^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS American Folklife Center The Library of Congress Fall 1994 Volume XVI, Number 4 ISSN 0149-6840 Catalog Card No. 77-649628 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ The American Folklife Center was created in 1976 by the U.S. Congress to "preserve and present American folklife" through programs of research, documentation, archival preservation, reference service, live performance, exhibition, publication, and training. The Center incorporates the Archive of Folk Culture, which was established in the Music Division of the Library of Congress in 1928 and is now one of the largest collections of ethnographic material from the United States and around the world. Administration Alan Jabbour, Director Timothy Lloyd, Acting Deputy Director Doris Craig, Administrative Assistant Stephanie Parks, Clerk Camila Bryce-Laporte, Program Coordinator Jennifer A. Cutting, Program Coordinator Acquisitions Joseph C. Hickerson, Head Processing Stephanie A. Hall, Archivist Coordinator Catherine Hiebert Kerst, Archivist Programs Peter T. Bartis, Folklife Specialist Mary Hufford, Folklife Specialist David A. Taylor, Folklife Specialist Publications James Hardin, Editor Public Events Theadocia Austen, Coordinator Reference Gerald E. Parsons, Reference Librarian Judith A. Gray, Folklife Specialist Administrative Office Tel: 202 707-6590 Fax: 202 707-2076 Reference Service Tel: 202 707-5510 Federal Cylinder Project Tel: 202 707-1740 Board of Trustees Juris Ubans, Chair, Maine Robert Malir, Jr., Vice-chair, Kansas Nina Archabal, Minnesota Lindy Boggs, Louisiana; Washington, D.C. Carolyn Hecker, Maine Judith McCulloh, Illinois Ex Officio Members James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress Robert McCormick Adams, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution Jane Alexander, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts Sheldon Hackney, Chairman, National Endowment for the Humanities Alan Jabbour, Director, American Folklife Center FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS James Hardin, Editor David A. Taylor, Editorial Advisor Timothy Lloyd, Editorial Review John Biggs, Library of Congress Graphics Unit, Designer Folklife Center News publishes articles on the programs and activities of the American Folklife Center, as well as other articles on traditional expressive culture. It is available free of charge from the Library of Congress, American Folklife Center, Washington, D.C. 20540-8100. The text of issues of Folklife Center News from Spring 1992 to the present are available on LC MARVEL, the Library of Congress's Internet Gopher server. LC MARVEL is available through your local Gopher server. Or you may connect directly through Telnet to marvel.loc.gov, and then login as marvel. From the main menu, choose "Research and Reference," then "Reading Rooms," then "American Folklife Center," then "Publications," then "Folklife Center News." 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 activities or newsletter articles may address their remarks to the editor. FOLKLINE For timely information on the field of folklore and folklife, including training and professional opportunities and news items of national interest, a taped announcement is available around the clock, except during the hours of 9 A.M. until noon (eastern time) each Monday, when it is updated. Folkline is a joint project of the American Folklife Center and the American Folklore Society. Dial: 202 707-2000 ................................................................. Cover: Folklife Center archivist Stephanie Hall, Colorado College librarian Laura Hunt, San Luis rancher Corpus Gallegos, and oral historian Beverly Morris on the vega in San Luis, Colorado, July 1994. Photo by Miguel Gandert ................................................................. EDITOR'S NOTES Folklife Field School About a year ago, folklorist Mario Montano of Colorado College heard from his friend and colleague Doug DeNatale that the Center was interested in conducting a field training school for cultural documentation. DeNatale was at the McKissick Museum at the University of South Carolina at the time and had been discussing such a school with Folklife Specialist David Taylor. Thus Montano's invitation to the Center to conduct a field school in the summer of 1994 in conjuntion with Colorado College and the University of New Mexico was welcome. It allowed Center staffers Stephanie Hall, Timothy Lloyd, and David Taylor to test ideas and fieldwork instruction techniques they had only speculated about. It also helped to create a network of contacts for all involved. The Center was especially pleased to be working in the southern Colorado region and involved with members of Hispanic and Native American communities who participated as instructors and students. The Center plans to conduct a second field school with Colorado College and the University of New Mexico in the summer of 1995. Lloyd and Taylor traveled to Colorado in November for planning and fund-raising meetings with other project partners, and with public- sector folklore colleagues in the region. The 1995 field school will be held from July 9 to 29, and information for potential applicants will be available in March. For information, please contact David Taylor at the American Folklife Center. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Documenting Traditional Culture: A Colorado Field School By James Hardin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Three hundred years ago, in 1694, Diego del Vargas, governor of Spanish New Mexico, led an expedition into the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado, just to the east of the Continental Divide, between the Rocky and the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. In July 1994, three folklorists from the American Folklife Center in the Library of Congress joined colleagues from Colorado College and the University of New Mexico for another expedition to the valley. They led a group of nine students on a cultural exploration of the little town of San Luis and the nearby farm owned by Corpus Aquino Gallegos and his family. San Luis, a few miles north of New Mexico on Route 159, is the oldest town in the state, and still reflects its Spanish heritage. The students carried cameras, tape recorders, and notebooks, and were there to practice the skills and techniques they had learned during a week of coursework at Colorado College called "Documenting Traditional Culture: An Introductory Field School." The course was designed for adult residents of Colorado and New Mexico who have a strong interest but little or no previous training in cultural documentation. The nine participants were natives or residents of the region between Albuquerque and Colorado Springs. One was a librarian from Colorado College, another a painter and director of an art school in Colorado Springs; there were several school teachers, several graduate students, and a professional videographer. Thus, each had a personal or professional reason for wanting to develop or hone his or her skills in cultural documentation. The Colorado field school came about at the invitation of Mario Montano, a professor in the anthropology department at Colorado College. Monta¤o became acquainted with Center staff through graduate school friendships and as a member of the field team for the Center's Lowell [Massachusetts] Folklife Project. In October 1993, Montano met with the Folklife Center staff at the Eugene, Oregon, American Folklore Society meeting to discuss the possibility of cosponsorship of a field school with the college. He saw the Colorado field school as a way to provide "community scholars" with basic documentary skills they could apply in their work, and to develop partnerships and share resources among several institutions in his own region as well as with the American Folklife Center in Washington. For a number of years, Center staff have discussed (both among themselves and with other colleagues) the possibility of conducting a field documentation training school. Graduate-school training in field documentation for folklorists often stresses theory rather than practice. Yet, the number of jobs in the public sector calling for practical skills has increased (arts coordinator at the state and local level, for example). Such positions involve working with a cultural community to develop books, recordings, exhibits, and festivals, and there is a shortage of folklorists with the requisite training and experience. Montano enlisted the University of New Mexico as a project partner, through its department of communication and journalism, oral history program, and Center for Regional Studies. The university agreed to provide staff, equipment, and other services. Associate dean Victor Nelson-Cisneros, of Colorado College, and Tobias Duran, director of the Center for Regional Studies of the University of New Mexico provided support throughout the project. Working with Colorado College and the University of New Mexico, the Center produced an intensive, two-week-long field school that ran from July 10 to 23, 1994. The six faculty members--Stephanie Hall, Timothy Lloyd, and David Taylor from the Center, Mario Monta¤o from Colorado College, and Miguel Gandert and Carlos Vasquez from the University of New Mexico--taught through a combination of lectures, workshops, discussions, slide presentations, fieldwork exercises, and curriculum materials. The primary purpose of the school was to instruct students in the methods of cultural documentation and the use of documentation equipment; the underlying purpose was to instill an understanding of folklife. The course began with a week on the Colorado College campus, training participants in project planning, interviewing, still photography, research ethics, ethnographic writing, computer applications, archiving, and the development of educational products. Mario Montano and Colorado College sociologist Devon Pe¤a provided an introduction to the history and culture of Colorado's San Luis Valley, where the remainder of field school activities would take place. David Taylor told the students that success in any fieldwork project depends on the development of a plan of action, which includes a list of topics to be explored and goals for the investigation; timing (particularly if topics have a seasonal dimension); and the availability of people and equipment to do the job. If the goal of the project is to be a book or exhibit, the researcher must secure the photographs, recordings, artifacts, and permissions that will ensure the success of these products. Stephanie Hall taught a class on arranging and preserving fieldwork material. The work is vital, she said, if the material is to be of use (either for the researcher himself or for others). Photographs and negatives must be "housed" in acid-free protective sleeves and containers; they must be numbered and keyed to fieldnotes. If the researcher intends to place his material in an archive, museum, or library, he must consider the specific requirements of the institution regarding cataloging and organization. Tim Lloyd explained that success in fieldwork also depends in large part