CENTER NEWS SUMMER 1994 • VOLUME XVI, NUMBER 3 American Folklife Center • The Library of Congress EDITOR'S NOTES Federal Cylinder Project Legacies Tel: 202 707-1740 Folklore is resilient; itworks in many Board of Trustees ways to keep tradition going. Occa­ sionally a little institutional help is Juris Ubans, Chair, Maine useful, however, as in the several Robert Malir, Jr., Vice-chair , Kansas cases described in this issue of Folklife Nina Archabal, Minnesota Center News. Lindy Boggs, Louisiana; Norvus Miller died on May 1, Washington, D.C. 1994. But the sixteen musicians in Carolyn Hecker, Maine the Kings of Harmony band he di­ Judith McCulloh, Illinois rected for seventeen years include The American Folklife Center Ex Officio Members two of his sons, who carry on the was created in 1976 by the U.S. Con­ James H. Billington, family musical tradition. Children gress to "preserve and present Librarian of Congress growing up in the House of Prayer, American folklife" through pro­ Robert McCormick Adams, Susan Levitas reports, "were encour­ grams of research, documentation, Secretan1 of the Smithsonian Institution aged to pick up instruments and sit archival preservation, reference ser­ Jane Alexander, Chairman, in with older bands." Many learn to vice, live performance, exhibition, play by "observation, imitation, and publication, and training. The Cen­ National Endowment for the Arts ter incorporates the Archive of Folk Sheldon Hackney, Chairman, inundation," elements in the pro­ Culture, which was established in National Endowment for the Humanities cess of traditional learning. the Music Division of the Library of Alan Jabbour, Director, RalphRinzlerdiedonJuly2, 1994. Congress in 1928, and is now one of American Folklife Center But the Festival of AmericanFolklife the largest collections of ethno­ on the National Mall he helped to establish in 1967 continues to attract graphic material from the United FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS States and around the world. thousands of tourists each summer, James Hardin, Editor providing pleasure, instruction, and David A. Taylor, Editorial Advisor insight into the diversity of Ameri­ Timothy Lloyd, Editorial Review Administration can cultural life. John Biggs, Library of Congress Paterson, New Jersey, is said to Alan Jabbour, Director Graphics Unit, Designer Timothy Lloyd, Acting Deputy Director be the first planned industrial center Doris Craig, Administrative Assistant continued on page 11 Stephanie Parks, Clerk Folklife Center News publishes ar­ ticles on the programs and activities Camila Bryce-Laporte, of the American Folklife Center, as Program Coordinator well as other articles on traditional FOLKLINE Jennifer A. Cutting, expressive culture. Itis available free For timely information on the field Program Coordinator of charge from the Library of Con­ of folklore and fo lklife, including Acquisitions gress, American Folklife Center, training and professional opportu­ Joseph C. Hickerson, Head Washington, D.C. 20540-8100. The nities and news items of national Processing text of issues of Folklife Center News interest, a taped announcement is Stephanie A. Hall, Archivist from Spring 1992 to the present are available around the clock, except Catherine Hiebert Kerst, available on LC MARVEL, the Li­ during the hours of 9 A.M. until American Memory Project brary of Congress's Internet Gopher noon (eastern time) each Monday, server. LC MARVEL is available Programs when it is updated. Folkline is a through your local Gopher server. Peter T. Bartis, Folklife Specialist joint project of the American Or you may connect directly Folklife Center and the American Mary Hufford, Folklife Specialist through Telnet to marvel.loc.gov, Folklore Society. Dial: David A. Taylor, Folklife Specialist and then login as marvel. From the Publications main menu, choose "Research and 202 707-2000 James Hardin, Editor Reference," then "Reading Rooms," Public Events then "American Folklife Center," then "Publications," then "Folklife Theadocia Austen, Coordinator Cover: Paterson mill worker uses a ma­ Center News." Folklife Center News Reference chine to make special punched cards does not publish announcements Gerald E. Parsons, Reference Librarian that, when laced together, will be used to from other institutions or reviews of Judith A. Gray, Folklife Specialist program a complicated pattern for fabric books from publishers other than woven on a Jacquard loom, ca. 1930. As Administrative Office the Library of Congress. Readers he works, he refers to a designer's pat­ Tel: 202 707-6590 who would like to comment on Cen­ tern, printed on "punch paper," mounted Fax: 202 707-2076 ter activities or newsletter articles in front of him. The design shown here 1s Reference Service may address their