AMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Winter 1988

Volume X, Number 1

CENTER LAUNCHES LOWELL STUDY OnJune 1,1987, the Folklife Center launched a year-long study of tradi­ tional arts and culture in Lowell, Mas­ sachusetts. The Lowell Folklife Project will explore, document, and analyze the cultural life and traditions of Lowell today, prepare recommenda­ tions for the newly developed Patrick J. Mogan Cultural Center, and cre­ ate a major archive of contemporary ethnic and neighborhood traditions. Folklorist Douglas DeNatale is the field coordinator for the project, and Peter Bartis is the coordinator of the Center's management team. Mem­ bers of the field team include Michael Bell , John Lueders-Booth, Mario Montano, Martha Norkunas, Tom Rankin, and Eleanor Wachs, and Center staff members Carl Fleisch­ hauer, Mary Hufford, Marsha Maguire, Gerald Parsons, and David Taylor have also participated. The project is being conducted in cooperation with the Lowell Historic Preservation Commission, with sup­ port from the Massachusetts Council on Arts and Humanities, and is ex­ pected to assist the work of the Com­ mission, the Lowell National Historic Park, the Lowell Heritage State Park, regional planning commission s, and local cultural organizations. Fieldwork is focusing upon the creation and maintenance of community space in Lowell. Simultaneously, the National Council on the traditional Arts is hold- See page 5: LOWELL STUDY councils, parks, historical SOCieties, AMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER DIRECTOR'S COLUMN and other cultural organizations. Col­ THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS What is the state of folklore and folk­ lectively these positions now form a life studies in the United States today;> "wing" of the American Folklore So­ Alan Jabbour, Director As the hundreth anniversary of the ciety-a public-sector wing balancing founding of the American Folklore So­ the academic wing. Ray Dockstader, Deputy Director ciety approaches, many folklorists Carl Fleischhauer have fallen, quite appropriately, into 2. Terminology in our field remains Mary Hufford an introspective, retrospective, and David A. Taylor fluid or confusing, depending upon Folklife Speciali sts prospective revery. Where have we your point of view. I am not speaking come from;> Where are we now;> And just of our debates about the microter­ Peter T. Bartis, Folklife Researcher Gerald E. Parsons, Reference Librarian where are we going;> These are big minology of genres. Folklore remains James Hardin, Editor questions; we are drawn to them, but the word of preference for our field of we are understandably wary of gener­ study, but folklife also has a following Lisa Oshins, Program Specialist Jcnnifer A. C utting, Program Assistant ali zing too expansively. Nevertheless, as the comprehensive term. Three fac ­ Magdalena G ilinsky, Cont ract Specialist though angels have been cautious tors seem to be simultaneously at play about treading here, I have resolved here. The federal agencies give a ma­ Doris Craig, Admini strat ive Secretary to rush in with a series of columns sur­ jor boost to the termfolklife, and some Tel 202 287-6590 veying the state of our field today. state agencies and private organiza­ But first a couple of caveats. When tions follow the federal model. Folk­ ARCHIVE OF FOLK CULTURE I say' ' our field," I do not mean just lorists in academic positions tend to the academic field (though the aca­ prefer folklore, but even they hesitate Joseph C. Hickerson, Head demic field is its core) nor even the when it comes to extending that term Marsha Maguire, Archivist larger field that includes both aca­ to material culture, and a few toy with Sl'bastian LoCurto , Program Specialist demic folklorists and all the profes­ as the overarching term. To Aldona Kamantauskas, Staff Assistant folklife sional folklorists emplo yed by various confuse matters further, some popu­ Tel: 202287-5510 agencies and organizations. Our total lar writings use folklife, perhaps be­ orbit is yet larger, including a variety cause of the layers of unwanted FEDERAL CYLINDER PROJECT of amateurs and enthusiasts and verg­ meani~gs and associations that have ing out into the larger public domain. accrued to folklore in the popular mind. Ju.'!ith ~~ _ Edwin J Schupman, Jr Further, though my focus will be on ­ Meanwhile, new general terms enter Ethnomusicologists the present state ofaffairs, I will glance our professional parlance, notably public-sector (characterizing folkloric en­ Tel : 202 287-9022 back with regularity, and peer forward occasionally as well. Let's begin, then, deavors outside the academy) and cul­ with a quick turn of the kaleidoscope tural conservation (referring to the Folkline to sample what seems worth a closer cultural work itself, as opposed to the Fur timely inl()rmation on the lick! look. workers). of 1()lklore and liJlklile, including train­ 1. The list of states boasting a folk­ 3. The academic sphere of the pro­ ing anc! prolCssional opportunities anc! fession, which previously seemed small news it ems of national interest, dial: loric position within state government passes forty, headed for the magic but vigorous, enters a period of uncer­ (202) 287-2000 number fifty (or more, adding terri­ tainty. A major graduate program in A taped announcement is available torial folklorists). It now is reasonable folklore, at the University of Texas, around the clock , except during the to hope for at least one official folklor­ hours of 9 AM until noon (eastern ist in every state. Of course, on closer time) each Monday, when it is up­ inspection the li st turns out to be less dated. Folkline is ajoint project of the than tidy. Titles of state folklorists American Folklife Center and the range from " folk arts coordinator" American Folklore Society. (the majority) to "director of folklife programs. " Their host agencies are all cultural agencies (mostly state arts councils), but institutional support is as varied as our states themselves. Cover: Manuel Figueira filling the wine What is important is that they are a press in the basement of his home in the network, and they not only keep in Back Central neighborhood of Lowell , touch and compare notes but actuall y Massachusetts. Figueira, who was born collaborate on certain projects. Their on Madeira, gives his product to family emergence is paralleled by a rapid in­ and friends. Photo by John Lueders-Booth crease in other nonacademic positions, (LFP-JB-B251-19A) particularly with museums, local arts

