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Rhode Island
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 a wide variety
of materials from the New England region. Among its recordings is the Helen
Hartness Flanders and Eloise Hubbard Linscott Collections of folk music
from New England. In 1979, the Center conducted the Rhode Island Folklife
Survey, documenting folk cultural activities throughout the state. Following
the Center's fieldwork, documentation continued under the auspices of state
agencies. In 1982, the Center's Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools Project
documented a Ukrainian school in Woonsocket. The material created during
these projects, including thousands of photographs and hundreds of sound
recordings, has been incorporated into the Center's collections.
- Rhode Island Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture [full text]
Rhode Island 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.
Concert Webcast
Exhibitions
- In January 1980 The Rhode Island Museum of History, Aldrich House, Providence, hosted a traveling exhibit entitled Rhode Island Folklife. The photographs for this small traveling exhibit were selected from the work of Harry Horenstein, the photographer for the Center's Rhode Island Folklife Project. Capturing various aspects of life and work throughout the state, it consisted of 22 color and black-and-white photographs of mill workers, crafts, home life, recreation, and religious expression. Cosponsored by the Rhode Island Historical Society, Rhode Island Heritage Commission, and the Rhode Island State Council on the Arts. For more information about this project see Rhode Island Folklife Resources [catalog record], by Peter Bartis, and the finding aid Rhode Island Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture.
- In 1994 the Museum of Natural History in Providence hosted a traveling exhibit created by the Center entitled Old Ties, New Attachments: Italian-Americans in the West.
Publications
- Rhode Island Folklife Resources, by Peter Bartis. A print publication about the Center's Rhode Island Folklife Project. [catalog record]
Educational Resources
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