Folklife Center News A m e r i c A n F o l k l i F e c e n t e r RobeRt buRns at 250: nimRod WoRKman aRChie GReen aFC symposium Goes diGital 1917-2009 BOARD OF TRUSTEES Congressional Appointees: C. Kurt Dewhurst, Chair, Michigan Daniel Botkin, California Mickey Hart, California Dennis Holub, South Dakota William L. Kinney, Jr., South Carolina Charlie Seemann, Nevada Kay Kaufman Shelemay, Massachusetts Librarian Appointees: Jane Beck, Vice-chair, Vermont Maribel Alvarez, Arizona 3 Read about AFC’s 9 Riveting old-time singing 11 Folklorist, shipwright, Tom Rankin, North Carolina symposium celebrating the from coal miner, labor librarian, and labor Donald Scott, Nevada poetry and folklore collecting of activist, and folksinger Nimrod historian Archie Green was crucial Ex Officio Members Robert Burns, Scotland’s national Workman, now digitized. to the founding of AFC. James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress poet. G. Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution AmericAn FolkliFe center Rocco Landesman, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts The American Folklife Center was created in 1976 by the U.S. Congress to “preserve and present Jim A. Leach, Chairman, National Endowment American folklife” through programs of research, documentation, archival preservation, reference for the Humanities service, live performance, exhibition, publication, and training. The Center incorporates the Archive Elaine Lawless, President, American Folklore of Folk Culture, which was established in the Music Division of the Library of Congress in 1928 and Society is now one of the largest collections of ethnographic material from the United States and around the Deborah Wong, President, Society for world. Ethnomusicology Folklife Center News publishes articles on the programs and activities of the American Folklife Peggy A. Bulger, Director, American Folklife Center, as well as other articles on traditional expressive culture. It is available free of charge from the Center Library of Congress, American Folklife Center, 101 Independence Avenue, S.E., Washington, D.C. Judith McCulloh (Emerita), Illinois 20540–4610. Folklife Center News does not publish announcements from other institutions or reviews of books from publishers other than the Library of Congress . Readers who would like to comment on Center Folklife Center News activities or newsletter articles may address their remarks to the editor. Volume 31, Nos. 1-2, Winter-Spring 2009 OnLinE inFORMATiOn RESOURCES: The American Folklife Center’s Website provides Stephen D. Winick, Editor full texts of many AFC publications, information about AFC projects, multimedia presentations David A. Taylor, Editorial Advisor of selected collections, links to Web resources on ethnography, and announcements of upcoming Morgan E. Greene, Designer events. The address for the home page ishttp://www.loc.gov/folklife/ . An index of the site’s contents is available at http://www.loc.gov/folklife/az-index.html. Cover: “Portrait of Robert Burns, Ayr, Scotland” The Website for The Veterans History Project provides an overview of the project, an online “kit” for from the LC Prints and Photographs Division participants recording oral histories of veterans, and a brief presentation of some examples of video- Photochrom Print Collection. Reproduction and audio-recordings of veterans’ stories. The address is http://www.loc.gov/vets. Number LC-DIG-ppmsc-07528 AMERiCAn FOLkLiFE CEnTER STAFF Administration: Maggie Kruesi, Cataloger Veterans History Project: Alexa Potter, Librarian (Research Peggy A. Bulger, Director Valda Morris, Processing Technician Robert Patrick, Director Specialist) Mary Bucknum, Assistant to Marcia Segal, Processing Archivist Rachel Mears, Supervisory Program David Sager, Processing Technician the Director Nora Yeh, Archivist, Coordinator Specialist Gabrielle Sanchez, Archivist Michael Taft, Head, Archive Megan Halsband, Processing Technician Monica Mohindra, Supervisory Liaison Jason Steinhauer, Liaison Specialist David A. Taylor, Head, Research and Bert Lyons, Digital Assets Manager Specialist Jamie Stevenson, Liaison Specialist Programs Reference: Donna Borden, Program Assistant Aron Swan, Processing Technician Rada Stojanovich-Hayes, Jennifer A. Cutting, Folklife Specialist Yvonne Brown, Processing Technician Lisa Taylor, Liaison Specialist Administrative Assistant Judith A. Gray, Folklife Tamika Brown, Processing Technician Stephanie Weaver, Processing Research and Programs: Specialist, Coordinator Ariel De, Program Officer Technician Theadocia Austen, Public Events Stephanie A. Hall, Automation Tracey Dodson, Executive Assistant Tom Wiener, Librarian (Research Coordinator Specialist Jennifer Eidson, Processing Technician Specialist) Peter Bartis, Folklife