without Race Prejudice, n.d. materials generated by the organization’s rials in New York State: A Manual for Folklorists and Archivists. Ithaca, NY: New York Folklore A Folk Manual, n.d. two staff folklorists, outside researchers, Society. Forgotten Hero of New York’s Slave Railway, n.d. oral history collections from local histori- University of Maine. 2003. Maine Folklife Cen- Harry Siesmen: Teacher of Life, 1976. ter. June 19. http://www.umaine.edu/ cal societies, and commercial sound Hay Barn Hill, 1954. folklife/ (accessed 23 June 2003). recordings of Vermont music. History of the Little Red School House: Camp Quan- Vermont Folklife Center. 2002. Vermont Folklife Cen- Even though the Department of Special nacat, n.d. ter Archives. http://www.vermontfolklifecenter.org/ Collections and Archives at the University archive.htm (accessed 23 June 2003). Ireo Weaver, n.d. at Albany may not aspire to create a folk- Selected Bibliography of the Works of Norman Little Red School House: Where I Began, n.d. lore collection as diverse and extensive as Studer Local History: A Neglected Resource, n.d. that of the Vermont Folklife Center, its Local Songmaking in the Catskills, n.d. Sholam: A Town Called Peace, n.d. holdings demand the same consideration, Published Works by Studer Sons of Liberty, n.d. preservation, and accessibility. To ensure Cazden, Norman, Herbert Haufrecht, and Nor- man Studer. 1982. Folksongs of the Catskills. Tales from Dry Brook, n.d. future access to important collections, folk- Albany: SUNY Albany Press. The Town They Call “Peace,” n.d. lorists should encourage the preservation Studer, Norman. 1945. Catskill Folk Festival. To Save the Woodland Idea, 1961 New York Folklore Quarterly I(3): 160–66. and long-term accessibility of those mate- Turning Back the Waters of Ashokan, n.d. ———. 1945. Winter Folklore Conference. New rials. Donors should seek a repository with Winter Soldiers, 1975. York Folklore Quarterly I(1): 59–60. an appropriate collecting policy, proper fa- cilities, trained staff, and a willingness as well as ability to preserve collections and pro- ficial relationship. This acquisition has been to preserve folklore collections by individ- vide access to researchers. Partnerships publicized through online finding aids, the uals and appropriate repositories. between folklorists and archivists—like that University Libraries’ online catalog, and oth- Amy C. Schindler which has begun at the University at Alba- er outlets. And placing the papers at the ([email protected]) is curator ny—will grow in importance, and it is the University at Albany has brought the repos- of manuscripts for the Archives of Public Affairs and Policy in the M.E. Grenander responsibility of folklorists and archivists itory and all its collections to the attention Department of Special Collections and to continue to explore and expand those of researchers who may not previously have Archives at the University at Albany Libraries. She earned her MLIS and MA in relationships. had reason to explore the department’s history from the University of Wisconsin– The arrival of the Norman Studer Papers holdings. This positive and mutually bene- Milwaukee. She is currently researching the documentation of environmental affairs in the Department of Special Collections ficial relationship bodes well for the in archival repositories and archival digital and Archives has created a mutually bene- Department’s involvement with folklorists initiatives.

Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 39 The Queen of Mundillo Rosa Elena Egipciaco

