Folklife Center News, Volume XIII Number 4
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
American Folklife Center The Library of Congress Fall 1991 Volume XIII, Number 4 Following the "Acadian Mass" held at St. David Church in St. David, Maine, June 27, 1991, parishioners carrying commemorative family banners lead clergy and congregation down to the place on the banks of the St. John River thought to be the site where Acadians first landed in the region (see photo on page 7). The history and cultural traditions of Acadians in northern Maine are described in an article that begins on page 4, part of a report from the American Folklife Center's Maine Acadian Cultural Survey. (MAP LO-B002-4) Photo by Lisa Ornstein AMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS EDITOR'S NOTES Alan Jabbour, Director Ray Dockstader, Deputy Director T imothy Lloyd, Assistant to the Director Doris Craig, Administrative Assistant Maine Acadians 1940-1954 (Mosaic Records) (photo Hillary Glatt, Clerk courtesy Michael Ochs collection). Camila Bryce-Laporte, Program Coordinator For those who think that Acadian T he advent of electric guitars clearly Jennifer A. Cutting, Program Coordinator American culture exists only in Loui made playing with your teeth some Acquisitions siana, this issue of Folklije Center News what risky: electric shock from spittle? J oseph C . Hickerson, Head offers a catalog of expressive traditions But electrification also permits the from northern Maine documented for hundred-foot extension cord favored Processing the Center's Maine Acadian Cultural by Albert Collins, among other show Marsha Maguire, Archivist Stephanie A. Hall, Archivist Survey. French settlement in Loui persons. Thus, without any loss of am Elaine Bradtke, American Memory Project siana and Maine was deeply affected plification, the guitarist can walk Catherine Hiebert Kerst, American Memory by seventeenth-century events that among the crowd, can even be carried Project lead to the Acadian diaspora or La on the broad shoulders ofloyal retain Grande Derangement, and the words ers, playing all the while. Programs Peter Bartis, Folklife Specialist Cajun and Acadian both derive from At the risk of adding fuel to the fire Mary Hufford, Folklife Specialist Arcadie, the original name for the of the Joe Wilson-Gary Serkin debate David A. Taylor, Folklife Specialist region that is now New Brunswick and over whether Hendrix was a guitar Nova Scotia. destroyer, may I express my own feel Publications James Hardin, Editor ing that he rarely destroyed guitars, but in any event was less likely to Public Events Hendrix Redux smash them a la Townsend than to Thea Caemmerer, Coordinator (Wasn't this in a movie?) spray lighter One more letter on]imi Hendrix, for all the fluid on the guitar, set it on fire, and Reference Gerald E. Parsons, Reference Librarian scholars of the performer's style, but no more, make a quasi-religious burnt offering Judith A. Gray, Folklife Specialist please. (See Joe Wilson, "Instrument of to the Blues-Rock Muse. Blind Men and Kings, '' Folklife Center Administrative Office News, spring 1990) There are marry other Anton J . Mikofsky Tel: 202 707-6590 guitarists, after all-and a number of them New York, New York Reference Service are pictured in this issue of the newsletter, T el: 202 707-5510 part of a report on significant acquisitions for the Archive of Folk Culture. Federal Cylinder Project Cultural Resources Management Tel: 202 707-1740 Re: "More on Jimi Hendrix" Directory from NPS (Folklife Center News, summer 1991 ). Board of Trustees I'm a fan of Hendrix. I even think his While it is not the policy of this news best work is right up there with letter to advertise the publications of Judith McCulloh, Chair, Illinois William L. Kinney, Jr., Vice Chair, Stravinsky, but it's not true, as claimed publishers other than the Library of South Carolina by letter-writer Gary Serkin, that he Congress, a new sixty-page booklet Nina Archabal, Minnesota "introduced a new form of creative from the National Park Service (NPS), Lindy Boggs, Louisiana,· Washington, D. C. showmanship ... playing with his A Directory of Training Opportunities in John Penn Fix III, Washington teeth, behind his head and back . ' ' Cultural Resources Management, is so Robert Malir, J r., Kansas Juris Ubans, Maine Such showmanship was a longtime much in accord with the Center's in staple of the blues world from the leg terest in cultural conservation as to endary days of Charley Patton and warrant notice here. The directory Ex q[ficio Members Robert Johnson up through the late T identifies workshops, courses, semi James H . Billington, Librarian of Congress Bone Walker and J .B. Hutto to the nars, and other short classes in cultural Robert McCormick Adams, surviving Albert Collins, Luther Alli resources management sponsored in Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution son, and others, none of whom copied the United States by various institu John Frohnmayer, Chairman, Hendrix. tions from October 1991 through De National Endowment for the Arts There's a beautiful old photo of cember 1992. Copies may be obtained Lynne V. Cheney, Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities T-Bone playing a large guitar behind from Emogene Bevitt, National Park Alan Jabbour, Director, American Folklife Center his head while doing splits! It is repro Service (424/413), P.O. Box 37127, duced at page 16 of the booklet with Washington, D .C. 20013-7127. Tele The Complete Recordings of T-Bone Walker phone (202) 343-9561. 