Folklife Center News
                  American Folklife Center
                  The Library of Congress  
                         Winter 2000
                    Volume XXII, Number 1
         ISSN 0149-6840  Catalog Card No. 77-649628

The American Folklife Center was created in 1976 by the U.S.
Congress to "preserve and present American folklife" through
programs of research, documentation, archival preservation,
reference service, live performance, exhibition,
publication, and training. The Center incorporates the
Archive of Folk Culture, which was established in the Music
Division of 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.

STAFF

Administration

Peggy A. Bulger, Director 
James Hardin, Acting Assistant Director
Doris Craig, Administrative Assistant

Acquisitions

David A. Taylor, Acting Coordinator

Processing

Catherine Hiebert Kerst, Archivist
Nora Yeh, Archivist

Programs

Peter T. Bartis, Folklife Specialist
Camila Bryce-Laporte, Program Coordinator
Mary Hufford, Folklife Specialist
David A. Taylor, Folklife Specialist

Public Events

Theadocia Austen, Coordinator

Reference

Jennifer A. Cutting, Folklife Specialist
Judith A. Gray, Folklife Specialist, Coordinator
Stephanie A. Hall, Automation Specialist
Ann Hoog, Folklife Specialist

Administrative Office

Fax: 202 707-2076

Reference Service

Tel: 202 707-5510
E-mail: folklife@loc.gov 

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Congressional Appointees

William L. Kinney Jr., Chair, South Carolina
James F. Hoy, Vice-chair, Kansas
Janet Brown, South Dakota
Mickey Hart, California
Judith McCulloh, Illinois
Kay Kaufman Shelemay, Massachusetts
Charles E. Trimble, Nebraska

Presidential Appointees

Kevin Gover, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, U.S.
Department of the Interior
William Kennard, Chairman, Federal Communications Commission
Mario Moreno, Assistant Secretary for Intergovernmental and
Interagency Affairs, Department of Education
Ellen McCulloch-Lovell, Deputy Assistant to the President
and Advisor to the First Lady on the Millennium

Librarian Appointees

Jane Beck, Vermont
Norma Cant, Texas
Tom Rankin, North Carolina
John W. Roberts, Ohio

Ex Officio Members  

James H. Billington, Librarian of Congress
Lawrence M. Small, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
Bill Ivey, Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts
William Ferris, Chairman, National Endowment for the
Humanities
Jo Radner, President, American Folklore Society
Bonnie Wade, President, Society for Ethnomusicology
Peggy A. Bulger, Director, American Folklife Center

FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS

James Hardin, Editor
David A. Taylor, Editorial Advisor
Sheryle Shears, Designer
Peggy Pixley, Production

FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS publishes articles on the programs and
activities of the American Folklife Center, as well as other
articles on traditional expressive culture. It is available
free of charge from the Library of Congress, American
Folklife Center, Washington, D.C. 20540-4610. FOLKLIFE
CENTER NEWS does not publish announcements from other
institutions or reviews of books from publishers other than
the Library of Congress. Readers who would like to comment
on Center activities or newsletter articles may address
their remarks to the editor.

TELEPHONE AND ONLINE INFORMATION RESOURCES

American Folklife Center publications (including FOLKLIFE
CENTER NEWS), a calendar of events, collection guides,
general information, and connections to a selection of other
Internet services related to folklife are available on the
Internet.

 LC Web is available through the World Wide Web service
(http://lcweb.loc.gov/). The Center's home page can be
accessed from the Library's main menu. The direct URL for
the Center's home page is: http://lcweb.loc.gov/folklife/

 Folkline, an information service providing timely
information on the field of folklore and folklife, including
training and professional opportunities and news items of
national interest, is available through the above Internet
server. For telephone service, call the Folklife Reading
Room: 202 707-5510.

EDITOR'S NOTES    

Fuzzy Photographs

We received two messages pertaining the photographs used
with Rachel Howard's article "Music More Naturally Rendered:
the John and Ruby Lomax 1939 Southern States Recording
Trip," in the fall 1999 issue.

