Introduction

Photographer, unknown. *Photographic Views of Thailand*. Between 1890 and 1923. Frank and Frances Carpenter Collection. Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Division.

The American Folklife Center stewards a sizeable collection of ethnographic materials related to the history and culture of Thailand and the Thai diaspora. Most collection materials are field recordings of traditional Thai music, recorded by US- and European-based ethnomusicologists from the 1900s to the 1960s. These documentarians include Carl Stumpf, Laura Bolton, and Vida Chenowith. A notable exception is Kamol Kedusiri -- a Thai musician and ethnographer, who made field recordings of Thai music on native instruments in the 1950s. The musical recordings also include songs about the Vietnam War, sung by US military personnel, while stationed in Thailand in the 1960s and 1970s.

The collections also include personal narratives and oral history interviews with Thai-Americans and recent immigrants from Thailand to the United States. Notable within these materials are interviews, from 2015, with immigrants from Southeast Asia, working in the meat packing industry in Iowa. Many of these immigrants were born in, lived in, or traveled through Thailand during their migration experiences. Other collections include interviews with Thai-Americans in Lowell, Massachusetts and in Central Ohio.

The American Folklife Center is just one repository for Thai-related materials at the Library of Congress. To learn more about archival collections related to Thailand and Southeast Asia at the Library of Congress, see this research guide.

Featured Collection - Occupational Folklife Project

The Occupational Folklife Project began in 2010 as a multi-year project by the American Folklife Center (AFC) to document the culture of contemporary American workers during an era of economic and social transition. To date, fieldworkers across the United States have recorded more than 1800 audio and audiovisual oral history interviews with workers in scores of trades, industries, crafts, and professions. Three projects in the Occupational Folklife Project feature materials from Thai-Americans or immigrants to the United States who once lived in Thailand. Find these materials below:

Recent Immigrant Workers in Iowa's Meatpacking Industry (2015)

Kitchen Workers in Central Ohio (2017–2018)
- Interview with Phuong Mai Nguyen and Amp Phettaphong

