American Folklore & Folklife Guide   Tags: american_studies, folklife, folklore, united_states  

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Welcome to this LibGuide!  When I first started researching, I thought American folklore would boil down to some tall tales, a few traditional songs, and some amusing superstitions.  What I found was an incredible goldmine of cultural traditions that are still growing and expanding today!  While there are a huge number of resources available, the best guides to folklore and folklife are included in this LibGuide, as well as a few extras that you can use to continue your explorations if you want to dig deeper into American life.

Archives & Organizations:  Collections that preserve and study American folklore and folklife.

Anthologies & Encyclopedias:  Looking for stories and folk songs?  Want to know more about who's who in American folklore?  This is the place!

Databases & Journals:  Researching American folklife topics?  Here's where to start looking for that perfect article.

Folk Music:  A feast for the ears.

Web 2.0:  Looking for living folklife?  I've found a good blog and Twitter feed that will help you keep up to date.

Further Resources:  This guide is for general American folklore and folklife topics.  If you want to do more reading on the sub-genres of American folklore, here are a few places that you can start...

John Quidor (1801 - 1881). The Headless Horseman Pursuing Ichabod Crane. 1858.  Oil. 26-7/8 x 33-7/8 in.  Smithsonian American Art Museum. 

The story of Ichabod Crane, told in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, whether read by the light of a flashlight while hiding under the covers, or seen in a contemporary film re-make embodies everything that is best about American folk stories, sending delightful shivers of fear up the spine as we dig deep into the fantasy of the American wilderness past, where ghosts and legends roam and even the spookiest story might just be true.

It is easy to think that American folklore is limited to these stories about the past, but as I discovered in creating this guide, American folklore and folklife are an active part of our present, not only in the art of folk musicians and storytellers but in the way that we deal with current events.  Linda Watts, in her Encyclopedia of American folklore, reminisces about her experience after the World Trade Center attacks on September 11, 2001, saying, "The events of 9/11 represent the kind of shared experience that requires not only an individual respose but one that reckons all the wisdom of the collective, including the forms most closely associated with folklore:  oral history, memoir, children's drawings, tales, songs, tributes, and, yes, even the disaster jokes that help some of us go on with our lives -- all the while remembering those who are not lucky enough to survive and face the predicament of determining a fitting response to the events" (p. ix).

American folklife must, therefore, be part of American folklore, which does not just consist of stories but a vast range of cultural oral and creative tradition.  It is a living, breathing organism that encompasses all of us and our experiences, as we pass them down to future generations. 

Folklife Radio is produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage.  Enjoy immersing yourself in the sounds of American folk music here!  More information on this station can be found on the Audio page.