CENTER NEWS

SPRING 1992 t VOLUME XIV, NUMBER 2

American Folklife Center • The Library of Congress has led a number of organizations on the local, state, and national level to Board of Trustees create or designate certain areas as Will iam L. Kinney,Jr. , Chair, heritage parks (also known as centers, South Carolina corridors, and trails). A heritage park is John Penn Fix III, Vice Chair, an area designated for conseivation Washington and interpretation because of its natu­ Nina Archabal, Minnesota ral, historic, and cultural value. The Lindy Boggs, Louisiana; principal sponsor of these heritage ar­ Washington, D.C. eas has been the U.S. Congress work­ Robert Malir,Jr. , Kansas ing through the National Park Seivice, Judith McCulloh, Illinois whose involvement began in the late Juris Ubans, Maine 1970s. A few states have established The American Folklife Center was their own heritage parks, notably created in 1976 by the U.S .Congress to Ex Officio Members Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New "preserve and present American York. folklife" through programs of research, James H. Billington, Generally speaking the Park Service's documentation, archival preservation, Librarian ofCongress heritage areas possess the fo llowing reference service, live performance, Robert McCormick Adams, exhibition, publication, and training. characteristics: (1) a focus on contem­ Secretary ofthe Smithsonian Institution The Center incorporates the Archive porary as well as historic traditions, (2) Anne-Imelda Radice, Acting Chairman, ofPolk Culture, which was established the interpretation and conservation of in the Music Division of the Library of National Endowment for the A rls Congress in 1928, and is now one of living cultural traditions, (3) the creation Lynne V. Cheney, Chairman, National the largest collections of ethnographic of independent corrunissions to plan material from the United States and Endowment for the Humanities and oversee park programs, and ( 4) around the world. Alan Jabbour, Director, ongoing partnerships with local and American Folklife Center state agencies through cooperative agreements. Administration Living cultural traditions are the Alan Jabbour, Director FOLKI.lFE CENTER NEWS special interest offolklorists, and the Ray Dockstader, Deputy Director James Hardin, Editor Park Service has called upon the Timothy Lloyd, Assistant to the Director Timothy Lloyd, Editorial Advisor American Folklife Center to assist in Doris Craig, Administrative Assistant David A. Taylor, Editorial Advisor planning three of these heritage ar­ Hillary Glatt, Program Assistant John Biggs, Library ofCongress eas by conducting folklife surveys: in Acquisitions Graphics Unit, Designer Lowell, Massachusetts (1987-88), Joseph C. Hickerson, Head Folklife Center News publishes ar­ northern Maine (1991), and currently Processing ticles on the programs and activities of in southern West Virginia. State and Stephanie A. Hall , Archivist the American Folklife Center, as well federal agencies and large commer­ Elaine Bradtke, as other articles on traditional expres­ cial operations planning de­ American Memory Project sive culture. It is available free of charge velopments or activities that affect from the Library of Congress, Ameri­ Catherine Hiebert Kerst, can Folklife Center, Washington, D.C. traditional culture have sometimes American Memory Project 20540. Folklife Center News does not engaged folklorists to see that local Programs publish announcements from other people are included in the decision­ institutions or reviews of books from making process. Accordingly, the Peter T. Banis, Folklife Specialist publishers other than the Library of Mary Hufford, Folklife Specialist Congress. Readers who would like to Center's work on these three projects David A. Taylor, Folklife Specialist comment on Center activities or has gone beyond research and docu­ newsletter articles may address their mentation to include advocacy for Camila Bryce-Laporte, remarks to the editor. Program Coordinator the place of local people and com­ munities in setting policies for Jennifer A. Cutting, heritage centers. Program Coordinator In this issue ofFolklife CenterNews, Publications Cover: Mining community on the Shalom Staub gives a brief history of James Hardin, Editor main county road, Mohegan, West heritage parks and then describes the Public Events Virginia, September, 1938. (LC-USF Pennsylvania H eritage Parks 34-50186-E) Photo by Marion Post Thea Caemmerer, Coordinator Program. And in her article based on Wolcott. Farm Security Administra­ Reference field research for the New River Gorge tion Collection, Library of Congress Gera ld E. Parsons, Reference Librarian Folklife Project, Karen Hudson Judith A. Gray, Folklife Specialist describes the way local people have Administrative Office freed themselves from the monotony Tel: 202 707-6590 EDITOR'S NOTES of company-built housin g by Reference Service personalizing their own houses and other buildings. In both articles the Tel: 202 707-5510 Heritage Parks and Folklife Federal Cylinder Project theme emerges of people taking charge of both their own lives and Tel: 202 707-1740 During the past two decades, a the activities in their home territories. combination of factors- social , eco­ continued on page 15 nomic, political, and environmental- 2 Folklife Center News ARCHITECTURE AND PERSONAL EXPRESSION IN SOUTHERN WEST VIRGINIA

