Billy Entenmann rides George Phillips, owned by Timber Bay Farms at the Carolina Cup Races. Photo by Catherine French. Part of the cultural documentation found in South Carolina's Local Legacies projects.

South Carolina

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 rich and varied material from South Carolina that documents the state's folk traditions. Among its recordings are Gullah dialect songs and tales from the Sea Islands; African American spirituals, hymns, lullabies, and religious services performed by choirs and soloists from around the state; and many hours of work songs, spirituals, and prayers of African American convicts held at the state work farms in Boykin and Columbia in the 1930s.

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

South Carolina 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 South Carolina's Local Legacies projects

Publications

• "Bulrush is Silver, Sweetgrass is Gold: The Enduring Art of Seagrass Basketry," Folklife Annual 1988-89. [catalog record]

Published Recordings

• Animal Tales Told in the Gullah Dialect, Volumes I-III, Library of Congress AFS L44-46. [audiocassette]