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American  Folklife Center - Washington, DC

American Folklife Center
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  1. Recent Posts by Others on American Folklife CenterSee All
    • Joseph Sciorra
       my new blog post
      1 · October 17 at 6:07pm
  2. Will he or won't he? In honor of "No Beard Day," just one of the wacky holidays celebrated on October 18, here is a photo of Louis McDowell preparing to give AFC fieldworker David Taylor a shave during our Working in Paterson fieldwork project in 1994. Strangely, Taylor still has a beard to this day.

    October 18 is also Chocolate Cupcake Day. Enjoy!
    Photo: Will he or won't he?  In honor of "No Beard Day," just one of the wacky holidays celebrated on October 18, here is a photo of Louis McDowell preparing to give AFC fieldworker David Taylor a shave during our Working in Paterson fieldwork project in 1994.  Strangely, Taylor still has a beard to this day.

October 18 is also Chocolate Cupcake Day.  Enjoy!
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  4. Please join us this Saturday afternoon for a free concert of folk and early music from Joel Frederiksen and friends. The program is an afternoon of Americana from the stunning, widely acclaimed Rose of Sharon project, which enjoyed a well-d...
    eserved spot in the Billboard Top 10 for 2011. Echoing some of the earliest voices in American music, Frederiksen and his colleagues weave a beautiful tapestry tracing the nation’s history and heritage in ballads, folksongs, Shaker hymns and spirituals, music from revival meetings and battlefields – and the new products of America’s first composers, Francis Hopkinson and William Billings. Joel Frederiksen is a former American Folklife Center intern who has been strongly influenced by folk music. Ticket info at the link (scroll down!), or call the Library's music division during business hours at (202) 707-8432 and ask them to hold tickets for you. Once again, it's free!
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  6. http://lcweb4.loc.gov/natlib/ihas/service/afc9999005/AFS_4234-4999_B2/0424r.jpg

    In 1977, Irish filmmaker Tiernan MacBride created a short film set to Paul Brady's 1976 recording of the song "Arthur McBride and the Sergeant." Conceived as ...
    a short dramatic film, it has few of the characteristics of music videos, which would become popular only a few years later. See the film at the link!

    Paul Brady's recording of this song was destined to become a classic of the Irish folk revival. Few people know that his version came from American oral tradition; he learned it from a transcription of the singing of Carrie Grover of Gorham, Maine. As far as we know, there is only one place researchers can hear a field recording of Mrs. Grover singing the song: The American Folklife Center. We can't place it online at the moment, but you can see the catalog card at the link above.
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  7. http://memory.loc.gov/afc/afcreed/137/13705b06.mp3

    On this day in 1859, the radical abolitionist John Brown led a raid on the federal armory at Harper's Ferry, Virginia. The raid failed, and he was captured and later hanged. A number of ...
    related folksongs and fiddle tunes commemorate this incident, including Henry Reed's "John Brown's a-Hanging on a Sour Apple Tree," which you can hear at the link.

    Alan Jabbour notes: "Henry Reed's air is evidence of the folksongs in circulation about John Brown that became the basis for Julia Ward Howe's patriotic hymn 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic.' His version implies a verse and refrain using essentially the same melodic material, as is the case with 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic.'"
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    Photo: http://memory.loc.gov/afc/afcreed/137/13705b06.mp3

On this day in 1859, the radical abolitionist John Brown led a raid on the federal armory at Harper's Ferry, Virginia.  The raid failed, and he was captured and later hanged.  A number of related folksongs and fiddle tunes commemorate this incident, including Henry Reed's "John Brown's a-Hanging on a Sour Apple Tree," which you can hear at the link.  

Alan Jabbour notes:  "Henry Reed's air is evidence of the folksongs in circulation about John Brown that became the basis for Julia Ward Howe's patriotic hymn 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic.' His version implies a verse and refrain using essentially the same melodic material, as is the case with 'The Battle Hymn of the Republic.'"
  8. http://memory.loc.gov/afc/afccc/audio/a387/a3873a2.mp3

    Today is the Birthday of pioneering American astronomer Asaph Hall, after whom Hall crater on the moon is named. In his honor, let's hear "Serenade to the Moon," by Alice Lemos Avila ...
    and friends, recorded by Sidney Robertson Cowell in Oakland, California on January 23, 1939.

    Hall was an astronomer with the U.S. Naval Observatory from 1862 until 1891. According to published biographies of Hall, early in his tenure there, he was recording observations at night and received an impromptu visit from President Abraham Lincoln and one of his cabinet secretaries. Hall allowed his visitors to observe the moon through the telescope. A few nights later, alone in the middle of the night, President Lincoln returned to ask Hall why the image in the great telescope was inverted!