2 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS enters into an attenuated recasting. tional media, appearing on television Other academic programs wrestle with talk shows and being interviewed and BOARD OF TRUSTEES generational change or mobile faculty, reviewed in syndicated newspaper fea­ but for some universities, like Utah tures. The public-sector wing is W illiam L. K inney, Jr., Chairman, State, the changes increase the folk­ equally active with publications and South Carolina loric presence. Ballad courses dwindle exhibitions that have occasional na­ Jeanne Guillemin, Vice Chairman, in number, but other subjects bur­ tional impact and considerable re­ Massachusetts geon. The conceptual debates of the gional impact. For these accom­ Russell W. Fridley, Minnesota 1970s subside a bit, but intellectual plishments we can partly congratulate Bruce Jackson, New York ferment bubbles away in the graduate ourselves, but finally we must credit Judith McCulloh, Illinois folklore and folklife programs. the powerful public interest in the sub­ Barre Toelken, Utah ject matter we know most about. Marta Weigle, New Mexico 4. Folk festivals (that is, intercul­ Hence one notices, in addition to pub­ tural festivals organized by our field) lic pieces inspired by folklorists, a rise continue to be popular. But after a bi­ in pieces which explore our special centennial binge during which we per­ subjects without consulting us. (In my Ex Officio Members fected the genre- it can be called our arrogance I was astonished to read an gift to the nation's bicentennial- our extended essay on fiddling in The New James H. Bi ll ington, Librarian of field draws back a bit from its own cre­ Yorker that managed to be meticulously Congress ation in the post-bicentennial period. informed without asking me.) Robert McCormick Adams, Secretary of Several statewide and regional festivals the Smithsonian Institution are discontinued, not because they These are but glimpses into the ka­ Francis S. M. Hodsoll,Jr., Chairman, failed, but because of a certain restless­ leidoscope as it turns. But what are the National Endowment for the Arts ness on the part of organizers who patterns to it alP Are things getting Lynne V. Cheney, Chairman, National wanted to do something else. A decade better or worse for the field of folklore Endowment for the Humanities later, however, new experimental di­ and folklife studies? Are there conspic­ Alan Jabbour, Director, American rections in festival presentation suggest uous new trends in our thinking? In Folklife Center that the genre is again becoming a our acting' What are the most impor­ focus for the ideas and creativity of tant developments in our field over the folklorists. past generation? And, while we are thinking about ourselves, how are the 5. Exhibits increase tremendously cultural traditions faring that are our as a communicative medium of our chosen focus of attention? Are they in field, almost as if some of the energies danger from the larger forces of mod­ ern civilization, as our pessimist­ devoted to festivals in the 1970s mi­ Editor's Notes grated to exhibits in the 1980s. The activists fear; is our civilization public-sector folklorists lead the way expanding its support of the cultural Folklife Center News is a quarterly re­ with a generation of what might be diversity necessary for fo lk traditions port on the programs and activities of called" anthology exhibits" - exhibits to flourish, as our optimists believe; or the American Folklife Center, avail­ highlighting, for example, the varied will the amount, function, and cultural able free of charge from the Library traditions of the regions and ethnic value of folklore remain constant de­ of Congress, American Folklife Cen­ groups within a state. Such antholo­ spite our dithering, as the relativists ter, Washington, D.C. 20540. gies are gradually supplanted by among us aver? Such questions will be Folklife Center News was temporarily another generation of exhibits with our cud in coming columns. D suspended in 1986 with volume IX, more focused themes. The collective numbers 2 and 3 (there was no volume sophistication of the field about exhi­ IX, number 4). We begin publication bits grows and spreads into its aca­ again with this issue, volume X, num­ demic sector. A review of an exhibit ber 1. appears in Journal oj American Folklore, Readers who would like to respond and the increased connections between to issues raised in the Director's folklorists and museums (an inevita­ Column are invited to do so. Address ble result of our new attention to ex­ letters to The Editor, Folklife Center hibits) yields a new book entitled News, The Library of Congress, Folklife and Museums. American Folklife Center, Washing­ ton, D.C. 20540. 6. Attention to our field continues J ames Hardin to increase in the public media. Some of our academic wing- Jan Brunvand and Alan Dundes leap immediately to m ind-become prominent in the na-

WINTER 1988 3 Historical photograph of Lowell, Mas­ sachusetts. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress (LC-USZ62-90893)

Douglas DeNatale, the Folklife Cen­ ter's field coordinator for the Lowell Folklife Project, Rosemary Noon, and Paul Marion, assistant director and director of cultural affairs for the Lowell Historic Preservation Commis­ sion, review neighborhood maps of the city. Photo by John Lueders-Booth

4 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS Congressman C hester G . Atkins of M assachusetts's Fifth Congressional D istrict with local school children and their teacher at the opening ceremony for the Lowell Folklife Project. Photo by J ohn Lueders-Booth

Lowell Study suited in the closin g of many mills more o f that story," said Pa ul in g the Nati onal Folklifc Festival in throughout New England. Lowell to­ Marion, cultural a ffairs director of the Lowell , 1987 through 1989, and the day is an example both ofa revitali zed Lowell Historic Preservation Commis­ Smithsonian's Fes ti val of American industrial city producing high-tech sion and its chief li aiso n to the Folk ­ Folklife will feature M assachusetts, in ­ products and of an early American in­ life Center. cluding Lowell in 1988. dustrial town. The National Park For the Folkli fe Center, the Lowell Lowell was formerly one of the lead­ Service has developed a hi storical Park Folklife Project is an opportunity to as­ ing textile manufacturing centers in at Lowell to interpret American indus­ sist in planning a community- based the world. Because oflocall y avail able tri al history, and preservation efforts museum and to apply the skills and waterpower (the city stands at the con­ have co ntributed to revitali zing the perspectives acquired during ten years flu ence of the Concord and M erri­ ci ty. An i m portant cultu ral chall en ge of field projects to the study of an ur­ m ack rivers, twenty-fi ve miles slightly for Lowell is to strengthen the links be­ ban environment. T he " model city" northwest from Boston), huge textile tween its historic past and its present­ stature that Lowell has attained as a mills were established there in the day cultural communities . "The resul t of its res toration and publi c pro­ early part of the nineteenth century. theme of the Lowell Historic Preser­ grams will be helpful in promulgating Long known as the "Spindle City," vation Commission is 'to tell the the conclusions and approaches of the Lowell co ntinued to dominate the human story of the Industrial R evo­ project nationall y. 0 trade until the earl y 1900s, when com­ lu tion ,' and the Lowell Folklife Project petition from firms in the South re- will help us reveal, relate, and preserve Peter T. Bartis

