CENTERNEWS WINTER-SPRING 1997· VOLUME XIX, NUMBERS 1 AND 2

American Folklife Center • The Library of Congress Board of Trustees TELEPHONE AND ONLINE INFORMATION RESOURCES Congressional Appointees Judith McCulloh, Chair, Illinois American Folklife Center publica­ Carolyn Hecker, Vice-chair, Maine tions (including Folklife Center News), Nina Archabal, Minnesota a calendar of events, collection guides, James F. Hoy, Kansas general information, and connections William CKinney Jr., South to a selection of other Internet services Carolina related to folklife are available on the Charles E. Trimble, Nebraska Internet via the LC MARVEL Gopher Juris Ubans, Maine Server and the LC Web World Wide Web Server. LC MARVEL is available Presidential Appointees through your local Gopher server. Or The American Folklife Center Ada E. Deer, Assistant Secretary use your Gopher Client Software to was created in 1976 by the U.s. Con­ for Indian Affairs, Department of connect to marvel.loc.gov. From the gress to "preserve and present Interior main menu, choose "Research and American folklife" through pro­ Joseph D. Duffey, Director of the Reference," then "Reading Rooms," grams of research, documentation, United States Information Agency then "American Folklife Center." LC archival preservation, reference ser­ Shirley S. Sagawa, Managing Web is available through your local vice, live performance, exhibition, Director of the Corporation for World Wide Web service. The publication, and training. The Cen­ National and Community Service Center's home page can be accessed ter incorporates the Archive of Folk from the Library's main menu. The Culture, which was established in Ex Officio Members direct URL for the Center's home the Music Division of the Library of James H. Billington, Librarian of page is: http://lcweb.loc.gov/ Congress in 1928 and is now one of Congress folklife/ the largest collections of ethno­ I. Michael Heyman, Secretary of graphic material from the United the Smithsonian Institution Folkline, an information service States and around the world. Jane Alexander, Chairman, providing timely information on the National Endowment for the Arts field of folklore and folklife, includ­ Sheldon Hackney, Chairman, ing training and professional oppor­ National Endowment for the tunities and news items of national Humanities interest, is available through the Alan Jabbour, Director, American above Internet servers. For telephone Administration Folklife Center service call the Folklife Reading Room Alan Jabbour, Director during normal business hours (Mon­ Doris Craig, Administrative Assistant day through Friday, 8:30 A.M. to 5:00 Mary Gainey, Clerk P.M., E.s.T.): 202 707-5510. '" Camila Bryce-Laporte, Program Coordina tor Acquisitions FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS £... Joseph c. Hickerson, Head James Hardin, Editor Processing EDITOR'S NOTES jhar @ loc.gov Stephanie A. Hall, Archivist David A. Taylor, Editorial Advisor Coordinator Many Thanks! John Biggs, Library of Congress Catherine Hiebert Kerst, Archivist Graphics Unit, Designer Nora Yeh, Archivist Heartfelt thanks to all the mem­ Programs Folklife Center News publishes ar­ ...... Peter T. Bartis, Folklife Specialist bers of the folklife community ticles on the programs and activi­ Mary Hufford, Folklife Specialist who have provided support and ties of the American Folklife Cen­ David A. Taylor, Folklife Specialist encouragement to the American ter, as well as other articles on tra­ Publications ditional expressive culture. It is Folklife Center during the past James Hardin, Editor available free of charge from the several years and taken time to Public Events Library of Congress, American Theadocia Austen, Coordinator write to their members of Con­ Folklife Center, Washington, D.C. Reference gress on our behalf. Through the 20540-4610. Folklife Center News Judith A. Gray, Folklife Specialist leadership of Mark Hatfield and does not publish announcements Jennifer A. Cutting, Folklife from other institutions or reviews continued on page 23 Specialist of books from publishers other than Administrative Office the Library of Congress. Readers Tel: 202 707-6590 who would like to comment on Fax: 202 707-2076 Cover: Three generations of women who Center activities or newsletter ar­ Reference Service ginseng together, Horse Creek, West ticles may address their remarks to Tel: 202 707-5510 Virginia: Carla Pettry with her daughter the editor. folklife @ loc.gov Natalie and her mother, Shelby Estep, holding their seng hoes. Photo by Lyntha Eiler 2 Folklife Center News Atnerican Ginseng and the Idea of the COInInons

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

By Mary Hufford prietors for nearly thirty years. ing of friends from neighboring The bar's modest facade belies the hollows and coal camps. The Sundial Tavern, known up often uproarious vitality of its eve­ Like many taverns, the Sundial and down Coal River as "Kenny nings. On weekend nights the Tavern is a dynamic museum of and Martha's," is a mom-and-pop­ music of Hank Williams, Bill Mon­ local history, its walls covered style beer joint on Route 3, in Sun­ roe, and Dolly Parton flows from with photographs, artifacts, and dial, West Virginia, just north of the jukebox to mingle with the trophies that register local per­ Naoma. Retired coal miner Kenny haze of cigarettes, the clangor of spectives on national events, the Pettry and his wife, Martha, now pinball, the crack and clatter of triumphs of patrons, and the pass­ in their sixties, have been the pro- pool, and the jocular talk and teas- ing of eras. Among the items dis- Winter-Spring 1997 3 played are photos of Dolly Parton (who is Martha's second cousin), an ingenious trigger-and-funnel There's an art to ginsenging now, but once you learn it, you never mechanism for planting corn, and forget it. a souvenir cap that registers the present struggle of the United Ed Cantley, Mine Workers for survival on Coal Rock Creek, West Virginia River. On another wall hangs a photograph of John Flynn, a be­ loved science writer and forest advocate, deemed one of the three from Sundial in his family cem­ Above the large specimen is a best pool players on Coal River. etery on Rock Creek, the hollow he lesser but still remarkable five­ He spent many nights here talk­ was born in fifty-seven years ago. prong. The display speaks to the ing, sympathizing, arguing, jok­ Tucked into the display on the high status accorded to ginseng in ing, and shooting pool. He died in wall behind the bar is a set of life and thought on Coal River. March of 1996 and is buried not far framed and laminated leaves. Diggers call it "seng," and on Most people Coal River the passion for seng would be hard runs deep. In 1994, the most recent put to identify year for which figures are avail­ this specimen, able, the state of West Virginia ex­ but for many ported 18,698 dry pounds of wild of the tavern's ginseng root from its fifty-five regular pa­ counties. l Though ginseng grows trons it repre­ wild throughout the mountain sents an ex­ state, more than half of the wild traordinary harvest came from eight contigu­ trophy and ob­ ous counties in the state's south­ ject of desire: western corner (Kanawha, Boone, the stalk from Fayette, Raleigh, McDowell, Wyo­ a rare six­ ming, Mingo, and Logan). "It's al­ prong ginseng ways been like that," said Bob plant, Panax Whipkey, who monitors the export quinquefolia. of ginseng for the state's Division

