Documentary photo from "Rivers of Steel," one of Pennsylvania's Local Legacies projects.

Pennsylvania

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

Pennsylvania's folk traditions are both historically and culturally rich. As noted in its 1991 legislation by the Pennsylvania General Assembly, "the Commonwealth has historically served as a homeland for people from nations of the world seeking a new life in freedom and dignity" (1991: House Bill 1103). The American Folklife Center's collections include material that documents a diversity of folk traditions, including recordings of occupational folklore of anthracite and bituminous miners and river boat raftsmen; Irish music; fiddle and string band music; and ethnic, religious, and musical traditions of Pennsylvania German, Lithuanian, Yiddish/Jewish, Slavonic, and Bulgarian communities.

• Pennsylvania Field Recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture [full text]

Pennsylvania 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.

• View Pennsylvania's Local Legacies projects.

Lecure Webcast

July 29, 2006: "Waking up the People" Presented by Linda Goss. African-American Storytelling. [webcast and event flyer]

Publications

• Pennsylvania Folk Music (bibliography from 1981). [full text]
• Pennsylvania German Fraktur and Printed Broadsides. [catalog record]
• "A Fraktur Primer," Folklife Annual 88-89. [catalog record]
• "Plastic Strap Baskets: Containers for a Changing Context," Folklife Annual 88-89. [catalog record]
• "Aids to Adaptation: Southeast European Mural Paintings in Pittsburgh," Folklife Annual 90. [catalog record]
• "The Satisfaction of Reproduction: A Baroque Painter in Italian Philadelphia," Folklife Annual 90. [catalog record]
• "Monsters and Clowns: A Deaf American Halloween," Folklife Annual 90. [catalog record]

Published Recordings

• Songs and Ballads of the Anthracite Miners, Library of Congress AFS L16. [audiocassette] [compact disc]
• Songs and Ballads of the Bituminous Miners, Library of Congress AFS L60. [audiocassette] [compact disc]