The Smithsonian Institution Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998. The materials collected here document the planning, production, and execution of the annual Festival, produced by the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present) and its predecessor offices (1967-1999). An overview of the entire Festival records group is available here: Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Scope and Contents note:
This collection documents the planning, production, and execution of the 1988 Festival of American Folklife. Materials may include photographs, audio recordings, motion picture film and video recordings, notes, production drawings, contracts, memoranda, correspondence, informational materials, publications, and ephemera. Such materials were created during the Festival on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as well as in the featured communities, before or after the Festival itself.
Arrangement note:
Arranged in 6 series.
Missing Title
Series 1: Program Books, Festival Publications, and Ephemera
Series 2: American Folklore Society Centennial
Series 3: Festival Music Stage
Series 4: Ingenuity and Tradition: The Common Wealth of Massachusetts
Series 5: Migration to Metropolitan Washington: Making a New Place Home
Series 6: Music from the Peoples of the Soviet Union
Historical note:
The Festival of American Folklife, held annually since 1967 on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., was renamed the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in 1998.
The 1988 Festival of American Folklife was produced by the Smithsonian Office of Folklife Programs and cosponsored by the National Park Service.
For more information, see Smithsonian Folklife Festival records.
Introduction:
The 1988 Festival celebrated the centennial of the American Folklore Society, founded one hundred years earlier because of the need to document and study cultures that were seen as disappearing. Much of the Society's attention today, however, is engaged in the documentation and interpretation of emerging traditions and cultural expressions. Folklorists work in inner cities, conduct research on occupational groups, analyze processes of traditionalization and cooperate with other professionals in devising natural conservation and historical preservation strategies, which also promote cultural continuity, equity and integrity. Visitors to the 1988 Festival could learn about what it is that folklorists do and what impacts they have on the communities with which they work.
The other living exhibitions that made up this year's Festival also provided ample illustrations of this same view of the traditional. The Massachusetts program told a paradigmatic American story. Gay Head Wampanoag, Yankee settlers, Afro American migrants, and immigrants from Italy, Greece, Poland, the Cape Verde Islands, Puerto Rico, and Southeast Asia have not only preserved their traditions; through ingenious acts of individual and community creativity they have adapted them and endowed them with new meanings, as circumstances have changed. The Metropolitan Washington program pointed to the heightened consciousness of cultural issues associated with the migration experience. The program asked how immigrants from El Salvador, Ethiopia, China, Trinidad and Tobago, as well as domestic Anglo and Afro American groups historically migrating from nearby states, discard, reinvent, and reconstitute their traditions as they actively make a new place home. A varied contingent of musicians and performers from several republics of the Soviet Union demonstrated how truly ancient traditions nurtured in various pastoral, tribal, and religious environments have not merely survived but actually flourished in contemporary Soviet life. Also at the Festival were American musicians who, as part of a groundbreaking cultural exchange with the Soviet Union, would later travel to Moscow to participate in the International Folklore Festival in August 1988 and be reunited with the Soviet musicians participating in the Smithsonian's Festival.
The 1988 Festival took place for two five-day weeks (June 23-27 and June 30-July 4) between Madison Drive and Jefferson Drive and between 10th Street and 14th Street, south of the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of Natural History (see site plan).
The 1988 Program Book included schedules and participant lists for each program; the Program Book essays provided a larger context for the Festival presentations, extending beyond the traditions actually presented at the 1988 Festival.
The Festival was co-presented by the Smithsonian Institution and National Park Service and organized by the Office of Folklife Programs.
Office of Folklife Programs
Richard Kurin, Acting Director; Diana Parker, Festival Director; Anthony Seeger, Curator, Folkways Records; Thomas Vennum, Jr., Senior Ethnomusicologist; Peter Seitel, Senior Folklorist; Marjorie Hunt, Phyllis M. May-Machunda, Heliana Portes de Roux, Frank Proschan, Nicholas R. Spitzer, Folklorists; Jeffrey Place, Assistant Archivist
National Park Service
William Penn Mott, Jr., Director; Manus J. Fish, Jr., Regional Director, National Capital Region
Shared Stewardship of Collections:
The Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage acknowledges and respects the right of artists, performers, Folklife Festival participants, community-based scholars, and knowledge-keepers to collaboratively steward representations of themselves and their intangible cultural heritage in media produced, curated, and distributed by the Center. Making this collection accessible to the public is an ongoing process grounded in the Center's commitment to connecting living people and cultures to the materials this collection represents. To view the Center's full shared stewardship policy, which defines our protocols for addressing collections-related inquiries and concerns, please visit https://folklife.si.edu/archives#shared-stewardship.
Forms Part Of:
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: 1988 Festival of American Folklife forms part of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival records .