    Hall continued on to a distinguished career in Astronomy, most famously discovering the moons of Mars, Deimos and Phobos, in 1877.

    Asaph Hall is the great-grandfather of folklorist and AFC staff member Stephanie Hall, a member of our facebook team.
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    Photo: http://memory.loc.gov/afc/afccc/audio/a387/a3873a2.mp3

Today is the Birthday of pioneering American astronomer Asaph Hall, after whom Hall crater on the moon is named.  In his honor, let's hear "Serenade to the Moon," by Alice Lemos Avila and friends, recorded by Sidney Robertson Cowell in Oakland, California on January 23, 1939. 

Hall was an astronomer with the U.S. Naval Observatory from 1862 until 1891.  According to published biographies of Hall, early in his tenure there, he was recording observations at night and received an impromptu visit from President Abraham Lincoln and one of his cabinet secretaries.  Hall allowed his visitors to observe the moon through the telescope.  A few nights later, alone in the middle of the night, President Lincoln returned to ask Hall why the image in the great telescope was inverted!

Hall continued on to a distinguished career in Astronomy, most famously discovering the moons of Mars, Deimos and Phobos, in 1877.

Asaph Hall is the great-grandfather of folklorist and AFC staff member Stephanie Hall, a member of our facebook team.
  9. http://www.loc.gov/rr/perform/concert/1213-schedule.html#oct13

    Celebrating Woody Guthrie at the Library of Congress with Noel Stookey, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, and Jimmy LaFave

    On Saturday, October 13, 2012, the American Folklife Center and...
    the Library's Music Division will join forces to celebrate the
    legacy of Woody Guthrie. The event begins at 1:00 in the Whittall Pavilion of the Library's Thomas Jefferson Building, where AFC curator Todd Harvey will present highlights of AFC's Woody Guthrie Collections. This will be followed at 2:00 by a performance and conversation next door in the Coolidge Auditorium, featuring three prominent musicians who carry on Guthrie's legacy: Noel Stookey ("Paul" of the popular folk group Peter, Paul and Mary), Ramblin' Jack Elliott, and Jimmy LaFave. The conversation will be moderated by Bob Santelli, Executive Director of the Grammy Museum and author of "This Land Is Your Land: Woody Guthrie and the Journey of an American Folk Song."

    The curator talk is free and open to the public with no tickets required. The concert is presented free of charge to the public but requires tickets for admission. Tickets are available from www.ticketmaster.com, or by calling (202) 397-7328.

    The Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building is located at 10 First Street, SE, Washington, DC 20540.
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  10. Join the director of AFC's Veterans History Project, Bob Patrick, at Ford’s Theatre on Monday, October 15, at 7 p.m., for a free panel discussion he will moderate featuring Colonel Karl James Hackbarth, former U.S. Air Force Staff Sergeant ...
    David Hall and Brig. Gen. Tammy Smith. The panel is part of The Lincoln Legacy Project, a multi-year effort by Ford’s Theatre to create dialogue in our nation’s capital around the issues of tolerance, equality and acceptance.
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  11. http://memory.loc.gov/afc/afcftv/51/5161a2.mp3

    On this day in 1854, the Siege of Sevastopol began, pitting the allied armies and navies of Britain, France, and Turkey against the Russian army and Black Sea fleet. The siege was the subject ...
    of several songs and musical compositions, one of which entered American folk and blues tradition under such titles as "Vestapol" and "Sevassafool." At the link above, hear Syndey Stripling play his version, on a field recording by John W. Work III from AFC's online collection "Now What a Time." At the link below, see the Library's selection of early "Sebastopol" sheet music. It is believed that the blues tune is based on the composition by Henry Worrall, who also published "Spanish Fandango," another tune to become a staple of fingerstyle blues. The absorption of such light-classical "parlor guitar" pieces into the early blues repertoire is an under-appreciated aspect of the history of the blues.

    http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/search?sort=titlesort&view=thumbnail&query=Sebastopol&submit=GO
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    5161a2
    Unknown Artist - Unknown Album
    memory.loc.gov
  12. http://www.loc.gov/folklife/news/pdf/afcnews-summer-2006.pdf