     H. Wallace Sinaiko writes:  I've been a long time,
interested reader of FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS. The fall issue
arrived today. I'm disappointed with the photograph that
appears on the back cover, and those on pages 3, 4, 6, 7,
and 9. All are badly out-of-focus. Those fuzzy images
certainly didn't enhance the text and, for me, they did a
disservice to the people portrayed. Better to have omitted
such poor quality pictures unless they had an overriding
historical significance.

     And from Carl Fleischhauer:  It was a pleasure to read
Rachel Howard's excellent and informative article about the
Lomax family and the 1939 Southern States Recording Trip. It
reminded me of earlier work also well organized and
informative by the English folklorist John Cowley. The
Flyright record albums he compiled in the 1980s improved our
understanding of how the Lomaxes carried out their
fieldwork. And we owe John a special debt for his work in
clarifying and improving the fragmentary identifications for
the Lomaxes photographs, some of which you reproduced as
illustrations. Although the images are unprepossessing
snapshots, they represent nearly the only visual
documentation from the Lomax field trips in the 1930s and
1940s.

     Mr. Sinaiko and Mr. Fleischhauer have correctly
identified our reason for using the "fuzzy images":
"overriding historical significance."  Unfortunately for us
today, many collectors failed to take good photographs of
the persons they recorded or the places they visited,
thinking apparently that the recorded voice was enough. (We
are extremely fortunate to have the Farm Security
Administration photographs from the 1930s and 1940s, an
extraordinary collection by master photographers housed in
the Library's Prints and Photographs Division). In fact, we
have no photographs from the Lomaxes' 1939 trip. The ones
with Ms. Howard's article were taken by Ruby Lomax in 1940.
Nevertheless, we judged that some idea of what the various
persons looked like was better than none.

Photographic Collections at the Center

     Initially, of course, the Archive of Folk Culture was
the Archive of American Folk Song. It was located in the
Library's Music Division, and the emphasis was on recorded
sound. A number of collections from the Archive's first
fifty years include wonderful photographic documentation the
James Madison Carpenter and the Vance Randolph collections,
for example--but many do not.

     When the Center began its program of field
documentation projects in the late seventies, however, the
photographic component of the Archive grew substantially,
and Center collections now include thousands of black-and-
white and color images. In addition to the photographs from
the Center's own projects, the Archive has profited from
donations of photographic collections made by others. One
such collection has come recently from photographer Turner
Browne, and a sampling of his portraits of Louisiana Cajuns
is presented here. Many researchers have already discovered
the Center's photographic collections, and as more
collections are added the experience of doing photographic
research at the Center will become increasingly rewarding.

More on Alan Jabbour
     
In December 1986, Mrs. Margaret Fahnestock Lewis donated to
the Center her large collection of documentary materials
from two expeditions to the South Seas, 1940 and 1941,
including field recordings made just before World War II
changed the ancient cultures of the region forever (see
FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS, spring 1988). Alan Jabbour's
retirement moved Mrs. Lewis to write a note of salutation
and affection:

     It will be a sad day when Alan Jabbour retires. He has
seen you through the tunnel and I am sure he has left his
followers with all sorts of interesting ideas to pursue. His
curiosity and interest in all facts of life have been most
interesting. My son Bruce Fahnestock insisted I give my
collection of music we collected in the Pacific a wise move,
and that is when we met Alan and [his wife] Karen . . . . I
always think of him as a tall man with time out to play his
fiddle a big smile on his face and another contribution to
the Folklore Department. Best of luck on his retirement and
always remain friends.

And from former board member Jeanne Guillemin, this note:

     What a joy to read the testimonials to Alan in the
latest newsletter. Mine would include a wonderful six-year
association as a board member, during which the meetings
(and I have to add the site visits) were truly a good time.
Alan was kind enough to come play the fiddle when Matthew
and I were married in 1986 an event captured on videotape.
Hankus Pinckus's kletzmer band had a lot to envy that night.
What a good steward of the Center Alan has been! As others
have commented, retirement is out of the question. We expect
new adventures in the field for him.

Cover: Harvesting Spanish moss in the Atchafalaya swamp.
Cured moss has many uses, in building construction and
insulation, for example, and stuffing mattresses and chairs.
It is also used by fish hatcheries in the egg-laying
process.

