FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS WINTER 2002 • VOLUME XXIV, NUMBER 1

American Folklife Center • The Library of Congress BOARD OF TRUSTEES ONLINE INFORMATION RESOURCES Congressional Appointees James F. Hoy, Chair, Kansas The American Folklife Center’s Kay Kaufman Shelemay, Vice-chair, Web site provides full texts of Massachusetts many publications, information Janet Brown, South Dakota about AFC projects, multimedia John Penn Fix III, Washington presentations of selected collec­ Mickey Hart, California tions, links to Web resources on William L. Kinney Jr., South Carolina ethnography, and announcements Judith McCulloh, Illinois of upcoming events. The address Charles E. Trimble, Nebraska for the home page is http://www. The American Folklife Center Presidential Appointees loc.gov/folklife/ An index of the was created in 1976 by the U.S. Maureen P. Cragin site contents is available at http:// Congress to “preserve and present Assistant Secretary for Public and www.loc.gov/folklife/afcindex.html American folklife” through pro­ Intergovernmental Affairs grams of research, documentation, The Web site for The Veterans Department of Veterans Affairs History Project provides an over­ archival preservation, reference ser­ Fran Mainella vice, live performance, exhibition, view of the project, an online “kit” Director, National Park Service publication, and training. The for participants recording oral his­ Sonya E. Medina Center incorporates the Archive of tories of veterans, and a brief pre­ Deputy Director of Projects Folk Culture, which was established sentation of some examples of video- Office of the First Lady in the Music Division of the Library and audio-recordings of veterans’ The White House of Congress in 1928 and is now one stories. The address is http://www. Neal A. McCaleb of the largest collections of ethno­ loc.gov/folklife/vets Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs graphic material from the United Department of the Interior The Folkline Information Ser­ States and around the world. Librarian Appointees vice is now a cooperative an­ Jane Beck, Vermont nouncement program of the Norma Cantú, Texas American Folklore Society and the Tom Rankin, North Carolina American Folklife Center. It is William H. Wiggins Jr., Indiana available only on the American STAFF Ex Officio Members Folklore Society’s server: www. afsnet.org. The service provides James H. Billington, Librarian of timely information on the field of Congress Administration folklore and folklife, including Lawrence M. Small, Secretary of the Peggy A. Bulger, Director training and professional oppor­ Smithsonian Institution Doris Craig, Administrative Assistant tunities, and news items of nation­ Vacant, Chairman, National John Lewis, Assistant to the Director al interest. Acquisitions Endowment for the Arts David A. Taylor, Acting Coordinator Bruce Cole, Chairman, National Processing and Cataloging Endowment for the Humanities Catherine Hiebert Kerst, Archivist Jack Santino, President, Judy Ng, Processing Technician American Folklore Society EDITOR’S NOTES Marcia Segal, Processing Technician Ellen Koskoff, President, Nora Yeh, Archivist Society for Ethnomusicology Guide to Women’s Programs Peggy A. Bulger, Director, Mary Hufford, Folklife Specialist American Folklife Center History and Culture Michael Taft, Folklife Specialist David A. Taylor, Folklife Specialist On the AFC Web site, you will Publications FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS find Timothy Lloyd and Hillary Editor James Hardin, James Hardin, Editor Glatt’s 1993 edition of Folklife Public Events David A. Taylor, Editorial Advisor Theadocia Austen, Coordinator Resources in the Library of Con­ Andrew Wallace, Coordinator Sheryle Shears, Designer gress, which provides advice on Reference Peggy Pixley, Production where, in many different divi­ Jennifer A. Cutting, Folklife Specialist sions of the Library, a folklore Judith A. Gray, Folklife Specialist, Folklife Center News publishes ar­ ticles on the programs and activ­ researcher might discover use- Coordinator (Continued on page 19) Stephanie A. Hall, Automation Specialist ities of the American Folklife Cen­ Todd Harvey, Folklife Specialist ter, as well as other articles on Ann Hoog, Folklife Specialist traditional expressive culture. It is Veterans History Project available free of charge from the Cover: Florence Owens Thompson, Ellen McCulloch-Lovell, Director Library of Congress, American thir ty-two-year-old Native Ameri­ Peter T. Bartis, Project Manager Folklife Center, 101 Independence can farm worker from Oklahoma, Sarah Rouse, Program Officer Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C. the subject of Dorothea Lange’s Janice Ruth, Program Officer 20540–4610. Folklife Center News famous series of photographs Virginia Sorkin, Program Officer does not publish announcements “Migrant Mother,” Nipomo, Califor­ Timothy Roberts from other institutions or reviews nia, 1936. Nearly three hundred of books from publishers other Administrative Officer images are included in American than the Library of Congress. Administrative Office Women, a new guide to the collec­ Fax: 202 707–2076 Readers who would like to com­ Reference Service ment on Center activities or tions of the Library of Congress. Tel: 202 707–5510 newsletter articles may address Farm Security Administration E-mail: [email protected] their remarks to the editor. photo, Prints and Photographs Division

2 Folklife Center News The National Folk Festival: The Sarah Gertrude Knott Years

By Andrew Wallace “Theater of Nations” and a “Festival of The National Folk Fes- Nations.” In addition tival was the brain- to staging plays, the child of Sarah Ger- League hosted neigh­ trude Knott (1895– borhood talent pro­ 1984), a woman of grams. It was here that remarkable magne- Knott first recognized tism, vision, and the importance of tra­ dogged determina­ ditional music and tion. She founded the dance, noting that organization in 1933 audiences seemed to and remained as pro- prefer the fiddle tunes gram director until and ballads of recent 1970. Sarah Knott was arrivals from the born and raised in Ozarks, or folk songs Paducah, Kentucky, in and dances of the the western part of the Greek, Italian, and state. She grew up in a German immigrants, community that was to the dramatic pre- rich in traditional cul­ sentations. Out of this ture but, by her own experience, Sarah admission, never paid Gertrude Knott, and any particular atten­ those she drew tion to it in her youth. around her, created She seems to have the National Folk Fes- attended the Univer­ tival. “I began to think sity of North Carolina there might be a num­ for a brief period and ber of people in other then become involved states who would wel­ in community drama come the chance to at Chowan College. At sing, dance, and play this time she aspired together. Why not a to become an actress. National Folk Festi- Acting didn’t work val, bringing together out for her, but she groups from different came under the influ­ sections of the coun­ ence of Frederick try with their folk Koch and Paul Green Program for the 22nd National Folk Festival, Oklahoma City, music, dances, and of the Carolina Play- Oklahoma. Archive of Folk Culture plays, to see what the makers, who were story would tell of our experimenting with “folk” ma- Folk Festival Association for the people and our country? My terials in their productions, and first twenty years of its existence. part would be small; merely she ended up as state super- By the late 1920s, Knott had to find and bring together visor for Koch’s community moved to St. Louis, Missouri, those who had specialized in drama bureau. Green, a Pulit- where she founded and directed the various forms of folk ex­ zer Prize-winning playwright, the city’s dramatic league, pression, and their groups to well known for his produc- designed to meet the recreation- demonstrate” (“The National tion The Lost Colony, was to exert al needs of the poor and unem- Folk Festival, 1934–1936,” 50th a powerful influence on Knott ployed. Here she found a city National Folk Festival Program and the National Festival dur- rich in ethnic diversity. Using Book, pp. 12–13). ing its formative years. He Koch’s and Green’s precepts, Knott’s role was by no means was president of the National she staged productions of a a minor one. She was the driving

