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Mr. and Mrs. Frank Pipkin in a recording
session with collector Charles L. Todd, 1941. Photo by
Robert Hemmig. From the Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin
Migrant Workers Collection.
Part of the cultural documentation found in Oklahoma's
Local Legacies projects. |
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Oklahoma
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 include vast amounts of
material documenting the Native American traditions of Oklahoma. Represented
in its unique recordings are Kiowa, Sioux, Pawnee, Ponca, Comanche, Cheyenne,
Arapaho, Shawnee, Kiowa-Apache, Osage, Kickapoo, Cherokee, Delaware, and
other tribal groups. In addition to native traditions, the Center's collections
include cylinder recordings of Oklahoma cowboy music from the early 1900s
recorded by John A. Lomax; unique recordings of performances and interviews
by the legendary folk musician and Oklahoma native son Woody Guthrie and
a collection of Guthrie's manuscripts; and the "Indians for Indians Hour" radio
programs.
The online presentation, Voices
from the Dust Bowl: The Charles L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker
Collection includes oral histories, songs, and stories collected
from people who moved from Oklahoma to California as a result of the
dust bowl in the early 1940s. Of particular interest is Mrs. Myra Pipkin,
whose family homesteaded in Shawnee, Oklahoma in 1898 (see photo). She
had an extensive repertoire of ballads and songs, many of which were
documented by the collectors. Mrs. Pipkin is thought by some to have
been the prototype for "Ma Joad" in the Grapes of Wrath.
The online presentation, Woody
Guthrie and the Archive of American Folk Song includes correspondance
between Guthrie and the Archive of Folk Song (now the Archive of Folk
Culture) between 1940 and 1950.
Oklahoma 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.
Published Recordings
- Woody Guthrie: The Library of Congress Recordings, Elektra EKL
301/2; reissued on Rounder 1044/1045/1046. [compact disc]
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