Exploring Resources

Carl Fleischhauer, photographer. *Ethiopian School, Washington, DC*. 1982. Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools in America Project Collection. Library of Congress American Folklife Center.

The archive maintained by the American Folklife Center (AFC) was established in 1928, and is one of the most significant repositories of ethnographic materials in the U.S., and one of the largest in the world. At present, the archive holds more than 6.5 million items created by ethnographers, communities of origin, scholars, and other professionals. Documentation is of traditional cultures from across the world, including field recordings made in the 1890s on wax cylinders, and more recent recordings produced using digital technology.

This section serves to collocate selected resources in a centralized location to help educators and students better hone their research skills while also providing a broader context for what is available to patrons remotely. For more specialized information on a topic or geographical region, look to our other research guides. The below tabs provide information about access systems for AFC resources and pathways for exploring the archive and primary source materials across the Library. For further search strategies and selected resources in a variety of formats, please check the subpages for print and online resources. It is important to note that secondary resources are included here to help enhance knowledge about and research into the AFC archive. Lastly, the AFC's online resources include a wealth of materials that can be helpful in the university classroom or via online learning, as presented in the Teaching with AFC Collections section of this guide.

Searching the American Folklife Center Archive

The Library of Congress Online Catalog offers robust access to bibliographic records for the collections held by the American Folklife Center (AFC). These records will provide important information for researchers, including AFC shelf number, notes on the scope of the collection, and essential metadata to help you determine how a given collection aligns with your research question(s). Access the full catalog here:

Search the Library of Congress Online Catalog
To limit your search in the LC catalog to items and collections held by the American Folklife Center, choose the Advanced Search option, then click on the "Add Limits" button (below the boxes for entering search terms). In the box labeled "Locations in the Library," select "American Folklife" (see screenshot below)

Enter your search terms, and then select "search" (toward the bottom of the screen) to display results held by the American Folklife Center.

The American Folklife Center (AFC) offers Encoded Archival Description (EAD) finding aids for many of our collections. Read more about EAD and the purpose of these guides below.

AFC EAD Finding Aids
This link provides an alphabetical listing of all EAD Finding Aids for collections in the AFC. Encoded Archival Description (EAD) is an XML standard for encoding archival finding aids, maintained by the Technical Subcommittee for Encoded Archival Standards of the Society of American Archivists, in partnership with the Library of Congress.
EAD: Encoded Archival Description
All EAD Finding Aids for Library of Congress collections are found here. These guides provide comprehensive overviews of unique Library resources. The progressively detailed descriptions of a collection's component parts summarize the overall scope of the content, convey details about the individuals and organizations involved, and list box and folder headings. Special service conditions are noted, including terms under which the collection may be accessed or copied. Links are provided to digitized content when available.
EAD Use and Best Practices at the Library
The Encoded Archival Description (EAD) is an international standard maintained by the Library of Congress in partnership with the Society of American Archivists .This site provides an overview of the standard and information about best practices at the Library of Congress.

Beyond the Library-wide access tools detailed in the previous tabs, the American Folklife Center (AFC) provides several kinds of "local" tools that focus more directly on our collections and Reading Room resources.

AFC Geographic Research Guides
The American Folklife Center currently provides research guides to our collections organized by geographic area, and these can be especially useful in discovering items related to specific locations within large collections that contain material from multiple geographic locales (eg. several U.S. states).

These guides offers item-level description and metadata. In order to most efficiently utilize these cross-collection guides, be aware of the following:
- Guides are generally organized on the page in a collection/item hierarchy: collection descriptions will precede item descriptions (which will be indented and listed under the collection to which they belong). For example, a collection listed in the Florida guide may contain items unrelated to Florida, but only those items connected to Florida will be listed in the indented section
- In identifying items of interest, be sure to make note of both the "AFC" number and the "AFS" number(s). The "AFC" number refers to the collection, while the "AFS" number(s) will relate to individual items. NB: "AFS" is an historic designation connected to the Archive of Folk Song, established by the Library of Congress in 1928.
Ethnographic Thesaurus
The AFS Ethnographic Thesaurus is a searchable online vocabulary that can be used to improve access to information about folklore studies, ethnomusicology, cultural anthropology, and related fields. As such, it is a useful resource when utilizing ethnographic collections held by the American Folklife Center. The resource is currently hosted online by the Library of Congress as part of its linked data services.
Traditional Music and Spoken Word Catalog
The historic card catalog in the American Folklife Center Reading Room comprises a cross-indexed reference tool for the body of instantaneous disc recordings we hold (across multiple collections). The catalog contains cards indexing shelf number, geographic location of recording, title of song/performance, and name(s) of performers. The card catalog is accessible in our Reading Room, and there is an electronic version of this resource available to researchers offsite.