WINTER 1988 5 DENATALE OUTLINES PLAN FOR LOWELL PROJECT

the threat of displacement to the cur­ rent residents, and in response, the Coalition for a Better Acre and the Ethnic Covenant have mounted cam­ paigns to maintain or construct low­ cost and decent public housing in the area. Lowell 's inner city neighborhoods have witnessed a dramatic influx of Southeast Asians. Originally about one thousand Southeast Asians were placed in Lowell under the R efugee Resettlement Act. Lowell has since be­ come a magnet for people from other Laotian and Cambodian settlements, and new Southeast Asian families ar­ rive each week, placing pressure on existing housing and creating tensions with other residents. One arena for this tension is the public school. The influx of non­ Engli sh-speaking people has severely strained the schools' resources. As an interim measure, special schools were set up for Southeast Asian students, with Khmer-and Laotian-speaking teachers. This approach brought about the intercession of the state gov­ ernment, which ordered the main­ streaming of these students. A controversy over bilingual education Processio·n for the feast of Our Lady of Loreto, conducted by St. Anthony's ensued and continues as an issue Roman Catholi c Church in the Back Central neighborhood. Although the event today. commemorated occurred in Loreto, Italy, this observance is carried out in a Portuguese church and neighborhood. Photo Tom Rankin (LFP- TR-B187-4-5) by The purpose of the Lowell Folkli fe Project is to collect information on eth­ In preparingfor his role as field coordinator community in the nineteenth ce ntury nic and neighborhood life, with an em­ for the Lowell Folklije Project} Douglas by the mill companies for St. Patrick's phasis on expressive traditions. DeNatale prepared a research plan from Church. Adjacent to it is Little Cana­ Although a good deal has been done which the following article was adapted. da, named for its French Canadian on the labor and social history of settlers. Both sections have served as Lowell , there is comparatively little in­ The most dramatic evidence of re­ home for newly arrived immigrant formation on the expressive life of the cent social change in Lowell, Massa­ groups, and today in addition to mem­ city. The goal of the project is to chusetts, is in the diminishing bers of the older groups the inhabi­ gather information on present-day so­ availability of acceptable low-cost tants are a mixture of Hispanics and cial realities . The easiest approach housing. W ithin a ten-year period, Southeast Asians. (and most obvious pitfa ll ) would be to Lowell has ceased to be an economi­ Urban renewal efforts during the collect "ethnic folklore," to focus on cally depressed city, and its expand­ 1930s and the 1950s resulted in two the expressive items that stem from ingjob market has attracted a new and large public housing projects in these national culture or refl ect ethnic iden­ affluent population. Housing costs sections. The North Common Hous­ tity. Such information would be use­ have risen dramatically, and the area ing Project in the Acre and the North ful , of course, but it would also tend most affected is the inner city, which Canal Housing Project (for which the to equate national identity with ethnic­ is undergoing rapid renewal. One sec­ Little Canada tenements were razed) ity and abstract expressive culture tion there, the "Acre," was named for have been a focus for co nflict. The im­ from the social and cultural realities of the acre of land donated to the Irish proving property values have brought Lowell today.

6 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS Ped ro Sanatan and membe rs of EI Grupo de Baeles Folkl ori eos el e Worcester, a dra ma ti c troupe from Worcester, Massachu­ setts, waiting to perform at Lowell 's annual Puerto Rican f'cst ival. Ph oto by t0m R ankin (LFP- 7R-B144-19)

In addressing both ethnic and social and how do people interact in a par­ their hom ela nd. ti cular space? For the task of answer­ issues, the project will take as its theme 2. How do people conceive of the the creation and maintenance of com­ ing these questions, the city will be city's neighborhoods? Do these con­ divided into sections roughly accord­ munity space as defined in two ways, ceptions vary from group to group? by group identity a nd by neighbor­ ing to the widely accepted geographi­ hood orientation. The basic questions cal designations: the Acre, the 3. How do people establish terri­ of the first definition a re: To what ex­ Highlands, Pawtucketville, Central­ torial hold on a particular section? tent do individuals align themselves ville, Back Central, and Belvidere. What cultural forms of expression are with an ethnic group identity, and Each fi eldworker will explore one of used to delineate space? what institutions m aintain such a n these sections, identify the cultural in­ 4. What happens when a commu­ identity? Fieldworkers will fo cus on stitutions of the a rea, interview the nity breaks down? And what forces Irish , Greek, Portuguese, Puerto people in volved , and photograph work to link dispa rate groups? Rican , and Cambodian groups, which physical fe atures a nd social life. 5 . What roles exist within particu­ represent different periods of immigra­ In pursuing their investi gations, lar communities, and how are these tion and hold varying degrees of so­ fi eld wo rkers wi ll keep in mind a num­ expressed ? cial power in the city. The basic ber of general questions: questions of the second definition, by 1. H ow does the environment of 6. What institutions exist to pro­ neighborhood orientation, are: How Lowell affe ct the practi ces of pa rticu­ mote group identity, and how a re do people relate their sense of place to la r groups of people? The Southeast these institutions affected by spatial group identity, how do people lay Asian community, for example, must considerati ons and the passage of cl aim to a nd bound their own space, adjust to a climate very different from time. D