Two-story red dog block home with a permastone facade and a brick addition in Mt. Hope, West Virginia. (NRG-KH-6-63231-5) All photos for this article by Karen Hudson

By Karen Hudson a cultural heritage center being con­ magazine illustrations of windowless, structed by the National Park Seroice single-room log cabins to twentieth­ Between December and May 1992, at Grandview, West Virginia. In the century television programs focusing the American Folklife Center con­ course of her work, Hudson inter­ on unpainted, one- or two-room ducted a folklife suroey in the New viewed area residents, drove selected company houses with yards cluttered River Gorge region of West Virginia roads in three counties, noted both with rusty automobiles, the dominant (see Folklife Center News, winter culturalpatterns andanomalies, and image of the region has been the 1992). Karen Hudson worked as a made still photographs ofrepresenta­ dilapidated and weather-beaten memberofthe field team to conduct a tive sites. Appalachian home. preliminary suroey of the region 's While some of these presentations vernacular architecture. Tbepurposes For nearly a century, the various are authentic, some are contrived, and of her suroey were to describe the houses, barns, fences, and other man­ nearly all are selective. Both popular area's built environment, recommend made structures of the Appalachian and academic interpreters of Appala­ areas and activities for further field­ region have played a prominent role in chian culture have tended to focus work, and suggest how the resulting its representation in books, magazines, on extremes and, as a result, have discoveries might affect the design of and film. From nineteenth-century misrepresented the diversity and Spring 1992 3 reality of Appalachian life. In 1916 a understanding of the local history. that once people moved out of a com­ mountaineer complained to a church Many of the homes were originally pany town, they were especially ea­ official about the typical portrayal of constructed by coal and sawmill com­ ger to acquire homes that did not look the region: panies for their workers. They were like those they left behind. As a result, often constructed simultaneously many chose to purchase modern pre­ according to one homogeneous de­ fabricated houses, for example, the You missiona1y people do not treat us sign. The box or vertical-plank house Lustron, an all-steel factory-made right. You come with your cameras (cheap, fast to build, and temporary) home manufactured in Ohio between andphotograph our worst homes and was one of the most common types 1948 and 1950. While less than two ourlowestpeople and then throw them put up by area industrialists. thousand of the homes were ever on the screens to he seen. You never Throughout the gorge, whole towns made, I saw five during the brief sur­ tell ofour good people nor ofthe sub­ were built with row after row of vey of the New River Gorge. As origi­ stantial things ofthe community. But identical box houses. While the plans nally constructed, the Lustron was a I reckon you have to do that in order varied, the basic construction tech­ one-story, gable-roof ranch with an to get money out ofyour members nique did not. It consisted of vertical exterior and interior skin ofenameled (quoted in Dean Herrin, "Poor, Proud, boards attached to the sills and plates steel panels bolted to a structural­ andPrimitive: Images ofAppalachian to form both the interior and exterior steel frame and a concrete slab foun­ DomesticInteriors. "In Perspectives on walls , as well as the buildings' weight­ dation. Unlike the Jinn Linn, the home American Furniture, Gerald W.R. bearing supports (all posts, studs, and was durable, easy to maintain, strong, Ward, ed. [New York: WW. Norton, braces were eliminated). Narrow ver­ and equipped with features designed 1988], p. 101). tical strips called battens were often to attract a middle-class buyer, such placed over the spaces left between as a combination dishwasher and Like missionaries, academics have the boards. clothes-washing machine. The also tended to focus on selective fea­ Today, West Virginians commonly company's slogan was "A new stan­ tures of the Appalachian built envi­ call box houses "Jinn Linns" (some­ dard for