Champion oyster shucker Ruth Smith at the St. Mary's Oyster Festival, 1981. Part of the documentation in Maryland's Local Legacies projects.

Maryland

The collections of the American Folklife Center contain rich and varied materials from Maryland that document the diversity of the state's folk traditions. Among its unique recordings are spirituals from labor camps dating from the 1940s; narratives of migrant workers and former slaves; folklore and folk music of the Eastern Shore; the Dorothy Howard Collection about Western Maryland; and interviews with local crafts people, including rug makers and decoy carvers. In 1982, the Center's Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools Project documented a Korean school in Silver Spring, and a Lithuanian school in Rockville. The material created during this project has been incorporated into the collections of the Folklife Center.

Collections

Finding Aid: View a complete list of our Maryland collections.

Local Legacies: This project provides a "snapshot" of local culture as it was expressed in the year 2000. View Maryland's Local Legacies projects.

Veterans History Project: Browse state collections from the Veterans History Project.

Field School

In the summer of 2003, an ethnographic field school was taught in Crisfield, Maryland. Co-sponsoring the school with the Center were Salisbury University and the Ward Museum of Wildfowl Art. The student ethnographers researched the traditions related to many occupations in the Crisfield area. To read more about the field school see "Crabs 'R Us: Field School Documents Chesapeake Bay Maritime Culture," in Folklife Center News, Fall, 2003.

Concert

Chinese Opera Institute: Washington Chu Shan -- from Maryland. Recorded May 18, 2005: [event flyer] [catalog record]

Lecture

"From Bridge to Boardwalk: an Audio Journey Across Maryland's Eastern Shore": An illustrated lecture by Douglas Manger, Tatiana Irvine, and Elaine Eff based on the CD and book titled From Bridge to Boardwalk [catalog record], about the history and contemporary cultural traditions of the Eastern Shore of Maryland. Recorded October 21, 2004. [catalog record]

Additional Resources

Educational Resources: View a list of educational materials related to Maryland from A Teacher's Guide to Folklife Resources.

Folklife Resources: Find state folklife-related agencies, societies, archives, higher education programs, and more, in Folklife Sourcebook: A Directory of Folklife Resources in the United States.

Publications: "The First Korean School of Silver Spring, Maryland," in Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools in America. [catalog record]"

To Keep Tradition Going: Conserving Baltimore Screen Painting," in Folklife Annual 90. [catalog record]

A Brief Bibliography on Maryland Folksong and Dance (compiled June 1977). [full text]