Louisiana Cajun Portraits: Photographs By Turner Browne

Introductory notes on Acadian history are adapted from "The
Long Hard Road to Madawaska: Acadian Cultural Retention in
Maine's Upper St. John Valley," by C. Ray Brassieur
(Folklife Center News, fall 1991)

     Immigration stories in the United States customarily
involve travel from east to west. For the Acadians, who
migrated from France to what are now the Canadian provinces
of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, the route was from north
to south. And French Acadian or Cajun culture today is
usually associated with southern Louisiana.

     During the seventeenth century, French settlers who
migrated to the New World to engage in fishing, farming, and
fur trading were caught up in the struggle between France
and England for domination of the region. Like many in the
American colonies, they developed an independent spirit and
their own identity. In 1713, when the English gained
possession of the Acadian  territory as a result of the
Treaty of Utrecht, the Acadians refused to give up their
Catholic faith or to side with the British in the conflicts
with the local Indians.

     In 1755, the Acadians again refused to swear an
unconditional oath of allegiance to the English Crown, and
the English governor ordered that they be forcibly removed.
During the next few years, thousands of Acadians were loaded
onto British merchant vessels and dispersed throughout the
English colonies, from Massachusetts to Georgia. Some were
imprisoned in France, and others made their way to the West
Indies, Quebec, and Louisiana.

     In 1763, the Treaty of Paris ended hostilities between
England and France, and many of the refugees in the southern
American colonies migrated to Louisiana, where they expected
the French colony might offer them a congenial reception.
Over the years, the migrants adapted to the conditions of
their new environment, the watery humid clime of southern
Louisiana, but maintained an independent spirit that
characterizes and preserves Louisiana Cajun cultural
identify today.

Turner Browne was born in 1949 in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
In the 1970s, he set himself the task of making photographs
of Louisiana Cajuns, whose cultural ways he feared were
"dying out." In 1973, he received a grant for a documentary
project from the Sunflower Foundation. The project was
completed in 1975, and the French Institute of New York
sponsored a traveling exhibit of his photographs in the late
seventies. In 1977, Louisiana State University Press
published the book LOUISIANA CAJUNS (by Turner Browne, with
an introduction by William Mills). Mardi Gras, foodways,
horse racing, trapping, gambling, water navigation, music,
and socializing are some of the themes illustrated in the
book. Currently, Mr. Browne lives in Seattle.

     Mr. Brown has given his collections of over fifteen
hundred negatives from his photographic project and seventy-
seven production prints from his book to the American
Folklife Center. The collection provides a compliment to the
Center's own Maine Acadian Folklife Project, conducted in
1991 (see Folklife Center News, fall 1991), and a sampling
is offered here. Mr. Browne retains the intellectual
property rights to his collection, but he encourages the
widest possible use of the materials at the Library of
Congress. 

Caption information by Turner Browne and William Mills

Traditional Acadian-style house, with the exterior staircase
leading to the second floor.

A band of masked and costumed riders (courrir de Mardi Gras)
celebrating "Fat Tuesday." Beginning in the early morning
and led by a capitaine around the community, the band stops
at houses to request a chicken, rice, sausage, or some other
contribution to the gigantic gumbo being prepared for
community gatherings of as many as two hundred people.

Gumbo, made for the occasion in great pots such as these, is
a Cajun speciality.

Lavania in her kitchen. This Cajun lady is both a
fortuneteller who reads coffee grounds and a traitier who
specializes in curing poisonous bites. She holds a cup
stained with the grounds of Cajun coffee, an omnipresent
symbol of the local culture known for its strength.

Annual pirogue races, held on Bayou Lafourche. This boat,
adapted from the Indian dugout, was originally made from a
single log.  Now constructed with thin planks of cypress,
plywood, or even fiberglass, it is amazingly light and well
known for the ease with which it turns over.

Ambrose Thibodeaux, Merlin Fontenot, and Nathan Abshire play
the three principal instruments of Acadian music: the
triangle, the fiddle, and the accordion

The Allemond family, crawfishing deep in the swamp.

