History Commons^™

Maine Folklife, Vol. 8, Iss. 1, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

Visitors at the August 23-25 National Folk Festival in Bangor will find themselves wending their way through the North Woods camp, as they walk through the festival. The camp highlights the traditional arts of Maine's people who have made their lives and livelihood on or near Bangor, the gateway to the north Maine woods. Some of the traditional arts to be featured in demonstrations include basketmaking, snowshoe making, fly tying, Maine guiding, boat and canoe making, wood carving, quilting, tatting, weaving and knitting, and herbal arts. Visitors will be surprised at the ethnic diversity of Maine s people as manifested …

Maine Folklife, Vol. 7, Iss. 2, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

The accounts of wars recorded in history books tend to focus on the names and dates of battles, the decisions of political leaders and the heroics of charismatic military commanders. Those facts are important, of course, but they only tell part of the story.

The Maine Folklife Center at The University of Maine, in collaboration with the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, is doing its part to make sure the rest of the story is recorded. The Maine Folklife Center has begun to organize an extensive oral history project that will preserve the war stories of veterans …

Maine Folklife, Vol. 7, Iss. 1, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

The city of Bangor will be the next stop for the National Folk Festival! Sandy Ives and Pauleena MacDougall are serving on the local planning committee for the festival, and Pauleena will also chair the Material Culture committee and aid the Festival's Executive Director, Bob Libby. The National Folk Festival was brought to Bangor through the hard work of Donna Fitchner, Executive Director of the Bangor Convention & Visitors Bureau, in coordination with the city of Bangor and Eastern Maine Development Corporation. Senator Susan Collins and humorist Tim Sample will serve as Honorary Co-chairs for the event.

The city hopes …

Maine Folklife, Vol. 6, Iss. 2, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

We recently completed the NEH sponsored preservation of endangered tape recordings. Over the course of the two-year grant period we built and equipped a first-class sound lab and copied over 600 hours of audio tape-recorded material to high quality preservation master reels — over 250 hours of which were also copied to public-access CD-Rs. We also expanded and standardized our finding aides for these accessions, which are among the oldest and most valuable in our collection. Now that we have the equipment and necessary procedures in place, we will continue the preservation program as part of our regular work load. …

Maine Folklife, Vol. 6, Iss. 1, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

Pamela Dean has joined the staff of the Maine Folklife Center as archivist of the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History. A native of Bar Harbor, Dean received her Bachelor of Arts and Masters Degree in history from the University of Maine and her Ph.D. in history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. From 1991 to 1999 she was the director of the Williams Center for Oral History at Louisiana State University.

"My career as an archivist and oral historian began in Sandy lves's fieldwork class in the early eighties," Dean said. "You know that book …

Maine Folklife, Vol. 5, Iss. 2, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

As the incoming director of the Folklife Center, I [James Moreira] have been asked to write a short piece to introduce myself to the members and supporters. It seems, after all, the traditional thing to do in such circumstances.

Originally from Nova Scotia, I have spent much of the past twenty years living in Newfoundland, most recently on the stunningly beautiful west coast where I was teaching at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College. I earned a masters and Ph.D. at the Department of Folklore at Memorial University in St. John's.

Maine Folklife, Vol. 5, Iss. 1, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

Edward D. "Sandy" Ives, founder of the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History and the Northeast Folklore Society announced that he will retire after forty-four years of teaching at the University of Maine.

Maine Folklife, Vol. 4, Iss. 1, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

Northeast Archives welcomes Archivist Stephen Green. For the first time in its forty-year history, a highly trained professional archivist manages Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History. I am extremely pleased to be able to introduce Stephen Green, Archivist. Stephen comes to us from the University of Texas Institute of Texan Cultures at San Antonio, where he has been Library Director since 1996. Previously he served as Sound and Image Librarian at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill for the Southern Historical Folklife and Oral History Collections. He also served as Archivist for the Appalachian Center Sound Archives at …

Maine Folklife, Vol. 3, Iss. 2, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

It's nice to be able to report good news — very good news, indeed — to all of you who have supported the Maine Folklife Center in recent years, and to those of you who have supported us even longer when we were just the Northeast Archives. We learned late in the Spring that a new budget had been appropriated by the University Administration that would provide support for staff salaries and a modest operating budget.