BY ELENA MARTÍNEZ

n English it is known as bobbin lace. In Puerto Rico, the towns of Moca, Isabela, York State Council on the Arts Apprentice- IPuerto Rico this delicate handwork, and Aguadilla, all in the northwestern part ship Program enables her to continue teach- used to embellish collars and handkerchiefs, of the island, are famous for mundillo. Moca, ing privately in Manhattan. bridal veils and baby bonnets, is encaje de bo- Egipciaco’s hometown, is considered la cuna lillos but more commonly known as mundil- (the cradle) of mundillo. When Egipciaco was Origins of the Art lo—“little world,” for the cylinder on which a little girl playing house with her friends There are two types of lace: point, which the lace maker weaves her intricate designs. on the patio, she would design patterns on is made using a needle, and bobbin, or pil- On September 19, 2003, Rosa Elena leaves, using thorns from a bush as needles. low lace. Bobbin lace was first made in the Egipciaco of New York City was honored As she grew older, she would gather with Middle Ages in Flanders (the northern re- for her mundillo. She is one of sixteen artists friends on the balcony of one of their gion of Belgium), where it was known as to receive National Heritage Fellowships homes to talk, watch the boys pass by, and kant (“border” or “edge”), since the origi- from the National Endowment for the Arts. make mundillo. nal function of lace was to protect the edg- The fellowships are the country’s highest When she was president of the Cultural es of fine materials from fraying, as well as honor in the folk and traditional arts. The Center in Moca (which she cofounded), to create a decorative border. The art of awardees, chosen their artistic excellence, Egipciaco traveled throughout the island, making bobbin lace may have reached Spain authenticity, and contributions to their field, giving lectures on mundillo at festivals, uni- through Flanders or Italy. Some research- each receive a one-time award of $20,000. versities, and colleges. She is a certified ar- ers believe that point lace was introduced “We are proud to honor these master art- tisan through the Instituto de Cultura Pu- to Spain from Italy and from there was ists whose compelling work demonstrates ertorriqueña, the principal arts and cultural brought to Flanders, which in the sixteenth the extraordinary diversity and depth of our agency on the island, and has displayed her century was one of Spain’s dominions. Bob- nation’s cultural wealth,” said Dana Gioia, work at their festivals. In 1986 she moved bin lace, like the art of making it, was then chairman of the National Endowment for to New York City and has taught lacemak- exported to Spain and later to Puerto Rico. the Arts. “These talented individuals are not ing , as well as exhibited and displayed her Since making lace by hand is time con- only renowned practitioners of their art work at New York University, Columbia suming, it was very expensive and regarded forms but also teachers and preservers of University, the American Museum of Nat- as a luxury item. The Church was the prin- artistic heritages, passing on their skills and ural History, Casita Maria, El Museo del cipal consumer for lace for the veils and passions to future generations.” Barrio, Marymount College, Brentwood cloths used during services, as well as for The importance of teaching traditional International Ladies Garment Union, the the robes that adorned the statues of saints. arts is apparent in the case of Rose Elena Office of the Commonwealth of Puerto During the sixteenth and seventeenth cen- Egipciaco, who started learning mundillo at Rico, and La Casa de la Herencia Cultural turies, clothes with lace decoration came the age of four from her mother, Doña Sa- Puertorriqueña. She is currently a profes- into fashion for both men and women of lud, in Puerto Rico, and has taught and pro- sor at Boricua College in Brooklyn, and an the European nobility. In Spain bobbin lace moted the art in New York since 1986. In apprenticeship grant funded by the New was made by master lace makers for major

40 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Rosa Elena Egipciaco demonstrates mundillo at the Centro Civico festival in Amsterdam, New York. Photo: Elena Martínez commercial markets; lace making was also require the bobbins to remain flat on the and manipulate the threads to form a shape; a cottage industry in places like Mugía in pattern. Egipciaco remembers her mother and the almagro stitch takes four pairs of Galicia, Almagro in Castilla, and Arenys de saying that although she used this cylindri- bobbins to make instead of two. Advanced Mar in Catalonia. cal pillow, her own grandmother had used students start using these stitches in patterns In addition to its use as edging and bor- the flat pillow. to make handkerchiefs, collars, and baby ders on clothing and handkerchiefs and The wooden bobbins, about the diame- booties. collars for shirts, mundillo is also used to ter of a pencil, are wound with thread, which Once all the stitches have been mastered, decorate items for special occasions, such the tejedora twists and crosses into stitches Egipciaco emphasizes the creative aspect of as wedding dresses, baptismal gowns, and that form a pattern. Each stitch requires at the work. Although one can buy books of the cloths used to adorn religious icons. least two pairs of bobbins, which are held patterns, she makes her own designs, em- Once it was common for lovers to exchange in place by pins when not in use. The pat- ploying a sense of geometry and artistic mundillo lace with romantic inscriptions. tern is traced on graph paper, often by the sensitivity to create balanced and aestheti- tejedora herself. Depending on the pattern, cally pleasing patterns. In her own words, Making the Lace as few as two dozen bobbins or as many as “For me mundillo is an art, because like the In bobbin lace a pillow is used as a loom several hundred may be used. painter, who has in his imagination what he to hold the pattern and bobbins, forming a Egipciaco teaches her students and ap- wants to create on the canvas, so it is for us: work surface for the tejedora (lace maker). prentices in a three-step process. First the we create, invent, and design what we want At one time some lace makers used a round basic stitches of claro, brusela, and surcido are to make in lace.” or oval board placed on the knees, instead learned. Intermediate students are taught Last November, Egipciaco was present- of a pillow. Egipciaco uses a wooden box more complicated stitches, like araña, mosca, ed with a People’s Hall of Fame Award by with a revolving cylindrical pillow. In Spain margarita, and almagro. These stitches require City Lore for her work in promoting mun- cylindrical pillows emerged because the more than just twisting and crossing the dillo in New York and tirelessly upholding Spanish style of making bobbin lace did not threads because the lace maker has to pull this tradition. Her beautiful lace and her

Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 41 A collar made by Egipciaco illustrates the claro (“open”), brusela, and margarita (“daisy”) stitches. Claro is a basic stitch, done by twisting and pinning the thread. It is a foundation for the more complicated stitches like margaritas, whose petals are created by pulling and easing up on threads as they are woven around each other. Photo: Martha Cooper

educational efforts inspired Puerto Rican Mi décima improvisada My improvised décima trovador Eddie Rosa to write a song about es para ti Rosa Elena is for you, Rosa Elena, her in décima, a verse form composed of ten en honor a tu faena in honor of your pure labor lines, each line having eight syllables in a artesanal depurada in this craft. particular rhyme scheme, set to the tune of Y puntada tras puntada And stitch after stitch seis, a traditional musical form in Puerto con el hilo de bolillos with the string of the bobbins Rico. What more fitting way to honor this logras encajes de brillo making shining laces del buen vestir de una dama for dressing a lady in fashion. master traditional artist than with the words Y hoy Nueva York te proclama And today New York proclaims you of another traditional artist? la gran reina del mundillo the great queen of mundillo.

For further reading Lauriks, Wim. 1999. The Birthplace of Lace Making. International Lace Magazine 49. Palliser, Bury. 1984. History of Lace. New York: Dover. Rivera, Nory W. 1981. El Mundillo: Viven- cia Puertorriqueña: Entrevista con la Sra. Rosa Elena Egipciaco. No Es Una Más 9(July-August): 31. Anon. Lace Pillow Shapes. 1999. International Lace Magazine 50: 13.

Elena Martínez ([email protected]) is a folklorist and student of Rosa Elena Egipciaco’s.

On this small loom, pins hold the graph paper pattern in place. The stitch being worked, here by one of Egipciaco’s apprentices, is called brusela (“Brussels”). Photo: Elena Martínez

42 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore ARCHIVAL QUESTIONS Documenting the New: Hip Hop as Archives BY NANCY JOHNSON Archival projects often involve lots of dust, portrait of an era and its personalities. at Urban Think Tank used their knowledge antique audio formats, and brittle, yellowing The goal of the project each year was for of the field and their connections in the Hip paper. But what happens when the subject the UTT Community Scholars to interview Hop community to find significant collec- being documented is not that old, when it collection holders, and then for me, as the tions. By identifying them now, they were able continues to be a vibrant part of our culture archivist, to produce a narrative summary of to interview the collection holders directly and society? How do we document the new? the collection, and a MARC record. MARC and get information about the collections Two years ago, working with the New York records are standardized, machine-readable first-hand. In addition, the Community Folklore Society and the Brooklyn-based descriptions of archival collections that are Scholars, themselves steeped in Hip Hop cul- Urban Think Tank, I signed on to a project posted to bibliographic networks such as ture, were able to add their own interpretive documenting Hip Hop. OCLC (Online Computer Library Center) expertise to the collection descriptions. Had Hip Hop as archives? and RLIN (Research Libraries Information this description been done twenty years from The Community Scholars at Urban Think Network). Once included in these utilities, now, the significance of some of this mate- Tank (UTT), which describes itself as a “non- the collection descriptions are available, via rial may well have been lost. partisan, community-based home for a body the Internet, to researchers worldwide. In Raise awareness. Identifying these new col- of thinkers in the Hip Hop generation,” had addition, UTT would produce a guide to the lections serves several purposes. The mate- identified collections of material that were material using the narrative summaries. rial is described and made accessible to the important to the development of Hip Hop Collaboration between community schol- interested public. At the same time, the col- culture in its earliest incarnations. In our first ar and archivist was particularly effective here, lectors themselves are made aware of the meeting, Vee Bravo, Yvonne Bynoe, and Chic with each of us bringing different skills. Here importance to a wider audience of the ma- Smith spoke passionately about the need to are some issues, from both sides of the ta- terial they hold. With this awareness among document this material, provide access to it, ble, to consider when documenting the new: collectors, among acknowledged scholars like and preserve it for the future. Their instincts Define a focus. To be archival by definition, those at Urban Think Tank, and among the couldn’t have been more timely. Even at the documentation must no longer be in active public at large, comes awareness of a need stodgy Library of Congress, Hip Hop has use. At first glance, it might seem that some- for a repository for these collections. been an authorized subject heading for some thing as current as Hip Hop would still be This project has been a successful collab- time now. active. But by focusing this project on “Old oration between the UTT Community Schol- Although Hip Hop continues to be a cul- Style” Hip Hop developments through the ars, who knew what they were looking for; tural major influence, its roots are becoming mid-1980s, we made it archival. Before start- the collectors, who had important things to historical. Several decades have now passed ing, define your parameters: a chronological say and significant artifacts to share; and the since the first independent recordings were limit; the work of a participant no longer archivist, who applied standard descriptive made, since people were literally dancing in active in a particular genre; the records of an practice to something new, bringing infor- the streets, since subway cars became the organization, now defunct, which was the mation to the public about an important new vehicles of art. The earliest Hip Hop artists predecessor to another currently active body. cultural phenomenon. —graffiti writers, b-boys, MCs and DJs—are Get all the information. Best archival practice themselves getting older, as are their earliest calls for collections to be described with spe- Nancy Johnson is a freelance fans. And among them, Urban Think Tank cific kinds of information: dates, provenance archivist and a identified eighteen significant collections of information, scope and content notes, mea- member of the New York Folklore documentation in varied formats: commer- surements of quantity, etc. With a little help Society Board of cial and homemade sound recordings in from an interview template, Community Directors. She has worked with the many different media; photographs, some Scholars had a guide for collecting all the in- society on its professionally shot, some amateur, docu- formation that goes into standard archival archives project, as well as with the menting people, fashions, breakdancing con- description. This made for little backtrack- Center for tests, subway art; sketchbooks; flyers and ing and allowed the interviewers to make best Traditional Music and Dance, City Lore, the Calandra Italian American Institute, posters; interviews; even clothing. Together use of the collection holders. and the Association for Cultural Equity/ these items provide a rich and immediate Go to the source. The Community Scholars Alan Lomax Archives.

Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 43 The Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann Archive of Traditional Irish Music

BY TED MCGRAW

o you remember the time in Mina’s mentioned above. In general, anything that learned his music in Ireland back in the D kitchen when Frank sang that song helps to tell the story of traditional Irish 1940’s in Co. Limerick. about Bridgie’s cat and the eel? Yes, in fact music would be of interest to the archive. 3. A tune book used in the 1930’s by a he sang that song often in a session when Music can be retained in many forms, in- music teacher in the National School in Ire- the company was right. He’ll be sorely cluding early 78 rpm records, CD’s, field land donated by another emigrant. missed! I’ve asked several people about that recordings of music and interviews on mag- 4. A picture of a group of Irish and Irish- song and no one outside of those sessions netic tape, etc. Pictures, articles, newspaper American musicians playing for a party in has ever heard it. Wouldn’t it have been great clippings, flyers, and books pertaining to the Rochester back in the 1940’s. This picture if ‘someone’ had recorded Frank, or pub- music and musicians are also collected. The is rare in that it is dated and annotated with lished the words of that song – he must have archive must store this material properly for the names of the players. made it up himself. Substitute Frank’s hilar- long term preservation and still have the ious song for Marty’s reel, or Tom’s dance, capability to make the materials available to Other more substantial and the stories are endless. The ending is users. The educational benefits for musi- donations include: always the same – if ‘someone’ had only cians, researchers, teachers, broadcasters, 1. All the publications from the Ed Reavy recorded that song, or tune, or story, or etc. are extensive. Foundation in Philadelphia, including the dance. At this time the Archive Committee has videos, cd’s and music books. Ed was a well Comhaltas Ceoltoiri Eireann is an inter- an agreement with the Irish Music Center known fiddler and composer originally from national organization for the promotion of (IMC) at Boston College to store Comhal- Co. Cavan. Irish music, song, dance, and language. tas materials. Donations become the prop- 2. The Sampler Records files on William There are over 400 branches worldwide and erty of the IMC and are listed in their cata- Sullivan, Co. Galway melodeon player, in- 50 branches in North America and five here log as part of the CCE collection. The Irish cluding all correspondence, original master in NY State. The purpose of the Comhal- Music Center is a professionally staffed ar- tapes from his recordings, pictures, cd’s and tas Ceoltoiri Eireann North American Ar- chive dedicated to preserving Irish music accompanying tune book, concert video, chive is to document traditional Irish music and is located at the John J. Burns Library and the cassette. These came from Sampler in North America. The plan is to have the on the Chestnut Hill campus of Boston Records president Mitzie Collins of Roch- Comhaltas branches perform the collection College. We have already stored several ester. and documentation functions, and then to projects at the IMC and these are listed in 3. Newspaper clippings, pictures, awards, store the archivable materials in a profes- their catalog. The URL is: www.bc.edu/imc and a box of tapes from the grand nephew sionally managed archive. The North Am. of Co. Sligo fiddler Martin Wynne, who Archive Committee is a staff function of Some Examples of Archival spent his last years in Buffalo. Much of this the North American Province of Comhal- Projects material is in the archive although we are tas and is actively working with several Archive donations can be as simple as the still working on sorting and cataloging the branches to define projects. Since many tal- following: tapes. We have uncovered some unique and ents and equipment are required to make 1. A box of old 78’s found in the attic of unexpected material such as one whole tape an archival project happen, the committee an uncle or grandfather. These are becom- of Martin’s sister Bridget playing the uil- is working with technical advisors and li- ing more and more difficult to find, and they leann pipes. No one outside of her imme- brarians to answer questions for the branch- are the only media that doesn’t require elec- diate family knew she played the pipes. es. tronics as the sound can be mechanically Duplicates of these materials are being sent An archive is a repository for the collec- reproduced. to the regional Comhaltas archive in Gur- tion and retention of traditional Irish mu- 2. A manuscript book written by Roches- teen, Co. Sligo, Ireland, near Martin’s place sic and related items, such as the unique song ter fiddler George Walker’s teacher when he of birth.

44 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Some archive projects can become more 2. Reasons why and how the branch was tas. In some areas, financial assistance in the complex and time consuming, and require formed form of various government grants may be a great deal of planning to make them hap- 3. Membership and officer lists available to get professional help with in- pen. We have solicited help from the Arts 4. Branch reports terviews, recordings and transcriptions. and Cultural Council of Greater Rochester 5. Hall of Fame honorees Comhaltas is actively engaged in preserv- to help document the Irish musicians in 6. Pictures ing traditional Irish music in all its forms. Rochester. This project started two years ago 7. Video and/or audio documentation If you have material you could donate, orig- and most of the interviewing has been com- 8. Other member activities such as perfor- inals or copies, we would like to hear from pleted but the time consuming tape tran- mances, teaching, awards received, etc. you! Consider a donation in memory of scription is still in progress. We are plan- Most of the above material is readily avail- your parents or a loved one, of a branch, or ning a local exhibit as well as a package for able; it’s usually just a matter of pulling it your favorite musician, living or deceased. the archive. together in one place. The archive commit- The North American contact is: tee can make copies of any original materi- Ted McGraw, Comhaltas Branch Projects al that a branch, or donor, may wish to keep. 147 Harwood Circle, An example of a branch project that we Other branch archival activities include Rochester, NY 14625 are trying to encourage is for each branch documenting the musicians, singers, danc- Tel: 585-387-9116 to document itself. This could include any ers who have been community leaders in Email: [email protected] or all of the following: passing on the tradition. These people may Web: www.tedmcgraw.com or 1. List of the founding members or may not be active members of Comhal- www.ccenorthamerica.org

Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 45 Lomax on Musical Culture; Glassie on Material Culture

