For anyone who might be interested:A HISTORY OF THE ARCHIVE OF FOLK SONG AT THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS: THE FIRST FIFTY YEARS
Abstract
PETER THOMAS BARTIS, University of Pennsylvania
The Archive of Folk Song, renamed the Archive of Folk Culture in 1981, has provided over fifty years of special service to scholars in the fields of folklore, folklife, and ethnomusicological studies. Yet in spite of its extraordinary impact upon academic and popular social movements, few scholars are aware of its complex history and the role which the Library of Congress has played in the documentation and preservation of traditional culture in the United States. The dissertation provides a detailed history of the Archive's activities from its founding in 1928 to its fiftieth anniversary in 1978. It does so by analyzing correspondence, annual reports, memoranda, and a broad range of archival acquisitions and it presents accounts of the Archive's activities in key chronological chapters representing natural divisions in its growth and development.
Special emphasis is placed on the folk song collection expeditions of renowned collectors associated with the Archive, as well as the special projects and activities of its Heads, Robert W. Gordon, John and Alan Lomax, Benjamin Botkin, Duncan Emrich, Rae Korson, Alan Jabbour, and Joseph C. Hickerson. In addition, it examines the significant coordinative role which the Archive served for W.P.A. programs and other activities relating to the Radio Research Project, formation of the Library's Recording Laboratory, and its recording series.
The latter part of the study discusses more recent developments at the Archive in relation to the rise of the preservation movement in the United States and the development of other federal programs concerned with folklife studies.
Using the Archive as an example, the study concludes that the manifestation of folklife studies in the public sector has had a serious impact upon academic directions. As such it clarifies a facet of governmental involvement in folklife studies and it provides a substantial foundation upon which folklorists may build and consider the new and rapidly expanding role of folklorists in the federal and public sectors.
American Memory Collection (Music), Library of Congress