Science writer and forest activist John Flynn, in the Julie Holler above his homeplace on Rock Creek, a year before John Flynn's 1966 Pontiac was a familiar sight on Coal an aneurysm claimed his life. He became well known in the River. Wesley Scarbro, a citizen science volunteer from seventies and eighties for his investigative reporting on en­ Rock Creek, inherited the vehicle, which now goes by the vironmental issues, especially acid rain. Flynn's collabora­ name "Mr. Flynn." Photo by Lyntha Eiler tion with Mary Hufford, which began in 1992, resulted in the Center's Appalachian Forest Folklife Project. This documen­ tary project on culture, community, and the mixed meso­ phytic forest received partial funding from the Lila Wallace/ Reader's Digest Community Folklife Program, administered by the Fund for Folk Culture. Photo by Terry Eiler 4 Folklife Center News the long-term value of a diverse forest system and topography. Be­ cause the social and cultural sig­ nificance of the geographical com­ mons is unrecognized in national discourse, it is particularly at risk. As Beverly Brown points out in writing about the rural working class in the Pacific northwest, the Widespread loss of access to the geographical commons occurs in tandem with a shrinking "civic commons." 3 This loss of access is one effect of the privatization and enclosure of land that for generations has been used as commons. Rural populations with uncertain em­ ployment have typically relied on gardening, hunting, and gathering for getting through hard times. Over the past decade, processes of gentrification, preservation, and intensified extraction of timber and minerals have e'liminated the commons in which communities have for generations exercised fructuary rights. However, this exercise is motivated by some­ thing that goes beyond the pros­ Leaves from five- and six-pronged ginseng plants displayed pect of economic gain. as trophies at the Sundial Tavern. Randy Sprouse found the Ginseng provides a case in five-prong and William Pyle found the six-prong. Photo by Lyntha Eiler point. Dollar for pound, ginseng is probably the most valuable renew­ able resource on the central Appa­ lachian plateaus. 4 A linchpin in of Forestry. "There are more dig­ The Commons the seasonal round of foraging, gers there because of the culture. ginsenging is also essential to a People there grow up gathering There is a story in these figures way of life. "I'd rather ginseng herbs and digging roots." of a vernacular cultural domain than eat," said Dennis Dickens, Because of wild ginseng's lim­ that transcends state boundaries. eighty-five, of Peach Tree Creek. ited range and extraordinary value Anchoring this domain is a geo­ "Every spare minute I had was (diggers are averaging $450 per graphical space-a de facto com­ spent a-ginsenging." pound for the dried wild root) the mons roughly congruent with two "If you can't go ginsenging," federal government has been physiographic regions recognized said Carla Pettry, thirty, of Horse monitoring the export of ginseng in national discourse. One is the Creek, "it totally drives you (both wild and cultivated) since coal fields underlying the ginseng, crazy." 1978. Of nineteen states autho­ most of which are controlled by Ginseng's etymology and eco­ rized to export wild ginseng, West absentee landholders. The other is nomic value both come from Virginia came in second, behind the mixed mesophytic forest, China and neighboring countries, Kentucky, which certified 52,993 known among ecologists as the where the root has long been pounds. Tennessee came in third, world's biologically richest tem­ prized for conferring longevity with 17,997 pounds. In 1994 these perate-zone hardwood system. and vigor of all sorts on its users. three contiguous states certified This multi-layered region is in­ The term ginseng is an American­ more than half of the 178,111 creasingly the focus of debates pit­ ization of the Chinese jin-chen L pounds of wild ginseng reported ting the short-term economic meaning "manlike." The Latin among nineteen states. 2 value of coal and timber against term Panax quinquefolia alludes to Winter-Spring 1997 5 fFIG.2.-:Fresh roots of ginseng from cultivated plQnt. a. One year old; b, two years old; c, three years old; d. four years old; I, bud; I, leaf fFlG. l.-America,n ginseng. scar.

American ginseng, Panax quinquefolia. The term ginseng derives from the Chinese word pronounced "jin-chen," meaning "man-like." The Latin term alludes to the plant's function as a panacea, and its five-whorled leaves. Drawings from U.S. Department of Agriculture Bulletin 16, 1898 the five whorled leaves on each soils in the mixed mesophytic for­ interaction with this valuable and branch and the plant's function as ests of Tennessee, Kentucky, and elusive plant, residents of the pla­ a panacea. The active ingredients southern West Virginia are teaus have created a rich and in the fleshy, humanoid root are ginseng's ideal medium. "The elaborate culture, a culture of the ginsenocides, chemical com­ most prolific spreads of wild gin­ commons. pounds celebrated for their capac­ seng," writes Val Hardacre, in ity both to stimulate and soothe. Woodland Nuggets of Gold, "were Historical Background Whether ginsenocides in fact war­ found in the region touched by the rant such claims is a matter of con­ Allegheny Plateau and the se­ The history of human interac­ tinuing controversy among scien­ cluded coves of the Cumberland tion with ginseng lurks in the lan­ tists and physicians. 5 Plateau." 6 Through centuries of guage of the land. Look at a According to Randy Halstead, a Boone County buyer, "stress rings," which give the wild root its market value, are linked with a I'll tell you what's dying here: the concept that the forest itself higher concentration of ginsen­ .was open. ... It didn't dawn on me until a couple of years ago ocides. Nearly impossible to repro­ when that began to change, that concept that the Native Ameri­ duce in cultivation, stress rings are cans had, that the land was like air or water-who could own produced as the root pushes it? through soil just compact enough Doug Stover, to provide the right amount of re­ Mullens, West Virginia sistance. The ancient, humus laden

6 Folklife Center News detailed map of almost any por­ "but not like in the swags there." "Did you ever hear tell of tion of the region and ginseng is "You just go in the darker Charlie Rock?" asked Woody registered somewhere, often in as­ coves," said Wesley Scarbrough, Boggess, of Pettry Bottom. "That's sociation with the deeper, moister twenty-five, who grew up on Clear a famous place." places: Seng Branch (Fayette Fork, "where it just shadows the "I've camped out many a night County), Sang Camp Creek (Logan ground so it'll be rich for ginseng." under Charlie Rock," said Randy County), Ginseng (Wyoming Occupying higher and drier Sprouse, of Sundial. "People used County), Seng Creek (Boone ground are sandstone "camping to live under Charlie Rock two or County), Three-Prong Holler (Ra­ rocks," formed on the bottoms of three months at a time, camp out leigh). The hollows, deep dendritic ancient seas. These natural ledges and dig ginseng." fissures created over eons by wa­ have sheltered people hunting and The harvesting of ginseng (as ter cutting through the ancient gathering in the mountains since well as other wild plants) flour­ table land to form tributaries of the prehistoric times, and during cen­ ished within a system of corn­ Coal River, receive water from turies of corn-woodland-pasture­ woodland-pastureland farming. lesser depressions that ripple the land agriculture such ledges shel- Crucial to this system was re-