2 FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS Recognition for Folklife Specialists FOLKLINE FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS While hundreds of professional spe James Hardin, Editor For timely information on the cialties-including historians, anthro David A. Taylor, Editorial Advisor pologists, and archaeologists-are field of folklore and folklife, includ Don Shomette, Design Consultant recognized in the job classifications of ing training and professional oppor Folklife Center News publishes articles on the Office of Personnel Management tunities and news items of national the programs and activities of the Ameri (OPM), which is the employment interest, a taped announcement is can Folklife Center, as well as other arti office for the federal government, available around the clock, except cles on traditional expressive culture. It OPM has no classification for "folk during the hours of 9 A.M. until is available free of charge from the lorist.'' noon (eastern time) each Monday, Library of Congress, American Folk.life When the American Folklife Center when it is updated. Folk.line is a Center, Washington, D.C. 20540. Folk lije Center News does not publish announce was created at the Library of Congress joint project of the American Folk in 1976, the folklorists hired for the ments from other institutions or reviews life Center and the American Folk new office were placed in the catch-all of books from publishers other than the lore Society. Dial: Library of Congress. Readers who would classification of ''arts and information like to comment on Center activities or specialist.' ' Today the Center has four 202 707-2000 newsletter articles may address their re staff members with Ph.D. degrees marks to the editor. and several others with M.A. 's-in folklore and related fields, and recently the Library's personnel office has agreed to give official sanction to the title "folklife specialist" we have been using informally. During the past two decades the number of public-sector folklorists has grown significantly. Many government and private agencies have found occa sion to hire folklorists for work on temporary or permanent programs. Folklorists in these agencies have ex pressed the need for a federal-wide job classification for folklorists as a stan dard to which they can refer, or at least for information about the specific job descriptions actually used now by individual federal agencies. Unfortunately, the number of folk lorists employed by the federal govern ment, and the number of federal agencies in which folklorists work, have been too small to justify a federal wide job classification. Although the Center has been told that an argument to the contrary will be difficult and time-consuming to make, it is taking up this matter with the OPM to see where it leads. In the meantime, we have sent the job descriptions we have recently used for folklife specialists, along with a statement of our policies and procedures regarding the employ ment of contract fieldworkers, to aca demic and public folklore programs throughout the country. To receive Zeb and Winfred Hannah performing for Joseph S. Hall in Cove Creek, North copies of these documents, contact Carolina, ca. 1941. This photograph by Hall is one of eighty-three he donated Timothy Lloyd, American Folklife to the Folklife Center to accompany the field recordings he made in the Great Center, Library of Congress , Smoky Mountains from the 1930s through the 1960s. Other recent acquisi Washington, D.C . 20540. D tions are listed on page 14. FALL 1991 3 THE LONG HARD ROAD TO MADAWASKA: ACADIAN CULTURAL RETENTION IN MAINE'S UPPER ST. JOHN VALLEY Spring potato planting on the farm of Leonard Gagnon in Frenchville, Maine, May 1943. (LC-USW-3-30705-C) Fann Security Administration photo by John Collier, Jr. By C. Ray Brassieur PART I: SETTLEMENT IN THE ritory now known as New Brunswick with the editorial assistance of ST. JOHN VALLEY and Nova Scotia. David A. Taylor The date of the first European con The naming of the North American tact with Acadia is unknown, but con During June andjuly of 1991, the Ameri region known as Acadie or Acadia has temporary historians seem to agree can Folklife Center conducted a survey of been variously attributed. According that French fishermen and fur traders Acadian culture in Maine 's Upper St. John to one account, it was named by were among the first to land on its Valley, located in the state's northernmost Giovanni Verrazano, who explored shores.