Crawfish racing at the Breaux Bridge Crawfish Festival.
Games of chance in Cajun country are often associated with
activities in the natural world.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Folklife Center Field School Explores Life Along the
Kokosing

By David A. Taylor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The field school was far and away the best part of my
collegiate education to date," wrote first-year Ohio State
University folklore graduate student Susan Hanson.  "And I
anticipate that everything to come will be more manageable
as a result of my having had the opportunity to participate
in the program," she added.  

     Chris Grasso, a staff historian at the Western Reserve
Historical Society, in Cleveland, wrote: "We received an
apprenticeship along with our ethnographer's toolkit from
the field school at Kenyon.  In the field, we quickly put
the tools you provided us to work.  Our accelerated
experience will make the project planning and implementation
I do in the future seem like second nature."

     Hanson and Grasso were part of a group of fifteen
people with a strong interest in cultural documentation, but
with little or no previous experience in this area, who
participated in an intensive, three-week-long field school
the Folklife Center sponsored last summer in partnership
with Kenyon College's Rural Life Center. It was held at the
college's Gambier, Ohio, campus, June 13 through July 3, and
was funded, in part, by a grant from the Ohio Humanities
Council. It was jointly directed by Folklife Center folklife
specialist David A. Taylor and Rural Life Center director
Howard L. Sacks, a professor of sociology at Kenyon.

     Developed in response to a continuing, nationwide
demand for practical training in cultural
documentation training that is in short supply both at the
local level and in the academy--the Ohio field school was
the third sponsored by the Folklife Center. Two previous
field schools were developed, in 1994 and 1995, in
partnership with Colorado College and the University of New
Mexico's Center for Regional Studies. The fieldwork portions
of those courses focused on life in a farming and ranching
community in southern Colorado and farmers' markets based in
Colorado Springs, respectively.

     The participants in last summer's field school were
selected from a pool of applicants who responded to
publicity about the course. An important criteria used in
their selection was their potential for applying the
training to their future work. The fifteen participants
were: Eleanor Dahlin, a contract archaeologist from Houston;
Grasso; Hanson; Paul Kulp a public school teacher from
Marietta, Ohio; Norma Jean Loughrey, a local historian from
Brinkhaven, Ohio; Lori Liggett, a graduate student in
American studies at Bowling Green State University; Selina
Lim, a graduate student in political science at Ohio State
University; Luis Alejandro Madrigal-Mercado, a graduate
student in rural sociology at Ohio State University;
Elisabeth Nixon, a graduate student in folklore at Ohio
State University; Gloria Parsisson, a local historian from
Centerburg, Ohio; Andrew Richmon, a librarian from Gambier,
Ohio; Linda Stoltzfus, a graduate student in history at the
University of Akron; Mark Tebeau, a historian at the Western
Reserve Historical Society; Robert Thometz, a grant writer
from Columbus, Ohio; and Brenda Young, a graduate student in
American studies at Bowling Green State University.   

     Sacks and Taylor were the principal instructors at the
field school. They were assisted by: Stephanie Hall,
folkorist and automation specialist at the Folklife Center;
Ray Heithaus, director of the Kenyon Center for
Environmental Study, and professor of biology at the
college; Mary Hufford, folklife specialist at the Folklife
Center; and Gregory Spaid, photographer and professor of art
at the college. Several residents of Knox County (where the
college is located) also came into the field school's
classroom and provided information about various aspects of
local history, culture, and the natural environment.

As with the Folklife Center's previous field schools, a
specific theme was selected for exploration, and this year's
theme was "Life Along the Kokosing." Newly designated as an
Ohio scenic river, the Kokosing is the main waterway running
through Knox County, a rural district characterized by a
large number of small, family-run farms. The main goal of
the fieldwork was to study the ways the river affects, and
is in turn affected by, Knox County's residents and
visitors. It was the task of the participants to determine
what exactly to study and how to go about the work.

     In part, the theme "Life Along the Kokosing" was also
selected because the research done by the field school's
participants could serve as the foundation for future
research that Sacks expected would be undertaken in the
coming academic year by students in his fieldwork class. 
(Sacks and his students have conducted fieldwork with Knox
County farm families and other local residents for many
years and used the research as the basis for a number of
impressive public programs.) The northwest corner of the
county, comprising the small farming villages of Waterford
and Batemantown, was selected as the main geographic focus
of the research. 