The upper elevation slopes and ridges, like those rising away from Peach Tree Creek and Drew's Creek, have long served as a de facto commons. Names bestowed on every indentation register the seasonal exercise of fructuary rights since the late eighteenth-century. Photo by Lyntha Eiler slopes. These depressions are dis­ tered stock as well. Named by course to a vast, forested commons tinguished in local parlance as early settlers who came to stay, rising away from the settled hol­ "coves" (shallower, amphitheater­ sites like Jake Rock, John Rock, lows. Though nineteenth-century shaped depressions), "swags" Turkey Rock, Crane Rock, and patriarchs like "Mountain Perry" (steeper depressions, "swagged" Charlie Rock served as bases for Jarrell homesteaded portions of it, on both sides), and "drains" (natu­ ginsenging expeditions. the mostly unsettled higher eleva­ ral channels through which water "My granddad and all them tion ridges and slopes supplied the flows out of the swag or cove). The used to go and layout for weeks, community with essential materi­ prime locations for ginseng are ginsenging," said Kenny Pettry. als and staples: wood for fires, found on the north-facing, "wet" "A rock they stayed at, they called barns, fences, homes, and tools; sides of these depressions. "Once it the Crane Rock, and they stayed coal for fuel; rich soil for growing in a while you'll find some on the back in under that. They'd be gone corn, beans, and orchards; nuts, ridges," said Denny Christian, for weeks ginsenging." herbs, mushrooms, berries, and Winter-Spring 1997 7 right to continue using the surface resources in exchange for mineral rights.10 Hence, despite the flurry of "quit claim deeds" and "deeds in ejectment" on record for the early decades of the century, the condition of exile imposed on some people by those transactions has only gradually been realized. In the aggregate, whatever the terms of individual transactions, access to the land for fructuary uses like hunting, gathering, and farming has tempered the negative effects of corporate domination over the past century. 11 Before the development of a wage-labor economy, ginseng was the most reliable source of cash income on Coal River. "The whole The face of John Rock, a sandstone "camping rock," inscribed with local history. economy was built up around gin­ More than fifty years ago, Covey Turner etched his initials on it with a carbide lamp while on a ginsenging expedition with his buddies and their dogs. The road seng," said Quentin Barrett, of connecting Drew's Creek to this site was recently closed for coal mining. Photo Beckley. "They had a few eggs and by Lyntha Eiler chickens, but most of it was-the

game, an open-range for hogs and mental effects of such cattle, and spaces for anonymous use included irrevers­ stills. Because of the abundant ible deforestation, supply of tree fodder (wild nuts degradation of soils and fruit) the central Appalachian and water, homeless­ plateau in the nineteenth century ness, and the emer­ furnished some of the best gence of the world's pastureland in the country. A sea­ first industrial work­ sonal round of plying the com­ ing class. 9 mons is registered in many of the What happened in names for swags and coves: Wal­ the late nineteenth nut Hollow, Paw-Paw Hollow, century on Coal River Beech Hollow, Red Root Hollow, and throughout the Sugar Camp Hollow, and so forth. plateaus may be During the turbulent early de­ viewed as an episode cades of industry the suppressed in the continuing his­ civic commons survived in lofty tory of transnational thickets where miners met in se­ appropriation and cret to organize their union. enclosure of the com­ As practice and concept, the mons. Throughout commons is ancient, pre-dating central Appalachia, the idea of private property, 7 newly formed land which began exerting pressure on companies surrepti­ local commons in England at the tiously subverted the time of the Norman Conquest. system of the com­ Since then history has been mons, taking out marked by recurrent efforts to en­ deeds on its un­ close the commons for use by claimed portions, of­ wealthy non-local interests. 8 In fering small amounts Quentin Barrett, Beckley, West Virginia. Photo by England the social and environ- of money and the Lyntha Eiler 8 Folklife Center News ginseng and they speaking of his great-grandfather. would buy their "His name was Griffin Stallings. shoes and salt and And he was a wheeler and dealer. staples and so forth He was wealthy. So he puts up a and he in turn sold it store at Whitesville and he buys all to exporters in New the seng at Whitesville, and he York or a broker, and buys all the seng at Madison and that sent some cash puts up another store somewhere dollars back here." 12 toward Logan up in the head of Fortunes and po­ Pond Fork. litical careers were "So he buys all the seng com­ built on ginseng in ing and going. So come fall, he's the nineteenth cen­ ready to ship it. How do you get tury. Daniel Boone your seng to market? Only place on a bad day lost two you could sell it, really a big tons of the root when bunch, was Philadelphia or Cin­ the barge carrying it cinnati or someplace like that. So sank in the Ohio he loads up his hired man, the River. Ginseng mon­ wagons, and takes all the seng ey helped build the down to Huntington, puts him on fortune ofJohn Jacob a boat. The hired man was sup­ Astor as well as the posed to take all this seng, a year's political career of an supply of seng and sell it and bring early senator from the money back. He never saw the California, according hired man again. He never got it to a story Quentin back. Barrett called a "gin­ "Well, after the Civil War was Randy Halstead, owner of "Randy's Recycling" in seng tale." over, he had a boy [Joel], and the Peytona, buys and sells ginseng. Photo by Lyntha "There was an old boy was a high-ranking man in the Eiler man at Madison, Confederate army and so his son over on Little Coal ran for office. Along about that River," said Barrett, time, he got elected, he goes to whole crew would go out and hunt ginseng in the fall." "That's all my grandma used to do, years ago, she'd ginseng," re­ called Shelby Estep, who now ginsengs with her daughter and granddaughter on Coal River Mountain. "That's the way she bought the kids clothes. She had twelve." Around the export of ginseng a class of entrepreneurs emerged who would buy the ginseng from diggers and get it to the metropoli­ tan centers to trade for goods that could not be produced locally. In 1871 Quentin Barrett's grandfa­ ther, R.E. Barrett, began trading merchandise for ginseng from his store on Dry Creek. "Just about his only source of cash was from gin­ seng sales," said Bob Daniel, R.E. Opened by R.E. Barrett in 1871, the Charles Jarrell Store at the mouth of Dry Barrett's great grandson, "The Creek is the oldest commercial establishment in Raleigh County. "Just about people would come out of the hol­ [Barrett's] only source of cash was from the sale of ginseng," said Bob Daniel, lows in the fall and sell him their Barrett's great-grandson. Photo by Lyntha Eiler