Specialist Todd Harvey, Folklife Specialist Megan Harris, Librarian (Collection American Folklife Center: Nancy Groce, Folklife Specialist Ann Hoog, Folklife Specialist Specialist) Tel: 202 707–5510 Guha Shankar, Folklife Specialist Pinesha Harrison, Program Assistant Fax: 202 707–2076 Audio Engineering: Jeffrey Lofton, Liaison Specialist Stephen D. Winick, Writer-Editor Jonathan Gold, Audio Technician E-mail: [email protected] Candace Milburn, Processing www.loc.gov/folklife Processing and Cataloging: Digital Conversion: Technician Catherine Hiebert Kerst, Archivist John Barton, Specialist David Novack, Processing Technician Robert Burns at 250: Poetry, Politics, and Performance quickly recognized, and he By Nancy Groce was soon being hailed and very year on January 25, devotees across the globe celebrated as a literary lion gather to mark the birthday of the beloved Scottish poet throughout Scotland. In the ERobert Burns. They hold formal dinners and celebrations decade that followed, his that include recitations, songs, and toasts. No other artist is so works were published widely consistently or widely feted on his birthday. In addition to his in books and periodicals in work as a poet, Burns was a pioneering collector and preserver Britain and North America. of folksongs. It seemed only right, therefore, that for the 250th His career as a farmer birthday of the “lad born in Kyle,” the American Folklife Center proved less successful, (AFC) should organize a major public event to explore Burns and, in 1788, he accepted and his contributions as a poet, songwriter, and folklorist. an appointment with the With this in mind, on February 24 and 25, 2009, AFC pre- Customs and Excise service An 1865 Letter inviting President sented the free public symposium Robert Burns at 250: Poetry, and moved first to Ellisland, Abraham Lincoln to make a toast Politics, and Performance. The well-attended symposium and then to the southwest- to Robert Burns, now preserved explored Burns’s life and work, as well as his lasting impact on ern Scottish market town of in the LC Manuscript Division. America and American culture. Leading scholars, politicians, Dumfries in 1791. He responded, “Thinking of what poets, and musicians from Scotland and the United States Few poets have moved as [Burns] has said, I cannot say joined experts from the Library of Congress, including the easily between the worlds of anything worth saying.” U.S. Poet Laureate. The event was produced in cooperation rural folk poetry, folksong, with the Library’s Center for the Book and the Library’s Poetry and urban literary circles as Robert Burns. A talented poet and Literature Center, and was made possible with generous in both the Scots and English languages, Burns was also a support from the Scottish Government, as part of dedicated collector of Homecoming Scotland 2009. folksongs and tunes, an Scotland’s National Poet able musician, and a Robert Burns is more than a poet; he has gifted lyricist. In addition served as an icon and inspiration for generations to his poems, folklorists of artists, performers, politicians, social admire Burns for the activists, and cultural reformers throughout the significant contributions world. Burns was born in Alloway, near Ayr, in he made to seminal southwestern Scotland, on January 25, 1759. He published anthologies was the eldest of the seven children of William of Scottish songs and Burnes, a tenant farmer, and his wife Agnes ballads, such as George Broun. Growing up in poverty with little formal Thompson’s A Select schooling, the poet nevertheless received a solid Collection of Original education from his father and several local tutors Scottish Airs for the in subjects that included French, Latin, and Voice (1793), and mathematics. He began writing poetry and song James Johnson’s The lyrics at the age of fifteen. By twenty, following his Scots Musical Museum family’s move to a farm near Tarbolton, he became (1787-1797). For these active in a country dance society and joined books, and others like several local clubs and lodges. them, Burns sometimes In 1786, at the urging of his brother Gilbert submitted original and some of his friends, Burns published his first poems set to traditional volume of poetry, Poems, Chiefly in the Scot- tunes, which allowed the tish Dialect, in Kilmarnock. The volume was an “Robert Burns and his Highland Mary,” a litho- tunes to be published immediate critical success, and a second edi- graph published in 1846 by N. Currier. LC Prints and preserved. He also tion, printed in Edinburgh soon thereafter, proved & Photographs Division, reproduction number LC- wrote and edited verses a financial success as well. Burns’s talent was USZC2-2962. based on traditional AmericAn FolkliFe center news 3 This unusual copy of “Auld