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Collections & Research Services: The Archive of Folk Culture

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The Archive of Folk Culture mainly consists of the collections of the American Folklife Center. It was originally founded as the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library in 1928. In 1978 it became part of the American Folklife Center and was subsequently renamed the Archive of Folk Culture. Today the Archive includes over three million photographs, manuscripts, audio recordings, and moving images. It consists of documentation of traditional culture from all around the world including the earliest field recordings made in the 1890s on wax cylinder through recordings made using digital technology. It is America's first national archive of traditional life, and one of the oldest and largest of such repositories in the world. To read more about the history of the Archive read "The Archive of Folk Culture at 75: A National Project with Many Workers," [PDF: 1.52MB / 16 p.], by James Hardin.

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  The Library of Congress >> Research Centers
  July 14, 2008
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