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Family Folklore

Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage

Object Details

Folklore Specialists
Folklore Specialists collecting family folklore included Steven Zeitlin, Holly Cutting-Baker, Sandy Gross, Amy Kotkin, Jack Santino, Mark Workman, Caroline Mitchell, and Laurie Gross.
Introduction
The Family Folklore program was begun in 1974 for the purpose of collecting the lore of Festival-goers. A simple turn-about took place in the Family Folklore tent: Festival visitors who had come to see the celebrated folk on the stages found themselves celebrated as the "folk" when they participated in the Family Folklore program. The success of the pilot project in 1974 led to the creation of a full-fledged program for 1975 and 1976. In the view of organizers, it was in the nature of human experience, of the interplay of time and human life, to bring the past to bear upon the present and to make the present memorable for the future. Family stories were seen as expressing America's fascination with what is often depicted as her notorious past. As many times as there were heroes, there were anti-heroes in the stories recorded from Festival visitors. Where family stories constituted one way in which families "imaged" themselves verbally, family photographs represented the way this is done visually. But while family stories seemed to portray events as they were - or indeed as worse than they were - family photographs seemed to portray them as they should have been. In 1975 the Family Folklore Program expanded to include home photography as a form of folklore. In addition to interviewing festival-goers, the program presented a chronicle of the American life cycle as depicted in home movies and family photo albums. Another new focus of interviewers in 1975 was what could be called "reminiscent history": the preservation through stories of the personal experiences of family members participating in shared cultural experiences or historical events. This kind of story might include reminiscences about one's grandfather in the Civil War, or of one's parent having eaten one of the first ice cream cones at the 1904 World's Fair, or of having attended Woodstock oneself. The Family Folklore Program collected this kind of material at the 1975 Festival with the hope of expanding it into a living history project for the Bicentennial. The program was coordinated by Steven Zeitlin, together with Holly Cutting Baker, Sandra Gross, and Amy J. Kotkin.
Collection Creator
Smithsonian Institution. Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
See more items in
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1975 Festival of American Folklife
Archival Repository
Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections
Identifier
CFCH.SFF.1975, Series 4
Type
Archival materials
Collection Citation
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1975 Festival of American Folklife, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.
Collection Rights
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections. Please visit our website to learn more about submitting a request. The Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections make no guarantees concerning copyright or other intellectual property restrictions. Other usage conditions may apply; please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use for more information.
Collection Restrictions
Access to the Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections is by appointment only. Visit our website for more information on scheduling a visit or making a digitization request. Researchers interested in accessing born-digital records or audiovisual recordings in this collection must use access copies.
Related link
Record ID
ebl-1503511974073-1503511974132-4
Metadata Usage
CC0
GUID
https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/bk59a9b2946-7dc0-445c-b5e6-1b094fa633bb

Related Content

  • Online Finding AidSmithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1975 Festival of American Folklife

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