Folklore and Ethnography Archives
3619 Locust Walk Room 404
Mission Statement
The Archive collections and library contribute to the
research and teaching activities of the University of Pennsylvania's
Center for Folklore and Ethnography with a mission to:
- Collect, preserve, and make accessible primary
sources related to folklore and folklife in the mid-Atlantic region for
use by educators, researchers, and interested members of the public,
including the people from whom the material was collected.
- Collect, preserve, and make accessible ethnographic
collections developed by current and former faculty, alumni, and
students of the University, as well as related collections donated to
the archives.
- Serve as a resource center for teaching basic
archival practices in conjunction with instruction in fieldwork and
ethnographic methods; to serve as a repository for materials related to
events and activities of the Center for Folklore and Ethnography; and
to serve faculty, guest lecturers, and students teaching and studying
folklore and ethnography.
History
The Archive of Folklore and Folklife was established
at the University of Pennsylvania in the mid-1960s by faculty and
students of the Department of Folklore and Folklife. From the beginning
it served as a repository for field recordings of folk music and
narrative from North America and the Caribbean, reflecting the research
interests of faculty and students in the department. Over the years the
archive developed as an important repository for student collections
and papers. Because a number of these are based on local field
research, they uniquely document ephemeral aspects of ethnic community
life and history in the Philadelphia metropolitan area, the Delaware
Valley, and the mid-Atlantic and Appalachian regions.
For more than thirty years, graduate students under
faculty supervision, and with support from the Philadelphia Folklore
Society, served as archivists for the collections, overseeing the
acquisition, processing, and serving of materials. In the early 1990s,
the Department was moved from Logan Hall to 3440 Market Street. In the
mid-1990s some of the materials from the archive were deposited in Van
Pelt Library's manuscripts and special collections division for
safekeeping. Folklore Archive materials deposited there include
recordings made by MacEdward Leach and Jacob Elder, and the manuscripts
deposited in the Folklore Archive by Ray Birdwhistell. As the archive
continues to expand through materials deposited by students, faculty,
and colleagues, and through the research program of the Center for
Folklore and Ethnography, the shortage of space for housing and serving
our holdings has become more acute. Consequently, the Center for
Folklore and Ethnography, in partnership with the American Folklore
Society, is developing a plan for Migrating the Folklore Archive to
Digital Format.
Migrating the Archive to Digital
Format
Holdings
and Collections
Online
Database of Archive Holdings (In Progress)
Hours
and Rules for Use
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