Finding Aids for Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture

Guides to Individual Collections | Cross-Collection Topical Guides

The Folklife Center's Archive of Folk Culture holds approximately three thousand collections. At this time only a small portion of them have catalog records and finding aids. The currently available finding aids are listed below, with links to those available online. The first set provides descriptions and a list of contents for individual collections. The second set provides guides by specific topics across collections in the Archive, called the Library of Congress Folk Archive Finding Aid series (LCFAFA). The cross-collection guides that are listed without links (in black text) are not currently available in computer-readable format and may be requested by mail. Contact the Folklife Center for more information about holdings and available printed guides. Access to the collections is on site in the Folklife Reading Room, Library of Congress.

Some collections available online in part or in their entirety as Library of Congress American Memory presentations do not yet have related collection guides listed here. See the Collections Available Online page for a list of these online multi-media presentations from Archive of Culture collections. For more information about the American Folklife Center's services to particular states, see the Services to the States pages.

Unless otherwise noted, these guides are provided in ascii text format. Because the online versions for many of these finding aids were prepared for the early Internet, diacritics may be omitted. Updated versions will be added as they become available.

Guides to Individual Collections

• The Abraham A. Schwadron "Chad Gadya" Collection
• The Agnes Bellinger Tlingit Collection
• The Anne and Frank Warner Collection
• The Art Rosenbaum/Georgia Folklore Collection
• The Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Collection
• The Chicago Ethnic Arts Project Collection
• The Diana Cohen Hopi Religion Collection
• The Harold C. Conklin Philippine Collection
• The Joel Martin Halpern Collection
• The Discoteca Municipal de São Paulo Collection
• The Duncan Emrich Autograph Album Collection (HTML and EAD formats available)
• The Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools Project Collection
• The Fahnestock South Sea Collection
• The Gheorghe and Eugenia Popescu-Judetz Collection
• The Goathland, North Yorkshire, Sword Dance Photograph Collection
• The Italian-Americans in the West Project Collection
• The James Madison Carpenter Collection
• The Juan B. Rael Collection (HTML and EAD formats available)
• The Kenneth M. Bilby Jamaican Maroon Collection
• The Lands' End All-American Quilt Contest Collection
• The Library of Congress/Fisk University Mississippi Delta Collection
• The Lowell Folklife Project Collection (Lowell, Mass.)
• The Maine Acadian Cultural Survey Project Collection
• The Neptune Plaza Concert Series Collections (listed by year)
  • The 1977 Neptune Plaza Concert Series Collection
  • The 1978 Neptune Plaza Concert Series Collection
  • The 1979 Neptune Plaza Concert Series Collection
  • The 1980 Neptune Plaza Concert Series Collection
  • The 1981 Neptune Plaza Concert Series Collection
  • The 1982 Neptune Plaza Concert Series Collection
  • The 1983 Neptune Plaza Concert Series Collection
  • The 1984 Neptune Plaza Concert Series Collection
  • The 1985 Neptune Plaza Concert Series Collection
  • The 1986 Neptune Plaza Concert Series Collection
  • The 1987 Neptune Plaza Concert Series Collection
  • The 1988 Neptune Plaza Concert Series Collection
  • The 1989 Neptune Plaza Concert Series Collection
  • The 1990 Neptune Plaza Concert Series Collection
  • The 1991 Neptune Plaza Concert Series Collection
  • The 1992 Neptune Plaza Concert Series Collection
  • The 1993 Neptune Plaza Concert Series Collection
  • The 1994 Neptune Plaza Concert Series Collection
  • The 1995 Neptune Plaza Concert Series Collection
• The Paul Bowles Moroccan Music Collection
• The Philadelphia Ceili Group Collection
• The Ray M. Lawless Collection
• The Square Dance Legislation Collection
• The Vance Randolph Collection (HTML and EAD formats available)
• The Working in Paterson Project Collection
• The World War II Rumor Project Collection

Cross-Collection Topical Guides: Library of Congress Folk Archive Finding Aid Series

U.S. States | Countries and Cultural Groups | Instruments and Instrumentalists | Folksong Genres |
Collectors | Spoken Word | Historical Eras and Wars | Material Culture | Media

U. S. States

• Alaska Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Arkansas Folklore: Field Recordings in the Archive of Folk Song
• Colorado Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Georgia Materials in the Archive of Folk Culture (print only)
• Hawaii Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Idaho Field Recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Indiana Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Iowa Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Kansas Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Kentucky Recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Recordings made in Louisiana and by Selected Louisiana Performers in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Maryland Field Recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Michigan Material in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Minnesota Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Mississippi Folk Music and Folklore in the Recorded Collections of the Archive of Folk Culture
• Missouri Field Recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Montana Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
• New Jersey Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
• North Dakota Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
• New York Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Ohio Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Oregon Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Pennsylvania Field Recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture
• South Carolina Field Recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Utah Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Virginia Folklore in the Archive of Folk Culture: Field Recordings
• Washington Field Recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture
• West Virginia Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Wisconsin Field Recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Wyoming Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture

Countries / Regional, Ethnic, and Cultural Groups

• African Material in the Archive of Folk Culture
• American Indian Recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture (print only)
• Austrian Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Benelux Collections (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg) in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Brazil Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Cuban and Cuban American Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Finnish and Finnish American Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
• French Folk Music and Song from the United States and Canada on Field Recordings in the Archive of Folk Song
• Ireland Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Latin American and Caribbean Recordings in the Archive of Folk Song (print only)
• Mexican-American Folksong and Music on Field Recordings in the Archive of Folk Song
• Mexico Recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Music of the Pacific Islands in the Archive of Folk Song (print only)
• Peruvian Field Recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture (print only)
• Puerto Rico Recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture
• South Asian Recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Trinidad Field Recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture (print only)
• Welsh and Welsh American Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture

Musical Instruments / Instrumentalists

• A Preliminary Listing of Banjo Performers on Field Recordings in the Archive of Folk Song
• A List of Fiddlers on Field Recordings in the Archive of Folk Song
• AFS Guitar Recordings (print only)

Song Genres

• A Selected Listing of English-Language Folksongs of the United States Sung by Children in the Recorded Collections of the Archive of Folk Song
• Sea Shanties and Sailors' Songs: A Preliminary Guide to Recordings in the Archive of Folk Song
• Principal Collections of Field Recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture Which Contain Negro Spirituals

Folklore and Folksong Collectors

• Principal Contributors of Field Recordings to the Archive of Folk Song (print only)
• Robert Winslow Gordon Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Zora Neale Hurston Recordings, Manuscripts, and Ephemera in the Library of Congress

Spoken Word

• Recordings of Slave Narratives and Related Materials in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Street Cries, Auction Chants, and Carnival Pitches and Routines in the Recorded Collections of the Archive of Folk Culture
• Tales of the Supernatural (list of archival recordings)

Historical Eras and Wars

• Vietnam War Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
• World War II Collections in the Archive of Folk Culture
• Folklore and Related Activities of the W.P.A. in the Collections of the Archive of Folk Culture (print only)

Material Culture

• Boatbulding Documentation in the Archive of Folk Culture

Folklife in the Media

• Radio-Related Recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture