Searching the Collections

The American Folklife Center (AFC) has numerous collections that relate to the topic of women's traditions and women ethnographers. Using the Library of Congress Online Catalog, the searches below will bring you to a limited number of catalog records that can get you started. For more specific or focused research based on your interests we suggest you use our "Ask a Librarian" service in order to connect with one of our reference specialists.

Search the online catalog for "women" in AFC archival collections

Collection Finding Aids

Finding aids provide a gateway to this wealth of Library treasures, helping you discover and navigate through the thousands of boxes and folders that house each collection. These guides provide comprehensive overviews of unique Library resources. 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.

Library of Congress finding aids are XML documents created using the Encoded Archival Description (EAD), an international standard maintained by the Library of Congress in partnership with the Society of American Archivists.

View ALL Finding Aids at the Library of Congress

Selected Finding Aids

Duncan Emrich autograph album collection, 1843-1956
This collection was initiated through an on-air request for autograph albums on the "NBC Weekend" radio program by Duncan Emrich, then head of the Archive of Folk Song, Library of Congress, between 1955 and 1956. It consists of twenty autograph albums and related ephemera from Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Missouri, and New York, with dates from 1843 to 1923.
Roxane Connick Carlisle collection, 1963-1984
Collection of field recordings, photographs, video recordings, a film, and manuscripts created by Roxane Connick Carlisle primarily in Darfur Province and other locations in the Sudan region, which now includes South Sudan, from 1963-1968. The collection also includes photographs of musicians, musical instruments, markets, gardens, buildings, weddings, and wildlife taken in Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, and Uganda from 1963-1968. Includes field recordings of music of various groups and photographs of musicians including Anuak, Baggara, Beni Halba, Bederiya, Dinka, Fur, Nuer, Ingessana, Shilluk, Ta'isha, Zaghawa, and other people, documenting wedding music, women's song and poetry traditions, and other music and ceremonies.

Jean Ritchie and George Pickow collection, 1923-2015
Call Number: AFC 2008/005
Published/Created: 1923-2015
Papers, sound recordings, film, video, and photographs created by and documenting the careers of folksinger and folklorist, Jean Ritchie and her husband, photographer and filmmaker, George Pickow from the 1940s to 2000. Includes sound and video recordings of folk music, folk songs, folk tales, beliefs, conversations, and family stories of Jean Ritchie, her siblings, and extended family from Viper, Kentucky; Appalachian storytelling by Richard Chase, Cratis Williams and others; documentation of church services, sermons, and hymns in Kentucky. Includes documentation of Jean Ritchie's recording career at lectures, folklore seminars, festivals, concerts, and on radio broadcasts.
Alan Lomax, Zora Neale Hurston, and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle expedition collection
Call Number: AFC 1935/001
Published/Created: 1935
Collection of field recordings of African American, Bahamian, and Haitian songs, music, tales, and church services recorded on instantaneous discs by Alan Lomax, Zora Neale Hurston, and Mary Elizabeth Barnicle in 1935 for the Archive of American Folk Song. Zora Neale Hurston accompanied the recording expedition in Georgia and Florida, but she not did go to the Bahamas.
Mary Jane Soule collection.
Call Number: AFC 2014/013
Published/Created: 1978-1987
Collection of field recordings of music, stories, and interviews recorded by Mary Jane Soule from 1978 to 1985 on St. Croix and St. Thomas, United States Virgin Islands.
The Green Book -- Documenting African American Entrepreneurs : Archie Green Fellows Project, 2018-2019
Call Number: AFC 2018/029
Published/Created: 2018-2019
Collection documents more than 30 contemporary businesses that were listed in The Green Book, a travel guide published between 1937 and 1967 that listed businesses -- e.g., restaurants, hotels, barbershops, taverns, drug stores, and garages -- that welcomed African American customers. Only 3% of the 9,500 businesses listed in The Green Book are still in operation. Available online as part of the Occupational Folklife Project: The Green Book: Documenting African American Entrepreneurs

American Women: Resources from the American Folklife Center

American Folklife Center: Ask a Librarian

Searching the Collections

Collection Finding Aids

Selected Finding Aids