home >> about
the center >> folklife in your state >> georgia
Georgia
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 large amounts
of rich and varied materials from Georgia that document the diversity of
the state's folk traditions. Among its unique recordings are substantial
holdings of music, storytelling and interviews made in the 1920s, 1930s,
and 1940s, featuring African American folk music, Sacred Harp singing,
and southern Georgia fiddling; and the Foxfire project collection from
Rabun Gap. In 1977, the Center sponsored the South-Central Georgia Folklife
Project, which surveyed life, work, and traditional expression in the wiregrass
region of south-central Georgia. The documentary material produced by the
project, including thousands of photographic images and hundreds of sound
recordings, has been incorporated into the collections of the Folklife
Center.
Georgia 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.
Georgia collections presented online through American
Memory include:
- "Now
What a Time:" Blues, Gospel, and the Fort Valley Music Festivals, 1938-1943.
Approximately one hundred sound recordings, primarily blues and gospel
songs, and related documentation from the folk festival at Fort Valley
State College (now Fort Valley State University), Fort Valley, Georgia.
The documentation was created by John Wesley Work III in 1941 and by
Lewis Jones and Willis Laurence James in March, June, and July 1943.
Also included are recordings made in Tennessee and Alabama (including
six Sacred Harp songs) by John Work between September 1938 and 1941.
- Southern Mosaic:
The John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording Trip; folksingers
and folksongs documented during a three-month trip through the Southern
United States. The collection includes material from Alabama, Arkansas,
Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina,
Texas, and Virginia.
Field Research Projects
- 1977 South-Central Georgia Folklife Project.
Public Programs
- 1978 "Folk Art and Folklife" (exhibit), at Library of Congress; "Sketches
of South Georgia Folklife" (one part of "Folk Art and Folklife") was
installed permanently at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College, Tifton.
- 1978 "Southern Folk Pottery: The Meaders Family Tradition" (conference),
at the Library of Congress.
Publications
- Zora Neale Hurston: Recordings,
Manuscripts, and Ephemera in the Archive of Folk Culture (includes materials from Georgia) [full text]
- Sketches of South Georgia Folklife. [catalog record]
- "Howard Finster: Man of Visions," Folklife Annual 1985. [catalog record]
- "Bulrush is Silver, Sweetgrass is Gold: The Enduring Art of Sea Grass
Basketry," Folklife Annual 1989-90. [catalog record]
Published Recordings
|
The Libraryof Congress>> Research Centers
Back to
Top