on the human interactions that are essential to such research. The fieldworker must be assertive enough, on the one hand, to enter a strange community and seek out the people who can provide the information he seeks; and careful enough, on the other, to treat the information so as not to violate the trust he must establish. The fieldworker must be focused on the purpose of his own scholarly investigation, alert to the sensitivities of the people he interviews, flexible enough in schedule to respond to opportunities that present themselves, and knowledgeable of the technical capabilities of his equipment--no mean feat, especially when the site for this effort may be a barnyard or a bar, a city street or a backyard garden. After five long days of classroom instruction, the school moved to the college's Baca campus, located in Crestone, Colorado, in the San Luis Valley. Baca facilities (named for one of the early pioneers in the region) included living quarters, restaurant, seminar room, and computer lab. It was base camp for three and a half days of fieldwork at several ranches near the town of San Luis, and at other important agricultural sites in the area (gravity-fed irrigation ditches called acequias and the San Luis common grazing area, called the vega). The students worked in teams of three, each devoted to interviewing, audio recording, taking photographs, and making fieldnotes on one aspect of local agriculture: crops, livestock, or water use. They considered the three topics from a cultural perspective, however, and thus studied a whole range of associated customs, beliefs, and artful expressions. The Corpus Aquina Gallegos Ranch, established in 1852 by Dario Gallegos, is possibly the oldest family agricultural business in continuous operation in the state of Colorado. Mario Monta¤o had arranged with Corpus Gallegos to bring the field school students there for their investigations. Each day the students traveled to San Luis in vans and made the Gallegos homestead a central meeting place and departure point for their activities. Fieldnotes of three of the students provide an introduction to several areas of ethnographic interest (presented here unedited to give a flavor of the effort). Connie Romero records a detailed description of the Gallegos ranch site; Laura Hunt gives an account of an activity in the daily ranch life; and Roberto Venegas gathers a personal history from a key member of the local community. Connie Romero's fieldnotes describe the Corpus Gallegos ranch: The site is divided into two areas, the old original site of the settlement, which consists of kind of a core of the ranch established in 1863. The other, or newer site of the ranch may very well correlate with the transition from sheep herding in this valley to cattle ranching in the 1930s. The original site of the ranch, as well the newer extension, is built along the north edge of the acequia madre. The original house consisted of a small adobe farmhouse at the edge of the acequia with a site orchard approx. fifty yards to the north of the house adjacent to what is currently Hwy. 142. The site appears to extend to the north and south from this original settlement. The current livestock area extends approx. 80 yards south from the site of the original house, and the house that is presently occupied by Joe and Corpus Gallegos, his father, is located due north of the old house. . . . The house itself is a two- story, stucco frame house that has been added onto since its construction. The current garden of the house runs to the north and west of it, furthest away from its entrance and consists of several rows of garden vegetables, incl. corn, squash, and onions. The corn is planted in two rows and appears to be in about the middle of its growing cycle, late July. Joe Gallegos has apparently built but not occupied an additional house approx. 100 meters north of the present house. Its design and architecture seem to be consistent with contemporary rural affluent housing, using a great deal of wood, but shows few if any traditional elements incorporated into its design or construction. Its features, which may be consistent with energy saving element, may reelect Joe's interest in energy conservation, bio-diversity, and organic farming. Laura Hunt's fieldnotes provide a sense of a day spent by the team investigating issues of water use in the region. She both describes a particular activity of water management and explains the importance of it: 10:25 A.M.: Van arrived at the Gallegos Ranch. Spent an hour watching them prepare the horses for cattle run. Beverly began following Corpus with the audio equipment as we waited. 11:30 A.M.: Corpus drove Beverly, Laura, Roberto, Stephanie, and Miguel to the Diversion Point, where the People's Ditch branches off from the Culebra Creek. On the way he stopped at the point where the People's Ditch was unpaved on one side of the road, and paved on the other side. The upper portion of the People's Ditch was unpaved because the winter temperatures would be too harsh on the cement, and damage it regularly. The Diversion Point was located in the San Luis Common Grazing Grounds (vega), so we passed by many cattle and horses (and many colts and calves). Apparently most of the cattle on the Common Grazing Grounds belongs to a few small farmers above, in the high lands. Corpus adjusted the flow of water through the Diversion Dam, which feeds the San Luis People's Ditch. . . . . 