WINTER 1988 7 PINELANDS STUDY PROVES RICH SOURCE

During the winter and spring of 1987, 2. Develop a clear focus for cultural "New J ersey Pinelands: Tradition the Pinelands Folklife Project cul­ conservation, centered on traditional and Environment. " The exhibit and minated in a spate of products and land-use themes; its related products were coordinated events, coll aboratively orchestrated by 3. Integrate internal approaches to by Rita Moonsammy, folk arts coor­ state and federal agencies. The Pine­ the protection of all resources, com­ dinator at the State Arts Council, lands Folklife Project archive was the bining the perspectives of specialists in David S. Cohen , who directs the Eth­ starting point for these multiple pro­ the sciences and humanities in the nic History Program at the Historical ductions , yielding three book-length rOllrsp of development review and Commission, and Lorraine E . Wil­ publications, a half-hour public net­ public education ; liam s, curator of archeology and eth­ work television program, a m aj or ex­ 4. Coordinate the cultural conser­ nology for the State Museum, in hibition, a scholarl y confe rence, a vation effort with federal, state, and consultation with Folklife Center staff series of educational workshops, and local agencies; and and members of the fi eld team for the a reference archive. All of the pro­ 5. Add local representatives to the Pinelands Folklife Project. ducers m ade use of this well spring, municipal planning boards to make As the title suggests, the exhibition contributing their own resources and formal cultural conservation nomina­ fo cused on the relationship between further research for particular pro­ tions to the commission and to serve regional culture and the natural envi ­ ductions. as folklife consultants in the develop­ ronment, with natural resources se rv­ ment review process. ing sometimes as cultural products One Space, Ma~ Places The most progress was made in the themselves. The five major sections of area of public education , which was the exhibit corresponded to fi ve envi­ In December 1986 the Folklife Cen­ the particular mission of the exhibit, ronmental subregions within which ter publi shed One Space, Many Places: book, vid eo, conference, and work­ the region 's culture has developed Folklife and Land Use in New J ersey's shops. But the effort to provide educa­ over the past three hundred years: Pinelands National Reserve. Written by tional m aterials was not a one-time pine and oak forests, cedar and hard­ M ary Hufford, the l 50-page book shot, for the commission's ongoing wood swamps, salt and freshwater comprises the Center's final report work has been affected as well. Last m eadows, rivers and bays, and and recommendations to the Pine­ year the commission invited Rita farmlands. lands Commission. T he report de­ Moonsammy, New J ersey's folk arts While most of the objects came from scribes elements of the region's coordinator, to serve on its educational the museum collection, many were fo lklife, relating them to the environ­ advisory council , and recently the also lent by local historical societies or mental diversity that characterizes the commission hired folk lorist Miriam obtained from home museums. Visi­ National Reserve . T he environmental Camitta to write the portion of its tors to the exhibit, a record-breaking planner's task is to understand the en­ pilot curriculum for sixth graders that fifty-six thousand in less than three vironmental values of the clients , in is devoted to the people of the months, were greeted by hundreds of this case, the reserve's inhabitants and Pinelands National Reserve. In addi­ artifacts, including Les C hristoffer­ users. Such values oft en are richl y ar­ tion to being folkl orists, both Moon­ son's 112-room purple martin palace, ticulated in the kinds of expressions sammy and Camitta are professional Owen Carney's salt-hay ropemaking folklorists are trained to identify and teachers, so that in rendering their m achine, Frank Astemborski's rail­ interpret. Following this line of rea­ services they combine the perspectives bird hunting skiff (meadows), tongs soning, the report recommends that of folklori st and educator. for clamming and oystering, split-oak the commission begin to rely on fo lk­ One Space, Many Places can be or­ pots for catching eels, miniatures of lorists and ethnographic methods to dered from the Library of Congress, garveys and sneakboxes, the region 's augment the methods used currently American Folklife Center, Washing­ workboats (rivers and bays), June by other social scientists and natural­ ton, D.C. 20540. The price of $10 T aylor's sphagnum moss press, grave ists. These points are illustrated with includes postage and handling. blankets made by Leo Landy of sphag­ dozens of black-and-white photos, Make checks payable to the Ameri­ num (swamps), knife handles and but­ charts, and line drawings. The con­ can Folklife Center. tons made of deer antlers, glass cluding chapter elaborates on this gen­ pitchers made by T ed R amp in his eral recommendation and on ways of agri cultural community of T aberna­ implementing it in New J ersey. New Jersey Pinelands: Tradition cle, historic and contemporary devices Specifi call y, the Center made fi ve and Environment for harvesting and processin g cranber­ recommendations: ries, and Tom Brown's onion dotter 1. Hire a folklife specialist to se rve Three agencies in New J ersey's De­ (farmlands). as the staff cultural conservation partment of State took the initiati ve in Environments were invoked by par­ pl anner ; producing an exhibition entitled tially recreating, for example, a real

8 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS Leslie Christofferson of Whiting, New Jersey, conducting a workshop on martin houses for schoolchildren visiting the exhi­ bition "New Jersey Pinelands: Tradition and Environment." Presenting Mr. Christofferson is folklorist Miriam Camitta (left), who coordinated the Pinefest and workshop series. Behind them is Mr. Christofferson' s magnum opus, a 112-room purple martin palace. Photo by Rita Moonsammy