living. " Other modern fac­ ronment. Most scholarly works can times pronounced "Jenny Lind," "Jinny tory-made houses popular in the New be divided into two broad types. The Lynn, " or "Gentle End"). Though box River Gorge included Sears mail order, first type concentrates on what is ob­ houses are located throughout the National, and Round "8." viously traditional (log cabins and Appalachian region, it appears that Since the first decade of the twen­ barns, for example), thus perpetuat­ West Virginia is the only state where tieth century, modern and innovative ing a romantic image of the region. the term, in its various forms, is com­ construction materials have been The second group focuses on the de­ monly employed. The origin of the produced locally. For example, a tailed documentation of industrial term to describe this house type is number of local plants made cinder sites, usually concentrating on com­ unclear. However, during the survey, blocks by grinding up "clinkers"­ pany-owned towns where mine own­ one local resident related a story con­ slag left over after coal was burnt­ ers and designers seem to have used cerning its etymology. She explained ancl molding them into blocks. Nu­ architecture to manipulate and con­ that Jenny Lynn was a coal camp resi­ merous cinder block building , in­ trol workers and their families. The dent. Because all the box houses in cluding homes, churches, gymnasi­ coal town studies tend to promote a her camp looked exactly the same, ums, barns, and outbuildings were culture-of-poverty image and present she decided to individualize her home constructed throughout the Gorge. Appalachians as helpless victims, by nailing narrow strips over the These buildings are easily identified rather than as actors in control oftheir spaces between the vertical boards, because of their bluish color. One own lives. thus creating the board and batten plant worker recalled that the making The American Folklife Center's New siding characteristic of Jinn Linn of cinder blocks ended in the late River Gorge survey revealed a much houses. Soon many others followed 1950s when power companies began more diverse landscape than has been her example, our informant explained, pulverizing coal before it was burned, described in the past. While it was and eventually named the house type thus leaving no clinkers as a by-prod­ easy for project researchers to locate after her. uct. Subsequently, most of the plants log cabins and abandoned coal towns, Unlike]enny Lynn, most coal camp began making standard concrete we also found many cinder block residents were required to maintain blocks. In fact, a number made ci nder bungalows, glazed tile barns and si­ their box houses according to strict block and concrete block simulta­ los, Lustron houses, concrete block company standards or risk eviction. neously, but, according to one worker, churches, Sears mail order homes, As the coal boom declined, however, builders preferred cinder blocks, even and geodesic domes. Contrary to past companies began selling the homes though they were not as water resis­ reports, the New River Gorge cultural to their tenants. Along with owner­ tant, because they were much lighter. landscape reflects the history of a ship, residents obtained the freedom "Red clog blocks" were another lo­ community that designed, built, and to maintain their homes according cally produced construction material. used its buildings according to indi­ to their own standards, and many When coal was removed from the vidual tastes and principles. And the chose to alter facades, make addi­ ground it was often mixed with black territo1y is dotted with homes whose tions, and execute other changes. slate. The slate was removed from the original appearances have been al­ While some residents chose to pur­ coal and dumped into huge piles. The tered to suit the occupant. chase their camp homes, others de­ pressure at the bottom of the clumps The individually styled facades may cided to leave the company-designed caused the slate to start burning natu­ appear quirky to the outsider, but camps altogether and construct their rally. After the black slate burned, it their meaning is revealed through an own homes. One resident commented turned red, thus producing red dog.