Alan Lomax: Selected Writings rural Southern Italy in the 1950s—Lomax Material Culture 1934–1997 not only brought out the recordings them- By Henry Glassie. Bloomington and In- selves but also offered thick descriptions of Edited by Ronald D. Cohen. New York, dianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1999. the performers and the cultural and politi- Routledge, 2003. 363 pages, CD sampler 416 pages, 170 black-and-white photo- cal contexts of their musical lives. included. Cloth, $30. graphs, 16 illustrations, bibliography, index. The collection tracks the major periods The most recent publication to emerge Cloth, $29.95. of Lomax’s career: the 1930s and 1940s, from the extensive works of Alan Lomax The Potter’s Art the “early collecting years”; the 1950s, (1915–2002) is this compilation of selected By Henry Glassie. Philadelphia: Material when he worked in England, Spain, and writings that span his entire career. In con- Culture; Bloomington and Indianapolis: Italy; the 1960s, when he returned to New junction with Folk Songs of North America Indiana University Press, 1999. 152 pages, York and became a resource for (and com- (Doubleday, 1960), Cantometrics: an Approach 23 color plates, 78 black-and-white photo- mentator on) the folk revival; the 1970s to BOOK REVIEWS to the Anthropology of Music (University of graphs, bibliography, index. Paper, $12.95. mid-1980s, “the academic years,” in which California Press, 1977), and The Land Where More than three decades ago, students he further refined his theoretical ideas and the Blues Began (Pantheon, 1993), this vol- of folklife encountered the first of folklor- sought further applications of his consid- ume provides an invaluable insight to the ist Henry Glassie’s insightful examinations erable archive; and finally, his last writings larger experience and perspective of Amer- of material objects and their relationship to from the 1990s. Each section is introduced ica’s foremost collector of traditional mu- traditional human processes. His Pattern in by experts—ethnomusicologists Gage sic recordings. Aside from hearing his re- the Material Folk Culture of the Eastern United Averill and Andrew Kaye, the late music cordings on Folkways and Columbia, today’s States and Folk Housing in Middle Virginia were writer and editor Ed Kahn, and Mat Bar- students of folklore and ethnomusicology particularly influential in expanding and di- ton, the archivist for the Alan Lomax Ar- have known Lomax primarily for his theo- recting the study of vernacular architecture chives and production coordinator for the retical and archival work since the 1970s. in historical contexts. The breadth of Glass- Alan Lomax Collection on Rounder With the rapidly expanding number of pub- ie’s knowledge and his graceful but idiosyn- Records. lications and archival holdings of world cratic writing style served to challenge his This volume offers exceptional resources music recordings made since Lomax did the readers to engage the ideas he synthesized for students of American culture, music bulk of his collecting, from 1930 to the early and presented. Over many years of contin- recordings, and media, and for both aca- 1960s, it is easy to lose sight of the impor- ually expanding study, Glassie has refined demic and applied folklorists and ethno- tance of his fieldwork. This collection of- his understandings of processes and objects musicologists. Anyone who has ever done fers a compact and yet thorough view of in space and time. cultural fieldwork will appreciate Lomax’s the experiences from which Lomax drew Material Culture is as much Henry Glass- example of meticulous observation and and upon which he developed his ideas of ie’s intellectual autobiography as it is an in- documentation. He set a high standard not the role of music in culture, as well as his troduction to material culture. It might be only for the tapings themselves but also in comprehensive, if somewhat reductionist, viewed as the roof of a sometimes rambling explaining the value and meaning of the global view of music. structure built on the solid foundation of music he heard in its performance contexts. Editor, historian, and folklorist Ronald Pattern in the Material Folk Culture of the East- This collection takes the reader through the Cohen includes the articles in which many ern United States. Narrated in the first per- challenges, trials, and fruits of a fascinat- of Lomax’s major observations and theo- son, this book presents much specific in- ing period of rapidly advancing technolo- ries of culture first appeared. Since most formation about artifacts and their produc- gy, from the aluminum disk to high-fideli- are no longer in print, this volume will serve tion, but the story is made compelling by ty magnetic tape recorders and the use of as an invaluable reference to the study of a Glassie’s own sense of personal discovery the recordings in LP record productions crucial period in cultural history: the twen- and intellectual growth through the folklor- and radio broadcasting. tieth-century intersection of the decline of istic study of material culture. What shines throughout the collection local folk cultures and the rise of the mass Glassie praises earlier scholars and mem- of writings, however, is Lomax’s passion media whose recording technology made bers of his family—his grandfather was a to advocate for the unrepresented and for- possible the dissemination and populariza- carpenter—who influenced his eye on the gotten voices of the world. The selections tion of regional music even as they erased world, but those who have contributed most strongly address Lomax’s most-recognized distinctions of local culture. to his understanding of material culture, he threat to local culture: the homogenizing Lomax in many cases made the first and insists, have been the people he has met effect of mass media. Ultimately, his love best audio recordings of music that had while conducting field research. He con- of the local music informs the collection hitherto been known only through imme- tends that many academic questions can and brings to life the greater context and diate performance and the memory of lo- best be answered by people who are not depth of the recordings that we are now cal rural communities. Exploring places few confined by academic convention. Through- so fortunately able to appreciate. researchers had ventured before in search out the book, he generously shares their of music—from the Mississippi Delta and Tom van Buren, Ph.D. thoughts in their own voices. In one full prison farms of the American South, to Center for Traditional Music and Dance chapter a master of carpet repair, Hagop Haiti in the 1930s, to Franco’s Spain and New York, New York Barin, tells his narrative of life and work in

