Reference Materials : Laborlore Conversations IV
AFC Online Archive of Past Symposia

Laborlore 2007 Home Page Program Schedule Webcasts Participant Biographies Photo Album Page Laborlore Collections in the American Folklife Center's Archive Hon. Nancy Pelosi Honors Archie Green (1pg. 71k .pdf) Books, Essays, and Audio Recordings with links to online sources

Selected Archival Collections and Online Presentations of Laborlore at the AFC

While many AFC collections of documentary recordings bear some relationship to occupational folklife, the following collections are especially relevant to the symposium. Please contact the Archive of Folk Culture reference staff to access these and other materials in the Folklife Reading Room.

George Korson collections of miner’s lore: Korson extensively documented Pennsylvania and West Virginia mining traditions in the 1940s and 1950s, especially music and song.

Wayland Hand collection of miner’s lore: Documents the silver miners of Butte, Montana, in the late 1940s.

Lathe operator Humberto Reales working at Watson Machine International, a machine tool manufacturing company, Paterson, NJ, 1994. Photograph by Robert McCarl.

Working in Paterson Collection: This large collection from the mid-1990s documents the industrial and business traditions of Paterson, New Jersey, including the textile industry, machine shops, and the food industry, and is especially strong in its survey of the ethnic groups in Paterson’s workplaces. An online presentation of the collection is available on the Web: Working in Paterson: Occupational Heritage in an Urban Setting.

Lowell Folklife Project Collection: Documents the industrial and ethnic traditions of Lowell, Massachusetts, from the late 1980s. For more information see the Finding Aid to this collection.

Men's Lives Collection: Documents the commercial fishing culture of surfmen and baymen on the East End of Long Island, New York, in the 1980s. The fieldwork was sponsored by Adelaide de Menil and The Rock Foundation.

Myron Smart roping cattle on the Ninety-Six Ranch, Paradise Valley, NV, 1980. Photograph by Carl Fleischhauer.

Paradise Valley Folklife Project Collection : Includes documentation of a Nevada cattle-ranching community, with a focus on the family-run Ninety-Six Ranch. The documentation was largely the work of the Paradise Valley Folklife Project (1978-1982). An online presentation from the collection is available on the Web: Buckaroos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada, 1945-1982.

George Carey Collection of Interviews and Narratives from Maryland and Virginia: In the late 1960s, Carey conducted more than 200 interviews with residents of the Eastern Shore of Maryland and coastal Virginia, concentrating on occupational traditions.

James A. Strates Carnival Collection: Includes recordings of carnival pitchmen at work and interviews with carnival workers. Recorded in Washington, DC, spring 1941.

Florida Maritime Heritage Project: In the late 1980s the AFC documented the maritime occupations of the north Florida coast. AFC staff member David Taylor was the lead investigator for this project.

Alabama State Council on the Arts Collection on Gandy Dancers: Late 1980s documentation of African American railroad section gang workers.

Maine Acadian Cultural Survey: This 1991 collection documents the forestry and sawmill work of the Maine-New Brunswick Acadian culture. For more information see the Finding Aid to this collection.