Old-fashioned rice threshing at the 1980 Rice Festival. Part of the documentation in Arkansas's Local Legacies projects.

Arkansas

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 from Arkansas that document the diversity of the state's folk traditions. Among its unique recordings are Vance Randolph's vast and pioneering collection of songs and folklore from the Ozark region (as well as a manuscript collection of his fieldnotes and transcriptions); traditional tunes performed by the "Ozark Mountaineers"; African American spirituals; fiddle tunes; music and narratives of African American convicts in state prison farms in Little Rock and Gould; and storytelling.

• Arkansas Folklore Field Recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture [full text]

Arkansas 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 Arkansas's Local Legacies projects

Concert Webcast

October 18, 2006: Sonny Burgess and the Pacers. Rockabilly music from Arkansas. [webcast and concert flyer]