12:25 P.M.: We crossed a creek on the way to the irrigation field where Corpus was to change the water. There were cattle grazing on this field, soon to be moved to another field (in a few days). To "change the water" means to rechannel the direction of the stream of irrigation water on the hay or rye grass patch. You do this by moving portable dams made from tarps attached to 4-5 foot log poles. You place the tarp over the ditch, shovel dirt onto the edges at the bottom of tarp. Then you remove a shovel or two of sod from a high rise or berm so the water will run in to the area desired. This is done at 3 or 4 spots on a 4 acre patch. Takes about 45 minutes. This irrigation is done 3 or 4 times a season. This chore can be done by one person but two make the job much easer. Stephanie Hall helped Corpus "change the water." Severo Serna is president of the People's Ditch Association, and one of his responsibilities is to adjudicate conflicting demands for water. He maintains a small ranch of his own and also has a junkyard business, both located about a mile from the Gallegos ranch. After stopping at his home to ask for an interview, the team investigating water use found him at a local cafe having breakfast. They used their first meeting both to schedule a later interview regarding his role in the community and to elicit background information from him. Roberto Venegas's fieldnotes recorded Serna's personal history: Mr. Serna mentioned that he had grown up in Durango, Colorado until age six, when his father decided to move to San Luis because of a lack of work during the Depression. He decided to volunteer for the army in order to get away from San Luis. He fought in World War II as an anti-aircraft gunner. He was stationed in the Philippines as well as New Guinea. After returning from the war, Mr. Serna moved to Pueblo to work in the CF&I steel mills. This job only lasted six months . . . so he returned to San Luis. Mr. Serna married a Japanese woman whose father owned a ranch in the San Luis Valley. His father-in-law grew cauliflower, cabbage, and spinach. We inquired if he had any relation to the Hayashida family farm in Ft. Garland. Mr. Serna responded that there was no connection. Severo only mentioned that his wife was from the Abiqui/Chama area of New Mexico. . . . Surprisingly, Mr. Serna mentioned that he had traveled to Japan three years ago and to Russia seven years ago. He spoke primarily of his trip to Russia. He first went to Estonia, then to St. Petersburg, and finally to Moscow. He seemed to enjoy the people in St. Petersburg more than those in Moscow, whom he found rude once they realized he was American. Mr. Serna was an extremely pleasant man who I and the group found very enjoyable. As a nice gesture, he paid for our coffee as we left the restaurant. The interview reveals a number of things regarding Serna's attitudes and international experience that go far beyond the initial desire for information about water. With a few introductory questions, the researchers soon found themselves in a complex web of history and personal experience. At this point they might have wished to reevaluate their investigation, either to reassert a focus on water use issues or to follow one or more of the several themes introduced by Serna. Furthermore, Serna's gesture in paying for the coffee reminds the researchers of another complication in the field research situation, that community members regard themselves as more than just subjects of research; in their minds, they are hosts to the visiting team. That duality of roles carries over into the substance of investigations. While the ostensible subject of the folklife interview may be agricultural practices, the folklorist is also concerned with associated cultural expressions. In attempting to establish rapport with Servero Serna, the students discovered a good storyteller. Seeking information on water use, they encountered a personal history. Such moments require patience and flexibility in order to balance the formalities of human interaction and the requirements and needs of the research plan. In a San Luis cafe, the researchers found themselves in exactly one of those complex field-documentation situations that had been described to them in the Colorado College classrooms. The van ride back to Baca headquarters provided a respite from the days activities but by no means brought them to an end. There was much to do before and after supper. Earlier, Stephanie Hall had warned students that "for every hour the folklorist spends in the field, he or she must spend two reviewing and rewriting his notes, and logging photographs." Computer technology is especially helpful if collected material is to be placed in an archive, because a numbering system for notes, recordings, and photographs can be established at once. David Taylor and Stephanie Hall worked together to develop a system for computer-assisted cataloging in the field during the Folklife Center's Maine Acadian Cultural Survey in 1991. The cook's rule of washing as you go can be applied to the folklife field project: catalog the data obtained each day, the photographs and fieldnotes, and much time will be saved later on. For Pam Duran, the training paid off. Shortly after the July field school, Duran began a documentary history for the fiftieth anniversary of a school in Albuquerque for the Center for Regional Studies after her summer training. For her, the field school provided a model, a frame within which to construct her project, a procedure for taking fieldnotes, and a "method to keep track of all the stuff." In the late afternoon, Stephanie Hall supervised students in the Baca computer lab, while other instructors reviewed their photographs. Again, technology facilitated the fieldwork experience. A Crestone