46 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore great detail; in doing so he illustrates most of Glassie’s central arguments. Submission Guidelines for Material Culture is built upon articles and talks presented by the author in recent years. Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore The result is a book that at first seems dis- Style jointed, sectioned into five topics—history, Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore is a membership magazine of the New York The journal follows The Chicago Manual of Style. Con- sult Webster’s Third International Dictionary for material culture, one life, the potter’s art, Folklore Society (www.nyfolklore.org). questions of spelling, meaning, and usage, and avoid and vernacular architecture—but Glassie’s The New York Folklore Society is a nonprofit, gender-specific terminology. statewide organization dedicated to furthering cul- personal narrative makes the transitions Footnotes. Endnotes and footnotes should be tural equity and cross-cultural understanding smooth. Throughout Material Culture, what avoided; incorporate such information into the text. through programs that nurture folk cultural expres- Ancillary information may be submitted as a sidebar. is most important to Glassie is the matter sions within communities where they originate, share Bibliographic citations. For citations of text of discerning what is most important be- these traditions across cultural boundaries, and en- from outside sources, use the author-date style de- hance the understanding and appreciation of folk cause, he assures us, if we can figure out scribed in The Chicago Manual of Style. culture. Through Voices the society communicates what is most important and how to talk Language. All material must be submitted in with professional folklorists and members of re- English. Foreign-language terms (transliterated, about it, we can actually use history. That is lated fields, traditional artists, and a general public where appropriate, into the Roman alphabet) should interested in folklore. the central task Glassie set for himself in be italicized and followed by a concise parenthetical Voices is dedicated to publishing the content of his lifelong study of material culture. He English gloss; the author bears responsibility for the folklore in the words and images of its creators and correct spelling and orth-ographics of non-English believes that what he calls a useful history practitioners. The journal publishes research-based words. British spellings should be Americanized. can be accomplished through the diligent articles, written in an accessible style, on topics re- study of artifacts and the people who cre- lated to traditional art and life. It also features stories, Publication Process ated them. interviews, reminiscences, essays, folk poetry and music, photographs, and artwork drawn from people The New York Folklore Society holds copyright to The publisher calls The Potter’s Art an “ex- in all parts of New York State. Columns on sub- all material published in Voices: The Journal of New panded revision” of the fourth chapter of jects such as photography, sound and video York Folklore. With the submission of material to Material Culture; it is the first in a series of recording, legal and ethical issues, and the nature the editor, the author acknowledges that he or she of traditional art and life appear in each issue. gives Voices sole rights to its publication, and that books that will tell the stories of traditional permission to publish it elsewhere must be secured artists from around the world. The Potter’s Editorial Policy in writing from the editor. Although the editor wel- Art has basically the same text as its ante- Feature articles. Articles published in Voices rep- comes inquiries via electronic mail, please use regular cedent chapter; the expansion is in the il- resent original contributions to folklore studies. mail to submit manuscripts. For the initial submission, send three paper cop- lustrations—twenty-three color plates. Giv- Although Voices emphasizes the folklore of New York State, the editor welcomes articles based on ies and a PC-formatted disk (preferably prepared in en the minimal expansion and revision, it is the folklore of any area of the world. Articles on Microsoft Word and saved as Rich Text Format). not clear why this chapter (or a second book the theory, methodology, and geography of folk- Copy must be typed double spaced, on one side in the series, Vernacular Architecture, this one lore are also welcome, as are purely descriptive of a sheet only, with all pages numbered consecutively. To facilitate anonymous review of feature an “expanded revision” of Material Culture’s articles in the ethnography of folklore. In addition, Voices provides a home for “orphan” tales, narra- articles, the author’s name and biography should fifth chapter) was published separately. Per- tives, and songs, whose contributors are urged to appear only on a separate title page. haps a market exists for books on a nar- provide contextual information. Tables, charts, maps, illustrations, photographs, cap- rower topic. In any case, although Material Authors are encouraged to include short personal tions, and credits should follow the main text and be numbered consecutively. All illustrations should be Culture is illustrated with 170 beautiful black- reminiscences, anecdotes, isolated tales, narratives, songs, and other material that relates to and en- clean, sharp, and camera-ready. Photographs should and-white photographs and sixteen draw- hances their main article. be prints or duplicate slides (not originals). Written ings by the author, it would certainly have Total length, including citations, should not ex- permission to publish each image must be obtained ceed 4,000 words. by authors from the copyright holders prior to sub- been improved by the inclusion of color mission of manuscripts, and the written permissions plates. Reviews and review essays. Books, recordings, films, videos, exhibitions, concerts, and the like are must accompany the manuscript (authors should keep Anyone interested in folklore or materi- selected for review in Voices for their relevance to copies). al culture or history could benefit from a folklore studies or the folklore of New York State Materials are acknowledged upon receipt. The editor and two anonymous readers review manu- reading of Material Culture. It elegantly pre- and their potential interest to a wide audience. Per- sons wishing to review recently published material scripts submitted as articles. The review process sents the current thinking of one of the should contact the editor. Unsolicited reviews and takes several months. world’s most advanced and influential proposals for reviews will be evaluated by the edi- Deadlines permitting, authors read and correct scholars, and it is based on the author’s tor and by outside referees where appropriate. galley proofs for typographical errors. Authors receive two complimentary copies of the issue in extensive experiences in the world of hu- Follow the bibliographic style in a current issue of Voices. which their contribution appears and may purchase mans and their art. The book is mainly Reviews should not exceed 750 words. additional copies at a discount. Authors of feature about Henry Glassie’s unique philosophy Correspondence and commentary. Short but articles may purchase offprints; price information and method, however, and should by no substantive reactions to or elaborations upon ma- is available upon publication. means be confused with a truly general terial appearing in Voices within the previous year are welcomed. The editor may invite the author of Submission Deadlines introduction to the field of material cul- the materials being addressed to respond; both Spring–Summer December 31 ture. That book is still awaited. pieces may be published together. Any subject may Fall–Winter issue June 30 Daniel Franklin Ward, Ph.D. be addressed or rebutted once by any correspon- Cultural Resources Council dent. The principal criteria for publication are Send submissions as Word files to Felicia Faye whether, in the opinion of the editor or the edito- McMahon, Voices Editor, at the following address: Syracuse, New York rial board, the comment constitutes a substantive [email protected] (preferred) or 374 contribution to folklore studies, and whether it will Strong Road, Tully, NY 13159. interest our general readers. Letters should not exceed 500 words.