    On this day in 1861, the American painter Frederic Remington was born. Remington became the best-known illustrator of cowboys and other Western themes in his lifetime. The 1893...
    Harper's Monthly story "Evolution of the Cowpuncher," written by Owen Wister and illustrated by Remington, has been described as the earliest description of the cowboy as a mythic American figure, and was influential on the genre of western fiction and film. In Summer 2006, we used Remington's classic 1901 print "Arizona Cow-Boy" on the cover of Folklife Center News, to illustrate David Stanley's article on Cowboy Poetry. See the print at the Library's Prints and Photographs Division (link below) and our use of it in FCN (link above).
    See More
  13. Celebrating Woody Guthrie at the Library of Congress with Noel Stookey, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, and Jimmy LaFave

    On Saturday, October 13, 2012, the American Folklife Center and the Library's Music Division will join forces to celebrate the ...
    legacy of Woody Guthrie. The event begins at 1:00 in the Whittall Pavilion of the Library's Thomas Jefferson Building, where AFC curator Todd Harvey will present highlights of AFC's Woody Guthrie Collections. This will be followed at 2:00 by a performance and conversation next door in the Coolidge Auditorium, featuring three prominent musicians who carry on Guthrie's legacy: Noel Stookey ("Paul" of the popular folk group Peter, Paul and Mary), Ramblin' Jack Elliott, and Jimmy LaFave. The conversation will be moderated by Bob Santelli, Executive Director of the Grammy Museum and author of "This Land Is Your Land: Woody Guthrie and the Journey of an American Folk Song."

    The curator talk is free and open to the public with no tickets required. The concert is presented free of charge to the public but requires tickets for admission. Tickets are available from www.ticketmaster.com, or by calling (202) 397-7328.

    The Library of Congress Thomas Jefferson Building is located at 10 First Street, SE, Washington, DC 20540.
    See More
  14. On October 2, 1835, the Texas Revolution began. Listen to "Santa Anna's Retreat," played on the fiddle by Henry Reed, recorded by Alan Jabbour, August 27, 1966: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.afc.afcreed.13035a33/default.html

    Te...
    xas declared itself a republic in 1836, but Mexico did not formally give up its claim until the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848. The map is "A New Map of Texas," by J.H. Young, published by S. Augustus Mitchell in 1835.
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    Photo: On October 2, 1835, the Texas Revolution began. Listen to "Santa Anna's Retreat," played on the fiddle by Henry Reed, recorded by Alan Jabbour, August 27, 1966:  http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.afc.afcreed.13035a33/default.html   

Texas declared itself a republic in 1836, but Mexico did not formally give up its claim until the end of the Mexican-American War in 1848.  The map is "A New Map of Texas," by J.H. Young, published by S. Augustus Mitchell in 1835.
  15. Happy Birthday to Gillian Welch!

    In addition to her many accomplishments as a singer, songwriter, and recording artist, Welch has an interesting connection to the American Folklife Center Archive. In the film "O Brother, Where Art Thou,"...
    Welch provided the voice of one the "Sirenes," seductive mermaid-like women encountered by the film's protagonists. The lullaby sung by Welch and the other Sirenes (voiced by Emmylou Harris and Alison Krauss) was found by the film's music supervisor in the Archive's Alan Lomax Collection.

    Read about this and other uses of AFC's music in the Winter-Spring 2011 issue of Folklife Center News, here:

    http://www.loc.gov/folklife/news/index.html

    See the film clip here:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dl2L4v6ecM

    Hear the original field recording by Sidney Hemphill Carter, here:

    http://c0383352.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/audio/T862R13.mp3
    See More
    Photo: Happy Birthday to Gillian Welch! 

In addition to her many accomplishments as a singer, songwriter, and recording artist, Welch has an interesting connection to the American Folklife Center Archive.  In the film "O Brother, Where Art Thou," Welch provided the voice of one the "Sirenes," seductive mermaid-like women encountered by the film's protagonists.  The lullaby sung by Welch and the other Sirenes (voiced by Emmylou Harris and Alison Krauss) was found by the film's music supervisor in the Archive's Alan Lomax Collection.

Read about this and other uses of AFC's music in the Winter-Spring 2011 issue of Folklife Center News, here:

http://www.loc.gov/folklife/news/index.html

See the film clip here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dl2L4v6ecM

Hear the original field recording by Sidney Hemphill Carter, here:

http://c0383352.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/audio/T862R13.mp3
  16. On this day in 1903, the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Boston Americans in the first game of the first World Series. Deacon Phillippe and Cy Young each pitched a complete game. Although Young lost this game, he won his other two starts in t...
    he series, in which Boston prevailed.

