Smithsonian Institution. Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage Search this
Type:
Archival materials
Introduction:
The Festival overall was intended to make Americans aware of the beauty and value of the traditions that form so large a part of our national culture. Within this large structure, the Family Folklore program complemented the other Festival areas by helping visitors discover and recognize their own particular traditions, the home-based folkways that decorate life and make it meaningful. In this area, a group of folklorists interviewed interested festival goers about the customs, sayings, and stories in their own families. On display were samples of the many traditional ways in which Americans preserve and remember their past - family photo albums, baby books, scrapbooks, family history quilts, charm bracelets, and others.
A small theater continuously showed two Smithsonain films: one that treated home movies as an American folk art, another on the ways members of a family relate to each other through folklore. Finally, the program displayed a book in progress, a history of America through family stories, with the hope that Festival goers would contribute their own memories.
The program was coordinated by Steven Zeitlin (Program Coordinator), together with Sandra Gross (Folklore Coordinator), Holly Cutting-Baker (Folklore Specialist), and Amy Kotkin (American Culture Specialist).
Folklore interviewers:
Deborah Autorino, Lynda Burack, Robert Clayton, Susan Davis, Lina Lore Gross, Amy Shuman, Paul Wagner
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.
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 Citation:
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1976 Festival of American Folklife, Ralph Rinzler Folklife Archives and Collections, Smithsonian Institution.