Fall–Winter 2003, Volume 29: 3–4 47 Join the New York Folklore Society today and become a subscriber to Voices

Join NYFS and become part of a community A Public Voice that will deepen your involvement with The NYFS raises awareness of folklore among folklore, folklife, the traditional arts, and the general public through three important Yes, I want to join the New York contemporary culture. As a member, you’ll channels... Folklore Society. have early notice of key events... Print. Voices: The Journal of New York Folklore, Name______Fall Conference. People travel from all over published twice a year, brings you folklore in the to meet in a different part of the state each words and images of its creators and practitioners. Organization ______year for the NYFS Fall Conference and The journal’s new look distinguishes it from other Address ______Annual Meeting. Professionals in folklore and publications in the field. 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48 VOICES: The Journal of New York Folklore Thank you, New York Folklore Society Supporters! The New York Folkore Society thanks the people, organizations, and funders that sup- Dargan, Pete and Toshi Seeger. ported our programs and publications in 2003. Your help is essential to our work. If Members your local library is not listed among the institutional subscribers below, please urge it Annon Adams, Ladan Alomar, Linda Armour, James to join. See page 48 for membership information. Atkinson, Susan Arbetter, Eric L. Ball, Andrea Barbieri, Wendy Barcomb, Constance Barone, Institution Members 2003: Universitatsbibliothek Bern, Stanford University, Christina Barr, Howard R. Bartholomew, Robert ABC-CLIO Library, Academi Polonaise Des SUC-Oneonta, SUC-Plattsburgh, SUNY Albany Barnett, Betty Bartoo, Raymond A. Baumler, Louise Sciences, Academy of Sciences of Armenia, Library, SUNY Binghamton, SUNY Buffalo, SUNY- Bement, Dan Berggren, Dr. Robert D. Bethke, Adirondack Community College, Adirondack Museum, Geneseo, SUNY Potsdam, SUNY-Stony Brook, Donald F. Bishop, Carl Borst, Warren F. Broderick, American University Library, Antioch College, Swets Subscription Service, Syracuse University Prof. Simon J. Bronner, Candace S. Broughton, Ann Arizona State University Library, Arkansas State Library, Temple University Paley Library, Texas A & Brouse, Marge Bruchac, Mona Buckley, Tom University, Ball State University, Biblioteca Nationala M University, Traditional Arts of Upstate New York, Bushnell, Beverly J Butcher, Helen L. Cackener, Romania, Bibllioteca Nazionale Italy, Bibliotek UCLA, Union College, University of Alabama, Karen Park Canning, Mary J. Carr, Richard Case, Gail Seksjon, Norway, Bibliotheque De L’Univ. Laval, University of British Columbia, University of Cashen, Varick A. Chittenden, William M. Clements, Quebec, Bloomsburg Univ. 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