Winter 2002 3 War I, he was fifty-four at he first National Folk the time, with a long career Festival was held April behind him, having been, 29 to May 2, 1934, in the among other things, man­ brand new three-thou- ager of Yankee Stadium. Tsand-seat Kiel Auditorium in St. Major Pickering kept the Louis. It was acclaimed critical­ organization and festival ly and received national pub­ on track for almost twenty licity. Just how revolutionary years, handling all the myr­ the event was, however, es­ iad business and logistical caped critics at the time, for the details while befriending format followed a time-honored board members and artists. revue form. Groups w e re p re­ He retired in 1951 and the sented on a large stage in short NFFA never quite recov­ sets, with scenic backdrop, a n d ered from the loss. there were matinee and eve­ Others included Allen H. ning performances. But revolu­ Eaton of the American tionary it was, the first multicul­ Foundation of the Arts and tural festival, and the event the Russell Sage Founda­ that defined this form of pre­ tion, who advised on mate­ sentation. In the words of Joe rial culture during the early Wilson, currently the executive years of the festival; Perci­ director of the National Council val Chubb, a leader in the for the Traditional Arts, “It Ethical Culture Movement, employed the first field worker who was an early activist in (Vance Randolph), invented the the Festival movement; and workshop, put the first craft Constance Rourke, a cul- demonstrations at festivals Sarah Ger trude Knott. NCTA Collection tural critic and historian (Eaton’s), mixed religious and who brought a group of secular presentations, and used force behind a new organiza­ Michigan lumberjacks to the scholars as presenters. But its tion, formed in 1933 as the first festival. Eaton, Chubb, and most radical and enduring inno­ National Folk Festival Associa­ Rourke, along with Knott, were vation was that of putting the tion (NFFA). The purpose of the specifically interested in the arts of many nations, races, and NFFA was to stage a national social uses of “folklore” to shape languages into the same event folk festival, bringing tradi­ American culture. on an equal footing. The term tional musicians, singers, and Folklorists and scholar-col- Folk Festival had been used dancers from across the country lectors from throughout the before the National Folk Festi­ to showcase the diversity of country were involved in bring­ val was created, but it was used American culture. To accom­ ing participants to the first for monocultural events. With plish this goal she drew on folk­ National Folk Fes­ lorists, historians, journalists, tival. Vance Ran­ organizers, social reformers, dolph, George ethnomusicologists, and other Pullen Jackson, J. specialists—a list that reads like Frank Dobie, Leo B. a who’s who of folklorists and Regan, May Ken­ cultural activists of the time. nedy McCord, Ro­ Although Sarah Gertrude Knott maine Loudermilk, had no particular cultural Bascom Lamar Luns­ expertise herself and no discern- ford, Cecilia Berry, able academic training, she O. B. Jacobson, knew exactly who did and was Helen Hartness able to draw these people into Flanders, Arthur L. the organization and, in most Campa, and Zora cases, retain their loyalty and Neale Hurston all cooperation over many years. did fieldwork and Of this remarkable group accompanied tradi­ none was more important than tional artists to the Major M. J. Pickering, who be­ festival. Hurston came the organization’s busi­ brought singers, Folklorist George Pullen Jackson (right), with mem­ ness manager. Pickering was the dancers, and blues bers of the Old Har p Singers, a group that used the general manager of the St. Louis men from Eaton- shape-note hymnal The Sacred Harp, published in Coliseum at the time and had ville, Florida, and 1844. They performed at the first five National Folk spent a dozen years in booking wrote a play, “De Festivals, 1934–38. Photo cour tesy of the Southern and facility management. A Fiery Chariot,” in Historical Collection, the University of Nor th Caroli­ lawyer and veteran of World which she acted. na at Chapel Hill 4 Folklife Center News We in the United States are amazingly rich in the elements from which to weave a culture. We have the best of man’s past upon which to draw brought to us by our native folk and the folk from all parts of the world. In binding these elements into a national fabric of beauty and strength, let us see to it that the fineness of each shows in the completed handiwork.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, in a letter to Paul Green, president, NFFA, 1938 (Reprinted in National Folk “The Sausage Hunters Parade,” a pre-Lent German mumming custom being Festival Program, 1940) reenacted by a Rhineland, Missouri, troupe at the 1948 National Folk Festi­ val in St. Louis. Photographer unknown the National, this term acquired event that was national in scope the first festival that Benjamin a new and inclusive definition” but emphasized the cultures of Botkin attended, marking the (“The National Folk Festival,” the area where it was presented. beginning of a relationship NCTA Web site). From outside the region, folk­ between the folklorist and the Although a critical success, lorist George Korson first National Council for the Tradi­ the festival did not fare well brought a group of coal miners tional Arts that endured for the financially and the guarantors from eastern Pennsylvania to rest of his life. In Dallas he partic­ in St. Louis declined to back it this festival, as he was to do at ipated in a scholarly symposium again. This was during the many subsequent festivals. held in conjunction with the fes­ Depression and money was In 1936 the festival was held tival, a feature that was to contin­ scarce. Other cities were inter­ in Dallas, Texas, as part of the ue up until the early 1970s. ested, however, and the festival state’s centennial celebration. It The 1937 festival was a four- moved on to Chattanooga, Ten­ was an eight-day event, held at day event held in Chicago. The nessee, where it was held from the state fairgrounds, with mul­ festival then settled in for a five- May 14 to 18, 1935. This festival tiple stages and outdoor venues year stay in Washington, D.C. was very similar to the first one, in a format that presaged mod­ (1938–42), sponsored by The with many of the same perform­ ern folk festivals. Dallas marked Washington Post. These festivals ers. It featured more traditions the first appearance of a Cajun were notable in several respects. from the region, however, estab­ band outside Louisiana, and, Now-legendary artists ap­ lishing a pattern that was to per­ in fact, there were four at peared at them—W. C. Handy, sist up until 1970 and again the festival, most notably, one Pearl S. Nye, Sailor Dad Hunt, when the festival took to the that included the legendary Horton Barker, Captain Richard road in the early 1980s—an Lawrence Walker. This was also Maitland, Hobart Smith, and Bill Hensley, to name a few. And they were held in Constitution Hall, owned and operated by the Daughters of the American Rev­ olution, and rigidly segregated. It was during this period, in 1939, that Marion Anderson was denied the stage, and yet the National Folk Festival present­ ed black and white performers on that stage each year and got away with it. How Knott and Pickering managed this is unclear to this day, but they seem to have simply ignored the The 15th Annual National Folk Festival, St. Louis, Missouri, 1949. Photog­ prohibition and the DAR never rapher unknown called their bluff. Eleanor Roo­ Winter 2002 5 sevelt, who relinquished her membership in the DAR over the Anderson affair, attended sever­ al of these festivals. The festival then hit the road again for a few years, with sojourns in New York, Philadel­ phia, and Cleveland, before set­ tling in for a nine-year stay back in St. Louis (1947–55). Okla­ homa City and Nashville fol­ lowed, and then the festival returned to Washington, D.C., in 1960 and established what Miss Knott hoped would be a perma­ nent home. But times had changed, and the organization was experiencing real difficul­ ties. Since Major Pickering’s departure in 1951 finances had become precarious. The folk revival of the 1950s and 1960s, exemplified by the Newport Folk Festival, had caught the First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and Agnes Meyer, wife of Washington Post pub­ public’s attention with a very lisher Eugene B. Meyer, at the 9th National Folk Festival in Washington, D.C. different approach to folk cul­ Photographer unknown ture than the National Folk Festival now had. The National never paid artists for their per­ ization on firm financial foot­ Festival was increasingly domi­ formances. Sponsoring groups ing on a long-term basis. Before nated by recreational dance were expected to cover their this could come about, however, troupes, often performing to expenses. As the years wore on, certain fundamental changes recorded music. The festival had it became more and more diffi­ would have to take place. These cult to attract stellar traditional changes would revitalize the singers and instrumentalists. organization and the festival, Many of the folklorists who had and prepare it to thrive during Leota Ware was a child been involved in the early years the next thirty years. when she came to the had died or gone on to other 1936 National in Dallas things. The new generation of Next time in Folklife Center with the Kiowa Indian News: Andrew Wallace on “The Dancers, who had first folklorists were either academi­ cally inclined, and eschewed National Folk Festival: the 1970s appeared at the festival in to the Present.” Chattanooga in 1935. “All festivals altogether, or joined forces with Newport’s Ralph these people of different Acknowledgments colors and different talk Rinzler, and became involved in were sitting in the dining festival fieldwork that was to I am greatly indebted to the fol­ hall having supper when lead shortly to the Smithsonian lowing folks for their work on we got there,” she recalls. Institution’s Festival of Ameri­ the history of the NCTA. Joe Wil­ “Texas and Oklahoma can Folklife, begun in 1967. son has researched and written were segregated then and The National Folk Festival extensively on the subject, I’d not seen black and struggled through the 1960s, notably an article in the 50th white people and Indians never staying in one place for NFF Program Book. Timothy eating together. It made a more than a year. Sarah Lloyd wrote his Ph.D. disserta­ big impression on me and Gertrude Knott continued as tion on the history of the Nation­ I talked about it when I program director, while a series al Folk Festival, and has shared got home. I told my of business managers failed to it with me. Michael Ann grandmother and she said stem the downward spiral. Williams at Western Kentucky ‘Heaven will be like Financially and programmati­ that.’” Tom and Stony University has written a biogra­ cally, the organization was in phy of Sarah Gertrude Knott, Ware, direct descendants trouble. Knott was now in her of Leota, brought a group based on Knott’s papers in the of Kiowas to the 55th seventies, and though still in archive there. National Folk Festival in good health, increasingly Chattanooga, sixty years unable to meet the demands of Andrew Wallace is a folklorist and after the family’s first the crisis. The situation was musician who served as program appearance at the festival. looking increasingly bleak, director of the NFFA from 1971 to when, in 1970, an opportunity 1975, and as associate director of presented itself to put the organ­ the NCTA, 1988–97. 6 Folklife Center News NCTA Collection Comes to the American Folklife Center

