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North Carolina
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
from North Carolina that documents the state's diverse folk traditions.
Among its unique recordings are African American religious services; many
hours of fiddle, banjo, dulcimer, and guitar music; recordings of folklore
dating from the 1940s; and the Joseph S. Hall Great Smoky Mountains Project,
which includes recordings of folksongs, narrative, instrumental music,
and speech, from the 1940s through the 1960s. In 1978, the Center conducted
the Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project, 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 the Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Survey forms
part of the online presentation Quilts and Quiltmaking
in America: 1978-1996.
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.
North Carolina 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.
Concert Webcast
August 17, 2005: Benton
Flippen and the Smokey Valley Boys. [webcast and event flyer] [catalog record]
Field Research Projects
Publications
- Blue Ridge Harvest: A Region's Folklife in Photographs. [catalog record]
- "New Pots for Old: Burlon Craig's Strategy for Success," Folklife
Annual 88-89. [catalog record]
Published Recordings
- Folk Songs of America: The Robert Winslow Gordon Collection 1922-32,
Library of Congress AFS L67. [online presentation]
- Children of the Heavenly King, Library of Congress AFS L69/70. [audiocassette]
- Jack Tales, Library of Congress AFS L47/48. [audiocassette]
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