corduroy road at the base of a life­ formally opened with a "Pinefest," a lumbering, floral gathering and proc­ sized photo mural of a logging scene day-long celebration featuring the essing, quilting, decoy carving, boat­ in a cedar swamp. The sounds and craftspeople, musicians, and other tra­ building, birdhouse construction and sights of the environments filtered into dition bearers whose lifeways were to use, charcoal making, and the culti­ the exhibit areas through video pre­ be on display there until April 5. The vation of indigenous crops like cran­ sentations. Visitors were also greeted exhibit, which was the largest ever berries, blueberries, and salt hay. by life-sized black-and-white cut-outs produced at the State Museum, occu­ While the folklife presentations of Pinelands residents clamming, pol­ pied the entire ground floor, some five provided a native, sense-of-place per­ ing railbird skiffs, foxhunting, and sit­ thousand square feet. With a record­ spective on the region, they were aug­ ting in their homes. Artifacts and breaking attendance of five thousand mented by historic and scientific photographs presented within each people on the opening day, the perspectives presented in a Sunday section of the exhibit were richly con­ "Pinefest" packed them in at a rate lecture series on glassmaking, Iron textualized by the videotapes and pre­ of one person per square foot. manufacturing, decoy carving, and sentations by scholars and tradition Through the " Pinefest" and the Pine Barrens floral diversity. bearers. workshops coordinated by folklorist In addition to the workshops and Miriam Camitta, tradition bearers lectures, the museum ran ongoing ed­ Pinefest, Workshops, and Lecture illuminated the exhibit throughout its ucational programs on the region's Series two-and-a-half-month duration, culture and ecology, tailored, by re­ bringing each section to life through quest, to students from grades three to On January 31, 1987 , the exhibit demonstrations and workshops on twelve.

WINTER 1988 9 Pinelands Sketches tations as they are formalized in the as necessity," Elaine Thatcher on region's material and verbal tradi­ woodlands yardscapes, Jens Lund on Some of the sounds and sights of tions. In the second essay, human the environmental experience narra­ each environmental subsection poured ecologistJohn Sinton traces the history tives of outdoorsmen, Bonnie Blair into the museum through five video of these landscapes, in which one can O ' Connor on the regional identity of monitors. Viewers were introduced to read the story of heavy human use the reserve's Puerto Rican population, the reserve's varied habitats through over the past three centuries. The con­ Nora Rubinstein on piney identity, the eyes and words of native guides cluding essay by Rita Moonsammy, and Sue Samuelson on the effect of the who narrated and demonstrated tradi­ David Cohen, and Mary Hufford in­ Pinelands National Reserve on re­ tional activities found in each habitat. troduces readers to traditional activi­ gional identity. " Ken Camp: Railbirding Guide" ties, both historic and contemporary, opened up the freshwater meadows found within each of the five kinds of New Jersey Folklife: Special along the M aurice River; "Norman habitat covered by the exhibit. Pinelands Issue Taylor: Fox Hunter" offered an in­ The book is lushly illustrated with sider's vi ew of the pine and oak up­ one hundred photographs, ten of The papers presented by Hufford, lands in Lebanon State Forest; "Cliff which are color plates. The photo­ Thatcher, O'Connor, and Lund at the and Steve Frazee: Cedar Farmers, " graphs are from the Pinelands Folk­ conference appeared six weeks later in took viewers into a Forked River life Project, supplemented with the 1987 issue of New Jersey Folklife, Swamp; "Stephen Lee: Cranberry historic and contemporary images which was devoted to research in the Grower" explored a Chatsworth fam­ from state and local collections. Pinelands National Reserve. Sue ily' s indigenous farming practice; and Samuelson was guest editor for this "Joe R eid: Garvey Builder" showed Pinelands Folklife Conference volume of the New Jersey Folklore So­ the vital link between the cedar ciety's official periodical. In addition swamps and the clamming tradition of On March 14 the Pinelands Com­ to the conference papers, the volume Barnegat Bay. mission, together with the exhibit's co­ contains an article by Sue Samuelson The videos were produced by the producers, sponsored a day-long on regional festivals and celebrations exhibit coordinators, the consultants conference at the museum, with the and an article by Rita Moonsammy on from the original field team, and film­ help of a grant from the New Jersey symbolic aspects of the Delaware Bay maker Lou Presty of New Jersey Net­ Committee for the Humanities. The oyster schooner. work Public Television. Presty conference augmented the lecture and The volume is illustrated with produced a final version entitled workshop series by providing a forum black-and-white photos from the "Pinelands Sketches" that premiered in which scholars and members of the Pinelands Folklife Project. It is dedi­ on New Jersey public television on general public could exchange views cated to Christine Cartwright, a mem­ March 27 , 1987. on the interrelation of folklore, ecol­ ber of the field team who was killed in ogy, and land-use in the region. The a traffic accident shortly before the in­ Pine lands Folklife museum's auditorium was full , with itial round of fieldwork ended in 1983. about 250 people in attendance, many If the media presentations, speak­ of them teachers, environmental en­ ers, and demonstrators brought the thusiasts, local history buffs, state Reference Archive exhibit to life, Pinelands Folklife, a book agency representatives, and other pro­ published by Rutgers University Press fessional researchers. The final product to emerge from to accompany the exhibit, will keep Those assembled were welcomed the Pinelands Folklife Project will be the exhibit concepts alive long after its with remarks from John Stokes, the a reference archive, to be deposited at closing on April 5. Edited by the proj­ Pinelands Commission's administra­ the State Library in Trenton. While ect's three coordinators, Pinelands Folk­ tive assistant, Bernard Bush, director all of the original materials will remain life challenges the commonly held of the New Jersey Historical Commis­ at the Center's Archive of Folk Cul­ stereotype of a region sparsely popu­ sion, and Mary Hufford. Sessions ture, a complete set ofduplicate sound lated with quaint, backwoods people, were chaired by Elizabeth Carpenter recordings and photographic images documenting instead a region rich in of the Pinelands Commission, Angus will be housed in the State Library's cultural and environmental diversity. Gillespie of Rutgers University, David New Jersey collection, together with The 234-page book contains a fore­ Cohen, Lorraine Williams, and Rita a copy of all written documentation, word by Alan Jabbour, an introduc­ Moonsammy. comprising thousands of pages of field­ tion by the editors, and three major Mary Hufford and John Sinton notes, logs of recorded sounds and essays on the region's culture from his­ opened the conference with discussions photographic images, and a compre­ toric and contemporary perspectives. on the interrelation of folklore and hensive inventory of all materials held ecology. Eugene Hunn spoke on the at the Center. When the reference ar­ In the opening essay, " Telling the organization of local knowledge of chive has made its way to Trenton in Landscape: Folklife Expressions and plants and animals, Mal O'Connor on 1988, the Pinelands Folklife Project Sense of Place, " Mary Hufford ex­ technological innovation and family wi ll come to an end. 0 plores landscape images and interpre­ business, Tom Carroll on the decoy Mary Hufford