Under an innovative arrange­ artists that have traveled through­ rial, while the Library will get ment worked out between the out the country, as well as the originals, plus analog, DAT, Library of Congress and the numerous special events, includ­ and indexed CDRs of all record­ National Council for the Tradi­ ing USIA overseas tours and ings. In addition, two copies of tional Arts (NCTA), based in Sil­ radio and television broadcasts. all video/film material will be ver Spring, Maryland, one of the Periodically, over the past produced for the Archive. Along greatest collections of tradition­ ten years, officials from the AFC with recorded material, with al music in America will be and the NCTA have discussed complete logs, the Library will housed in the Archive of Folk how this vast collection of mate­ obtain associated programs, cat­ Culture at the American Folklife rial might be transferred to the alogs, brochures, and manuscript Center. The vast collection, Library of Congress. The trick material relating to the collection. comprising over 4,700 hours of was to find a way to do this The duplication work, under the performance material, is being while still allowing the NCTA to direction of sound engineer Dud­ preserved and duplicated in sev­ use the material on a daily basis. ley Connell, is now in progress eral formats and will come to Producing recordings from its at NCTA the Center in increments, over archive has been an integral part The American Folklife Cen­ a four-year period, beginning of the organization’s work over ter anticipates receiving one- this year. the past two decades, and is fourth of the NCTA collection The NCTA, founded in 1933 very much an ongoing activity. and associated logs in the fall as the National Folk Festival The solution was for the Library of this year. The remainder of Association, is the nation’s old­ to provide the NCTA with the the collection will be copied and est multicultural arts presenting materials and equipment need­ delivered in similar amounts organization. Over the past sixty- ed to make the Library’s preser­ over the next three years. Fol­ eight years it has produced the vation and reference copies, lowing final processing by the National Folk Festival, numerous using state-of-the-art technology. AFC’s archivists, the collection regional festivals, and ground­ The NCTA will retain digital and will be made available to the breaking tours of traditional analog copies of all audio mate­ public.

Sound engineer Dudley Connell at the National Folklife Center director Peggy Bulger and Na- Council for the Traditional Ar ts, where he is dupli­ tional Council for the Traditional Ar ts director Joe cating and formatting the NCTA Collection for Wilson in the NCTA archives. transfer to the Library. Photos by James Hardin Winter 2002 7 Veterans History Project Enlists Powerful Allies

Rep. Ron Kind, of La Crosse, Wisconsin. A visit home led him to propose the Vet­ erans History Project. Photos by James Hardin