4 Folklife Center News Above: Typical Ginn Linn home with its characteristic board-and-batten siding, in Kilsyth, West Virginia. (NRG-KH-6-63231-6)

Below: Lustron home in Oak Hill , West Virginia. (NRG-KH-5-63231-20)

Spring 1992 5 The red dog was pulverized and example, yellow and red bricks and region, much of the architecture is molded into attractive dark red stones are often used for window pieced together from locally made blocks. and door trims, quoins, and belt and recycled materials-cinder blocks, Buildings constructed of cinder, courses (a projecting horizontal strip red dog blocks, field stones, tin,asphalt concrete, and red dog blocks are lo­ around the outside of a building). siding, and permastone. In the New cated throughout the New River The complex balance between River Gorge region of West Virginia Gorge region. The colorful materials formal design and personal ex­ materials rarely used in combination are often used in striking combina­ pression is the most striking feature in other areas are combined to make tions and an unusual amount of care of the New River Gorge landscape. a landscape filled with personal is given to their decorative detail. For Like the quilts commonly made in the meaning.

Above: Octagonal, cinder block, agricultural support building in Odd, West Virginia. (NRG -KH-6-63231 -13)

Below: Concrete block corn crib with red and yellow brick trim on the Whitlock mine pony farm in Fayette County, West Virginia. (NRG-KH-5-63231-13)

6 Folklife Center News Above: Cinder block smokehouse in Fayette County, West Virginia. (NRG-KH-62838-30)

Below: Glazed tile barn and silo in Oak Hill, West Virginia. Local builders used glazed tile to construct a host of buildings including homes and churches, as well as commercial and agricultural structures. (NRG-KH-6-63231-10)

.. ,.. -­

Editor's note: A number of scholars ern Mountains and Mountaineers Karen Hudson is a Ph.D. candi­ have, in recent years, examined the in the American Consciousness, date in the Department of Fo lk­ characteristics ofAppalachia. For ex­ 1870-1920 (Chapel Hill: Univer­ lore and Folklife at the University ample, Rodger Cunningham, sity of North Carolina Press, 1978); of Pennsy(vania, specializing in Apples on the Flood: The Southern and David E. Whisnant, All That Is vernacular architecture. She was Mountain Experience (Knoxville: Native and Fine: The Politics of a fieldworkerfor the Center's West University of Tennessee Press, Culture in an American Region Virginia cultural survey. 1987); Henry D. Shapiro, Appa­(C hapel Hill: University of North lachia On Our Mind: The South- Carolina Press, 1983) . Spring 1992 7 THE PENNSYLVANIA HERITAGE PARKS PROGRAM

By Shalom Staub "National Heritage Corridor" by act of the Delaware and Lehigh Navigation Congress, and came into existence Canal National Heritage Corridor in The Pennsylvania Heritage Parks through joint federal, state, and local eastern Pennsylvania. Program was instituted in 1989 to effort. The National Park Service has Interest in such efforts in Pennsylva­ create a system of "parks" designed played a key role in developing the nia at the state and local levels goes to promote tourism and economic heritage corridor concept, adapting and back a number of years. In 1984, three revitalization through the refining the concept and practice as state agencies collaborated to produce conservation and interpretation of a new efforts are made throughout the a report entitled Pennsylvania Heri­ region's industrial heritage. The country. tageParks: AConcept with Applications. program emphasizes a multi-phase Pennsylvania is now the site of four These three agencies, the Pennsylva­ planning process to assess and federally assisted heritage project areas nia Historical and Museum Commission develop conservation strategies for (at different stages in their and the departments ofEnvironmentaJ a region's historic, cultural, development): the nine-county Resources and Community Affairs, of­ recreational, and environmental America's Industrial Heritage Project fered the "Heritage Park Planning resources. "Heritage parks" require and the Steel Industry Heritage Park in Project" as a framework "to prese1ve and initiate a shift in symbolic southwestern Pennsylvania, the cultural resources in a manner which meaning, transforming areas of Lackawanna Heritage Valley in provides educational, recreational and industrial decline into "cradles of northeastern Pennsylvania, and economic benefits" by promoting American industrial heritage" with tourism potential and a revitalized Homestead Works in operation, 1905. (LC-0401-10924-LC) Prints and Photo­ community spirit that can attract new graphs Division, Library of Congress investment. Pennsylvania's efforts in this area built upon earlier "heritage park" models. Massachusetts was the first state to cre­ ate such