photographer, J.D. Marston, developed the film, and instructors selected appropriate images for comment and mounted them for an evening presentation and critique. Instructor Miguel Gandert offered advice on: changing position for a better composition, ensuring that the face of the subject is in focus, avoiding overhead sunshine, omitting extraneous material, turning the camera for a vertical image, getting close to the subject to focus on important information, watching for the effect of bright white buildings on light meters, and much more. In many ways, one of Gandert's comments might serve as a motto for fieldwork in general: "Learn to anticipate action." Folklife will not always be still. The photograph or tape recording or fieldnote represents a moment in the process. On one occasion, Corpus Gallegos provided such a moment in telling a joke, recorded by field school student Mario Lozoya (to understand the joke, of course, the listener would have to know that fajitas are sometimes made with pork): As Corpus Gallegos sat in the rear of his truck, he said he wanted to tell us a joke and we all gathered around him to hear it. He started by saying, "Well there were three barn animals gathered together: a cow, a chicken, and a pig, and they were all talking about life and how hard life was for each of them. The cow complained how bad life was for a cow and said, "Yea, they pull at my titties all the time and poke me with a stick all the time when they want me to move." The chicken said, "You think you have it rough! They always shoo me aside and wring my neck and throw my food on the ground." The pig said, "I don't have any complaints. They feed me the food they eat and even put it in the trough for me. And I heard that for Christmas they're going to make fajitas." Folklorists study jokes in a number of ways, and might compare this one, for example, with other similar versions in this country and in agricultural communities throughout the world. Giving voice to animals (also a characteristic of the fable) is one of the oldest techniques of storytelling, creating a distance between humans and animals that makes the story's lesson less immediately threatening. Tim Lloyd says that folklore takes place at the "intersection of artfulness and everyday life." A joke provides a welcome interlude in the daily round of ranching duties for Mr. Gallegos (an artistic performance by a man whose chief occupation is ranching); ironically, it provides a similar break in the documentation efforts of the student folklorists (at the same time it provides material to document). Connie Romero's description of the Gallegos ranch; Laura Hunt's description of ranching activities; Roberto Venegas's account of Severno Serna's personal history; Mario Lozoya's example of humor and performance--with the accumulating documentation, the researchers began to see the integrated composite of expressive culture in the traditionally Hispanic town of San Luis, Colorado. Back at her job at the Tutt Library, Colorado College, following her field school training, reference librarian Laura Hunt has a new appreciation of how special collections materials are generated. "Archivists, special collections librarians, and others with ethnographic collections would find it valuable to see the process of fieldwork through from start to finish," she says. "It makes for quality reference work when the librarian or archivist knows how the collection is created and organized." Beverly Morris is an oral historian of Aleut descent, at the Institute of American Indian Art in Sante Fe, New Mexico, working on a project to document Indian language and esthetics. She will also be training other Native Americans in oral history techniques. The image that remains in her mind from the summer field school is Corpus Gallegos using his shovel and other simple tools to irrigate a large field, moving the water in the traditional way, a man in harmony with the surrounding elements. As she teaches others in her community, she will help them to have a voice they did not have in the past, introducing and giving access to people with ancient oral traditions the new technologies of recording machine and computer, showing them even how to get on- line, and how to document and speak for their own traditions. Of course, many of the folklife expressions Morris and the other field school participants learned to document are not specific to one group but touch on our common humanity, for folklife provides a redemptive creativity that is available to all human communities. .................................................................. Thanks to Judith Gray, Stephanie Hall, Timothy Lloyd, and David Taylor, who read this article and made helpful comments. A second field school will be conducted at Colorado College July 9 to 29 1995. .................................................................. Field School Captions: Folklife Center staffer Timothy Lloyd demonstrates the use of a Marantz tape recorder for Marilyn Banuelos (left) and Christe Esquibel (right), in a Colorado College classroom. Photo by Miguel Gandert University of New Mexico students Mario Lozoya and Connie Romero practice using a Marantz tape recorder. Photo by Stephanie Hall Stephanie Hall, Carlos Vasquez, Corpus Gallegos, and Mario Lozoya on the vega near the People's Ditch, where flood gates are used to control the flow of water. Photo by James Hardin Rancher and junkyard owner Severno Serna entertains Beverly Morris with a story in the driveway of the Corpus Gallegos farmyard. Photo by David Taylor Corpus Gallegos (right) instructs Roberto Venegas and