Dancer performs at the 1999 Fiesta San Antonio. Part of the documentation in Texas's Local Legacies projects.

Texas

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 material documenting the folk traditions of Texas. Among its recordings are cowboy music dating from the early 1900s through the 1940s; the Texas Baptist Collection, documenting Baptist services and music in Austin, Bartlett, Cedar Creek, Dale, Devillia, Granger, Killeen, King's Village, and Temple; and Mexican American folk music. In 1982, the Center's Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools Project documented a Cambodian school in Houston. The material created during this project has been incorporated into the collections of the Folklife Center.

• Texas Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture [draft available upon request]

American Folklife Center collections presented online through the American Memory Project include 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.

Texas 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 Texas's Local Legacies projects

Lecture Webcast

November 8, 2006: "La Quinceañera: A Coming of Age Ritual in Latino Communities" presented by Norma E. Cantú, Professor of English, University of Texas at San Antonio. [webcast and event flyer]

Field Research Projects

• 1982 Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools (Chinese and Cambodian). [catalog record] [finding aid]

Public Programs

• 1977 "Folk Culture in Texas" (conference), San Antonio, cosponsored with the Institute of Texan Cultures, the Texas Folklore Society, and the University of Texas.
• 1983-84 "The American Cowboy" (exhibit), Institute of Texan Cultures, San Antonio.
• 1984-85 "Generation to Generation: Sharing the Intangible" (exhibit), Hogg Foundation of Mental Health, Austin; John E. Connor Museum, Texas A&I University, Kingsville.

Publications

• Cowboy Songs: A Select Bibliography of Books (bibliography from 1980) [full text]
• "The Photographs of Benny Joseph: African American Life and Community in Houston," Folklife Annual 90. [catalog record]
• "Tom and I Were Cowboys: A Memoir of Texas Panhandle Cowboys," Folklife Annual 1985. [catalog record]
• "The Cambodian School," Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools in America. [catalog record]

Published Recordings

• Afro-American Blues and Game Songs, Library of Congress AFS L4. [audiocassette][compact disc]
• Bahaman Songs, French Ballads and Dance Tunes, Spanish Religious Songs and Game Songs, Library of Congress AFS L5. [audiocassette]
• Negro Work Songs and Calls, Library of Congress AFS L8. [audiocassette] [compact disc]
• Cowboy Songs, Ballads, and Cattle Calls from Texas, Library of Congress AFS L28. [audiocassette] [compact disc]
• Jordan and Jubilee: Songs from Livingston, Alabama and Sugar Land, Texas: Convict Songs from a Texas Prison The Ballad Hunter, parts IX and X), Library of Congress AFS L53. [audiocassette]
• Versions and Variants of Barbara Allen, Library of Congress AFS L54. [audiocassette]