LibGuides: Programming with Library of Congress Digital Collections : Folklife

American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940

American Life Histories derived from a series of interviews conducted between 1936 to 1940 as a part of the Folklore Project of the Federal Writer's Project (FWP). The FWP was a New Deal program that employed over 300 writers across 24 states. They collected ghost stories, life histories, personal memories, immigration stories, and work stories. In many cases the interview documentation recorded demographic data of participants providing a snapshot of what their lives were like. The collection as a whole is a fascinating look at how people lived, their stories and memories, how much people had in common or how different they were.

Collection Highlights

Ghost Story

Interview conducted for the Federal Writer's Project: Folklore Project, Life Histories in 1938. The person being interviewed is relaying a conversation she had with acquaintances about unexplained experiences, or "Ghost Stories."

The interview was conducted by Dorothy West in New York, New York. It is titled "Interview with Mrs. Laura M Ghost Story."

Early Social Customs

Interview conducted for the Federal Writer's Project: Folklore Project, Life Histories on December 14,1938. The person being interviewed is talking about growing up in Oswego Grange area in Portland. The interviewee details hunting, square dancing, spelling bees, clothing, and their view of how different life was in 1938 compared to when they were growing up.

The interview was conducted by Sarah B. Wrenn in Portland, Oregon. It is titled "Early Social Customs."

Text document of an interview conducted by the Federal Writers' Project detailing singing games for children .

Song Games for the Small Child

Interview conducted for the Federal Writer's Project: Folklore Project, Life Histories in 1939. The person being interviewed is reciting rhyming children's games.

The interview was conducted by Hilda Polacheck in 1939. It is titled "Song Games for the Small Child."

Programming Ideas

Oral histories are a way of documenting family, culture, and history. From oral histories recipes, music, ghost stories, and family and community history have been passed down. If you were to record your own oral history what kind of story would you tell? If you were to talk to someone in your family or community for an oral history, what questions would you ask?

For this program, discuss what oral histories are and how they are used to communicate folklife culture. Have participants brainstorm what questions they would ask someone they were interviewing. Once a list of questions are developed have people pair up and interview each other using the questions created.

Supporting Resource: The American Folklife Center. Planning an Oral History Project.

Several of the interviews in the American Life Histories collection detail songs and games that were played by children or by adults. Several of the people interviewed detail the lyrics or words of the song or game, but very few detail how it was played or the tune of the song.

For this program have participants search the collection using different keywords related to "songs," "games," "jump rope," etc. (please note the potentially harmful or offensive material statement at bottom of page.)

Have participants analyze the items they find and see if the group can come up with a tune for the song lyrics or a game to match.

An example, the song below "The Snowman," is from an interview conducted by Hilda Polacheck in 1939. In addition to the song, a short description of a game is detailed.

Have participants sing "The Snowman" to different rhymes such as "London Bridge," "Ring Around the Rosie," or "Old McDonald." Which song tune fits the lyrics best? Can the participants develop their own tune for the lyrics? Once the tune is developed, try to play the game.

As an alternative, have participants try to make up their own rhyming/singing game.

Song Games for the Small Child, (1939), interview conducted by Hilda Polacheck.

American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writer's Project, 1936 to 1940s is organized in multiple ways. You can narrow the collection by location, interview subject, or by contributor. For this program, select one of the categories and have participants read several of the interviews. When reading the interviews have them note things in the interviews that stick out or that they want to learn more about.

For example, if you select interviews from the "Occupation," categories, have a discussion about work life described in the interview and modern work life. Is anything similar? What is different? Would they want to work that job? If participants are not sure what the job is, see if information can be found describing it.

Please note the potentially harmful or offensive material statement at bottom of page.

Chronicling America is an invaluable resources for discovering Folklife history. Chronicling America is a joint project between the National Digital Newspaper Program, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Library of Congress. The ongoing project digitizes and makes available online hundreds of newspapers from around the United States and territories.

For this program outline what Chronicling America is and the different ways that it can be used to trace family, local or national history. Then have groups utilize Chronicling America to look for different items of their choice.

Death announcement for Judge Dorsey B. Houck from the newspaper, The Washington Times, May 5, 1899.

Newspaper clipping about Mardi-Gras Festivities from the February 26, 1857 morning edition of the New Orleans Daily Crescent.

The Digital Collections of The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress offer a fascinating glimpse of life, memory, and culture in the United States of America. There are over 40 digital collections available that cover topics ranging from Folklife in various states, music, linguistics, and arts. The collections can be used in multiple ways to learn about Folklife.

Use the American English Dialect Recordings: The Center for Applied Linguistics Collection to analyze how language is used and spoken in forty-three states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and parts of Canada.
Listen to sound recordings of blues and gospel songs in the Now What a Time: Blues, Gospel, and the Fort Valley Music Festivals, 1938 to 1943 collection. The folk festival was the first one organized by and for African Americans.
Listen to the Passamaquoddy Tribe of Maine detail songs, legends, creation stories, and linguistic terms in the Ancestral Voices collection.
Learn about Nevada cattle-ranching culture in material collected between 1978-1982 in Buckaroos in Paradise: Ranching Culture in Northern Nevada, 1945-1982.

Double Wedding Ring Quilt, created by Zenna Todd and photographed by Geraldine Niva Johnson in September 1978.

The Library of Congress digital collection, Quilts and Quiltmaking in America, 1978 to 1996, contains images and oral history interviews from the Blue Ridge Parkway Folklife Project and the Lands' End All-American Quilt Contest Collection. The interviews offer a glimpse into the lives of the quiltmakers and their daily life and covers a wide variety of quiltmaking styles.

For a program idea, invite a local artist to present on their quiltmaking and the process they take to design and complete the design. A separate program idea would be to do a hand's on activity where participants can design their own quilt pattern and color it on paper.

Programming with Library of Congress Digital Collections : Folklife

Primary Sources for Folklife