Ray Hicks telling stories at the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, 1999. Photo by Tom Raymond. Part of the cultural documentation found in Tennessee's Local Legacies projects.

Tennessee

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 material from Tennessee that documents the diversity of the state's folk traditions. Among its recordings are hundreds of hours of folksongs, including African American and Anglo-American traditions; folk tales, including "Jack tales" recorded in the 1930s; religious services, including tent revival meetings, faith healing, and snake handling; shape-note singing; and recordings of the Harmon Family of Cades Cove, who were relocated with other families during the creation of Smoky Mountain National Park. The Center created the plan for the folklife festival that took place at the 1982 Knoxville World's Fair. Documentary material created in preparing this plan has been incorporated into the collections of the Folklife Center.

In 2001 the American Folklife Center acquired the International Storytelling Collection (AFC 2001/008). The International Storytelling Collection contains manuscripts, sound recordings, graphic materials, moving images, electronic media, and artifacts that relate to the storytelling revival of the 1970s through the present. Based in Jonesborough, Tennessee, the International Storytelling Center (ISC) and its predecessor organizations, the National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling (NAPPS), and the National Storytelling Association (NSA) collected these materials. Through the organization’s programming, such as the National Storytelling Festival, the ISC has served as a focal point for the storytelling revival.

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

The Center's American Memory Project collections presented online 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.

Tennessee 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 Tennessee's Local Legacies projects

Concert Webcast

Tennessee performers have presented their traditions as part of the American Folklife Center's concert series at the Library of Congress. These performances have been recorded and accessioned into the Archive of Folk Culture.

September 13, 2006: Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver. Bluegrass and Gospel music from Tennessee. [webcast and event flyer]

Field Research Projects

• 1982 Knoxville International Energy Expo '82 Project.
• 1982 Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools (Jewish Day School). [catalog record][finding aid]

Publications

• "The Photographs of Maggie Lee Sayre: A Personal Vision of Houseboat Life," Folklife Annual 90. [catalog record]

Published Recordings

• Play and Dance Songs and Tunes, Library of Congress AFS L9. [audiocassette]
• Versions and Variants of "Barbara Allen," Library of Congress AFS L54. [audiocassette]