home >> about
the center >> folklife in your state >> california
California
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 Center contain rich and varied material from California
that documents the diversity of the state's folk traditions. Among its unique
collections are cylinder recordings from the early twentieth century of music
from Karuk, Chumash, Pomo, Costanoan, Luisena, and many other Indian communities;
music and stories of migrant workers from the Depression including the Charles
L. Todd and Robert Sonkin Migrant Worker Collection [online presentation]; the W.P.A. California Folk Music Project Collection, 1938-1940 [online presentation]; Yiddish songs; tales of
early pioneer life; cowboy music; songs and lore of urban minorities collected
in the 1950s; material from numerous folk festivals held throughout the state;
and photographs
of blues musicians and venues in Oakland.
In 1989 and 1991, the American Folklife Center conducted a field research
project documenting the culture and traditions of Italian Americans in the
West, which culminated in a traveling exhibition and companion book of essays.
The documentary material created during the project includes hundreds of hours
of recordings, thousands of photographs, and a large quantity of documents,
especially from Gilroy, San Jose, Santa Clara Valley, San Pedro, and neighboring
communities. The Center's Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools Project also
documented a Hupa Indian school and a Japanese school in California.
California 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.
Field Research Projects
Exhibitions
- 1993 "Old Ties, New Attachments: Italian-American Folklife in the
West," Gene Autry Museum of Western Heritage, Los
Angeles.
- 1992 "Old Ties, New Attachments: Italian-American Folklife in the West," de Saisset Museum, Santa Clara.
- 1984 "The American Cowboy," San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose.
- 1983 "Generation to Generation: Sharing the Intangible," Vallejo
Naval and Historical Museum, Vallejo, California.
- 1983 "Generation to Generation: Sharing the Intangible," California
State College Library, San Bernadino, California.
- 1982 "Generation to Generation: Sharing the Intangible," California
Museum of Afro-American History, Los Angeles.
Publications
- "The Senshin Gakuin and the Dharma School of the Senshin Buddhist Church
of Los Angeles" in Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools
in America. [catalog record]
- "Hupa Indian Language School of Hoopa Valley, California," in Ethnic Heritage
and Language Schools in America. [catalog record]
- Federal Cylinder Project: A Guide to Field Cylinder Recordings in Federal
Agencies, Volume 5 ("California Indian Catalog"). [catalog record]
- Old Ties, New Attachments: Italian-American Folklife in the West. [catalog record]
Published Recordings
- Anglo-American Shanties, Lyric Songs, Dance Tunes, and
Spirituals, Library of Congress AFS L2. [audiocassette]
- Anglo-American Songs and Ballads, Library of Congress AFS L20
and L21. [audiocassette]
- American Sea Songs and Shanties, Library of Congress AFS L26
and L27. [audiocassette] [compact disc]
- Songs of the Mormons and Songs of the West, Library of Congress
AFS L30. [audiocassette] [compact disc]
- Child Ballads Traditional in the United States, I and II, Library
of Congress AFS L57 and L58. [audiocassette]
- Folk-Songs of America: The Robert Winslow Gordon Collection 1922-32,
Library of Congress AFS L68. [online presentation]
|