a program, known as the Mas­ sachusetts Urban Heritage State Park program, and, in 1979, New York State created its Urban Cultural Parks Pro­ gram. Expanding the notion ofa "park," these early efforts encouraged people to think beyond open, green space and consider urban blocks and re­ stored mills and factories as constitut­ ing "parks." Still, in the pioneering Mas­ sachusetts model, the "heritage park" occupies a relatively small, circum­ scribed geographic bounda1y, akin to a historic district. The "heritage parks " model expanded significantly with the introduction of the "heritage corridor, .. first implemented in Illinois in 1984 along the remains ofthe historic Illinois and Michigan Canal. In 1985, another heritage corridor was established in the Blackstone River Valley linking Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Each of these projects was designated a 8 Folklife Center News Steel Industry Heritage Regional Planning Council meeting, 1991 . Consultant Elliot Rhodeside reviews his firm's draft maps of the proposed heritage area with council members. Photo by Randolph Harris tation-exceed all others in terms of numbers of people employed, the amount of capital invested, the value of their products, and their contribu­ tions to technological, labor, and business history over a sustained period of time. For brief periods, the lumber and oil industries have been significant employers and producers of industrial goods in the Common­ wealth and the nation. Agriculture has played a key role in Pennsylvania's economy from colo­ nial times to the present; in fact, agriculture is now the Common­ wealth's leading industry. The driving force behind the Heri­ tage Parks Program is economic de­ velopment. A Pennsylvania Heritage Park is designed to complement ex­ isting economic development initia­ tives in a region or even become a community revitalization and stimulat­ program that later received an initial primary program for economic revi­ ing tourism (Pennsylvania Heritage appropriation of $550,000 in the talization. The intent of the program Parks (Harrisburg: Commonwealth of Commonwealth's FY 1989-90 budget. is to stimulate economic activity in an Pennsylvania, 1984), page 1). The plan The Pennsylvania Heritage Parks area by attracting tourists for both called for the development of a set of Program does not seek to re-create the daily and overnight visitations, re­ regional and local parks drawing upon Massachusetts model ofstate-financed sulting in direct expenditures for tra­ existing historical resources. The plan and operated parks or the New York ditional visitor services such as food, offered screening criteria for evaluat­ model of state mandated and assisted lodging, retail sales, and entertain­ ing potential parks and described parks. Rather, the Pennsylvania pro­ ment. Other spin-off economic ob­ foity-two viable park possibilities, each gram takes a "bottom-up" approach, jectives are the creation of based closely on extant and potential emphasizing planning and process as employment opportunities, devel­ historic districts. much as product and local community opment and expansion ofsmall busi­ The initial proposal lay dormant un­ involvement as much as the inventory ness activity, and the formulation of til 1987, when the three agencies, with of historic, cultural, educational, and public/ private investment partner­ the addition of the Pennsylvania Heri­ recreational resources that eventually ships in the region. The attraction of tage Affairs Commission, revived the will constitute the park. major businesses, manufacturing, or concept and sought to respond to fed­ Our efforts focus on industrial industrial companies into the heritage erally assisted activities and growing heritage, appropriate enough for park area is a long-term goal that will interest in all corners of the state. The Pennsylvania's legacy of industrial add substantially to the success ofthe Heritage Parks Work Group, composed prominence and later decline. initiative. The promise of economic of staff from the Department of Com­ Projects must relate to one or more of revitalization has allowed this state munity Affairs and the Heritage Affairs the following industries: iron and program to grow at a time when many Commission, reevaluated the 1984 plan steel, coal, textile, machine and state programs are suffering sharp and reviewed the results ofthe ongoing foundry, transportation, lumber, oil, budgetary cutbacks. The appropria­ effotts in Massachusetts andNew York. and agriculture. The first five of tion grew to $950 thousand in fiscal Over the course of many months, the these-iron and steel, coal, textile, year 1990-91 and $2 million for fiscal Heritage Parks Work Group designed a machine and foundry, and transpor­ year 1991-92. Spring 1992 9 PENNSYLVANIA HERITAGE PARKS PROGRAM PROJECT AREAS