Winter-Spring 1997 9 Washington. And the first man he ginsengers' world it behaves like brushing my britches legs before I ran into was a senator from Cali­ fauna. Ginseng is not merely "har­ looked down and saw it." fornia, and that senator from Cali­ vested," it is "hunted," and rare "Now a lot of times," said Joe fornia was the hired man who'd six-, seven-, and eight-prong speci­ Williams, "you'll walk up, be left with his daddy's ginseng!" 13 mens are coveted like twelve-point standing there, and look right During the first half of the bucks. There is an agency assigned down at your feet and it'll be twentieth century, ginseng contin­ to ginseng unparalleled among the there." ued to infuse cash into the scrip­ many plants valued on Coal River. Ginseng's uniqueness is much­ driven economy of the coal camps. "It hides away from man with vaunted. "It's the most beautiful "My dad was a coal miner when seeming intelligence," wrote plant in the woods," said Randy the union was organizing," said Arthur Harding in a 1908 manual Halstead. "Especially when it Randy Halstead. "He was in­ for diggers and cultivators. 14 changes its color and it's got the volved in that, so a lot of times he "You never know where you're seed on it." In spring ginseng was out of work. So you send ten going to find ginseng," said Ernie sends up a stem that branches into children to school, and working Scarbrough, of Rock Creek. stalks, each terminating in a clus­ now and then, you had to make Seng is a verb as well as a noun. ter of five-toothed leaflets. The money whatever way you could. "I senged in there, and senged in older the root, the more stalks, or We would dig ginseng to buy our there, and senged in there," re­ "prongs," it sends up. IS A cluster school clothes and buy our books ported Cuba Wiley, of Peytona, of yellow-green flowers, scented so we could go back to school in "and I didn't find any." In stories like lilies of the valley, appears in the fall." about ginseng the plant appears spring and matures through the In the coal boom of the 1990s, unbidden, almost like a quarry summer into the bright red "pod when the coal industry no longer sneaking up on its stalker. "I was of berries" that ginseng diggers depends much on a resident popu­ standing there looking around," look for in fall. lation, many roads leading into the said David Bailey, of Stickney, In late September ginseng be­ commons have been gated off. "and there was a big four-prong gins to turn an opalescent yellow, Ginseng nonetheless contributes a vital piece to an economic patch­ work that includes recurrent outmigration to find temporary employment, odd jobs, fishing, flea-market work, and raising pro­ duce. "Ginseng's getting rare because so many people's out of work and so many people's digging it," said Randy Sprouse, who was himself unemployed at the time. Joe Williams, who ginsengs with Randy, disagreed. "1' d say most of the people that ginseng are people that works. They just love to ginseng. I miss work to go ginsenging." "What do you like about it that you'd miss work for it?" I asked him. "Well, it's really something to find a big old stalk of seng. That's w hat you're looking for. Five prongs. If you'd ever get into it, you'd like it."

Stalking the Wily Seng

Though in biological terms gin­ seng is properly flora, in the Dennis Dickens, Peach Tree Creek. Photo by Lyntha Eiler 10 Folklife Center News Taken as a collec­ he can find. Denny Christian looks tion, seng hoes register around "sugar trees" (Acer in concentrated form a saccharum) and black walnut. pool of experiential "If you look under the right knowledge attached to tree," said Ernie Scarbrough, "you the commons. "They might find a stalk of seng. There's used to take old mine trees I go for yet, ginsenging... picks when they'd sugar maples and black gum, wear out and cut them whenever you can find one. And off at the blacksmith the hickories. Squirrels is in the shop," said Mae hickories, and they eat the ripe Bongalis, eighty, of ginseng berries. So it makes a lot Naoma. "They make a of ginseng around the hickories." good one." Ginseng orders the landscape Herman Williams, around itself, providing a basis for of Clear Fork, has identifying related flora. Look­ adapted a fire poker for alike plants like sarsaparilla and use as a seng hoe. Ben cohosh have been given nick­ Burnside's is made, names like "fool's seng," "he­ like his father's, from a seng," and "seng pointer." "The recycled automobile spring. A popular model generally has an Joe Williams, digging ginseng in Tom's Hollow. axe blade for cutting, Photo by Lyntha Eiler and a mattock blade for digging. Its long handle serves as a utterly distinctive to diggers. walking stick, and a weapon to be "That is a different color to any wielded in self-defense against other yellow," said Dennis copperheads and rattlesnakes. Dickens. "You can spot that." "It's real light," said Shorty On a warm day in September Bongalis. "Something you can photographer Lyntha Eiler and I carry through the woods." are clambering around on the "It's light," said Randy near-perpendicular slopes of Sprouse, "to beat the weeds." Tom's Hollow near Whitesville. Brandishing his seng hoe, Wil­ Joe Williams, of Leevale, selected liams calls out in jest, "Here Mr. this site because it contained pop­ Four-Prong!" lar and sassafras growing on the Ginseng is notoriously unpre­ "wet side" of the mountain. "You dictable. It does not send up a stalk 16 don't find it where oaks are at," he every year. Added to this is the Randy Sprouse's seng