10 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS A DIRECTORY OF QUILT COLLECTIONS NOW AVAILABLE of major national and regional quilt organizations. The volume is illustrated with six­ teen full-color pages and thirty-eight black-and-white photographs present­ ing quilts themselves and docu­ menting the history and uses of quilts. The photographic coll ections of the Li­ brary of Congress were a primary source of illustrations for the directory, and along with illustrations from many other institutions show a diver­ sity of types from many areas.

Quilt Collections is available from the Library of Congress, American Folklife Center, Washington, D.C. 20540. $24.95 for hardcover; $18.95 for the softcover edition. Add $2 per order for postage and handling. Checks payable to the Library of Congress must ac­ company orders.

SOURCEBOOK LISTS ORGANIZATIONS, ARCHIVES, AND PUBLICATIONS

The Folklife Center has compiled a directory of folklife organizations, archives, serial publications, and other resources. Folklife Sourcebook: A The Joseph Silbernagel family, Beiseker, Alberta, pose before a crazy quilt, Directory of Folklife Resources in the ca. 1910. Courtesy of the collection of the Glenbow Museum, Calgary, Alberta, Canada United States and Canada, compiled by Peter Bartis and Barbara Fertig, is The Library of Congress, in cooper­ to date but cannot be regarded as ex­ the first such comprehensive guide to ation with Acropolis Books Ltd. of haustive. The survey will be updated, folklife resources in North America. Washington, D.C. , has just published and the Center welcomes information The 152-page, soft-cover directory Quilt Collections: A Directory for the from collections that are not included includes the names and addresses of United States and Canada. The work is here. fed eral agencies; state folk cultural the result of several years of survey­ The directory was compiled by Lisa programs; societies; organizations, ing and compiling information from Turner Oshins, program specialist at institutions, and foundations; serial m ore than seven hundred institutions. the Folklife Center, who has written publications; archives of folklore, In September 1985, the Folklife an introduction to the volume. Organ­ folklife , and ethnomusicology; higher Center mailed 2,700 three-page ques­ ized by country, state, and ci ty, and education programs in folklore and tionnaire survey forms to quilt, textile, alphabeticall y by institution, the en­ folklife ; recording companies; and folk, and decorative arts museums, tries provide detailed information on directories. and to corporations, universities, li­ particular collections, as well as loca­ Folklife Sourcebook is available braries, and archives. By February ti on and visiting hours. Also included from the Library of Congress, 1987 , there were responses from 747 are an index of participating insti­ American Folklife Center, Wash­ significant quilt and quilt-related col­ tutions, a selected bibliography, a ington, D.C. 20540. The price is lections. An additional 130 collections sample of the questionnaire form used $10, including postage and han­ ofless than fiv e quilts, or with less sig­ in conducting the survey, a glossary, dling. Make checks payable to the nificant documentation holdings, also a section on quilt conservation, a American Folklife Center. responded. Three hundred thirty insti­ selected filmography, and two listings: tutions reported no quilt holdings. The one of statewide and regional quilt compilation is the most comprehensive documentation projects and the other

WINTER 1988 11 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS PUBLISHES SECOND FOLKLIFE ANNUAL

Folklije Annual 1986, second in the se­ ri es from the C enter, presents a col­ lection of articles on such diverse topics as breakdancers in New York C ity, Peruvian Indians on the slopes of the Andes, and Finns in their home­ land and in America. Several articles explore the history and present-day uses of the Kalevala, the Finnish na­ tional epic, 150 years after its publi­ cation ; one presents a series of lumber- camp photographs from the Library 's Farm Security Administra­ tion coll ection; and in another a hard­ working man from Michi gan 's Upper Peninsula tells his story, with co m­ ments by seven folklorists. The articles demonstrate the vari­ ety of folk communities but also reveal their unexpected similarities, and sev­ eral delineate the consequences of an encounter between an outside observer-researcher and the commu­ nity observed. In these the photogra­ pher or folklorist discovers that the effect of his or her own involvement with community or material cannot be discounted. Many who have done fi eldwork will see their experiences and problem s reflected here, the difficulty of identifying a " pure" folk co mmu­ nity, for example, and of sorting out the influences of radio, television , and public education. Edited by Alan Jabbour and J ames Hardin, Folklije Annual was begun in 1985 to present a yearly coll ection of illustrated articles on the traditional life and culture of the American peo­ ple and to provide a forum for the dis­ cussion of theories, issues, and procedures of folklife study. The an­ A Q eros elder spinning wool to make nual seeks a wide audience for its yarn. Photo by John Cohen From "Among the Qeros" byJohn presentation of American traditions Cohen and values. Folklije Annual 1986 in­ Increasingly. now tourism in the cludes 103 illustrations, 29 in full The editors welcome comments Third World has become an indus­ color. from readers on the se ri es and invite try that co nve rts folkl ore and native The 176-page volume can be or­ queries and submissions from authors culture into com modities. Culture is dered from the Superintendent of who would like to contri bute to future up for sale, and in Punto, "The Documents, U.S. Government volumes. We would like particul arl y Peruvian C ity of Folklore," every Printing Office, Washington, D.C. to consider articles on vari ous aspects guide is a folk lorist, every restaurant 20402. Include stock number (SIN of hunting, fi shing, and trapping, but performs "authentic music," and 030- 000-00179-6) when ordering. would be happy to read a ny others. cit y dwell ers have become experts The price is $19, including postage The annual is especiall y well suited for and explainers of co untry life. and handling, and payment must presenting those articles that require accompany orders. illustration.