     The field school was divided into two main parts of
equal duration: (1) classroom instruction and orientation
field trips, and (2) fieldwork and analysis and presentation
of research findings. During the first half of the course,
participants received full days of classroom instruction on
a variety of subjects, including an overview of Knox County
(surveying its history, culture, economy, and natural
environment), project planning, and research ethics, as well
as techniques for documentary photography, ethnographic
observation and writing, interviewing, sound recording, and
organizing field data. During this part of the course,
participants also left the classroom and went, en masse, on
short field trips designed to better acquaint them with the
character of Knox County.

     For example, led by biologist Heithaus, they took a
canoe trip down the Kokosing River for a distance of ten
miles or so. Along the way, they observed some of the ways
local residents orient themselves to and make use of the
river. They also inspected the river's inhabitants by dip-
netting small fish and other creatures that Heithaus
identified and described as indicators of the river's
health. The canoe trip had other functions as well. Taking
place only a few days into the course, it provided a good
opportunity for participants to work together as members of
teams (to propel their canoes downstream), and the shared
experience--enlivened by a number of spills along the
way helped the group bond together. As Sacks and Taylor
emphasized throughout the course, teamwork a new research
experience for most course participants is the key to
successful ethnographic fieldwork involving more than one
researcher.

     Another memorable experience was a group trip to an
indoor livestock auction in nearby Mt. Vernon, the county
seat of Knox County. This trip followed classroom lectures
and discussions about ethnographic observation and writing.
The purpose of the exercise was to apply lessons learned in
the classroom in a field situation. The auction and various
activities that surrounded it provided a research
opportunity simultaneously rich in activity, sound, and
aroma! Back in the classroom the next day, a lively
discussion ensued about such things as asking effective
questions, using strategies for observing complex events,
taking insider and outsider perceptions into account, and
being aware of ethical considerations when doing fieldwork.  
           

     One more field trip followed instruction in
interviewing and photography and was intended to give
participants an opportunity to test these documentary
techniques while learning more about life in Knox County.
Participants were divided into two groups and each one went
to visit a different farm and meet members of the family
that runs it. Both were "century farms" (farms in continuous
operation for one hundred years or more). One was a cattle
operation (the Cassell Farm), and the other was a sheep
operation (the Shinaberry Farm).

     Many field school participants were eager to learn more
about documentary photography and they had ample
opportunities to do so. During the first half of the course,
Greg Spaid delivered lectures about photographic equipment
and technique and showed examples of the work of top
documentary photographers. He also gave numerous assignments
that allowed participants to improve their technique with a
35mm camera. During frequent sessions, participants' slides
were projected on screen for all to see and critique. This
permitted participants to see the results of their
photography very quickly and receive advice they could use
to improve their work. (An arrangement had been made with a
photo lab that enabled rolls of film to be processed and
returned within a few hours.)

     The course was also designed to address another need
participants had expressed the need for guidance in
organizing and preserving tape recordings, photographs,
fieldnotes, emphera, and other materials generated during
field research. Folklife Center archivist Stephanie Hall
provided instruction that ranged from numbering systems of
archival containers to the use of computer programs. One
point she stressed was the need to plan for the organization
and preservation of documentary materials at the start
rather than at the end of a field project, when a pile of
material has been collected. Hall, Sacks, and Taylor all
emphasized the importance of attending to archival chores,
fieldnote writing, and related tasks on a daily basis.

After seven days of classroom lectures, field trips, and
practice with documentation equipment, the course then moved
on to address planning for the fieldwork that would take
place during the second half. Sacks and Taylor explained
that the fifteen participants would be divided into teams of
three. Each team would be responsible for developing a
research plan that would address some aspect of the overall
theme life along the Kokosing carrying out the fieldwork,
and making twenty-minute slide-illustrated presentations
about their findings at the end of the course. The team
dimension was again stressed. Members of the teams were
instructed to share fieldwork chores evenly (interviewing,
photography, and notetaking was to be rotated so that
everyone gained experience in every technique), and teams
were encouraged to work cooperatively with other teams
whenever that made sense.  