By Gail Fineberg offer their support and guidance will marshal its 35 million mem­ to the Veterans History Project, bers to find veterans whose sto­ American war veterans, includ­ which the Library’s American ries have yet to be recorded and ing members of Congress, jour­ Folklife Center launched on Vet­ to “create a well-trained volun­ nalists, and a historian, have erans Day 2000. teer force to conduct proper oral joined a national effort led by Council members met with history interviews with their the Library to capture and pre­ the Librarian and Ellen Lovell, parents, friends, and even serve the personal histories of director of the Veterans History strangers.” some 19 million veterans and, Project, in the morning and then Lovell said the project also is through these stories, to connect joined them for a public pro­ being supported by 108 “official younger and future generations gram, where AARP, a national partners,” including veterans’ of Americans with their nation’s organization for people fifty and military organizations, wartime history. James H. years old and older, announced libraries and archives, muse­ Billington, the Librarian of Con­ it will give $3 million to the Vet­ ums, oral history programs, uni­ gress, has announced a twenty- erans History Project. AARP versities, and civic organiza­ six-member advisory body, the president Esther “Tess” Canja tions. These organizations have Five-Star Council, and a number not only pledged $1 million a agreed to endorse the project, of the members came to the year for three years to the project recruit their members as inter­ Library on November 8, 2001, to but also promised that AARP viewers, and serve as reposito- 8 Folklife Center News Army Air Field department can reach millions and became a of veterans, including those in fighter “Ace” VA hospitals (some sixty thou­ and a lieutenant sand on any given day) and clin­ colonel with ics (“4 million vets come to us for twenty-nine care in a year”). Speaking also years of service during the public program, with the Air Principi endorsed the project Force, agreed. and pledged his department’s “The project support. “I look forward to ded­ must be all- icating the resources of my department” to the project, he inclusive,” he said. “Every community in said. America with a veterans’ organ­ Retired Maj. ization, or military organiza­ Gen. Jeanne tion, will gather up their stories Holm joined the and their lessons, and we will military in 1942 preserve them for all time.” as a truck driv- Sen. Ted Stevens, of Alaska, a Veterans History Project director Ellen Lovell listens er, served in World War II pilot in the China- intently as Julius Becton urges that the project be inclu- first the Army Burma-India theater who sive. and then the Air received two Distinguished Fly­ Force for thirty- ing Crosses and other medals, ries for some of the material. three years, and retired in 1975 recalled receiving and reading Billington said the Library has with the highest rank of any the diary of a friend who had embraced the project and its woman in the armed services. driven a troop carrier onto mission to collect the memories, She emphasized that the project Omaha Beach. “Sixty percent of accounts, and documents of war should include women and men our World War II veterans are veterans and those on the home in all kinds of noncombat jobs— gone, but their widows and fam­ front who supported them. truck drivers, mechanics, clerks, ilies have their diaries and let­ “Especially now, at a time when typists, technicians of all kinds, ters. We ought to get those mate­ our nation is once again chal­ as well as those who flew rials,” he said. lenged, we have much to learn tankers that refuel jets over the During the public program, from those who served,” he said. Persian Gulf, and recently over several council members, This collection of recorded oral Afghanistan. “It’s difficult to including members of Congress, histories, diaries, letters, maps, get people to come forward if spoke about the project’s impor­ and photographs will be pre­ they feel what they did was not tance. Rep. Ron Kind, of Wiscon­ served at the nation’s library. significant,” she said after the sin, and Sen. Chuck Hagel, of program. “A lot of outreach Nebraska, together sponsored t the first meeting of the needs to be done.” the bipartisan legislation that Five-Star Council, two Although the Veterans His­ President Clinton signed into seasoned veterans on tory Project legislation targets law on October 27, 2000 (Public the council encouraged veterans of five wars—World Law 106–380) to authorize the Athe participation of young peo­ Wars I and ple in the project. “What better II, Korea, Viet­ way to connect them with their nam, and the history than to have seniors in Persian Gulf— schools throughout the country Holm said the to go out into their communities project should to interview veterans?” asked include those in Julius W. Becton, a retired lieu­ uniform who tenant general with forty years served in Soma­ of service in the U.S. Army, lia, Bosnia, including duty in Germany, Kosovo, and France, and the Pacific during now Afghan­ World War II, and in Korea and istan. “If that’s Vietnam. Becton also empha­ not war, it’s sized that the Veterans History pretty darned Project “must collect all their close,” she said. stories”—those of African Secretary of Americans, Japanese Ameri­ Veterans Affairs cans, Native Americans, and Anthony J. women in uniform and on the Principi, a com- Sen. John Warner of Virginia tells Librarian of Congress home front. bat-decorated James H. Billington that no charge given by Congress to Lee A. Archer Jr., who entered Vietnam veter- the Library has more significance than the Veterans flight training at the Tuskegee an, said his History Project. Winter 2002 9 tant for that reason alone, to con­ Congress that takes greater sig­ nect [our history with] our nificance than this one,” he told young people, the next genera­ the Librarian. tion, the generation that will He reminisced about the mili­ inherit the challenges of our tary service of his father, “a bril­ day.” liant surgeon who served in the Chief congressional sponsors trenches of World War I and of the legislation, along with cared for wounded by the hun­ Hagel and Kind, were Sen. Max dreds,” and the Red Cross ser­ Cleland, of Georgia, an Army vice of his mother. After he captain who lost both legs and returned home, wounded and his right arm in a grenade explo­ decorated, his father explained sion in Vietnam in 1969; and to his young son why he had cus­ Reps. Amo Houghton, of New tody of a German officer’s Luger York, a Marine veteran, and pistol: “‘I saved the lives of all Steny Hoyer, of Maryland. All those in uniform; that was my are members of the Five-Star mission as a doctor.’” “If only I Council. had my father’s memoirs,” Sen. Daniel Inouye, of Hawaii, Another Veterans History Warner said. shared stories of his war time expe­ Project supporter and council Looking back over his long riences. member is Sen. Daniel Inouye, career of public service that of Hawaii, who underscored the included Pentagon duty as Veterans History Project. Repre­ importance of linking young undersecretary and secretary of sentative Kind, principal author people to their history. Inouye the Navy (1969–74), during the of the legislation, said he was was a seventeen-year-old Red Vietnam era, Warner said histo­ inspired three years ago upon Cross volunteer in Honolulu on ries of decisions made then hearing for the first time the per­ December 7, 1941, the day Japan should be saved to assist a sonal stories of his father, a bombed Pearl Harbor. Ten years nation facing a “conflict of com­ Korean War veteran, and his ago, as the nation prepared to plexities as never before, in uncle, a World War II veteran. observe the 50th anniversary of terms of geography, in terms of “They started talking about that day, which President political and military relation­ ships.” their experiences, what they Franklin D. Roosevelt said Putting U.S. war casualties went through, what they saw, would “live in infamy,” less than from one helicopter crash in what they were involved in,” half of high school seniors Kind recalled. He grabbed the Afghanistan into historical per­ polled knew the significance of spective, Warner noted that family video camera and began the date, Inouye said. recording these stories for his “It has been said by wise children before the history was philosophers that a nation that lost with the passing of his forgets its past, or disregards its father’s generation. past, is destined for oblivion,” “We are losing 1,500 veterans Inouye said. “If we maintain this a day, so we are racing against attitude about history, forget­ time to preserve this important ting the past, then we are in deep part of U.S. history, not to glori­ trouble.” fy war, but rather to capture the After Pearl Harbor, Inouye reality of the experiences that served with the Army’s 442nd our veterans and families on the Regimental Combat Team— home front had,” Kind said. “I service that cost him a limb and can’t think of any greater tribute earned him the Congressional to our veterans than the preser­ Medal of Honor, Distinguished vation of their memories and the Service Cross, Bronze Star, Pur­ formal collection of this history ple Heart with cluster, and at a place such as the Library of twelve other medals. Sen. John Congress,” he said. Warner, of Virginia, another Five-Star Council member, said agel, who cosponsored he had been in the Jefferson the legislation in the Building many times during the Senate, is a Vietnam twenty-three years he has combat veteran and served in the U.S. Senate, but no At a reception following the meeting Hformer deputy administrator of day had been or would be more of the Five-star Council, AARP the Veterans Administration. He important than this one promot­ president Esther “Tess” Canja said, “In the hands of the ing the Veterans History Project. greets a Library official. The AARP nation’s young rests the nation’s “Jim Billington, I cannot think of has pledged $3 million to the Veter­ destiny. This project is so impor­ any charge given you by the ans History Project. 10 Folklife Center News The Five-Star Council of the Veterans History Project The Five-Star Council is a group of prominent leaders invited by the Librarian of Congress to advise the Veterans History Project of the American Folklife Center and bring it increased vis­ ibility nationwide. Members of the council, listed below, include veterans, elected officials, his­ torians, and journalists. Everett Alvarez Sam Gibbons Ron Kind Former Deputy Administrator of Former U.S. Representative U.S. Representative the U.S. Department of Veterans Washington, D.C. La Crosse, Wisconsin Affairs McLean, Virginia Chuck Hagel Bob Michel U.S. Senator Former U.S. Representative Omaha, Nebraska Washington, D.C. Steven Ambrose Historian, Author Jeanne Holm Norman Mineta Helena, Montana Retired Major General USAF Secretary of the U.S. Department Edgewater, Maryland of Transportation Lee Archer Washington, D.C. Retired Lieutenant Colonel; CEO, Dolores Hope (represented by Archer Assets Management Tony Hope) William D. Novelli New Rochelle, New York USO Tours Executive Director, AARP Burbank, California Bethesda, Maryland Julius Becton Retired Lieutenant General Amo Houghton Anthony J. Principi Springfield, Virginia U.S. Representative Secretary of Veterans Affairs Corning, New York Washington, D.C.