Source: Pennsylvania Departmenl of Community Affairs .,. ..., . S d p . April 1992 a StateHerit.gePark [] St.le Heritage Park Planning Area M Feas1111 11ty tu y ro1 ect

Although driven by a concern for conceptualized by applicants as the Force to represent a broad spectrum economic revitalization, the devel­ hulk-like remains of industrial struc­ ofinterest groups in the region and to opment of a heritage park depends tures and the tangible remains of an guide applicants towards an open, upon a fo undation of historical and industrial elite, what might be called participatory planning process with cultural resources. The program is the "sites and structures of the rich ample opportunity for public review intended to enhance community, re­ a nd fa m o u s " app roach . But and comment. gional, and state-wide awareness of Pennsylvania's Heritage Parks Pro­ Now moving into the implementa­ and pride in Pennsylvania's histori­ gram is set ap art from sim ilar ti on phase, the Pennsylvania Heritage cal and cultural legacy through the programs nationally by its insistence Parks program offers a model of the preservation, adaptive reuse, or res­ that "heri tage resources" encompass cultural conservation paradigm in to ratio n of historic sites a nd both the built environment and also action. This program bas shown that properties; the conservation of "in­ the human dimension of industrial new policy and program structures tangible" cultural resources through heritage: the social history of the can indeed overcome longstanding documentation, interp retive pro­ communities and workers who built disciplina1y and bureaucratic predis­ grams and events; and educational and sustained Pennsylvania's indus­ position and inertia and, in so doing, materials to be made available to the tri es, and the associated fo lklife : the establish exciting new alliances and public. A heritage park is also in­ living cultural traditions shared within creative interaction fo r the encour­ tended to link and enhance the occupational and ethnic groups and agement of fo lklife . educational and recreational infra­ local communities. structure o f the region . These We have used the term "cultural Shalom Staub is the executive director objectives are expressed in the five conservation" to encompass these of the Pennsylvania Heritage Affairs fo rmal goals of the Pennsylvania tangible and intangible elements of Commission. This article is adapted Heritage Parks Program: economic cultural heritage. Our focus on the from a longer verison to be published development, inter-governme ntal people and their own understanding in a collection of essays edited by cooperation, cultural conse1vation, oftheir heritage is consistent with the Mary Hufford, "Making Heritage: recreation, and education. program's overall "process" orienta­ Perspectives on Cultural Conserva­ Participation in the Heritage Parks tion, w hic h d e m and s local tion, "to be p ublished by the University Program depends heavily on the community involvement in shaping ofIllinois Press. availability and identification of the goals ofa particular heritage park. "heritage resources. " Almost invari­ The program requires each project to ably, these "resources" are first establish a Local Heritage Park Task 10 Folklife Center News NEPTUNE PLAZA CONCERT SERIES: FIFTEEN YEARS OF MUSICAL DIVERSITY

By James Hardin community and is played for that com­ munity. The series is Thea Caemmerer has wary offolk music in­ two telephone num­ terpreters who are not bers for the U.S. themselves steeped Weather Bureau, and in the traditions they one of them reaches a represent. real live meteorolo­ The Library ofCon­ gist. By 10:00 A.M., on gress h as a lo n g the third Thursday of history of musical the month, from April presentation, and the until October, she must first concert of fo lk determine whether musicians at the Li­ the American Folk­ brary was o n life Center's outdoor December 20, 1940, concert will, indeed, part of a four-concert take place outdoors. program in the Caemmerer is the Coolidge Auditorium Center's public events commemorating the coordinator, and the seventy-fifth anniver­ Neptune Plaza Con­ Edwin Colon of Edwin Colon Zayas y su Taller Campesino sary ofthe Thirteenth cert Series is one of performed traditional string music from Puerto Rico on April 23 , 1992, Amendment to the her chief responsi­ the inaugural concert of the fifteenth anniversary season of the Constitution, which bilities. On sunny Folklife Center's Neptune Plaza Concert Series. ended slavery. The Photo by Reid Baker days, the popular Golden Gate Quartet, series attracts Library with Josh White on employees, congressional staffers, bands representing Cajun, zydeco, guitar, was featured at "A Program of tourists, and devotees of the particular klezmer, Indonesian, Puerto Rican, Negro Folk Song w ith Commentary." music being presented. Many in the Cuban, Swiss, Irish, and many other The same year, the bead of the Folk audie nce have been notified in cultura l traditions. Archive, Alan Lomax, organized a advance by flyers and phone calls. The ambitious goal of bringing concert offolk musicians at the White They bring their lunches, sit on the many different kinds of music is re­ House. And in 1948, folksong col­ steps of the Library's Jefferson stricted by two considerations, one lector Helen Hartness Flanders, w ife Building or at the picnic tables on financial, the other philosophical. of Vermont senator Ralp h Flanders, either side of the plaza, and look "The series has a modest budget," presented a lecture and concert of across the stage to the U.S. Capitol says Caemmerer. "We book local New England balladry with three New and the lovely wooded grounds groups who don't have travel ex­ England fo lksingers, again in the surrounding it. They listen, applaud, penses. But to get groups from outside Libra1y 's Coolidge Auditorium. tap their feet, and sometimes get up the area, we have to piggyback, ar­ When the Folklife Center was cre­ to dance. range for our noontime concert when ated by an act of Congress in 1976, a Bluegrass and gospel are staples of they are in town to play evening reception was held in the Library's the six-event season, but the hallmark concerts elsewhere. We hope the Great Hall , on Februa1y 19. Perform­ is cultural diversity, the presentation prestige of the Library of Congress ers who took part in the program of many different musical traditions. and a congressional audience will were the Irish Tradition, the Country Since the series began in 1977, entice them." The second consider­ Gentleman, Mariachi America, Tony audiences have been entertained by ation pertains to the educational Alderman, Elizabeth Cotten, andj ohn Andean singers, Egyptian, flamenco, mission of the Folklife Center to Jackson. Another concert offolk mu­ Polish, and Hungarian dancers, blues present authentic folk music; that is , sicians was held on the Neptune Plaza guitarists, African drummers, and traditional music that comes from a in September, just outside the great Spring 1992 11 On September 23, 1976, Librarian of Congress Daniel J. Boorstin hosted a "picnic" to celebrate the decoration of the Neptune Plaza. The Court of Neptune Fountain is below the plaza, upper left, facing the street.