hoe. The head says. He peers out through the col­ appetite for ginseng shared by can be twisted to mimic a hen turkey. umns of maples, hickories, sour­ deer, pheasants, groundhogs, Photo by Lyntha Eiler wood, black gum, walnut, poplar, squirrels, and other small birds and sassafras, searching for bril­ and mammals, which consume reason why they call it 'seng liant red berries and the distinctive stalks and berries, unwittingly pointer,'" said Randy Halstead, yellow of ginseng: conserving the plant both by hid­ "it's got three branches, one goes Slung over Williams's shoulder ing the roots and serving as agents this way, one this way, and one is a bag for carrying ginseng, and of dispersal. Thus theories of goes straight out this way, and the in his hand he carries a "seng hoe." where to look for this seemingly old people would say that one Seng hoes are essentially double­ peripatetic plant flourish. would be pointing towards the bladed mattocks modified to serve "Everybody's got a different ginseng plant. Of course it prob­ as walking sticks. You cannot pur­ way of fishing," said Randy ably is somewhere within a hun­ chase one. On Coal River seng Halstead. "You know: 'My bait dred miles out in front of it, but hoes are produced by remodelling works.'" that's how that got started. They implements made for other pur­ Vernon Williams sengs in "the like the same kind of a place to poses. roughest, wildest, snakiest places" grow." Winter-Spring 1997 11 Halstead said experi­ Giles the Seng Man enced dealers can tell which county a root came One of the more famous from because differences buyers who infused cash in soil conditions produce into the economy during roots that are bulby like the boom-and-bust period pearl onions, or elongated of coal was "Giles the Seng like carrots. "Now in this Man." Diggers generally area we have dark, richer, sell ginseng to centers that loose soil, and the ginseng recycle scrap metal and grows longer, like a carrot. broker other non-woody But you get into some of forest products like moss, the neighboring counties mayapple, bloodroot, co­ with clay soil, it's real hosh, and golden seal. bulby because the ginseng During the thirties, forties, can't push down into the and fifties much of the gin­ dirt." seng on Marsh Fork was Dealers can also tell at bought by "Giles the Seng a glance whether a root is Man," remembered for his "wild" or "tame." "Wild" woolly aspect and bibbed seng exhibits "stress rings" overalls, and his annual from pushing through trek along the roads trac­ wild soils. "Loosening the ing the tributaries of the soil causes the roots to Coal River's Marsh Fork. grow rapidly," explained "There used to be a Randy Halstead. "What gentleman," Denny Chris­ makes the roots valuable is tian said. "Old Man Giles, the ringiness, the rings they called him. The Seng that's on the ginseng." Buyer. And he wore Ginseng drying in a window. Photo by Lyntha Eiler Pausing for breath in bibbed overhauls. Had no Tom's Hollow, Joe Will- vehicle, no horse, nor iams finds a four-prong, topped Many residents on Coal River nothing. He always come in a­ with a "pod of berries." Flailing propagate wild patches of ginseng walking. Every fall he would make away at its base he discovers to his in the woods surrounding their his rounds. And I'd senged that chagrin that someone else has al­ homes. "We didn't exactly culti­ summer with my grandpa, and old ready taken the root, adhering to vate it," said Dave Bailey. "See our man Giles, he came through." the local practice of replanting the back porch went up to here, and "He was a legend," said Jenny stalk attached to the dog-legged then up here was the woods. Me Bonds, quilting with the women rhizome pocked with stem scars. and my brother, we just got some who gather weekly on Drew's "That's called the 'curl,'" says Wil­ of it and we set it, to see if it would Creek. liams, carefully reinstating it. "1 come up next year, and when it "Nobody knows where that old usually put maybe two joints of it did, it accumulated and accumu­ man come from," said Mabel back. It's a better way of keeping lated, and whenever I got married Brown, "and nobody-" it going than the berries... .I'll and left, why the whole back of "-knows where he went," come back here some year and get that hill was ginseng." Jenny finished. "He'd just walk by another root off of that." Left to its own devices, ginseng in his big old overhauls and strut, Other strategies for conserving simply sheds the seeds for gravity strut by." ginseng include scattering seeds to deliver downslope. Conse­ "Old Man Giles many a time where ginseng is known to grow, quently, one mode of tracking gin­ come to our house," Dave Bailey snipping the tops off of "five­ seng is to look uphill from any remembered. "He'd keep change leaves" and "two-prongs" so that "five-leaves" or immature plants in his pocket. Wore overalls, had a less scrupulOUS diggers won't find for the big progenitor. "I've done gray beard and an old hat and them until they are bigger in fu­ that many a time," said Dave here's the way he'd walk, you ture years, and transplanting Bailey. "You go up the hill, you know." Here Bailey demonstrates young plants to sites closer to come to a little flat area and if Giles' inimitable strut. "He'd say home where they can be moni­ there's any seng growing there you 'Hubert, you got any seng?' And tored. 17 always look above it for a big one." Dad would get wood all the time, 12 Folklife Center News Jenny Bonds and Nancy Jarrell, of Drew's Creek. Photo by Lyntha Eiler