remarks to the an inverted image of the Great Falls on Tel: 202 707-5510 editor. the Passaic River, and the small bridge above them, in Paterson. Courtesy of The Paterson Museum 2 Folklife Center News American Folklife Center Documents Occupational Culture in Paterson, New Jersey Young girls transfer "hard silk" from skeins onto bobbins at a Paterson "throwing" mill, ca. 1900. In mills of this kind, raw silk fibers were made into thread for weaving and sewing. Courtesy of The Paterson Museum By David A Taylor Park Service (Philadelphia). It is one riched sense of local historic and of several projects underway in cultural resources for residents and A team of researchers from the Paterson, Perth Amboy, and Tren­ visitors. But "Working in Paterson" American Folklife Center has begun ton, New Jersey, that derive from will consider living culture, and par­ a four-month study of occupational the 1992 federal Urban History Ini­ ticularly the ways community life culture in Paterson, New Jersey, the tiative (UHi). These projects are con­ and values are shaped by work. nation's first planned industrial area. cerned primarily with assessing, The Urban History Initiative was The Center is conducting the stabilizing, and restoring historic sponsored in Congress by U.S. study, called "Working in Paterson," buildings and other structures in Senator FrankR. Lautenberg(D-New in conjunction with the Mid-Atlan­ order to revitalize deteriorating busi­ Jersey), a native of Paterson. Sen­ tic Regional Office of the National ness districts and provide an en- ator Lautenberg wrote the UHi Summer 1994 3 legislation "to spark interest in New Jersey's rich urban history that can helpspurthe economic revitalization of our cities today." The senator says that he is "delighted that the American Folklife Center will be lending its considerable resources and expertise to illuminating Paterson's past through an examination of labor and industry's contribution to community life and family values. This will be anessential part of the UHi legislation, to help make New Jersey's cities the economic and cultural jewels they were in the past." aterson's historic district in­ cludes the site of the first at­ tempt in the United States to Pharness the power of a major river-the Passaic-for industrial purposes. Well-known figures in the nation's history were involved in that endeavor, including Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the treasury, who was the leading advo­ cate; and Pierre L'Enfant, the engi­ neer-architect of Washington, D.C., who was commissioned to lay out the town and design the hydraulic system that powered the mills (al­ though he did not carry out the com­ mission). Paterson came into promi­ nence as a manufacturing center in the nineteen thcentury, whenits mills produced textiles, machinery, Colt revolvers, and locomotives. By 1870, Statue of Alexander Hamilton gazing at the Passaic Fal ls, Paterson, Paterson was the leading producer New Jersey. Photo by David Taylor of silk in the United States. Today, many of the mill buildings, where "Even during the Revolution Hamilton had been impressed by the silk and other products were manu­ site of the Great Falls of the Passaic. His fertile imagination factured, still stand. envisioned a great manufacturing center, a great Federal City, to The American Folklife Center­ supply the needs of the co untry. Here was water- power to turn the which has engaged in many studies mi ll wheels and the navigable river to carry manufactured goods to of regional, ethnic, and occupational the market centers: a national manufactory." culture throughout the nation-be­ From Paterson, book II, section II, by William Carlos Williams gan field research in Paterson inJune 1994. Four cultural specialists have been engaged to work on the project, assess the form and function of vari­ order to inform members of the com­ under the direction of Center folklor­ ous occupational traditions, and pho­ munity about the conclusions of the ist David Taylor, to discover the tograph a variety of workers and project; an illustrated booklet, writ­ meaning of work as seen through the work-related events. ten for a general audience, that will eyes of active and retired Paterson Four principal products of the illuminate central issues concerning workers: folklorist and Paterson na­ study are planned: a report for the work in Paterson; and an archival tive Tom Carroll; documentary pho­ National Park Service that will dis­ collection consisting of taped inter­ tographer Martha Cooper; folklorist cuss field research findings and make views, photographs, researchers' Susan Levitas; and folklorist Bob recommendations for specific publi­ fieldnotes, and other documentary McCarl. The researchers will inter­ cations, exhibitions, curriculum ma­