Josh and Henry Reed, ca. 1903. Photograph from the collection of James Reed, reproduced with permission. From the online presentation Fiddle Tunes of the Old Frontier: The Henry Reed Collection. Part of the cultural documentation found in Virginia's Local Legacies projects.

Virginia

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 rich and varied folk traditions of Virginia are well represented in the collections of the American Folklife Center. Among its recordings are African American Baptist services dating from the 1930s; ballads from Hampton, Richmond, and the Appalachian region; folk music, both African American and Anglo-American, dating from the 1930s to the present, recorded in Chilhowie, Lynchburg, Profitt, Brown's Cove, Saltville, Mission Home, and many other areas; square dance music and calls; a recorded interview with a Civil War general; menhaden fishers' folklore; and contemporary African American folktales and church services from Rappahannock County.

In 1978, the Center conducted the Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Survey [catalog record], which documented the folk traditions of the region that surrounds the parkway. The material created during this project, including thousands of photographs, many hours of interviews, and video documentation, has been incorporated into the collections of the Folklife Center. Quilting documentation from this project forms part of the online presentation Quilts and Quiltmaking in America: 1978-1996.

• Virginia Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture [full text]

Virginia 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 Virginia's Local Legacies projects.

Concert Webcasts

April 25 2007: The Sama Ensemble. Traditional Iranian music and dance from Virginia. [webcast and event flyer]

September 20, 2005: Carter Family Tribute. Old Time Music from Virginia NEA National Heritage Fellow Concert. [webcast and event flyer] [catalog record]

Field Research Projects

• Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project. [catalog record] [finding aid]

Publications

• Blue Ridge Harvest: A Region's Folklife in Photographs. [catalog record]
• A Brief List of Publications Pertaining to Folk Music of Virginia (bibliography from 1971). [full text]
• A Brief List of Material Relating to the White Top Mountain Folk Festival, White Top, Virginia (bibliography from 1970) [full text]

Published Recordings

• Anglo-American Ballads, Library of Congress AFS L1. [audiocassette] [compact disc]
• Anglo-American Shanties, Lyric Songs, Dance Tunes, and Spirituals, Library of Congress AFS L2. [audiocassette]
• Afro-American Spirituals, Work Songs, and Ballads, Library of Congress AFS L3, reissued on Rounder CD 1510. [audiocassette] [compact disc]
• Child Ballads Traditional in the United States (II), Library of Congress AFS L58. [audiocassette]