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The Upper Penitente Morada Chapel, Arroyo
Hondo, Taos County, NM. Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs
Division, Historic American Buildings Survey. Part
of the cultural documentation found in New
Mexico's Local Legacies projects. |
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New Mexico
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
materials documenting the Native American and other folk traditions of
New Mexico. Among this material are early cylinder recordings of Zuni songs
and folklore, collected by Jesse Walter Fewkes in 1890 and 1891; many hours
of songs and spoken narrative from the Acoma, Cochiti, Isleta, Jemez, Laguna
Picuris, San Ildefonso, Santa Clara, Santo Domingo, and Taos pueblos; materials
from the Mescalero and Chiricahua Apache peoples; the John Donald Robb
collection of Spanish-American folksongs; and cowboy music.
American Folklife Center Collections presented online through the American
Memory project include Hispano
Music and Culture of the Northern Rio Grande: the Juan Rael Collection,
an ethnographic field collection documenting religious and secular music
of Spanish-speaking residents of rural Northern New Mexico and Southern
Colorado compiled by Juan Batista Rael in 1940.
New Mexico is participating 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
November 16, 2005: Dineh Tah Navajo Dancers. Dances and songs of the Navajo Nation. [catalog record] [webcast and event flyer]
Publications
- "Finding the"True America" Ethnic Tourism in New Mexico During the
New Deal," Folklife Annual 88-89. [catalog record]
- The Federal Cylinder Project: A Guide to Field Cylinder Recordings
in Federal Agencies, Volume 5. [catalog record]
Published Recordings
- Pueblo: Taos, San Ildefonso, Zuni, Hopi, Library of Congress
AFS L43. [audiocassette]
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