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records
Smithsonian Folklife Festival records: Papers
1967 Festival of American Folklife records - [Ongoing]
Related Archival Materials note:
Within the Rinzler Archives, related materials may be found in various collections such as the Ralph Rinzler papers and recordings, the Lily Spandorf drawings, the Diana Davies photographs, the Robert Yellin photographs, and the Curatorial Research, Programs, and Projects collection. Additional relevant materials may also be found in the Smithsonian Institution Archives concerning the Division of Performing Arts (1966-1983), Folklife Program (1977-1980), Office of Folklife Programs (1980-1991), Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies (1991-1999), Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage (1999-present), and collaborating Smithsonian units, as well as in the administrative papers of key figures such as the Secretary and respective deputies. Users are encouraged to consult relevant finding aids and to contact Archives staff for further information.
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.
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.
Includes photographs of individual tribal members, artifacts; and the following archeological sites: Hawikku (Hawikuh), Zuni Pueblo, New Mexico; Mill Creek, Tehama County, California; Coachilla Valley, California; Sandal Cave, New Mexico; Eagle Canyon, Texas; Thea Heye Cave, Pyramid Lake, Nevada; Crown Peak, Chisos Mountains, Texas; Pueblo Grande, Nevada; Salt Caves, St. Thomas, Nevada; Chuckawalla Cave, Nevada; Lovelock Cave, Pershing County, Nevada; other sites in Nevada; cacti in Brewster County, Texas and California; archaeological sites in Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, New York, and Tennessee Collection also includes a variety of scenic shots in different states; shots of persons, identified and unidentified; personal photographs of Harrington, his son, and one of his wives (ELH); and photographs taken during his expeditions to Cuba and Ecuador. Includes photographs of the Alibamu, Apache, Catawba, Cherokee, Chitimacha, Choctaw, Chumash, Comanche, Delaware, Iowa, Iroquois, Kaw, Kickapoo, Kiowa, Klamath, Koasati, Maidu, Mattaponi, Mohegan, Nanticoke, Narragansett, Navajo, Niantic (Nyantic),Ojibwa (Chippewa), Osage, Paiute, Pamunkey, Peoria, Pit River, Potawatomi, Quapaw, Sac and Fox (Sauk and Fox), Seminole, Shawnee, Tolowa, Tulare, Wampanoag, Wichita, Wyandot, Yara, and Zuni tribes.
Arrangement note:
Collection arranged by format and item number.
Biographical/Historical note:
Mark Raymond Harrington was born on the campus of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor on July 6, 1882. He received his BS in 1907 and his MA in 1908 from Columbia University, where he studied under Franz Boas. He met George Heye while working at Covert's Indian store in New York in 1908 and Heye hired him shortly thereafter. Harrington spent from 1908-1911 visiting and collecting from tribes in the east and Midwest for Heye. From 1911-1915 Harrington was assistant curator at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. From 1916-1917 he conducted archeological surveys in Cuba and Arkansas, after which he spent a short time in the U.S. Army during the First World War. After his return in 1919 he started a series of archeological surveys in Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Nevada, and Texas. Harrington worked for George G. Heye as an archaeologist, ethnologist, field collector, and curator, primarily along the eastern seaboard, in the south, Midwest, west, Cuba and Ecuador, from 1908 to 1928. He then joined the staff of the Southwest Museum as curator until his retirement in 1964. He died in San Fernando, California on June 30, 1971. Harrington is the author of many books and several hundred articles. A partial bibliography can be found in the Mark Raymond Harrington manuscript collection in the archives of the National Museum of the American Indian, Cultural Resource Center, Suitland, Maryland.
General note:
NMAItest
Restrictions:
Access restricted. For information on this collection consult the NMAI photo archivist at 301-238-1400 or NMAIphotos@si.edu.
Rights:
Copyright restrictions apply. Contact archives staff for information.
This series includes negatives that Frank Speck made in Massachusetts and Rhode Island among various Wampanoag and Nauset Communities between 1914 and 1931. These include the Mashpee Wampanoag, Gay Head Wampanoag, Herring Pond Wampanoag and Fall River band of Wampanoag. The majority of the photographs were taken between 1919 and 1920 in Barnstable county and include landscape images and portraits.
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Collection Rights:
Permission to publish materials from the collection must be requested from National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiphotos@si.edu. For personal or classroom use, users are invited to download, print, photocopy, and distribute the images that are available online without prior written permission, provided that the files are not modified in any way, the Smithsonian Institution copyright notice (where applicable) is included, and the source of the image is identified as the National Museum of the American Indian. For more information please see the Smithsonian's Terms of Use and NMAI Archive Center's Digital Image request website.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Frank Speck photograph collection, Photo Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation Search this
Collection Director:
Heye, George G. (George Gustav), 1874-1957 Search this
Container:
Box 404, Folder 5
Type:
Archival materials
Date:
1931 - 1934
Collection Restrictions:
Access to NMAI Archive Center collections is by appointment only, Monday - Friday, 9:30 am - 4:30 pm. Please contact the archives to make an appointment (phone: 301-238-1400, email: nmaiarchives@si.edu).
Collection Rights:
Single photocopies may be made for research purposes. Permission to publish or broadcast materials from the collection must be requested from the National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center. Please submit a written request to nmaiarchives@si.edu.
Collection Citation:
Identification of specific item; Date (if known); Museum of the American Indian/Heye Foundation Records, Box and Folder Number; National Museum of the American Indian Archive Center, Smithsonian Institution.