The Hungarian folk group Eletfa brought four musicians and six dancers to the Neptune Plaza for a June 21 , 1990, concert.

bronze doors to the Great Ha ll. This There were ball oons, popcorn, and initiatives at the Library celebrating time the celebration was billed as a cotton candy at that first o utdoor the U.S. Bicentennia l. picnic, and it arose from a more general concert (September 23, 1976), mak­ Enthusiasm fo r the concert led Alan impulse to make the vene rable ing it an American celebration Jabbour, the director of the Folklife institution a little Jess intimidating, a appropriate for the Bicentennial year. Center, to consid e r an annual seri es. little more friendly. The musicians e ngaged to perform He tho ught the series might bring When Daniel]. Boorstin took office were veteran blues singer and pianist public recognitio n to the new center, as Librarian of Congress in November Wilbert "Big Chi ef" Ellis of Birming­ make an immediate contribution to 1975, he discovered that the Neptune ham, Alabama, with James Bellman its home institution, and create a Plaza (named for the Coult ofNeptune o n electric bass; and guitarist and presence visible to the Congress Fountain that fronts the Thomas singer Jo hn "Bowling Green" Cephas across the street. How to arrange fo r Jefferson Building) was a much of Woodford, Virginia, accompanied a six-concert season seemed daunt­ underused resource that afforded by Phil Wiggins o n harmonica. The ing at first, but that problem was wonderful views in all directions. He musicians were recomme nded by solved by enlisting the aid ofanother urged Architect of the Capitol George Richard K. Spottswood, who was Washington folklore institutio n, o ne White to help him furnish the plaza working at the Library as a consultant that had been aro und almost as long with picnic tables, colorful umbrellas, on a fifteen-record seri es of folk mu­ at the Archi ve of Folk Culture-the and planters, tl1us adding a welcoming sic albums, Folk Music in America. National Council for the Traditional aspect to the building. The record project was one ofseveral Arts (NCTA) 12 Folklife Center News Mattie Johnson and the Stars of Faith , August 20, 1987. There are hundreds of gospel groups in the Washington , D.C., area, and gospel is featured regularly in the Neptune Plaza Concert series.

The NCTA was founded in 1933 as John Adams signed a bill appropriating 1992, to present traditional string the National Folk Festival Association. five thousand dollars "for the purchase music from Puerto Rico (introduced A private nonprofit organization, the ofsuch books as may be necessary for by Dan Sheehy), they inaugurated NCTA presents the National Folk the use of Congress." the fifteenth season of the eptune Festival each year and provides Since the Neptune Plaza Concert Plaza Concert Series. But the group technical and content assistance for Series began in 1977, it has relied on joined a company of folk musicians many folk arts presentations. Jabbour many advisors to guide the selection of whose performances at the Library worked out an arrangement with musicians. The NCTA no longer bandies began more than fifty years ago. In council director Joe Wilson to do the the bookings for the series, and Thea the thirties and forties , American folk bookings for the Neptune Plaza Concert Caemmerer consults with a variety of music may have meant Negro blues Series and a full program was arranged Washington-area persons: radio host and spirituals, ew England and for the 1977 season. Dick Spottswood; Dan Sheehy, director Appalachian ballads. Today the The first concert in the series was ofthe Folk Alts Program ofthe National American Folklife Center extends its held April 25, 1977, and featured the Endowment for the Arts; Lee Michael purview to embrace a far greater Blue Grass Cardinals. Like the previous Dempsey, bluegrass specialist; Nick diversity of cultural expression. The year's concert, it too was a "picnic," Spitzer, a fo lklorist often featured on success of the Neptune Plaza Concert with balloons, popcorn, and hot dogs. ational Public Radio; Joe Wilson, Series continues to depend on one The program was also billed as a l 77th director of the National Council on the central impulse, the devotion ofmany birthday party for the Library of Traditional Arts; Michael Licht, the persons to the varied folk traditions Congress (one day belated, so as to District ofColumbia folklorist; and staff in this land of many musics. accommodate the schedules of the members at the Smithsonian Institution Librarian and Deputy Librarian), and and the Folklife Center. included a large cake. The Library was When Edwin Colon y su Taller founded April24, 1800, whenPresident Campesino took the stage on April 23, Spring 1992 13 OMAHA INDIAN MUSIC RECORDING

