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Florida
The American Folklife Center was created in 1976 by the U.S. Congress through Public Law 94-201 and charged to "preserve and present American folklife." The Center incorporates the Archive
of Folk Culture, which was established at 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.
Collections
The collections of the American Folklife Center contain large amounts
of rich and varied materials from Florida that document the diversity of
the state's folk traditions. Among its unique recordings are African American
music, religion and folktales collected by Zora Neale Hurston,
John A. and Alan Lomax, Alton Morris, and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle in the
1930s; Seminole songs and stories; music and narrative collected
by Stetson Kennedy and others during the Works Projects Administration
Writers and Music projects; and the folklore of African American longshoremen.
From 1986 to 1987, the American Folklife Center, in cooperation with the
Bureau of Florida Folklife Programs, conducted the Maritime Heritage Survey
Project in Mayport, Apalachicola, and neighboring communities to document
the occupational traditions of Florida's fishermen. The material created
during the survey, including 50 hours of recordings and thousands of photographic
images, has been incorporated into the collections of the Folklife Center.
American Folklife Center collections presented online through the American
Memory Project include Florida Folklife
from the WPA Collections, 1937-1942; a presentation of materials documenting
African-American, Arabic, Bahamian, British-American, Cuban, Greek, Italian,
Minorcan, Seminole, and Slavic cultures throughout Florida; and Southern
Mosaic: The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip,
which includes
folksingers and folksongs documented during a three-month trip through
the Southern United States. The collection includes material from Alabama,
Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Texas, and Virginia.
Florida participated in the Library's Bicentennial Local Legacies project,
which includes documentation of local traditions and celebrations for the
American Folklife Center's Archive of Folk Culture.
Lecture Webcast
May 24, 2005: Florida native Stetson Kennedy, talks about his life and work in conversation with Dr. Peggy Bulger, Director of the American Folklife Center. [webcast and event flyer]
Field Research Projects
- 1986-87 Maritime Heritage Survey Project.
Public Programs
- 1985 "Generation to Generation: Sharing the Intangible," (exhibit)
Broward County Public Library, Ft. Lauderdale.
Publications
Published Recordings
- Child Ballads Traditional in the United States (I), Library of
Congress AFS L58. [audiocassette]
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