go out in the woods cut a little tim­ big fish in the lake. You find this bring it in and say, 'Look what I ber, if he found seng he'd dig it. big enormous plant and you know found today.'" He'd have a handful dry, maybe everybody that's out there dig­ "You can't get out and dig it for fifty cents worth." ging, this is the one that they'd like the money," said Joe Williams. "00 you remember Giles the to find. So you get an adrenalin "It's like looking for Easter eggs. ginseng man?" I asked Dennis rush when you find them, and You're always looking for the big Dickens. when you find a big one it's like one. If I found one eight ounces, I "Tommy Giles?" said Dennis showing off your daily catch. You believe I'd quit." Dickens. "1 remember him well. I used to sell to him. He was origi­ nally from Germany, I think. Someone told me that they got him as an alien and kept him in prison through the war. I know he wasn't around here through the war. He was a great big man, black beard, and he always walked. Some­ body'd stop and ask him, 'Want a ride Mr. Giles?' ... 'No, I'm in a hurry, I'll just walk!'"

Seng Talk and Ginseng Tales: Conjuring the Commons

For seng aficionados, the ongo­ ing prospect of ginseng makes the mountains gleam with hidden treasure. "It's like catching a big fish," said Randy Halstead. "You're out here all day and you find this big fish, and you know Woody Boggess, of Pettry Bottom, in the ramp patch he planted behind his home it's everybody's desire to catch this in Pettry Bottom. Photo by Lyntha Eiler Winter-Spring 1997 13 "The one that boy brought in You won't believe it." and I have really found the seng up at Flats weighed a pound," said "Chestnut Holler, I'll bet you," in there. One time me and Gar Randy Sprouse. guessed Dave Bailey. Gobel was in there, and Clyde "I'd like to have seen that one," "I found one of the awfullest would start up the mountain, and said Williams. patches of it, left-hand side of we just kept finding little four "It was a monster," Sprouse Chestnut Holler," Cuba continued. leaves, all the way up the moun­ emphasized. "I never seen such roots of seng in tain. "That's what you get out for," Williams mused. "Always looking for the big one." On Coal River, ginseng plays a vital role in imagining and sus­ taining a culture of the commons. Among the means of keeping the commons alive is talk about gin­ seng: where to hunt it, its myste­ rious habits, the biggest specimens ever found, and the difficulties of wresting the treasure from an im­ possibly steep terrain shared by bears, copperheads, rattlesnakes, and yellow-jackets. The ability and authority to engage in this dis­ course is indeed hard won. Over generations of social con­ struction in story and in practice, places on the commons accrue a dense, historical residue. Every wrinkle rippling the mountains has been named for people, flora, fauna, practices, and events both singular and recurrent: Beech Hol­ low, Ma Kelly Branch, Bear Wal­ low, Board Camp Hollow, and Old Field Hollow. "I guess there must have been a newground in there at one time," said Ben Burnside, of Rock Creek, alluding to the old­ time practice of clearing woodland to grow corn and beans. Overlooking the valley from its Cuba Wiley, of Andrew. Photo by Lyntha Eiler giant tightly crimped rim, places like the Head of Hazy, Bolt Moun­ tain, Kayford Mountain, the Cut­ ting Box, Chestnut Hollow, and my life, buddy. And where I found "Gar says, 'Cuba there's a big Sugar Camp anchor realities spun all my seng, the good seng, come one somewhere. It seeded down­ out in a conversation that Woody right this side of Clyde hill.' We senged plumb to the top Boggess Videotaped in Andrew, Montgomery's, and come down of the mountain, Cutting Box, got West Virginia. In one exchange, that first holler, and go up that on top, and that old big nettleweed Cuba Wiley and Dave Bailey con­ holler and turn back to the right. was that high, Gar had him a big jure and co-inhabit a terrain so Buddy it is steep." stick, was hunting for the big one. steep that seng berries would roll "Going toward the Cutting Right on tip top the mountain, di­ from the ridge to the hardtop. Box?" asked Dave Bailey, referring rectly beneath them, it was about "You know where the most to a place named for a mining up to my belt, buddy. It didn't seng is I ever found up in that structure. have such a big root on it, and I country?" asked Cuba Wiley. "I'm "I senged that through there," still wasn't satisfied. Gar, he going to tell you where it was at. said Cuba, "from there to Stickney, dropped over the Cutting Box, and 14 Folklife Center News I still searched around up on top, he heard from his brother. "You re­ Through narrative the commons parting the weeds, and directly, I member that time Bud and French becomes a public space, its history found them about that high [indi­ Turner was ... up there sawing played out before audiences who cates a height of about three feet], timber for Earl Hunter? Remem­ know intimately its spaces two of them right on top of the ber Bud telling you about that? He whether they have been there to­ mountain. It was so steep, [the ber­ said he was sawing that big tree. gether or not. Inhabiting the com­ ries] rolled plumb down next to Thought it was a buckeye. And mons through practice and narra­ tive confers social identity and makes a community of its occu­ pants. "I work in construction," wrote Dennis Price, forty, of Arnett, on a petition to document the cultural value of the mixed mesophytic forest. "But really I consider myself a ginsenger." In the realm unfolded through ginseng stories and other tales of plying the woods, the commons becomes a proving ground on which attributes of courage, loy­ alty, belonging, stamina, wit, fool­ ishness, stewardship, honesty, judgement, and luck are displayed and evaluated. Collective reflec­ tion on what it means to be a ginsenger gives rise to reflection on what in fact it means to be hu­ man. It is through such a process that the geographic commons nur­ tures a civic commons as a forum for consensus and dissent.

Ginseng and the Future of the Commons

"Understanding the commons and its role within the larger re­ gional culture," writes Gary Snyder, "is one more step toward integrating ecology with econ­ omy." Environmental policy, fo­ David Bailey, of Stickney. Photo by Lyntha Eiler cussed too narrowly on physical resources, loses sight of the web of social relationships and processes the hard road, buddy. I got more stuff like tomatoes started hitting in which those resources are em­ seng in there than any place I ever him in the head." bedded and made significant. senged in that part of the country. "It was seng berries," laughed "They're taking our dignity by de­ It's steep, buddy." Dave. stroying our forest," as Vernon ''It's rough too, ain't it?" said ''It was seng berries," Woody Williams, of Peach Tree Creek, put Dave Bailey. dead-panned. it. ''It's rough, buddy," Cuba "Said it was big as tomatoes," Williams was referring to the agreed. "But I swear I dug some said Dave, still chuckling. landscapes taking shape on the good seng in there, buddy. And I "Boy, that was some stalk of plateaus during the present coal dug some good seng in Sugar seng," allowed Cuba, his eyes and timber boom. Since 1990 the Camp." twinkling. state has permitted tens of thou­ Cuba's amazing account re­ Such stories conjure the com­ sands of acres in southern West minds Woody Boggess of a tall tale mons as a rich social imaginary. Virginia for mountaintop removal Winter-Spring 1997 15 Relatives gathered for a Stanley Family reunion on top of Kayford Mountain survey an eleven-mile-Iong mountaintop-removal project on Cabin Creek. "I've senged that mountain many a time," said an unem­ ployed coal miner. "No one will ever seng there again." Photo by Lyntha Eiler