Stephanie Hall in how the "change the water." Venegas makes a dam that blocks the water from flowing to the left-hand chanel, redirecting it to the right. Photo by Miguel Gandert In the Baca computer lab, Stephanie Hall checks a computer for Christe Esquibel while Pam Duran looks on. Photo by Miguel Gandert Roberto Venegas gives a talk on land and water use in San Luis for field school participants. Photo by James Hardin Back at the Colorado College campus for a wrap-up session, Mario Montano and Carlos Vasquez congratulates John Lawson for his fieldwork, while Tim Lloyd looks on. Photo by James Hardin ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Significant Acquisitions for the Archive of Folk Culture in Fiscal Year 1994 By Joseph C. Hickerson ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The following describes those collections acquired for the Archive of Folk Culture during October 1993--September 1994, that comprise especially large bodies of material, those of particular interest to folklore, ethnomusicology, and related areas of study, and those that exemplify the wide variety of formats and subject matters represented in the collections. The staff of the American Folklife Center hopes readers will be inspired by these diverse listings to consider the Archive of Folk Culture as a repository for their past, current, and future collections and publications. The Philadelphia Ceili Group, the oldest and largest American organization devoted to the preservation and promotion of Irish music, has donated a collection of 92 audiotapes, 213 audiocassettes, and 36 videocassettes documenting concerts, lectures, workshops, and festival events sponsored by them from 1977 to 1993. The array of Irish and Irish-American performers and lecturers represented here is comprehensive and reflects the resurgence of interest in Irish music and dance during the past twenty years. Musical performances by Altan, DeDannan, Joe Heaney, Mick Moloney, Christy Moore, and many others are included as well as lectures by such scholars as Dennis Clark, Brian Donnelly, Maggie Kreusi, and Turlough O'Faolin. The Center has obtained from Michael Seeger of Lexington, Virginia, 56 audiotapes containing approximately 112 hours of archival-quality duplications of his original reels numbered 164- 275 along with descriptive notes on computer diskettes. The collection encompasses a wide array of concerts, interviews, private musical performances, and recording sessions covering primarily the early periods of bluegrass and country music. Musicians interviewed with examples of their singing and playing include Dock Boggs, The Carter Family, Elizabeth Cotten, Cousin Emmy, Roscoe Holcomb, Grandpa and Ramona Jones, Leslie Riddle, Eck Robertson, John Kilby-Snow, and Ralph and Carter Stanley. Other performers include Bill Harrell, Mississippi John Hurt, The Kentucky Colonels, Jim Kweskin's Jug Band, The Lilly Brothers, Marcus Martin, Sam and Kirk McGee with both Fiddlin' Arthur Smith and Sid Harkreader, Bill Monroe, Charlie Moore, The New Lost City Ramblers (including their first public appearance with members John Cohen, Tom Paley, and Seeger), The Osborne Brothers, Don Reno, Hobart Smith, and Mac Wiseman. Henrietta Yurchenco, professor emerita of the City College of New York, has donated 56 audiotapes and 1 audiocassette of field recordings of Sephardic Jews made in Spain and Morocco in 1954 and 1956, respectively. Featured in the collection are traditional ballads, wedding songs, and stories. Sung only by women, many of the songs have been preserved since the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492. Yurchenco made these recordings in the central, southern, and western provinces of Spain, the Balearic Islands, and Tangier and Tetuan, Morocco. Rosemary N. Killam of North Texas State University has donated her field recordings of folk music made in north-central Texas in 1971, and southeast Missouri, 1983-85. The collection contains 112 audiocassettes accompanied by 650 manuscript pages and 504 file cards of field notes describing the recordings. Killam did the research to document folk music performance in these areas with particular attention to ensemble repertoire, modality, and harmonies. She recorded both music and interviews with performers at fiddlers' conventions, community gatherings, and jam sessions in private homes. Documentary filmmaker Patrick Mullins has donated a set of 79 copies of the production work tapes generated for his video documentary _From Shore To Shore: Irish Traditional Music in New York City_, which was sponsored by the Irish Arts Center of New York City. The gift also includes a copy of the published videotape released by Cherry Lane Productions in 1993. This documentary, filmed in 1988-90, examines continuity and change in Irish music and dance among Irish-Americans in and around New York City since the turn of the century, and surveys its antecedents in Ireland. The videocassettes contain unedited interviews with musicians such as Andy McGann, John Whelan, and Martin Wynne, and step-dancer Maureen Glynn Connolly. Interviews about long-dead master musicians Michael Coleman and Lad O'Beirne are conducted with progeny such as Mary Coleman Hannon and James O'Beirne, Jr. Also included are numerous musical performances in such venues as the Eagle Tavern, Irish Arts Center, Miltown Lounge, the New York Fleadh Cheoil, and the Traditional Irish Music Festival. The Seattle Folklore Society has donated 54 audiotapes containing portions of 33 concerts and 2 workshops sponsored and recorded by the society from 1965 to 1973. Many well-known