The American Folklife Center Reading Room also contains reference resources in the form of hard copy, paper-based files that provide immediate access to information about collections and popular, or common, subjects. These files are known as either numerical files, since they are organized according to AFC collection numbers, or subject files that are arranged according to general or corporate subjects. If you are unable to visit our Reading Room, please use the Ask A Librarian service to have a reference staff member connect you with these resources.

Navigating American Folklife Center Archives Remotely

Digital Collections
American Folklife Center Collections Hosted by External Partners

The Library of Congress hosts a growing number of collections online. These collections are accessible via the Library of Congress website through the Digital Collections site.

Library of Congress Digital Collections
Within this digital environment, access is provided o several dozen multi-format American Folklife Center ethnographic collections. You can access these collections by selecting American Folklife Center from the facets in the left-hand navigation selections under the Part of heading. Or, select the link below.
American Folklife Center Digital Collections
The online collections at the Library of Congress adhere to a standard navigation scheme. Once you click on a collection title, you are taken to the About this Collection page. You will find an overview description of the collection, accompanied by a gallery of "featured content." Each of the items in the gallery is clickable and will take you into the collection.

Another standard tab is Collection Items that once clicked, displays search results of all digital items belonging to that collection. You will have control over the listing arrangement and filtering via drop down menus on the right-hand side of your browser window, as well as in the navigation facets on the left-hand side.

A few notes about American Folklife Center online collections:
- In many cases, an "image" item will contain multiple subitems. These may be individual pages of a scanned document, or frames from a roll of 35mm photographic film (black and white or color slide).
- In some cases, there is a "Related items" box on a collection item's page. This will contain one or more links to other items in that collection that may also be of value as you explore the collection. For example, if you have navigated to an audio recording of an interview, there may be a link to a recording log or field notes corresponding to that interview.

The following external websites host or display collection materials owned or acquired by the American Folklife Center. These include institutional partnerships as well as websites of donor organizations. For more information regarding our collections, please use our Ask a Librarian service to connect directly to our staff.

The Association for Cultural Equity (ACE) External
The Association for Cultural Equity: Alan Lomax’s fieldwork from 1943 until his retirement.
John and Alan Lomax in Louisiana, 1934 External
John and Alan Lomax’s Louisiana recordings from 1934
Alan Lomax Kentucky Recordings External
John and Alan Lomax’s Kentucky recordings of the 1930s and 1940s
Alan Lomax: Coahoma Recordings External
Alan Lomax and Fisk University’s 1941-1942 recordings at Delta State University
Minnesota Folksong Collection External
Recordings made in the 1920s by Robert Winslow Gordon.
The James Madison Carpenter Collection External
Manuscripts, photos, and cylinder recordings made in the 1920s and 1930s by James Madison Carpenter in both the U.S. and the U.K.; online at the Vaughan Williams Memorial Library.
The Helen Hartness Flanders Ballad Collection External
Recordings made in the 1930s and 1940s by Flanders and Marguerite Olney in New England, especially Vermont.
Note: this collection contains notebooks, cylinder recordings, and printed materials not shared with AFC, but AFC has copies of most of the disc sound recordings listed as “Archival Cassette Dubs” at this link.
MacEdward Leach and the Songs of Atlantic Canada External
Recordings made in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia by Leach from 1949 to 1951.
The Ruth Rubin Legacy: Archive of Yiddish Folksongs online at YIVO External
Collection of over 2,000 Yiddish songs on acetate discs, reel-to-reel tapes, and cassettes; recorded by Rubin between 1946 and the 1970s.
Wisconsin Folksong Collection External
Recordings made in the 1930s and 1940s by Sidney Robertson Cowell, Helene Stratman Thomas, and others.

Jonas Dovydenas, photographer. Mexican American Little Village neighborhood, Chicago, Illinois. 1977. Chicago Ethnic Arts Project Collection. Library of Congress American Folklife Center.

Aurora Calderon, Eleanor Rodriguez, and Cruz Losada, group portrait, photograph. 1939. W.P.A. California Folk Music Project collection. Library of Congress American Folklife Center.

Ruby Terrill Lomax, photographer. Lolo Mendoza and Chico Real, with guitars, at the home of Mrs. Sarah Kleberg Shelton, Kingsville, Texas. September 1940. Lomax photographs depicting folk musicians in the Lomax Collection. Library of Congress Pri

Jonas Dovydenas, photographer. Mr. José C. Santana, cigar maker, Chicago, Illinois. 1977. Chicago Ethnic Arts Project collection. Library of Congress American Folklife Center.

Higher Education Resources Available in the American Folklife Center

American Folklife Center: Ask a Librarian