Center director Alan Jabbour presented a documentary recording of Omaha Indian music to Charles Lone Wolf of the Hethu'shka (Warrior Society) from the Omaha Tribe in Macy, Nebraska, after the group performed at the Library of Congress on August 22, 1985. Photo by John Gibb

Omaha Indian Music, produced by and 1910 by e thnologists Alice is available from the Library of Con­ the American Folklife Center in coop­ Cunningham Fletcher and Francis La gress, Motion Pi cture, Broadcasting, eration with the Omaha tribe, features Flesche. Although the fid elity of these and Recorded Sound Division, Wash­ dance songs of the Hethu'shka Soci­ histori c recordings cannot compare ington, D. C. 20540, fo r a special price ety, along w ith the traditional Omaha with those made through contempo­ of fo ur dollars ($4), including post­ funeral song, the Song of the Maize, rary technology, they are remarkably age. Make checks payable to Libra1y love songs, and other social songs of good and convey the vitality and exu­ o f Cong ress, M/ B/ RS Division. the Omaha people. The songs on the berance of Omaha traditio n. The al­ album were selected from wax-cylin­ bum is accompanied by a seventeen­ der recordings made between 1895 page booklet. Omaha Indian Music 14 Folklife Center News EDITOR'S NOTES (from page 2) article points out, there were many Acadian Origins connections between the Francophone settlers and the Indians, and this lin­ FOLKilNE A note from England offers an guistic borrowing seems logical. After For timely information on the field explanation for the etymological ori­ reports of the area's fertility reached of folklore and folklife , including gins of the term Acadian, as it was France, "le Cadie" was altered to training and professional opportuni­ discussed in Folklife Center News (fall "Acadie" or Arcadia, .a logical and ties and news items of national inter­ 1991), Ray Brassieur, "The Long Hard perhaps even Rousseauan embel­ est, a taped announcement is avail­ Road to Madawaska: Acadian Cultural lishment. And of course, the able around the clock, except during Retention in Maine's Upper St. John pronunciation of the tenn "Acadien" the hours of 9A.M . until noon (east­ Valley." with the soft "d" easily slipped into the ern time) each Monday, when it is I would like to note that although I am current term "Cajun" to refer to those updated. Folklifle is a joint project of transplanted to Louisiana. not a scholar of the subject, I do know the American Folklife Center and the that the origin of the term "Acadie" in American Folklore Society. Dial: reference to pre-British Nova Scotia Yours Sincerely, comes from the Indian term "quaddy" Joe Boyd 202 707-2000 as in "Passamaquaddy" and means Rykodisc UK Ltd "bountiful land." As your interesting London, England

Concert Series T-shirts

Folklife Center staff members at the Court ofNeptune Fountain in front of the Library's Jefferson Building, wearing Neptune Plaza Concert Series T-shirts (top row: Victoria Brown, Thea Caemmerer; bottom row: Tim Lloyd, Hillary Glatt,Jim Hardin). The T-shirts feature a multi-color representation of Neptune with banjo, and are available from the American Folklife Center, Attn: Concert T-shirt, Libra1y of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540, for $12, including postage and handling. State size: small, medium, large, or extra-large. Make checks payable to the American Folklife Center. Spring 1992 15 Ingot-forging on train car, Homestead Works, Pennsylvania, 1894. The folklife and cultural heritage of industrial regions figure in the planning of the Pennsylvania Heritage Parks Program, which is described by Shalom Staub on page 8. Photo from Carnegie Library of Homestead, courtesy of Randolph Harris

THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS BULK RATE AMERICAN FOLKLIFE CENTER POSTAGE & FEES PAID LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WASHINGTON, D.C.. 20540 WASHINGTON, D.C. PERMIT No. G-103

OFFICIAL BUSINESS PENALTY FOR PRIVATE USE , $300

ISSN 0149-6840 Catalog Ca rd No. 77-649628