    A few years ago, AFC teamed up with the Library's publishing office to present a symposium on the history of baseball. Please visit the link to watch webcasts of the entire symposium, from the National Anthem to "Take Me Out to the Ball Game." The festivities include an interview with the great Ernie Banks, plus discussions of Baseball's history, folklore, music, and memorabilia.
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  17. On this day (and only this day) in 1777, Lancaster, Pennsylvania was the capital of the United States. The Continental Congress fled Philadelphia, which had been captured by the British, and stayed one day in Lancaster before moving to Yor...
    k, Pennsylvania, where the Articles of Confederation were drafted. September 27 is recognized as Capital Day in Lancaster. Lancaster was a market town in those days, and the market in Lancaster is recognized as an important local tradition, so much so that it found a place in AFC's Local Legacies Project. Read more about Lancaster and the market tradition at the link.

    http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/legacies/PA/200002951.html
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  18. http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200197136/default.html

    This week, AFC's Facebook page quietly passed a milestone: 8000 fans! In honor of that number, please visit the website dedicated to Pennsylvania coal miner Dan Walsh...
    , the singer on the 8000th disc indexed in the AFC Archive, at the link below. Walsh's first song on the disc, AFS 8000 A, is "The Miner's Doom," a coal-mining song that came to Pennsylvania from Wales. It was collected by George Korson in 1946, and was issued on the Archive's LP and CD release "Songs and Ballads of the Anthracite Miners." Hear the song at the link above—when you reach the linked page, look for the link on the left-hand side that says “Play MP3” to hear Walsh singing!

    Let's hope we'll add another 8000 fans before too long....
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  19. On September 25, 1957, desegregation of schools in Little Rock, Arkansas proceeded with the intervention of the US Army. Photo http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/98502283/
    Here is "Daniel Saw the Stone," sung by The Halloway High School Qua...
    rtet in 1941: http://memory.loc.gov/afc/afcftv/51/5148a1.mp3
    The song is about young Daniel who interprets the dream of the king who intended to have him killed. Songs such as this one were taught to African American youths during the segregation era to instill courage and a sense of self worth. The singers, from Murfreesboro, TN, are Warren Johnson, Anthony Winrow, Zema Richardson, and Richard Gregory. Recorded by John Wesley Work, III.
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  20. On this day in 1893, the great blues singer and guitarist Blind Lemon Jefferson was born. Jefferson was an influence on many of the bluesmen who came after him. At the link, the Association for Cultural Equity presents an oral history fro...
    m the AFC Archive's Alan Lomax Collection, in which Big Bill Broonzy recounts the importance of several blues performers of the previous generation, including Jefferson.

    The photo is a Paramount Records publicity photo, ca. 1926, the only known photo of Jefferson.

    http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=11966
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    Photo: On this day in 1893, the great blues singer and guitarist Blind Lemon Jefferson was born.  Jefferson was an influence on many of the bluesmen who came after him.  At the link, the Association for Cultural Equity presents an oral history from the AFC Archive's Alan Lomax Collection, in which Big Bill Broonzy recounts the importance of several blues performers of the previous generation, including Jefferson.

The photo is a Paramount Records publicity photo, ca. 1926, the only known photo of Jefferson.

http://research.culturalequity.org/get-audio-detailed-recording.do?recordingId=11966
  21. AFC staff members Jennifer Cutting and Stephen Winick had a special assignment at this weekend's National Book Festival.
    Robin Hood and Little John have both gone to the fair-oh
    We shall to the merry wood to see what they do there-oh
    For to hunt the buck and doe, to hunt the buck and doe-oh
    For to hunt the buck and doe, with a hail-an-two sing merry-oh!

    On S...
    aturday we dressed as Robin Hood and Little John and sang this version of "Hal-an-tow" from the American Folklife Center archive. It was collected by Vance Randolph from Lillian Short of Galena, Missouri in 1940. We sang the song for the Librarian of Congress, Dr. James H. Billington, who even danced along with us!

    We were promoting the Library's program Books that Shaped America at the National Book Festival. Visit the festival website to view the Books that Shaped America video and vote in the online survey!

    http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/
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    Photo: Robin Hood and Little John have both gone to the fair-oh
We shall to the merry wood to see what they do there-oh
For to hunt the buck and doe, to hunt the buck and doe-oh
For to hunt the buck and doe, with a hail-an-two sing merry-oh!

On Saturday we dressed as Robin Hood and Little John and sang this version of "Hal-an-tow" from the American Folklife Center archive.  It was collected by Vance Randolph from Lillian Short of Galena, Missouri in 1940.  We sang the song for the Librarian of Congress, Dr. James H. Billington, who even danced along with us!

We were promoting the Library's program Books that Shaped America at the National Book Festival.  Visit the festival website to view the Books that Shaped America video and vote in the online survey!

http://www.loc.gov/bookfest/

Earlier in October

Earlier in September

Earlier in 2012