Tom Brokaw Steny Hoyer Francis Y. Sogi Network news anchor U.S. Representative Deputy Chairman, National New York, New York Mechanicsville, Maryland Council of AJA Veterans New York, New York Max Cleland Daniel Inouye U.S. Senator U.S. Senator Ted Stevens Lithonia, Georgia Honolulu, Hawaii U.S. Senator Girdwood, Alaska Francisco F. Ivarra Walter Cronkite National Commander, American John Warner Former CBS anchorman GI Forum U.S. Senator New York, N.Y. Denver, Colorado Alexandria, Virginia

Robert Dole John Kerry Sheila Widnall Former U.S. Senator U.S. Senator Former Secretary of the Air Force Washington, D.C. Boston, Massachusetts Cambridge, Massachusetts more than 500,000 Americans years. He began his World War II side, Gibbons said people did gave their lives in World Wars I service in 1941 as an infantry their duty, not because they and II, some 37,000 died in officer with the 501st Parachute were asked to perform a patriot­ Korea, and another 58,000 died Infantry Regiment. As part of ic act, “but because you thought in Vietnam. “Those numbers are the 101st Airborne Division, he it was the thing to do. You incomprehensible to this gener­ led parachute infantry forces in worked with people, and you ation, unless you preserve this the pre-dawn invasion of Nor­ learned with them the real prin­ fascinating history to guide this mandy, France, the allied inva­ ciples of brotherhood—what it nation in the future,” Warner sion of the Netherlands, the Bat­ is to work and to train together said. tle of the Bulge, the defense of and to perform missions togeth­ Although acts of courage, Bastogne, and in central Europe. er and what it is to follow the heroism, and sacrifice are He earned the Bronze Star and leadership,” said Gibbons. important to record for posteri­ rank of major. “Spilling our guts, as we’re ty, another story to be told is “World War II was a great going to do in the [Veterans His­ how World War II united Ameri­ builder of America, a great tory Project], and telling the cans from all walks of life, said homogenizer of America,” he truth about what happened, is a another Five-Star Council mem­ said. Noting that 12.5 million lesson for America.” ber, Sam M. Gibbons, who Americans served in the armed served in the U.S. House of Rep­ forces and about the same num­ Gail Fineberg is the editor of the resentatives for thirty-four ber served on the industrial Library of Congress Gazette. Winter 2002 11 Living Lore: Celebrating the Legacy of Benjamin A. Botkin

By James Hardin Botkin books that line his shelves at home. All have In Benjamin A. Botkin’s house in become worn with use, he said, Croton-on-Hudson, New York, but “open to any page and they where he lived for the last thirty start to talk.” Wade then demon­ years of his life, the rooms were strated just how “living” the full of books. In some, the books “lore” could be with a virtuoso were stacked in piles from floor performance of banjo playing, to ceiling, along with papers, clogging, storytelling, and old- boxes of file cards, and fashioned American flimflam. ephemera. And Ben Botkin knew He enacted Mark Twain’s story just where everything was. He of Tom Sawyer whitewashing could identity a book near the Aunt Polly’s fence, told a tall bottom of a stack, whether or not tale about the mosquitos in its spine was showing, and he Arkansas, and raced up and would return it there when the down the aisle of the Coolidge book had served its purpose. Auditorium in the persona of a So reported Peggy Seeger at a fast-talking salesman, selling session of remembrances on the pens for a quarter to eager mem­ second day of “Living Lore: The bers of the audience, all the Legacy of Benjamin A. Botkin,” a while keeping up his banjo play­ two-day celebration of the life ing and patter. and work of the great American folklorist on the hundredth enjamin A. Botkin (1901– anniversary of his birth, spon­ 1975) was a pioneering sored by the American Folklife folklorist who believed Center. Co-sponsors were the Benjamin A. Botkin. NCTA Collec­ that people are always Center for the Book and the tion photo Bcreating folklore out of their col­ Music Division of the Library of lective experiences. According Congress, the National Council view of folklore, and Richard to historian Jerrold Hirsch, “he for the Traditional Arts, and the Dorson, who insisted on aca­ attempted to formulate an New York Folklore Society, with demic standards for the folklore approach to the study of Ameri­ support from the Shakespeare profession and regularly dis­ can folklore that took into Theatre, the National Endow­ paraged the more popular mani­ account the nation’s different ment for the Arts, and U.S. Air­ festations, such as festivals, regions, races, and classes, and ways. Again and again, the story folksong revivals, “treasury” showed the interrelationship of Ben Botkin’s important work anthologies, hootenannies, and between folk, popular, and high came back to books. the like. Through stories of his culture. In his work on the inter­ Nebraska folklorist Roger own family and career, Welsch regional Folk-Say anthologies Welsch gave the keynote ad­ dramatized his allegiance to (1929–32), as national folklore dress that opened the program Botkin and his uneasy relation­ editor of the New Deal’s Federal on the morning of Novem­ ship with Dorson. But, he Writers’ Project (1938–39), as ber 15. Welsch first encountered reported, at their last meeting, chief editor of the Writers’ Unit Botkin’s work at the Lincoln, he and Dorson agreed that there of the Library of Congress Pro­ Nebraska, city library, where is “room for all of us in folklore ject, (1939–41), as head of the he was shelving books, and and a need for all of us in folk­ Archive of American Folk Song Botkin’s treasuries and collec­ lore.” (1942–45), and as the author of tions occupied a full shelf. “I Following Welsch’s keynote, numerous folklore treasures, read them all,” said Welsch. musician, storyteller, and writer beginning with A Treasury of Welsch described the famous Stephen Wade delivered a trib­ American Folklore (1944), Botkin differences between Botkin, ute to Botkin’s A Treasury of continuously sought new ways who had a large and inclusive American Folklore, one of many to achieve his vision for the role 12 Folklife Center News Passages from the Works of Benjamin A. Botkin

“Folklore, in fact, seems to have become the possession of the few who study it rather than the many who make or use it.” A Treasury of American Folklore: Stories, Ballads and Traditions of the Peo­ ple. New York: Crown Publishers, 1944, p. xxi.

