Alex Kellam collection
By: collected by George G. Carey and Carl Fleischhauer
Contributors: Archive of Folk Culture (Library of Congress); American Folklife Center; Festival of American Folklife
Published: 1977
Language: eng
Number of pages: 449
Subjects: Social life and customs; Storytelling; Anecdotes; Fishers; Interviews; Field recordings; English Folk songs; Fishing; Crabbing; Storytellers
Description: Interviews with Alex Kellam conducted by George G. Carey of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and Carl Fleischhauer of the American Folklife Center in May and June of 1977 during visits with Kellam in Crisfield, Maryland, and on trips to Smith Island and surrounding waterways. Subjects include oystering, crabbing, fishing, boats, hunting, religious life, camp meetings, ghost stories, riddles, family life, and foodways. Kellam sings songs, recites poetry, and tells stories and jokes. Collection also includes recordings of Alex Kellam working at the Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife in July 1978 describing the life and work of watermen on the Chesapeake Bay and telling stories. Other participants in these 1978 sessions and related interviews conducted by Carl Fleischhauer and Paula Johnson include Ben Evans, Jennings Evans, Hermann Stine, Harrison Tyler, Paul Nock, and Casey Jones. Photographs were taken by Fleischhauer on the 1977 visits and include images of Alex Kellam, his wife Dorothy Kellam, decoy maker Lem Ward, residents of Smith Island, houses, businesses, churches, grave markers, crabbing, traditional watercraft, as well as photographs of Alex Kellam's scrapbooks, paintings, and poems. Manuscripts include correspondence between Carey and Fleischhauer, photo logs, recording logs and partial interview transcripts, field notes, brochures and maps of Smith Island and Crisfield, and three color postcards featuring Lem Ward's woodcarving.  Collection was made for a proposed LP recording project.
Notes: Alex Kellam Collection (AFC 1977/008), Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

Duplication of the collection materials may be governed by copyright and other restrictions.

Accessioned; 1984.

Alex Kellam was born October 9, 1908 in Rhodes Point, Smith Island, Maryland.  During World War II he was a member of the U.S. Coast Guard Reserve and a shipfitter. From 1946 he worked as an insurance agent in Crisfield, Maryland, and was a painter, poet, sport fisherman, park ranger, and guide. He died in 1986.