and reclamation. Mountaintop re­ endangered species, no historic for resolving some very thorny moval is a method of mining that artifacts (with the exception of a dilemmas. A touchstone for eco­ shears off the top of a mountain, cemetery, which was relocated), nomic, cultural, and environmen­ allowing the efficient recovery of and no prime farmland (despite a tal interests, ginseng provides a multiple seams of coal. 18 When history of subsistence farming at tangible link between ecology and the "topped" mountains are rigor­ least three generations deep). With economy. Given ginseng's predi­ ously reclaimed under the terms of that testimony, the commons lection for native hardwood forest the Surface Mining Control and specified in Cuba Wiley's narra­ and rich soils, national recognition Reclamation Act of 1977, the rich tives was quietly erased. 19 of its cultural value would be a soils essential to ginseng and hard­ In the social imaginary shaped way to begin safeguarding both a wood cove forests are gone, and by narrative on Coal River, gin­ globally significant hardwood for­ with them the multigenerational seng, commons, and community est and the cultural landscape to achievement of the commons. life are inseparable, yet there are which it belongs. What is missing in the environ­ presently no means available for mental debate is any recognition safeguarding that relationship. A Notes of the commons and its critical role standard recourse, declaring gin­ in community life. Such recogni­ seng an endangered species, 1. Since 1978 the U.S. Depart­ tion, not unusual in the countries would clearly be culturally de­ ment of the Interior's Fish and of Europe, could reopen portions structive, since it would make a Wildlife Service has tracked the of the civic commons that is sup­ vital cultural practice illegal. Wild certification of ginseng for export pressed in environmental plan­ ginseng in fact would seem to under the Convention on Interna­ ning by an unwieldy and inacces­ merit federal protection not be­ tional Trade in Endangered Spe­ sible process of technical assess­ cause it is endangered but because cies of Wild Fauna and Flora ment. For instance, a slurry pond within its limited range it is inte­ (CITES). Ginseng is listed in Ap­ that fills the evacuated hollow of gral to the venerable social insti­ pendix II. Shumate's Branch was permitted tution of the commons. 2. Ginseng can be cultivated, on the grounds that there were no Ginseng may be a powerful tool and in fact cultivated ginseng 16 Folklife Center News Vernon, Kentucky: Appalachia­ Science in the Public Interest, 1996). To provide a basis for com­ parison, according to the West Vir­ ginia Mining and Reclamation As­ sociation in Charleston, West Vir­ ginia, the coal industry meets a direct annual payroll of 1 billion dollars for the state of West Vir­ ginia. 5. Ibid. "Though ginseng is commonly prescribed by physi­ cians in Asia and Russia for a num­ ber of ailments, Western medicine has been skeptical of the herb. In the United States it is illegal to market ginseng for medical pur­ poses because it has not been tested by the Food and Drug Ad­ ministration. Instead, it is mar­ keted as a health food or with vi­ tamin supplements." 6. Hardacre, Val, Woodland Nug­ gets of Gold. New York: Vantage Press, 1968: 56 7. Beryl Crowe writes that "the commons is a fundamental social institution that has a history going back through our own colonial experience to a body of English common law which antedates the Roman conquest. That law recog­ nized that in societies there are some environmental objects which A slurry pond constructed on Shumate's Branch. "Slurry," the have never been, and should never fine wet refuse from the coal cleaning process, is stored behind be, exclusively appropriated to a dam engineered out of the coarse refuse. Though the dams any individual or group of indi­ are highly regulated, slurry has been elsewhere linked with se­ viduals." "The Tragedy of the vere flooding and "blowouts." "There's a saying around here," said one storekeeper. "We fear the river above more than the Commons Revisited," in Garret river below." In the foreground is the Marsh Fork Middle School. Hardin and John Baden, eds. Man­ Photo by Lyntha Eiler aging the Commons (San Francisco: Freeman, 1977). 8. Gary Snyder's brief history of the six hundred year struggle in comprises more than 90 percent of Northwest Forests: Decline of Pub­ England highlights the historical American ginseng exports (ASPI lic Access and Accustomed depth of contemporary issues. Bulletin 38). However "tame Rights," Cultural Survival Quar­ Wool corporations, an early form seng," as diggers call it, com­ terly (spring 1996), pp. 50-52. of agribusiness, played a role in mands an average price of thirty 4. According to a study directed fifteenth-century enclosures. dollars a pound. That sector of the by scientist Albert Fritsch, who Snyder writes, "The arguments for industry is concentrated in Wis­ heads the Appalachian Center for enclosure in England-efficiency, consin, which in 1994 certified Science in the Public Interest, the higher production-ignored social more than 1,000,000 of the Chinese market alone will bear 12 and ecological effects and served 1,271,548 pounds reported nation­ billion dollars worth of ginseng to cripple the sustainable agricul­ ally. annually. "Ginseng in Appala­ ture of some districts." "Under­ 3. Brown, Beverly. "Fencing the chia," ASPI Technical Series 38 (Mt. standing the Commons," in Winter-Spring 1997 17 Environmental Ethics, eds. Susan J. tivation," Bulletin Number 16. population to be dormant in a Armstrong and Richard G. Botzler. Washington, D.C.: United States given year. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993: Department of Agriculture, 1896: 17. Such seng is termed "woods 227-31. 16-17. grown," and if properly set may 9. Snyder, pp. 228-29. 13. According to records com­ bring top dollar. "If it looks wild," 10. Consequently, according to piled by Janet Hager of Hewett in said Halstead, "it sells for wild." a study by the Appalachian Boone County, Joel Stallings be­ 18. The present boom is an ef­ Landownership Task Force, came an attorney following his fect of the Clean Air Act of 1990, roughly 80 to 90 percent of the service as a confederate captain which set acceptable levels for land is controlled by absentee during the Civil War and was then sulphate emissions from coal-fired owners. See Who Owns Appala­ elected to the state legislature. Tra­ facilities and increased the na­ chia? Land Ownership and Its Im­ dition holds that, on a trip to tional demand for the low-sulphur pact. Lexington: University Press Washington, Stallings encoun­ bituminous coal found in the re­ of Kentucky, 1983. For more de­ tered Senator James Thompson gion. tailed documentation of the often Farley of California (Democrat, 19. Because the region's low­ illegal means of land acquisition, 1879-85), and recognized him as sulphur coal has to be washed to see David Alan Corbin, Life, Work, the hired man who never returned. come into compliance with the and Rebellion in the West Virginia The Biographical Directory of the Clean Air Act, valleys must be Coal Fields, and Ronald Eller, Min­ United States Congress states that found for storing the "slurry"­ ers, Millhands, and Mountaineers. Farley made his way from fine, wet, black refuse from the An abundance of stories persist Albemarle County, Virginia, to coal cleaning and separation pro­ in oral tradition on Coal River California via Missouri. cess. To contain the slurry, tower­ about how the company "took" 14. Harding, Arthur, Ginseng ing impoundments are built at the the land. and Other Medicinal Plants. Boston: mouths of hollows out of the 11. Paul Salstrom argues that Emporium Press, 1972 (reprint of coarse refuse. A similar structure this use of the land for farming 1908 original). collapsed on October 30, 1996, and hunting ultimately subsidized 15. "Our data show that on an near Pennington Gap, Virginia. the coal industry. Compensating average a one-pronged plant will See Spencer S. Hsu, "Rural Va. for depressed wages, it kept the be 4.5 (plus or minus 1.6) years Coal Field Accident Turns Streams union out of southern West Vir­ before it develops a second prong, Black, Chokes Thousands of Fish," ginia longer than in other areas. that a two-pronged plant will be The Washington Post L November I, Appalachia's Path To Dependency 7.6 (plus or minus 2.4) years before 1996, B4. (Lexington: University Press of developing a third prong, and that Kentucky, 1994). See also David a three-pronged individual will Alan Corbin, Life, Work, and Rebel­ average 13.5 (plus or minus 3.3) lion in the Coal Fields: The Southern years before adding a fourth West Virginia Miners 1880-1922 prong." Walter H. Lewis and (Urbana: University of Illinois Vincent E. Zenger, "Ginseng Popu­ Press) 1981: 37-38. Two local land lation Dynamics," American Jour­ companies have publically ac­ nal of Botany 69:1483-90, 1982, p. counted for the recent enclosures 1485. by citing instances of lawsuits 16. Diggers and dealers observe brought against them by persons that because ginseng does not injured while gathering wood on send up a stalk every year, it is "the property." impossible to calculate precisely 12. Among the figures pub­ the age of a given specimen or to lished by the U.S. Department of assess the extent of the population. Agriculture from 1858 to 1896 the "Some of this wild ginseng could highest number of pounds ex­ be thirty or forty years old," said ported from the United States was Randy Halstead. "If every plant 630,714 in 1863; the lowest was would come up one year it would 110,426 in 1859. The total for the be plentiful. You have maybe 50 thirty six years was 13,738,415. No percent of it that'll germinate each official records were kept by state year. If it gets in a stressful situa­ or county in West Virginia. tion, it sheds its top." Research by "American Ginseng: Its Commer­ Lewis and Zenger on cultivated cial History, Protection, and Cul- ginseng found 10 percent of the 18 Folklife Center News Atnerican Folklife Center Celebrates Twenty Years