     The five teams each with a colorful self-selected name
such as "The River Bottoms" and "The Cicadas" then proceeded
to develop their individual sub-themes and research plans.
Five sub-themes emerged: the history of businesses in a
small cross-roads village on the Kokosing, the lay of the
land with an emphasis on ways of moving water for
agricultural purposes, local foodways, recreational uses of
the Kokosing reservoir, and cottage industries with an
emphasis on woodworking shops operated by Amish families. At
this point, the course instructors stepped back, assumed the
role of advisors, and let the teams embark on the research
each had selected. The teams' plans were refined and the
team members moved ahead to identify informants and
pertinent upcoming events, schedule and conduct interviews,
and carry out other fieldwork activities.

     As their fieldwork unfolded, team members put in long
hours in the field and, later on, at their computers, as
they strived to keep up with the job of writing fieldnotes
about the day's activities. At one point early in the
fieldwork phase, several of the teams determined that an
aerial perspective was required to obtain a comprehensive
understanding of the local landscape. And so, in the best
tradition of teamwork, they pooled their resources and hired
a local pilot to take representatives of three teams aloft
for an hour of aerial photography above the study area. The
images they shot were later distributed among all five
teams.

     During the brief fieldwork period only six days the
teams worked diligently to gather information needed to
inform the themes they had selected. Predictably, mistakes
were made along the way (someone neglected to check whether
a microphone was in the bag of recording equipment before
the team left for an interview; the team member with the car
forgot to show up to carry the others to a scheduled
interview; and so on), but in this way lessons were learned
and learned well. Many epiphanies occurred along the way,
too, especially ones that resulted from the realization that
one is learning how to enter a different cultural world.

     During the last few days of the course, the teams
wrapped up their fieldwork; organized their tapes, slides,
fieldnotes, photo logs, and other field data; and started
planning their final presentations. On the penultimate day
of the course, in the presence of some members of the local
community, the director of the Ohio Humanities Council, a
reporter from the Mount Vernon News, and the course
instructors, the five teams presented their reports, which
were complemented by the photographs, sound recordings, and
artifacts they collected. Even though their time in the
field was brief, the research and analysis the teams
accomplished was impressive. For example, one team described 
the work process and equipment used by Amish furniture
makers and its relationship to their beliefs. Another team
described the various techniques farmers use to move water
on and off their fields as well as the vernacular way of
thinking about water management that guides their actions.  

     The next day, after a session devoted to analyzing the
whole field school experience, the teams turned over their
documentary materials to Howard Sacks for deposit in the
Rural Life Center's archive. Sacks and Taylor were delighted
to see neat piles of items covering the top of a conference
table 45 hours of taped interviews, over 1,300 slides, and
some 500 pages of fieldnotes and tape and photo logs (on
paper and also in computer files), plus signed release forms
obtained from all the informants all properly numbered,
organized, and otherwise ready for immediate deposit in the
archive.

Time will tell the extent to which participants in last
summer's field school will apply the training they received.
However, early indications seem very positive. For example,
the Folklife Center has learned that two participants are
using the training in connection with a major exhibition
about workers' perspectives on manufacturing industries in
Cleveland, another is using it to analyze historical papers
from an ethnographic perspective, and another using it to
better organize and preserve research materials gathered
during previous research in her community.

     Back in Knox County, the impact of the field school is
still being felt. Notably, the course has stimulated a
number of new research projects at Kenyon College's Rural
Life Center.  Howard Sacks reports: "Students in my
undergraduate fieldwork course are continuing to examine
life along the Kokosing. Drawing on materials collected over
the summer as well as their own research, the class is
creating a cultural tour guide of the river that will
include a booklet and audio recording. The summer fieldwork
conducted on local food production has contributed to the
creation of a guide to Knox County's food producers, part of
an effort to build a local agricultural economy."

     "The initial work done in the field school has greatly
aided our launching of these community projects," says
Sacks. He also notes: "The surrounding community is
receptive to our work as a result of the publicity
associated with the school. The body of data collected by
field school participants has helped us conceptualize our
projects more quickly. And funding agencies are impressed by
the groundwork accomplished in the school."