“It implies lack of faith in your field or profession not to see its relation to the life around you.” “Delegate’s Report on the 34th Annual Meeting of the American Council of Learned Societies.” Journal of American Folklore 65 (1952), 182.

“The key to living lore was the relating of the foreground, lore, to its background in life.” “We Call It Living Lore.” New York Folklore Quarterly 14 (1958), 189.

“I am half-and-half, but ‘pure’ folklore has always interested me less than the ‘impure’ folklore which is mixed with both life and literature.” Letter to Herbert Halpert, 1952, Botkin Papers, Uni­ versity of Nebraska Archives, Lincoln.

“[There is] no essential conflict between [being popular and being scholarly] and they can be com­ bined.” Letter to Herbert Halpert, 1952, Botkin Papers, University of Nebraska Archives, Lincoln.

“For years American folklorists from the cities have been going into the Kentucky mountains and other remote places to gather folk songs and stories, while all the time folklore was all around them on the sidewalks of America.” Sidewalks of America: Folklore, Legends, Sagas, Traditions, Songs Stories and Sayings of City Folk. New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1954, p. vii.

“You gather folklore between shifts or during the lunch hour, from a member of Compressed Air Local No. 147, in the hoghouse or locker rooms of the construction company engaged in building the Queens Mid-town tunnel. Or in the hiring hall of the National Maritime Union, with the windows overlooking the piers, and the ships’ funnels. Or on the picket line.” “We Call It Living Lore.” New York Folklore Quarterly 14 (1958), 189, 191, 193.

“Machinery does not destroy folklore.” A Treasury of American Folklore: Stories, Ballads and Tradi­ tions of the People. New York: Crown Publishers, 1944, p. xxii.

“The present revival of [Davy] Crockett is a tall tale, the real hero of which is not so much Davy as TV. . . For the folklorist the Crockett craze possesses more than passing interest. It not only throws light on the ways of folklore and popular culture, but has produced considerable lore of its own.” “TV Crockett” and “Add Crockettiana.” New York Folklore Quarterly 11 (1955), 231–34.

“The phonograph, the radio, the folk song archive, and the folk festival tend to perform the same function in the folksong survival or revival.” A Treasury of American Folklore: Stories, Ballads and Traditions of the People. New York: Crown Publishers, 1944, p. 820.

“Each cultural group has its own traditional songs and song styles. The problem of the folksong revival is not simply to preserve traditional songs and styles but to adapt them to the needs of a new age—an industrial age in an urban, industrialized society.” Moderator’s introduction and remarks. “The Folksong Revival: A Symposium.” New York Folklore Quarterly 19 (1963), 84.

“The ultimate aim of applied folklore is the restoration to American life of the sense of communi- ty—a sense of thinking, feeling, and acting along similar, though not the same, lines. . . . Thus applied folklore goes beyond cultural history to cultural strategy, to the end of creating a favorable environment for the liberation of our creative energies and the flourishing of the folk arts.” “Applied Folklore: Creating Understanding Through Folklore.” Southern Folklore Quarterly 17 (1953), 204, 206.

“[This is what the good folklorist] must have before he can hope to understand and reconstruct a culture. He cannot do this by writing from the outside looking in . . . He must live the life of the peo­ ple he writes about, shake off his own culture, and take on theirs–turn himself inside out cultural­ ly. . . . So that when he writes about them he becomes not merely an interpreter but a voice—their voice, which is now his own.” “The Folk and the Individual: Their Creative Reciprocity.” The Eng­ lish Journal 27 (1938), 132.

—selected by Michael Taft

Winter 2002 13 described the cultural climate in New Deal Washington as an “interlocking directorate,” and said how excited Botkin and oth­ ers were to be working on large cultural projects. Botkin’s edit­ ing of the ex-slave narrative project was the first great accomplishment of oral history in America, he said.

iving Lore” was not a typical con­ ference. Accord­ ing to Center “Levents coordinator Thea Aus­ ten, it was a celebration of Botkin’s legacy, with perfor­ mances, interviews, and discus­ sions that embodied the spirit of Joe Hickerson and Pete Seeger, on stage in the Coolidge Auditorium, remi­ his work. “We worked closely nisce about the composition of “Where Have All the Flowers Gone.” Photos with Ben Botkin’s children, Dan by James Hardin (unless otherwise indicated) Botkin and Dorothy Rosenthal,” said Austen. “There had been a of folklore and folklife in Ameri­ Benjamin Botkin was also a scholarly program at the Uni­ can culture. . . . He rejected tradi­ long-time board member for the versity of Nebraska, where the tional folklore scholarship’s National Council for the Tradi­ Benjamin A. Botkin papers have privileged hierarchies regard­ tional Arts, and NCTA director been deposited. We thought that ing what constituted the object Joe Wilson described the early for the Library of Congress pro­ of study—the lore over the folk, National Folklife Festivals cre­ gram we might find a way to the past over the present, the ated by Sarah Gertrude Knott, in embody Botkin’s ideas about rural over the urban, the agrari­ St. Louis (1934), Chattanooga festivals, the folk music revival, an over the industrial, survivals (1935), Dallas (1936), Chica­ and engaging audiences in a over revivals, older genres over go (1937), and Washington, participatory way in the cul­ newer emergent forms, oral D.C. (1938). Botkin “had an tural process.” In that spirit, transmission over technologi­ expansive, wondrous way that Austen assembled public-sector cal media, homogeneous took in everybody,” said Wilson, folklorists, musicians, artists, groups over heterogeneous and the popularity of the festi­ writers, actors, and others ones” (from Jerrold Hirsch, vals convinced many academic whose worked has been touched “Benjamin Botkin’s Legacy in deans to establish folklore pro­ by Ben Botkin: the United the Making,” American Folklife grams at their institutions. Alan House of Prayer Band played a Center Web site at http://lcweb. Jabbour, former director of the noontime concert; historian loc.gov/folklife/botkin/ American Folklife Center, Henry Sapoznik spoke about hirsch.html). The first Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife in 1967, the creation of the American Folk- life Center in 1976, and the cre­ ation of a network of public-sec- tor folklorists funded by the National Endowment for the Arts are all legacies of Botkin’s scholarship. He argued that all people create culture, regard­ less of where or how they live, and he insisted that democracy is strengthened by valuing many different cultural voices. Botkin has been called the father of public-sector folklore, and today folklorists widely accept the idea that folklore is creative expression used to communi­ Shakespeare Theatre Company actor Floyd King shares a humorous bit of cate and instill social values, tra­ theater folklore with the Coolidge Auditorium audience, while Catherine ditions, and goals. Weidner and Ed Gero, also of the company, listen appreciatively. 14 Folklife Center News of the memorial tributes in New York City that have sprung up to honor people killed in the September 11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center; and the band Cherish the Ladies gave an evening concert of tradi­ tional Irish music, featuring a new work commissioned by the Music Division’s McKim Fund. Folklorists David Taylor and Marjorie Hunt acknowl­ edged a personal debt to Ben Botkin, in that both have specialized in the study of occupational culture, an area of interest that is one example of Botkin’s inclu- Ben Botkin’s daughter, Dorothy Rosenthal. sive view of contemporary Ben Botkin’s son, Dan Botkin, at a ses­ folk culture. Taylor intro­ sion on family memories and stories. Yiddish radio in New York City duced Ron Brooks, Dean in the 1930s, “Radio and the Kalomas, and Pauli Zmolek, Ed Gero, Floyd King, and Transmission of Folk Culture three decorative painters who Catherine Weidner, who told Literacy”; Center for the Book have been working on the reno­ stories of their work as actors director John Y. Cole, Folklife vation of Library of Congress with the Shakespeare Theatre in Center director Peggy Bulger, Thomas Jefferson Building, and Washington, D.C. author Ann Banks, and histo­ Hunt interviewed Frank Baioc­ At the start of a noontime con­ rian Jerrold Hirsch talked chi, a master mason who has cert on the second day of the pro­ about the Federal Writers’ Proj­ worked on many Washington, gram, musician and former Folk ect; City Lore executive director D.C., historic buildings and Archive head Joe Hickerson Steve Zeitlin showed photo­ monuments. New York folk­ shared personal remembrances graphs taken by Martha Cooper lorist Nancy Groce interviewed of the folksong revival of the

