- Occupational Folklore, Paterson, N.J. ~ Multimedia ~ 1994
This collection features interview excerpts and photographs from the Working in Paterson Folklife Project of the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress. The four-month study of occupational culture in Paterson, New Jersey, was conducted in 1994. Founded in the 1790s by Alexander Hamilton and the Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures (S.U.M.), Paterson harnessed the power of the Great Falls on the Passaic River to become the largest silk manufacturing center in North America, as well as a leader in other types of manufacturing, from railroads to rifles. The documentary materials presented in this online collection explore how this industrial heritage expresses itself in Paterson today: in its work sites, work processes, and memories of workers. The online presentation also includes interpretive essays exploring such topics as work in the African-American community, a distinctive food tradition (the Hot Texas Wiener), the ethnography of a single work place (Watson Machine International), business life along a single street in Paterson (21st Avenue), and narratives told by retired workers.
- Ohio River Valley ~ Multiformat ~ 1750-1820
This collection assembles rare books, pamphlets, newspapers, maps, prints, and manuscripts collected by Reuben T. Durrett and by the Filson Historical Society of Louisville, Kentucky, which he founded in 1884 and named after John Filson, author of The Discovery, Settlement and Present State of Kentucke (1784), a promotional tract recognized as the first history of the state. Collectively these items allow a textual and visual journey through the Ohio River Valley from 1750 to 1820, providing insights into a society in transition on the frontier.
- Omaha Indian Music ~ Multiformat
Omaha Indian Music features traditional Omaha music from the 1890s and 1980s. The multi format ethnographic field collection contains 44 wax cylinder recordings collected between 1895 and 1897, 323 songs and speeches from the 1983 Omaha harvest celebration pow-wow, and 25 songs and speeches from the 1985 Hethu'shka Society concert at the Library of Congress. Segments from interviews with members of the Omaha tribe conducted in 1983 and 1999 provide contextual information for the songs and speeches. Supplementing the collection are black-and-white and color photographs taken during the 1983 pow-wow and the 1985 concert.