Story by Craig D'Ooge Photographs by Larry Glatt

Approximately two hundred invited guests assembled in the north curtain of the Library of Congress's Jefferson Building, September 18, 1996, to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the American Folklife Center. The Gospel Pearls opened the event with a song called "Speak to My Heart," an appropriate theme song for the evening as one speaker af­ ter another expressed heartfelt support for the Center. Folklife Center staff were stationed at tables displaying the collections of the Archive of Folk Culture and explaining the many programs and projects that have served the congressional mandate of the Center's legislation to "preserve and present American folklife." Librarian of Congress James H. Billington welcomed the guests and said he wanted to "reaffirm both my personal and our institu­ tional commitment to fostering and supporting the mission of the American Folklife Center." In his remarks he called the Center "one of our strongest and most effective programs since its inception" in 1976. Only two days before the celebration, the President signed the Legislative Branch Appropria­ tions Act for 1997, which included Senator Mark Hatfield addresses the assembled guests at the twentieth-anni­ a clause authorizing the Center versary celebration of the American Folklife Center, September 18, 1996. through 1998. This took place only after earlier proposals to downsize the Center and fold it into the Li­ applause answered the Librarian's ter. Since it was founded, the Cen­ brary as a division or move it to statement that now was the time ter has been periodically reautho­ the Smithsonian Institution were to begin the task of seeking per­ rized for periods of up to three withdrawn. A sustained round of manent authorization for the Cen- years at a time. Winter-Spring 1997 19 The Librarian then introduced Senator Mark O. Hatfield (R-Or­ egon), one of the sponsors of the original legislation to establish the Center. Senator Hatfield also was instrumental in obtaining the Center's most recent authoriza­ tion. In his remarks, he shared his views on the importance of round­ ing out our understanding of his­ tory through the first-person nar­ ratives of persons whose daily lives flesh out historical periods, citing the diaries of women who traveled the Oregon Trail and the observations of Samuel Pepys, whose diary provides a detailed record of life in seventeenth-cen­ tury London. What might be called the legis­ lative utility of folklore was exem­ plified in a story Senator Hatfield told about how opposing views on a piece of legislation came to be Folklorist Archie Green reminisces about his work in lobbying for the creation of resolved. In the midst of a heated the Folklife Center, while Librarian of Congress James H. Billington looks on. debate, he was invited by Senator

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

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

Robert C. Byrd (D-West Virginia) folklife organizations all over the to come in on a Saturday and lis­ United States. McCulloh also read ten to his recordings of West Vir­ the following resolution: ginia fiddle tunes. And, Hatfield "For his dedication to the nur­ said, "I believe that this time we ture of American culture at the spent together, preparing our grassroots through the preserva­ minds and our hearts to negotiate, tion and presentation of American helped us to resolve the issue by folklife; and for his signal contri­ injecting a piece of our common butions to every stage of the heritage into our discussion." American Folklife Center's devel­ Judith McCulloh, chair of the opment, from conception through Board of Trustees of the American birth and into the challenges of Folklife Center, and Jane Beck, maturity; the Board of Trustees of president of the American Folklore the American Folklife Center and Society, presented Senator the Executive Board of the Ameri­ Hatfield with a basket of sample can Folklore Society, on behalf of publications and recordings pro­ all citizens who value American duced by the Center and by folklife, offer their heartfelt grati­ tude to Senator Mark Hatfield, Stephen Wade demon­ whose vision and steadfast sup­ strates his skill as a port make him a friend of folklife "banjo dancer." Wade forever." has made a theatrical career telling stories Craig D'Ooge is a public affairs and playing tunes he discovered in the specialist at the Library of Congress. Archive of Folk Culture.

Winter-Spring 1997 21 First Parsons Fund Recipient Visits Library

The first recipient of an award period of August 11-27, 1996, to sound recordings, photographs, from the Parsons Fund for Ethnog­ consult the original materials in and drawings that document Brit­ raphy in the Library of Congress the James Madison Carpenter Col­ ish and American folk music and was Julia C. Bishop, Ph.D., a folk­ lection, which is located in the dance and British ritual drama. lorist from Sheffield, England. Archive of Folk Culture. The bulk of the material was col­ Julia Bishop used the award to The Carpenter Collection con­ lected between 1928 and 1935 by travel to Washington, D.C., for the sists of manuscript materials, James Carpenter during field work

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

22 Folklife Center News in England and Scotland. James from the disc copies Carpenter had tions in the private sector to facili­ Madison Carpenter 0889-1984) made himself from his original tate their work with the ethno­ was born in Booneville, Missis­ Dictaphone cylinders. graphic collections of the Library, sippi; studied at the University of Bishop says that several publi­ and in particular the Archive of Mississippi and at Harvard; and cations will result from her work Folk Culture. Persons who would ta~ght at Duke, William and Mary, with the Carpenter Collection: (1) like further information should and Greensboro College. a biographical study of Carpenter write the Center, to the attention Julia Bishop is working on an and the context of his collecting of the Parsons Fund Committee. index to the ballad tunes in the work and an article on the Child Persons who would like to make collection and came to the Library Ballad tunes in the collection, for a contribution to the Parsons Fund in order to check the transcriptions a special issue of Folk Music Jour­ to support such research and on microfilm against the originals. nal devoted to the Carpenter Col­ projects should make their checks She was also able to listen a few of lection; and (2) an index to the payable to the Library of Congress the original cylinder recordings Child ballad tunes in the collec­ Trust Fund Board, with Parsons and discovered that they were of tion. Fund for Ethnography written on higher quality than the Center's The Parsons Fund makes the memo line. reference copies, which were made awards to individuals or organiza-

New Prices for Center Publications

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

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

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

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

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

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

EDITOR'S NOTES from page 2 tive, individual enterprise, and a from the private sector who wish delight in the activities of daily life to use the ethnographic collections others in Congress, the Center was characterize the men and women of the Library of Congress, and reauthorized through 1998. See Hufford interviewed as part of the particularly those in the Archive of page 19. Center's Appalachian Forest Folk Culture. The Center would be Folklife Project. See page 3. grateful for contributions to the In the American Grain fund, which facilitate folklife re­ Support Ethnographic Research search and projects, and are tax Mary Hufford's account of West deductible. A report on the first Virginia ginsengers is a portrait of The Parsons Fund for Ethnogra­ award from the fund appears on classic Americana. Personal initia- phy supports the work of persons page 22. Winter-Spring 1997 23 At the twentieth anniversary celebration of the American Folklife Center, Judith McCulloh (left), chair of the Center's board of trustees, and Jane Beck (right), president of the American Folklore Society, presented a resolution of gratitude to Senator Mark O. Hatfield, retiring chairman of the Joint Committee on the Library and an original sponsor of the legislation that created the Center in 1976. See page 19. Photo by Larry Glatt

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