Gladys Knott, Ger trude Botkin, Benjamin Botkin, Sarah Ger trude Knott, and Harlowe Dean, probably at Wolf Trap, Vienna, Virginia, about 1971. NCTA Collection

Winter 2002 15 Pete Seeger was Benjamin Botkin was a pio­ then joined by his half neer. He made connections brother and sister, among diverse fields others Mike Seeger and failed to notice. He abandoned Peggy Seeger, along the path of convention and with Oscar Brand, received wisdom, and was not and before a full afraid to alienate the powers- house in the Coolidge that be. He inspired the young Auditorium they folklorists of the 1960s who made magic. Oscar were intent on breaking away Brand sang songs rep­ from the purely academic resenting his Canadi­ study of folk texts. He encour­ an heritage, Mike aged the direct involvement of Seeger played a professionally trained folk­ splendid solo on the lorists with public policy and jew’s harp, and Peggy programming. He insisted Seeger demonstrated that democracy is enhanced that the unaccompa­ by valuing many cultural nied voice is still one voices. Above all, he believed of the loveliest instru­ that folklore belongs to the ments. Pete Seeger folk. “If giving back to the spoke a moving trib­ people what we have taken ute to the people who from them and what rightfully had been killed in the belongs to them, in a form in World Trade Center which they can understand on September 11, and and use, is vulgarization,” he then sang, and taught wrote, “then we need more of Nebraska folklorist Roger Welsch offered the the audience to sing, a it” [“WPA and Folklore Re­ keynote address that opened the program. song composed by search: Bread and Song,” Tom Paxton memori­ Southern Folklore Quarterly 3 1950s and 1960s. He told how, alizing the tragedy—a won­ (1939), 10]. as a teenager in New Haven derful moment for the audi­ and a physics major at Ober­ ence, the great American Center folklife specialist Michael lin College, he himself had folksinger, banjo strung around Taft contributed to this article. taken up a guitar and learned his neck, his familiar voice to play folksongs t h r ough still strong, inviting and cajol­ the books and records he ing, a living embodiment of discovered. Pete Seeger joined his and Ben Botkin’s deep Hickerson on stage, and belief in the goodness of peo­ together they explained ple and the power of song and how Seeger had composed lore. “Where Have All the Flowers It was a great day for those Gone,” beginning with words of us, of a certain age, who from a Russian folksong, then remember the songs and spirit employing the tune from an­ of the times recalled. The final other song that had been echo­ program (with panelists Joan­ ing in his head. In 1960, Hicker­ na Cazden, Karl Finger, Joe son heard a Seeger recording of Hickerson, Joan Studer the song and added verses four Levine, and Pete Seeger) con­ and five, to make it circular. sisted of remembrances of Later that summer, Hickerson Camp Woodland, the progres­ was working at Camp Wood­ sive educational brainchild of land, a progressive children’s Norman Studer, which pro­ camp in the Catskill Moun­ vided experiences of folksong, tains of New York, where Seeger dancing, storytelling, and happened to hear him and his community interaction for campers singing the extra young people from New verses. Seeger adopted them York City during the fo r ­ and they have become stan­ ties and fifties. And the dard in most renditions, but day ended, appropriately Seeger commented that he pre­ enough, with a hootenanny, ferred the line in the verse that folksingers’ invitation to “Where have all the soldiers the audience to catch the spirit Musician and storyteller Stephen Wade gone” to read, “When will we and join in the celebration of reads his tribute to the many published ever learn.” their own traditions. works of Ben Botkin. 16 Folklife Center News Library Publishes New Guide for Study of Women’s History and Culture in the United States

Camp of the 31st Pennsylvania Infantry, near Washington, D.C., 1862. Mathew Brady Studio, Civil War Photograph Collection, Prints and Photographs Divi­ sion