bluegrass, blues, folk, and gospel artists are represented in the collection, including Elizabeth Cotten, Reverend Gary Davis, Ramblin' Jack Elliot, The Georgia Sea Island Singers, Sam Hinton, Roscoe Holcomb, John Lee Hooker, Sam "Lightning" Hopkins, Son House, Furry Lewis, Mance Lipscomb, Fred McDowell, Bill Monroe, New Lost City Ramblers, Fred Price, Mike Seeger, Kilby Snow, Ralph Stanley, Doc Watson, Booker White, Joe Williams, and Robert Pete Williams. George W. Tressel of Potomac, Maryland, has donated 10 audiotapes of Croatian and Serbian music that he recorded on several late- night occasions at a "Balkan cafe" in Chicago in 1954. These tapes contain two hours of performances by the Popovich (Popovic) Brothers and Martin Kapugi's (Kapudji) ensemble, whose repertories exemplify the music and instrumentation of post-World War I Serbian and Croatian immigrants to America. Their instruments include the braþ (Croatian plucked lute), bugarij (long-necked lute), and "prime" (small lute made from a turtle shell). Adam Popovich, a recipient of a 1982 National Heritage Award, and the other artists, were also documented as part of the Folklife Center's Chicago Ethnic Arts Project in 1978. Judit Elek, a film director from Budapest, Hungary, has presented copies of Miksa Eizikovits's field documentation of approximately 155 Hungarian Chasidic songs and melodies collected, 1938-39, in M ramaros, a Hungarian district (presently in Romania) in Subcarpathian Transylvania. This collection takes on special significance in light of the almost complete destruction of M ramaros's Jewish population during the Nazi occupation of Hungary, 1944-45. On the eve of World War II, Eizikovits (1908- 1980), a Hungarian Jewish composer from Kolozsv r (Cluj), traveled to towns and villages in M ramaros in search of Chasidic niggun (religious folksongs in Yiddish) and melodies. Eizikovits notated the melodies and some song texts in four notebooks. Also included are typed transcriptions of 60 song texts in Yiddish with Hebrew translation and in transliterated Yiddish with Hungarian translation. In addition, his narrative account (ca. 1948) of his experiences in M ramaros has been provided, as well as an audiocassette of a recent performance based on ten of the transcriptions. The Brevard County Oral History Video Project recently began documenting and preserving the regional, occupational, and ethnic heritage of that Florida county. Copies of 29 videotapes, 321 pages of transcriptions on diskette, and a final report for the initial 1992 recording effort have been donated to the Center. The interviews are with ten individuals who through personal reminiscence bring life to the history of Brevard County, spanning a range of time and subject from "Old Florida to the Space Age." One of the interviewees was a friend of Zora Neale Hurston. Nancy Yasecko of Vanguard Productions of Merritt Island, Florida, transmitted the collection with a letter that states that "After hurricane Andrew, we are especially sensitive to the importance of a second repository" for this important and interesting collection. Dan C. McCurry of Chicago, Illinois, has donated 352 photocopied sheets of various songs, poems, and "hot doggerel" (humor) related to forestry, ranger work, and mountain life in the United States. McCurry discovered this material while compiling a collection of songs about Forest Service sites for the 50th anniversary of Smokey Bear. The following is a summary of additional acquisitions: 40 audiotapes and 1,501 manuscripts on folksong subjects from the Stanley Edgar Hyman papers transferred from the Library's Manuscript Division; 106 audiocassettes and numerous slides, photographs, and manuscripts on the folklore of Georgia, Rhode Island, and the Blue Ridge from Geraldine Johnson; 14 pamphlets of U.S. Geological Survey facetiae and satire from Mort D. Turner; 3 audiocassettes of the 1994 International Ballad and Folksong Seminar in County Donegal, Ireland, from Sara Grey; a videocassette of Pete Seeger on "Bill Moyers' Journal;" an audiotape of a radio tribute to Ralph Rinzler from Larry Applebaum; an audiocassette of his grandfather's early twentieth-century piano styles from Eric Larson; a videotape of quilting in Massachusetts from Jeanne LaPierre; 198 LPs of folk music from Bea and Don Epstein; 29 78-rpm recordings of Polish, Russian, and Ukrainian music from Father Taras Lonchyne; a diskette containing 501 bawdy songs and related material from Paul Woodword; a manuscript on "Devil's Foot Rock" in Rhode Island from Michael E. Bell; a manuscript of 102 light bulb jokes received via E-Mail from Lani Herrmann; a Master's thesis on the Newport Folk Festival and Foundation from Cheryl Anne Brauner LaBerge; and a Master's thesis on "Sacred Harp Traditions in Texas" from Lisa Carol Hardaway. In addition, the following runs of periodicals have been donated by their publishers: 109 issues of CABOMA News (Capitol Area Bluegrass and Old Time Music Association); 199 of Bluegrass Strings (South Florida Bluegrass Association): 109 of Three Quarter Times (Vancouver Folk Song Society); 45 of the Association for Chinese Music Research Newsletter; 26 of Folk News (World Folk Music Association); 8 of The Living Tradition (Pete Heywood of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire, Scotland); twelve of Bitterroot Foxfire News (Worley, Idaho); and 12 of Away Here in Texas, "a regional Sacred Harp newsletter for Oklahoma and Texas." Lee Gold of Los Angeles has also contributed a number of recent issues of the filkzine Xenofilkia. On November 10, 1993, author Elizabeth Anne Scarborough of Port