Other Collections of Interest

Erich Moritz von Hornbostel Demonstration Collection
Published/Created: 1900-1913
Two 10-inch tapes copied from 120 wax cylinders of folk music selected from the Erich von Hornbostel collection of the Phonogramm-Archiv of the Psychological Institute, University of Berlin. Recorded in various countries in Africa, Asia, Australia, Europe, North America, and South America by various collectors, 1900-1913. The collection includes one linear inch of background information, correspondence, and logs. The Thai materials in the collection feature a recording of "Thai-oi-kamen" (The Sad Parting), a Siamese court orchestral piece performed by two beak-flutes, two drums, two sets of gongs, and two xylophones. Recorded in Berlin, Germany, by Carl Stumpf, 1900.
Percy Grainger collection folk and ethnic discs
Published/Created: 1926-1949 from originals 1908-1937
Collection of copies of field recordings and commercial recordings of songs from various locations including from the Bishop Museum, Hawaii, copied by Burnett Cross, November 17, 1949, these include Hawaiian chants, Samoan part songs, songs from Raiatea, Tahitian songs, Rarotongan songs; "Knocks" from Copenhagen, Denmark, including copies of wax cylinder recordings; discs from the Archive of Folk Song, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. recorded by Sidney Robertson Cowell in Missouri, Arkansas, and North Carolina; and copies of commercial recordings of Swahili songs, Javanese music, Thai music, a Spanish song and other recordings. The disc copies were made 1926-1949 from originals recorded 1908-1937.
Mary Anglemyer Collection of Traditional Music of Thailand
Published/Created: circa 1955
One 12-inch disc of "The Invitation Song" recorded by Mary Anglemyer of the District of Columbia Education Office of the Library of Congress, ca. 1950s.
Kamol Kedusiri recordings of Thai music
Published/Created: before 1957
Two 10-inch reels of Thai music played on native instruments. Collected and recorded by Kamol Kedusiri, a Thai musician. ca. 1950s. The collection includes one page of correspondence.
Laura Boulton Collection
Published/Created: 1949–1961
One 3-inch tape, 22 5-inch tapes, and 344 7-inch tapes of folk and other music of Africa, Europe, Far East, Latin America, Middle East, Near East, North America, South America, and Southeast Asia, recorded by Laura Boulton, 1949-1971. Thai materials include fifteen tapes containing Buddhist chant, folk songs, Mahori orchestra music, and wrestling music from Siam (Thailand). Recorded in Bangkok and Chengmai by Laura Boulton, 1950 and 1956.
General Edward G Lansdale collection of Vietnam War songs
Published/Created: 1962-1977
Six 10-inch tapes of 160 about the Vietnam War, sung by American military personnel. Performers include Jim Bullington, the Cosmos Tabernacle Choir, Dolf Droge, Bill Ellis, Hershel Gober, Dick Jonas, the Merrymen of 173rd AHC, Barry Sadler, Bill Stubbs, and the USAF Band and Singing Sergeants. Recorded from commercial discs and of live performances primarily in Thailand, Vietnam, and the Virginia homes of Joe Baker and General Lansdale, by General Ed Landsdale, 1962-1972. Edited and narrated by Hank Miller. The collection includes 1/2 linear inch of background information, manuscripts, song lyrics, and tape logs.
Sam Eskin collection
Published/Created: 1939-1969
Collection consists of manuscripts, field recordings, photographs, and ephemera documenting folk music and folk music revivals in the United States, Canada, and Mexico from 1938 to 1966; plus manuscripts and field recordings of mostly unidentified artists performing folk music in Jamaica, Cuba, England, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Morocco, Hong Kong, Philippines, India, and Thailand from 1953 to 1969 collected by Sam Eskin. Manuscript materials include correspondence, transcriptions of songs and lyrics, folk festival programs and flyers, a Japanese song book, Eskin's lecture notes, and his collection of bawdy songs and limericks.
Finding aid: Sam Eskin collection
Vida Chenoweth collection
Published/Created: 1940-2000
Collection of papers and audiovisual materials representing the life work of ethnomusicologist Vida Chenoweth. Comprises manuscripts, sound recordings, photographs, and films, mainly of her work with the Usarufa and numerous other people in Papua New Guinea, but culture groups from other places are also represented, including Vanuatu, Indonesia, Solomon Islands, Cook Islands, New Zealand, Kenya, Zaire, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Ivory Coast, Ghana, South Africa, Cameroon, Senegal, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Mali, Cameroon, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Ecuador, Brazil, Peru, and the United States.
Finding aid: Vida Chenowith collection
Nevada Folklife Archive
Published/Created: 1980-2017
Tasked with documenting various aspects of life and culture in Nevada, folklorists employed by the Nevada Arts Council Folklife Program collected the extensive sound recordings, photographs, transcripts, and field notes retained in this collection. The collection includes documentation of occupational folklife, including ranching, mining, railroad work, nuclear plants, and the entertainment industry; expressive traditions, including fiddling contests, cowboy poetry, leatherwork, glassblowing, basketry, quilting, music, and dance; and examples of vernacular architecture on ranches. Interviews and documentation highlight African American, Mormon, Paiute, Shoshone, Basque, Latinx, Japanese American, Thai American, South Asian American, Scottish American, and Italian American communities and traditions across Nevada.
Finding aid: Nevada Folklife Archive
Music in a New World radio program sampler by Karl Signell
Published/Created: 1982
One audiocassette of a preview for "Music in a New World," a radio program about the music and stories of immigrant groups in the United States, containing excerpts of Afro-Cuban, Bosnian, Thai, and Turkish music from various localities and interviews with immigrants. Recorded in various locations in the United States by Karl Signell, February-April 1981. Program hosted by Karl Signell, produced by Deborah Jane Lamberton of National Public Radio. The collection includes 7 pages of background information, correspondence, and press releases.
Lowell Folklife Project
Published/Created: 1987-1988
This year-long study conducted by the American Folklife Center yielded an ethnographic collection consisting of 196 hours of sound recordings covering a wide range of subjects and activities, including oral history interviews, religious services and festivals (Catholic and Greek Orthodox holy week and Easter services and religious processions; a Cambodian Buddhist wedding ceremony; Cambodian and Laotian New Year's celebrations; Puerto Rican festivals), musical events, parades, ethnic restaurants, and neighborhood tours. The collection features an interview with Nhak Chann, a Thai-American resident of Lowell, associated with the Refugee Arts Group.
Online presentation: Lowell Folklife Project
Recent Immigrant Workers in Iowa's Meatpacking Industry
Published/Created: 2015
In 2015, oral and public historian John McKerley and his colleague Jennifer Sherer, the Director of the University of Iowa’s Labor Center in Iowa City, Iowa, received an Archie Green Fellowship from the American Folklife Center to document the occupational folklife and work-related experiences of recently arrived immigrants in the large meatpacking plants of Iowa and Illinois. The 19 workers interviewed for this project came to United States as refugees or are recently arrived immigrants. They came to Iowa, or were resettled there as refugees, specifically to take advantage of employment opportunities in the region’s large meat-processing industry. In these interviews, new Americans from Africa, Asia, and Latin America discuss their jobs, which are often hazardous and physically demanding; explain how they found work in Iowa's meat processing plants; and discuss their new communities and new lives in the American heartland. Many also reflect on how they are being reshaped by the state's work culture and community life as well as how their presence is reshaping Iowa's local and regional culture. This collection features interviews with workers Day Day, Gei Htang Htun, Ma Aye Myint, and Krai Thay--all of whom were born in, lived in, or traveled through Thailand during their migration experiences.
Online presentation: Recent Immigrant Workers in Iowa's Meatpacking Industry
Kitchen Workers in Central Ohio
Published/Created: 2017-2018
In 2017, Jess Lamar Reece Holler, an independent Ohio-based folklorist, received an Archie Green Fellowship from the American Folklife Center to document the occupational experiences and traditions of “back-of-house” kitchen workers in or near Columbus, Ohio. She interviewed 16 veteran, part-time, and recently-employed food employees working in kitchens, community markets, food trucks, and pop-up eateries. The collection includes an interview with Phoung Mai Nguyen and Amp Phettaphong, the latter of whom lived in refugee camps in Thailand for approximately ten years.
Online presentation: Kitchen Workers in Central Ohio