     What's next in the way of field schools?  The Folklife
Center has accepted an invitation from Indiana University's
Folklore Institute and the Evergreen Institute, both in
Bloomington, Indiana, to jointly sponsor a three-week-long
field school in Bloomington this summer.  Scheduled for June
11-July 1, it will follow the same model the Folklife Center
used for last year's field school at Kenyon College. The
focus of fieldwork during the Indiana field school will be
the social and cultural history of Bloomington's town
square. For more information about the course and how to
apply to become a participant, contact the co-directors: Dr.
Inta Carpenter, Director of Special Projects, Indiana
University Folklore Institute, 504 North Fess, Bloomington,
IN 47405; (812) 855-8049; carpente@indiana.edu; Dr. Philip
B. Stafford, Evergreen Institute, 501 North Morton, Suite
210, Bloomington, IN 47404; (812) 856-5526;
staffor@indiana.edu; or Dr. David A. Taylor, American
Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
20540; (202) 707-1737; dtay@loc.gov.

During a workshop on sound-recording techniques, Selena Lim,
Gloria Parsisson, and Bob Thometz take turns setting up and
operating the equipment. Photo by David A. Taylor

Field school co-director Howard Sacks leads a discussion on
various subjects that could be explored in addressing the
field school's research theme, "Life Along the Kokosing."
Photo by David A. Taylor

The members of one of the field school's five fieldwork
teams plan their research.  They explored the creation of
and the various ways people use the Kokosing Reservoir. 
Left to right:  Bob Thometz, Susan Hanson, Norma Jean
Loughrey.  Photo by David A. Taylor 

Knox County farmer Art Cassell discusses crops he raises
with field school participants.  Left to right: Cassell,
Linda Stoltzfus, Gregory Spaid, Susan Hanson, Alejandro
Madrigal-Mercado.  Photo by David A. Taylor

Art Cassell describes seasonal variations of the Kokosing
River, which runs through his property, to field school
participants. Left to right: Eleanor Dahlin, Alejandro
Madrigal-Mercado, Cassell, Gloria Parsisson, Gregory Spaid,
Susan Hanson.  Photo by David A. Taylor

Field school participants and faculty pose for a group
portrait on the last day of the course.  First row (left to
right): Mark Tebeau, Susan Hanson, Gloria Parsisson,
Christopher Grasso.  Second row: Alejandro Madrigal-Mercado,
Eleanor Dahlin, Brenda Young, Robert Thometz, Linda
Stoltzfus, David Taylor. Third row: Gregory Spaid, Howard
Sacks, Norma Jean Loughrey, Lori Liggett, Paul Kulp,
Elisabeth Nixon, Andrew Richmond, Ray Heithaus, Selina Lim.
Photo by Inta Carpenter

Back cover:

During a field trip to the farm of Art and Joan Cassell,
field school participant Mark Tebeau practices his
photographic technique by photographing the Cassells  in
front of their barn.  Photo by David A. Taylor

Roots and Branches: Concert Benefits Henry Reed Fund for
Folk Artists

Photographs by Robert Corwin

Dubbed an event of "roots and branches" by Stephen Wade, the
Henry Reed Fund Benefit Concert played to a packed house at
the State Theater in Falls Church, Virginia, on December 1,
1999. Retiring American Folklife Center director Alan
Jabbour proposed the fund and the concert to honor his
mentor, the now-legendary West Virginia fiddle player Henry
Reed. Members of the Reed family were present, many of them,
along with Jabbour, also "in fine fiddle," (or fine guitar,
or fine harmonica). Pete Seeger brought his grandson, Tao
Rodriguez; and Christine Balfa (with husband, Dirk Powell,
and Geno Delafose) put knowledgeable members of the audience
in mind of her late father, the famous Cajun accordion
player Dewey Balfa. Other performers on the program were the
Washington gospel group Prophecy; Hazel Dickens and Dudley
Connell; and Stephen Wade.

     The Henry Reed Fund for Folk Artists will enable the
American Folklife Center to provide support in the form of
awards, stipends, or honoraria to folk artists of all sorts.
The fund was conceived as a complement to the Parsons Fund
(which supports the use of the Library's collections) and
the Blanton Owen Fund (which supports fieldwork). In making
awards from the Henry Reed Fund, the Center will give
particular consideration to those artists who are featured
in the programs and collections of the Center. Projects and
activities supported by the fund might include honoraria and
payments for concerts, workshops, and exhibitions; research
using the Archive of Folk Culture; and the documentation of
performances.