12 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS Folklife Annual 1986: Contents

Breakdancing: A Reporter's Story, by Sally Banes A Village Voice article brings national attention to a new dance form.

Among the Qeros: Notes from a Film­ maker, by John Cohen Encounters between documentary filmmakers and Peruvian Indians gen­ erate danger and moral questions.

"Bleows": The Whaling Complex in Bequia, by Horace P. Beck Nineteenth-century whaling cus­ toms brought to a small Caribbean is­ land continue today.

T he Kalevala: An Introduction, by Elena Bradunas Ancient heroes and tales of adven­ ture create a national identity.

The Kalevala Process, by Lauri Honko The folktales of the Kalevala have been interpreted in different ways.

Partial Repentance of a Critic: The Kalevala, Politics, and the United States, by William A. Wilson A folklorist evaluates his criticism of the uses of the Kalevala in the light of his own involvement with public­ sector fo lklore .

Immigrant to Ethnic: Symbols of Identity Among Finnish-Americans, by Yvonne Hiipakka Lockwood Ethnic communities in Michigan's Upper Peninsula define themselves in both new and traditional ways.

Minnesota Logging Camp, Septem­ ber 1937: A Photographic Series by Russell Lee, by Carl Fleischhauer, Beverly Brannan, and C la udine From "Minnesota Logging Camp, Lumberjack with a stake he has Weatherford shaped with a broad axe, Effie, Min­ September 1937" by Carl Fleisch­ Photographs taken for the Farm nesota, 1937 . Photo by R usseLL Leejor the hauer, Beverly W. Brannan, and Security Administration provide Farm Security Administration. Prints and Claudine Weatherford rounded portraits of their subjects. It is imposs ible to see thi s series of Photographs Division, Library oj Congress pictures either as a statement about (LC-USF 33-11353-M2) Via Dolorosa, by Arvid Asplund "the logging problem" or as an in­ The son of an immigrant from Fin­ dictment of railroad-building robber land describes a difficult boyhood and barons. And, although the lumberjacks shows himself to be resourceful. may have been underpaid and over­ Folklife Annual 1985 is stilI avail­ worked, our present-day examination able and may be ordered from the Symposium on the Life Story: Intro­ of Lee's empathetic photographs re­ Superintendent of Documents. Include duction , by Edward D. Ives; Com­ veals only a group of hard-working and stock number (SIN 030- 000-00169-9) ments on "Via Dolorosa," by six hard-playing men. when ordering. The price is $16 in­ folklorists cluding postage and handling.

WINTER 1988 13 FOLK ARCHIVE MOVES allows Archive patrons with special­ searching a fil e cabinet, you must pass TOWARD AUTOMATION ized n eeds to perform on-line over the folder that contains "crabs" searching. information to locate the fo lder for The Folklife Center's Archive of One aspect of this project has been " firefighters. " A computer does the Folk Culture recently passed an im­ the attention it has focused on the spe­ same thing faster . And free-text portant milestone on the road toward cial challenge in providing subject ac­ searching, as its name implies, permits automated collection control with the cess to ethnological collections. the search of all terms in the database preparation of a computer printed cat­ Undoubtedly, the experience gained without the subjectivity that accompa­ alog for the eighteen hundred books in in addressing this issue within the do­ nies filing. Because information in the its reading room. main of published books will provide " firefighters" folder may overlap with Archivist Marsha Maguire pro­ a foundation on which to build auto­ that in "crabs" (if, for example, a fire­ duced the five-volume finding aid on mated control over the Archive's fighter told a fieldworker about a spe­ the Library's mainframe computer, holdings of unpublished special mater­ cial way of cooking crabs "a la using the ROSCOE and JANUS ap­ ials-materials that now comprise firefighter"), the information is usu­ plications programs. The first four vol­ some thirty- five thousand hours of ally kept in one of the fo lders rather umes provide a dictionary display of sound recording, one hundred thou­ than in both and then may be missed authors, titles, and official Library of sand photographs, and two hundred in quick researches. Congress subject entries drawn from thousand manuscript pages. If this article were part of a free-text MARC records. The fifth volume pro­ Other contributors to this project database, and the reader wanted to vides what are essentially bibliogra­ were Bob Palian of the Music Divi­ know about PINY, he would simply phies of the Archive reading room's sion, Joe Marsala and Claudia type the name and the computer books on specific topics , e.g., "Folk­ McNellis of the Automated Systems would retrieve the number of times the tale, " "Protest," "West Indies," and Office, Pamela Posey, formerly of the word occurs. Like darts that target the "Ethnomusicology. " European Reading Room, Jozef center of the board, pointers for each Seventy-six such topics formerly Topolski of the Photoduplication Serv­ word indicate its occurrence. Pointers served as shelf locations for the read­ ice, and Peter Bartis, Carl Fleisch­ are stored in a dictionary file or list of ing room. Now, by retaining these lo­ hauer, Aldona Joseph , Gerald all the terms. The computer consults cally relevant subject headings in Parsons, and Victoria Pendleton, all the dictionary each time a search is re­ volume 5 of the print-out, the Archive of the Folklife Center. 0 quested. Computer jargon for a ques­ has been able to reshelve its books in Gerald E. Parsons tion is query. The list or history of professional, shelflist order, and yet queries is kept in the m emory of the continue to serve the needs of a sophis­ FOLK ARCHIVE INCLUDES computer while the researcher is con­ ticated readership with its own elab­ PINY DATABASE ducting what may be considered an in­ orate and established terminology. terview. A by-product of putting the books The PINY database at the Archive Using simple commands, the re­ in proper shelflist order has been the of Folk Culture, named for the resi­ searcher can display on the computer opportunity afforded the Collections dents of the Pinelands National Re­ screen the paragraphs or the entire Maintenance staff to remove the read­ serve, contains in its memory 37,204 document in which the word or answer ing room's old, inefficient storage words that run at fractions of a second. to the question appears. Thanks to the units and replace them with modern Mornings, chickens, flea markets, and dictionary, not only individual words shelving. From start to finish , the roads are among the subjects included but words in relation to one another move took less than two days. from those identified by fi eld workers can be addressed by the researcher. If The Archive has now completed a during the Pinelands Folklife Project. the reader wants details about agricul­ second phase in the evolution of its PINY comprises 1,521 documents, in­ ture in Chatsworth, where cranberries automated facilities, the creation of a cluding fi eldnotes, detailed logs of are cultivated, by combining Chats­ local on-line catalog for books. This soundrecordings, and illustrative pho­ worth and cranberry) not necessarily with database employs MARC records tographic images. the term agriculture) he may find infor­ downloaded from the same mainframe " Searching through PINY, " says mation about the topic. A search can computer tapes that were used to gen­ Mary Hufford , director of the Cen­ be limited to the occurrence of the erate the printed catalog. Because it ter's Pinelands Project, "is like doing terms in the same sentence, para­ resides on an Archive microcomputer, fieldwork again, since you have to graph, or document. the database offers fast and flexible think in terms of the way people would On the other hand, the sequential processing as books are added to, or talk rather than the wayan indexer flie-type database will only indicate the removed from, the reading room would reorganize the same material. " appearance of a concept once the shelves. It has also facilitated the ex­ The computer database is a collec­ name or term appears explicitly as it pansion of catalog control to the Ar­ tion ofinformation organized for rapid is known, e.g., agriculture as agricul­ chive's large holdings of serial and easy retrieval. Documents are or­ ture, not as the activity of cultivating publications (many of which are found ganized in sequence such as alphabet­ the soil, producing or raising crops. nowhere else within the Library of ical or numerical order, just as fo lders For PINY, part of the document Congress). Finally, this local catalog are stored in a filing cabinet. In information was planned in advance.