Public Programs

On May 23, 2024, the Somapa Thai Dance Company and Orchestra performed at the Library of Congress' Coolidge Auditorium in celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. Somapa Thai Dance Company and Orchestra is a celebrated ensemble, that specializes in music and dance of Thailand. This performance features musician Vorayot Sukaichon and group leader, Suteera Nagavajara. This performance was organized as part of the Homegrown Concert Series, produced by the American Folklife Center.

In the video above, Douglas Peach, Folklife Specialist at the American Folklife Center, sits down with Suteera Nagavajara, Vorayot Suksaichon and Anant Narkkong to discuss Somapa Thai Dance Company's musical origins. The group is a distinguished Thai dance and music company based in the Washington DC area, featuring an accomplished Thai orchestra. Many of its artists have been trained with highly recognized dance and music masters, including National Artists and others from Chulalongkorn University and the prestigious department of fine arts in Bangkok, Thailand. The group has performed at venues such as the Kennedy Center, Wolf Trap, the Smithsonian Folklife Festival, the Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, the Walters Art Museum, the Maryland Folk Festival and the Royal Thai Embassy in Washington DC. The group's mission is to preserve and promote Thai culture and arts in the Americas.

American Folklife Center Collections: Thailand

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About AFC Geographic Guides

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Authors

Introduction

Featured Collection - Occupational Folklife Project

Other Collections of Interest

Public Programs