     To establish the Henry Reed Fund as a trust fund in the
Library of Congress, the Center must raise $25,000. The
benefit concert and a number of generous personal
contributions have brought the fund near that goal. Persons
wishing to contribute to this new effort to support folk
artists should make checks payable to the Library of
Congress Trust Fund Board (or, simply, The American Folklife
Center). Please write Henry Reed Fund in the comment line
and send your contributions to the Library of Congress,
American Folklife Center, 101 Independence Avenue, S.E.,
Washington, D.C. 20540-4610. Contributions are tax
deductible.

Photographer Robert Corwin has been documenting the folk
music scene and folk performers for the past thirty-five
years.

Photo captions:

Tao Rodriguez-Seeger and his grandad Pete

Performers onstage at the State Theater for a final number
with Alan Jabbour and members of the Reed family.

Backstage at the State Theater (clockwise from top): Pete
Seeger, Alan Jabbour, Peggy Bulger, Stephen Wade, Tao
Rodriguez, and Dirk Powell.

Dirk Powell, Geno Delaphose, and Christine Balfa

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Congressional Reception Celebrates Center's Permanent
Authorization

Photographs by David A. Taylor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Many persons contributed to the effort that resulted in
permanent authorization for the American Folklife Center
(which became effective October 21, 1998): notably the
Center's board of trustees and many local supporters around
the country who wrote letters and made calls to their
congressional offices. The Center has also enjoyed the
enduring support of a number of members of Congress, who
worked to convince their own congressional colleagues of the
importance of the Center and its work. The Center owes a
debt, for example, to Rep. David Obey, Rep. John Spratt,
Rep. Charles Taylor, Rep. William Thomas, Sen. Thad Cochran,
Sen. Tom Daschle, Sen. Ted Stevens, and Sen. John Warner. On
October 6, 1999, the Center held a reception in the
Library's Madison Gallery to celebrate its new permanent
status and to thank members of Congress for their help and
support in achieving that goal.

Photo captions:

American Folklife Center director Peggy Bulger, board chair
William Kinney, board member Janet Brown, and former Center
director Alan Jabbour

Center staff Nora Yeh (left) and Doris Craig (right) with
Center board member Mickey Hart

American Folklore Society president Jo Radner, National
Endowment for the Arts chair Bill Ivey, Library of Congress
Congressional Relations Officer Geraldine Otremba, and board
member Jim Hoy

Congressman David Obey (right) and Bill Ivey

Congressman David Obey and Center director Peggy Bulger

Smithsonian and Library of Congress Folklife Staffs Gather
at Library

Over the years, American Folklife Center (AFC) staff have
grown used to having their programs and projects confused
with the highly visible Smithsonian Folklife Festival, which
has been staged on the National Mall since 1967. Similarly,
the Smithsonian's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
(which manages the festival) often fields research inquires
and other questions intended for the AFC. The two
Washington-area folk arts agencies have different and
complimentary functions, and many of the persons serving on
the staffs are personal fiends as well as colleagues. On
January 13, the Smithsonian and Library staffs (joined by
Dan Sheehy and Barry Bergey from the NEA) met at the Library
of Congress to discuss programs and share ideas.
Participants formed discussion groups and explored five
topics of common interest: 1. Cultural policy issues,
community collaborations, and advocacy; 2. Education issues
and initiatives; 3. Archives, access, and preservation; 4.
Public programs, cultural representation, and
interpretation; 5. Presenting, disseminating, and providing
services on the World Wide Web.

Stephanie Hall, automation reference specialist, describes
the AFC's Web site for her discussion group, including
Christa Maher (left), digital conversion specialist at the
Library.  Photo by James Hardin

Smithsonian staff Mary Monseur, production coordinator,
Smithsonian Folkways Recordings; Marjorie Hunt, folklorist
and education specialist; and Diana N'Diaye, folklorist,
listen attentively to the discussion of cultural policy
issues.   Photo by James Hardin

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