14 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS Dates, places, names of field workers, bl ack- and-white pictures and "Zim­ for exampie, concepts such as policy, technical information , and item num­ mer," the documents in whi ch thi s are searchable by definition and appli­ bers were entered at the time data was name appears. Thus combining both cation , an advantage over the years coll ected. This information m ay be will retrieve all black-and-white pic­ because it permits fl exibility in lan­ searched and clustered in subsets for tures in whi ch Zimmer was photo­ guage. Thus, h orizons are un­ further and faster analysis because the graphed. Furthermore, combining this limited. " computer has only to consult the dic­ subset with a set of all documents in T he automation process may be ex­ tionary pointers of the subset instead which canned is adjacent to the word pensive and complicated, and master­ of the complete database. goods will yield the exact number of ing the computer and its processes is Let us suppose the reader wants to times the phrase appears in the not easy. But, H ufford concluded, as know about black-and-white pictures database. an experiment in technology it was of canned goods prepared by Helen Because of the free-text database well worthwhile. 0 Zimmer. " Black.FRMT" will iden­ format in whi ch PINY was created, as Maria del R osario R amos tify all the documents containing Hufford says, " more raw materials,

FOLKLIFE CENTER BOARD MEETS AT SEVERAL LOCALES

The American Folklife Center's Board of Trustees held its fall 1986 meeting, O ctober 1-5, in South Caro­ lina, at several points on the coastline, beginning in Pawley's Island and end­ ing in historic C harleston. The board meeting was convened at the Brook­ green Gardens Conference C enter, and the board and Center staff mem­ bers participated in the all-day confer­ ence " Fifty Years of Folklore R esearch in South Carolina" at the Kimbel Conference Center of the Belle W. Baruch Institute for Marine Biology. Local arrangements were made by board member William Kinney, his wife, Peggy, and the staff at the McKissick Museum. In addition to several days of delib­ eration on m atters of official concern to the board and staff, participants were given an introduction to the varied traditions and cultures of coastal South Carolina. The trip to Charleston included a visit with Mary Jane Bennett, one of the many sweet­ grass basket weavers in the area, and an opportunity to meet Philip Sim­ mons, the noted Charleston black­ smith. Simmons's work was evident At the March 1986 meeting of the Center's Board of Trustees, C hairman throughout the city on the walking William Kinney and Vice C hairman Jeanne Guillemin chat with retiring Librar­ tour guided by folklorist John Vlach. ian of Congress D aniel J. Boorstin. For winter and spring meetings, 1987 , the board returned to the stin, for his interest in and support of portunity to witness a field project Library of Congress on March 2-3 the Center since its creation in 1976. firsthand. Project coordinator Doug­ and June 11-12. The March meeting The fall 1987 meeting of the Cen­ las DeNatale gave a tour of the neigh­ was presided over by the new chair­ ter ' s Board of Trustees was held in borhoods being studied, which man, William Kinney of South Caro­ Lowell, Massachusetts, September included a visit to the Trairatanaran lina, and the board took the occasion 24- 25, where the Lowell Folklife Proj­ Buddhist Temple, and the board also to express its thanks to the retiring ect was under way. In addition to its toured facilities of the National Histor­ Librarian ofCongress, DanielJ. Boor- regular activities, the board had an op­ ical Park. 0

WINTER 1988 15 In the parking lot of Zayre' s department store in downtown Lowell, Massachusetts, young people from various neighbor­ hoods meet to show off their clothes and cars. Photo by John Lueders-Booth jor the Lowell Folklife Project (LFP-JB-B204128)

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS FIRST-CLASS MAIL AMER ICAN l'OLKLIFE CENTER POSTAGE &FEES PAID WASHINGTON, D.C. 20540 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WASHINGTON, D.C. OHICIAL BUSINESS PERMIT No. G-103 PE NALTY l'OR PR IVATE U SE, $:, 00

ISSN 0149-6840 Catalog Card No. 77-649628