By Peggy Pearlstein the illustrated weekly humor the Library of Congress dealing magazine, Life, depicting how with more than four centuries of A photograph of a woman and education leads women away women’s experiences in this children in a Civil War camp, by from their domestic duties. country. Matthew Brady; images from These striking visual images, Written by veteran staff spe­ the iconographic “Migrant among almost three hundred cialists, the guide begins with an Mother” series, by Dorothea that appear in the new book overview by Sheridan Harvey Lange; the jacket for “Big Mama American Women: A Library of on using the Library’s collec­ Thornton: Mama’s Pride” 1975 Congress Guide for the Study of tions and a chapter on the gener­ record album; a sheet from Amy Women’s History and Culture in al collections. Georgia Higley Beach’s Gaelic Symphony, pre­ the United States, edited by writes about newspapers and miered by the Boston Symphony Sheridan Harvey, Janice E. Ruth, government documents, while in 1896; Hawaiian female Barbara Orbach Natanson, Sara Rosemary Fry Plakas and landowners listed on a 1930s tax Day, and Evelyn Sinclair, draw Jacqueline Coleburn follow with map from Honolulu; and a car­ the reader’s attention to the a chapter on rare books and spe­ toon from the May 1890 issue of astonishing array of resources in cial collections. Legal collec­ Winter 2002 17 Dowell and In the chapter on the American the creation Folklife Center, Jim Hardin of the Mac- notes “the remarkable work of Dowell women ethnographers, troop­ Colony for ing about the country during the arts, in New twentieth century with each suc­ Hampshire. ceeding recording technology, “Law, pulp from wax cylinder to CD, docu­ fiction, menting the audio heritage of music our multicultural nation.” sheets, Legal specialist Pamela movies and Barnes Craig says that research­ television, ing women in eighteenth-, nine­ all became teenth-, and early twentieth- part of a century legal sources was not search-and- easy. According to Craig, “the describe term woman (or women) was Henrietta Yurchenco (right), one of the many extraordinary mission,” rarely used; in most instances, collectors whose fieldwork documentation is included in the for staff women had no legal rights Archive of Folk Culture. She is shown here with a member of contribu­ except in their relationships the Methodist Church that served as a focus of her research tors, says with men, as their wives, wid­ among the African American Gullah-speakers of John’s editor Eve­ ows, or children.” Island, South Carolina. Photo by David Lewiston, American lyn Sinclair. The final chapter of the guide Folklife Center She adds examines Area Studies Collec- that “the gen­ tions—the primary gateway to tions are explained by Pamela eral collec­ the Library’s foreign-language Barnes Craig, Janice E. Ruth tions, often considered too vast materials and culture groups. describes materials in the Manu­ and various to permit any useful Editor Sara Day says that “One script Division, and Barbara description of them, in this of the major difficulties encoun­ Orbach Natanson contributes a guide offer a sound starting tered while framing the guide chapter on prints and photo­ point for anyone in pursuit of was how to both integrate mate­ information about women’s graphs. In her chapter, Patricia rials about and discussions of lives and influences.” Molen van Ee illustrates the use different ethnic groups in the Sheridan Harvey notes that “I of maps in researching Ameri­ guide, and also explain the role can women. Robin Rausch and discovered that some of the small nineteenth-century items of Area Studies in multicultural Nancy J. Seeger supply chapters research.” on music and recorded sound, I wrote about as treasures of the general collections might not be respectively. Motion pictures hrough two case studies, and television are covered in the collected today, for example, funeral sermons, pamphlets, or on American Jewish chapter written by Rosemary women and Latina Hanes with Brian Taves. James brief biographies of unknown women.” women, Peggy K. Pearl- Hardin writes on folklife. Peggy Tstein and Barbara A. Tenen­ Barbara Orbach Natanson K. Pearlstein and Barbara A. baum, respectively, demon­ Tenenbaum contribute the con­ commented that “I valued the opportunity to explore the strate the interdisciplinary and cluding chapter on foreign-lan- often overlapping nature of guage collections. Prints and Photographs Divi­ sion collections and to discuss doing research at the Library through the use of multiple lan­ ive thematic essays dis­ them with my colleagues, noting guage sources in different for­ persed throughout the pictorial situations in which mats across all of the reading volume further illustrate women were largely invisible, rooms. original approaches to as well as the variety of ways in Fresearch across the Library’s which they were amazingly visi- For example, copyrighted divisions. Leslie W. Gladstone ble—as workers, political Yiddish sheet music (Rare Book details the unsuccessful ERA activists, and shapers of the Division; Music Division; and ratification struggle; Sheridan visual record.” the Hebraic Section), Yiddish Harvey writes about the 1913 Nancy Seeger was intrigued manuscript plays (Hebraic Sec­ suffrage parade in Washington; to learn more about the history tion), and Yiddish films (Motion Patricia Molen van Ee chronicles of and women’s involvement in Picture, Broadcasting and women moving across the fron­ radio. “Beginning in the 1930s,” Recorded Sound Division) doc­ tier to California; Sara Day she says, “women dominated ument the artistic expression of describes the evolution of daytime programming as an diva Isa Kremer, physician- woman as symbol and myth in audience, as personalities heard writer Ida Badanes, and actress America; and Robin Rausch tells on the radio, and behind the Bessie Thomashefsky, all of the story of pianist Marian Mac- scenes as writers and directors.” whom arrived in the United

18 Folklife Center News tographs labor and women in the work Division). force; Vicki L. Ruiz, professor at For this University of California at latest vol­ Irvine, who is an expert on Mexi­ ume in the can American women; Eileen Library’s Boris, a professor at University series of of California at Santa Barbara, resour ce who focuses on women and guides, the work; Joanne M. Braxton, Col­ Library’s lege of William and Mary profes­ Publishing sor and Director of the Middle Office Passage Project, who is a scholar invited of poetry and of black women experts in writing autobiography; and the field Carol F. Karlsen, a University of of Ameri­ Michigan historian whose writ­ can wo- ings have centered on the eigh­ men’s his­ teenth century and witchcraft. Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps, third Platoon, Company 1, tory and For t Des Moines, Iowa., about 1942. Photographer unknown, culture to American Women: A Library of Oveta Culp Hobby Papers, Manuscript Division form a Congress Guide for the Study of Scholar ’s Women’s History and Culture in States at the end of the nine­ Advisory Committee. Susan the United States is a 456-page teenth century. Spanish-lan- Ware, twentieth-century wo- softcover book with 298 illustra­ guage sound recordings, men’s history scholar at Rad­ tions, many in color. American movies, and works of art attest cliffe Institute for Advanced Women is available for $35 at to the achievements of more Studies of Harvard University, major bookstores, through the contemporary Latina women headed the Scholar’s Committee. University Press of New Eng­ such as Cuban-American salsa She also wrote the chronological land, and from the Library of goddess Celia Cruz (Recorded overview of American women’s Congress Sales Shop (Credit Sound Section), and such Mexi- history that serves to introduce card orders: 202 707–0204). can-Americans as film star the reader to the guide. Delores del Rio (Motion Picture, Joining Ware on the Commit­ Peggy Pearlstein is the area spe­ Broadcasting and Recorded tee were Alice Kessler-Harris, a cialist, Hebraic Section, African Sound Division) and artist Ester Columbia University history and Middle Eastern Division, at Hernandez (Prints and Pho- professor who specializes in the Library of Congress

EDITOR’S NOTES from page 2 Neptune Plaza Concert Series Hail and Farewell: National under the new title “Home­ Digital Library Program Staff ful material. If the pamphlet grown: the Music of America.” Specialists offers a taste of the resources, a From 1971 to 1975, after Sarah new guide to Library of Con­ Gertrude Knott retired, Andy A reorganization of the Li- gress collections titled simply was program director of the brary’s National Digital Library American Women spreads a feast. NCTA. Former AFC assistant to Program has resulted in new While the volume is aimed at the director Tim Lloyd wrote his positions for American Folklife women’s studies specialists, it Ph.D. dissertation on the his­ Center program staff Robin should be of interest to folk­ tory of the NCTA, and on a Fanslow and Christa Maher. lorists and many other cultural recent visit to the AFC reviewed They have become information specialists, as well as to any and discussed the article with technology specialists in the researcher who seeks guidance Andy. Current NCTA director Office of the Associate Librarian on how to negotiate the complex Joe Wilson, of course, is a long­ for Strategic Initiatives. The and sometimes daunting vast­ time friend of the AFC who has third member of the AFC digital ness of this institution. provided crucial support at team, Rachel Howard, left the several points in our history, in Library last year in order to pur­ NCTA Connections particular with congressional sue her interests in Seattle, relations. How appropriate that Washington. Visit the AFC Web We are lucky to have the the NCTA collections will site, and select Collections author of our article on the become part of the Archive of Available Online to sample the National Council for the Tradi­ Folk Culture. The National Folk wonderful work that Robin, tional Arts, Andy Wallace, tem­ Festival is an engaging and vital Christa, and Rachel have done porarily on staff at the Folklife part of the story of our cultural over the past few years in mak­ Center, helping to revive the history. ing Folk Archive materials more widely available.

Winter 2002 19 “The Friendly Four,” an Acadian Band from Mamou, Louisiana, directed by James Grose, performing at the National Folk festival, probably in 1955. The scenic backdrop was typical for the festival at that time. The American Folklife Center has entered into an agreement with the National Council for the Traditional Ar ts to acquire its documentation of National Folk Festivals. Stor y on page 3.

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