Townsend, Washington, visited the Folklife Reading Room and later donated two sets of her three-volume "Songkiller Saga" series (New York: Bantam Books, 1991-92). The plots of these fantasy fiction novels revolve around the attempts by the devils of the universe to undermine the well-being of humankind by eliminating all folk music, beginning with the total destruction of the Library of Congress "Folk Music Archives" and its director. Toward the end of the third volume, one professional folksinger exhorts his fellows to donate the equivalent of song writer's royalties for their public domain folksongs to the Library to help reestablish the folk music archive! The author of this article is beholden to a number of individuals who assist in a variety of acquisitions-related tasks as interns and volunteers. I would like to acknowledge the following who have done so in the past year: Irene Barabasz, Maria Brubeck, Jean Crandall, Angie Delcambre, Carolyn DeLuca, Wm. Maxwell Derrickson, Qali Farrah, Robert Garber, Deborah Hanselman, Peter Harrington, Hubert King, Jack Manischewitz, Nolyn Mason, Melinda Messore, Debby McClatchy, Carol Moran, Daria Nebesh, Emily Parsons, Elsa Sagasti, Jeffrey Schlosberg, Andrew Schmidt, David Schott, Toni N. Smart, Steven Weiss, and Harris Wray. Acquisitions Report Captions: Becky and Dolf Schroeder of Columbia, Missouri, have donated an audiocassette containing a tribute to and musical performance in memory of R. P. Christeson, a renowned fiddler and collector of old-time fiddling, who died on April 9, 1992. The tribute was presented at the September 26, 1992, annual meeting of the Missouri Folklore Society in Hermann, Missouri. The Archive of Folk Culture has copies of many of Christeson's recordings of fiddlers and dance events. This memorial cassette is supplemented by six photographs. This one shows Christeson (bottom of picture) recording on a wire recording machine a square dance in Nebraska in the early 1950s. Bobby Fulcher, co-director of the Tennessee Banjo Institute, has donated five brochures, two program books, and three panoramic photographs documenting that organization's conventions held in 1988, 1990, and 1992 at Cedars of Lebanon State Park in Lebanon, Tennessee. These documents are significant for their historical material and numerous biographies and photographs of workshop instructors, which include the majority of the best banjoists extant. Here we see the right-hand portion of a panoramic photograph of the 1992 participants. Since it takes a number of seconds for the camera to pan the group arrayed in an extended semi-circle around it, it is possible (and traditional) for one or two persons (in this case Bela Fleck and Pete Seeger) on the extreme left to dash behind the camera and appear again on the extreme right (see the photograph on page 13). A group of Irish musicians, one of several groups featured in eighty videotapes on Irish music in New York City recently donated by filmmaker Patrick Mullins of Cherry Lane Productions. Depicted here is the Irish Music and Social Club of Greater New York, Inc., on March 23, 1947. The young boy in the picture is James Obeirn, Jr., who is interviewed on his recollections of musical activities of that period. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ New Publications Highlight Archive Collections ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Folklife Resources in the Library of Congress, by Timothy Lloyd and Hillary Glatt. 52 pages. Single copies are free from the Library of Congress, American Folklife Center, Washington, D.C. 20540-8100. Describes more than sixteen locations in the Library of Congress for finding folk cultural material. This booklet introduces the Library of Congress from the perspective of the user of folklife resources, points out some of the relevant materials in various divisions, and suggests routes of access to those materials. By familiarizing folklorists and others with the quantity, quality, and diversity of folklife resources in the Library, the authors hope to encourage productive and creative use of the institution. Music for the Gods: The Fahnestock South Sea Expedition: Indonesia, produced by Alan Jabbour and Mickey Hart. Rykodisc (RCD 10315: $13.98. RAC 10315: $9.98) Available in music stores nationwide. Second issue in the Library of Congress Endangered Music Project, a joint effort of the American Folklife Center and Grateful Dead percussionist Mickey Hart. A selection of primarily gamelan music from the Center's Fahnestock South Sea Collection, which was gathered by Bruce and Sheridan Fahnestock in 1941, just before World War II changed the cultural landscape of the Pacific Islands. Gamelan orchestras and ensembles, slit drums, quartets, and vocalists singing dance chants and poetry. Includes 24-page booklet with extensive historical liner notes. Caption: Legong dancers perform to a gamelan ensemble, Bali, 1941. From the Fahnestock South Sea Collections. Photo by Howard Kincheloe Back cover: Colorado Field School Class of 1994, from left to right: Roberto Venegas, Mario Montano, Laura Hunt (with Mario's son Armando), Mario Lozoya, Stephanie Hall, Miguel Gandert, Connie Romero, Marilyn Banuelos, Pam Duran, Timothy Lloyd, Christe Esquibel, John Lawson, Carlos Vasquez, Beverly Morris, and David Taylor. Photo by Miguel Gandert --------------------------END TEXT-------------------------------- Note: This text has been prepared in ascii for Internet distribution. Fonts and diacritics have been removed. For a free printed copy please write to The American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, DC 20540-8100.