With this kind of support, Sandy and I are very excited about the prospects for the coming year, and for what this kind of …

Maine Folklife, Vol. 3, Iss. 1, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

As you are undoubtedly aware, Sandy has operated the Archives on a shoe-string (sometimes almost no-string) budget for nearly forty years. Howevever, with the help of some well-thought-out grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities, some smaller grants from foundations, and donations from our members, he and his staff have been able to turn out some pretty good projects (some of them award-winning) including videos: "An Oral Historian's Work," "Woodsmen and River Drivers," thirty-two volumes of Northeast Folklore, and four cassettes of the Maine Traditional Music Radio Program series.

Francis James Child: Some Thoughts While Shaving, Edward D. Ives

Dr. Edward D. Ives Papers

What can I possibly say that can add to the huge body of commentary on this man, the hochgecelebrated Francis James Child? Not much, I'm afraid. He has all but been canonized by some, demonized by others. H singlehandedly saved the ballad from oblivion; he is the source of our major ballad-study problems. He had an instinct that told him what was a ballad, what was not; he had no theoretical underpinning for his choices. His great collection is lhe beginning of all our wisdom; his great collection rides us like the Old Man of the Mountains, weighing us down, …

"How Got The Apples In?" Individual Creativity And Ballad Tradition, Edward D. Ives

Dr. Edward D. Ives Papers

Way back in the beginning of things, almost a hundred years ago, Francis Barton Gummere not only wrote as good a description of the ballad as we've got, he also asked a crucial if rather enigmatic question, and that question-probably partly because it was enigmatic to the point of being gnomic-caught my attention when I first read it almost half a century after it had been written: "How got the apples in?" It turns out he was quoting a humorous poem by John Wolcott (aka "Peter Pindar") in which King James, looking at an old woman's dumplings, wondered "How the …

Maine Folklife, Vol. 2, Iss. 2, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

In the last newsletter, we told you of the different preservation survey work that the Center was undertaking. Well, three "experts" visited the Center — we've been poked, prodded, examined with a magnifying glass — and have we learned a lot! Though we can't possibly summarize everything in this article, we want to share the gist of their findings so that you're aware of the major issues facing the Center.

The Center was very pleased when the Northeast Document Conservation Center awarded us a subsidized preservation survey. In March, Beth Patkus, with training in archives administration and preservaton, traveled from …

Maine Folklife, Vol. 2, Iss. 1, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

Sandy, Pauleena and Jeff (Smoky) McKeen have embarked upon a new project which will tap a significant portion of our field recordings of music for a series of documentary sound recordings on CD and cassette tape. Our collections include various musical genres representing historical, social and cultural issues and events such as immigrant experiences, occupations, traditions and lifestyles. We have decided to first focus upon the songs of the Maine lumberwoods, Franco-American music, Penobscot Bay maritime occupations, and the Native Americans of the Northeast.

Community Formation In Old Town, Maine, 1835-1930: Endogamy And Natural Origins Among The Acadians, Marcella H. Sorg

Anthropology Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Maine Folklife, Vol. 1, Iss. 2, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

In 1987 Ernie Freeberg and Jeff (Smoky) McKeen produced two radio programs, "Music of the St. John Valley" and "Maine's Finnish Communities." The programs consisted of a series of interviews interspersed with samples of music. The goals of the project were twofold: to document Maine's rich musical traditions and to bring to the forefront the history and traditions of Maine's varied heritage. Eight programs were completed, supported by the Maine Folklife Center with funds from the Maine Arts Commission and the Maine Community Foundation. The radio series was broadcast for the Maine Public Broadcasting Network. The Maine Folklife Center offers …

Maine Folklife, Vol. 1, Iss. 1, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

So much has happened since the last Newsletter appeared that it will be impossible to cover it all, but perhaps a little history would help. Back in 1983 when I became Chair of Anthropology, Rita Breton came on line as Archives Manager...

At about this time we decided to change our name to the Maine Folklife Center, in de facto recognition both that archival work was only a part of what we were doing and that we were getting more and more into public programming. A further part of our plan was to absorb Northeast Folklore and the Northeast Folklore …

The World Of Maritimes Folklore, Edward D. Ives

Dr. Edward D. Ives Papers

Dr. Edward "Sandy" Ives is Professor of Folklore and Oral History in the Department of Anthropology, University of Maine (Orono), and Director of the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History. He is also Editor of Northeast Folklore. One of the most distinguished and respected folklorists in the United States, and widely known in Canadian folklore circles, he was considered by his peers and by the Trustees of the Helen Creighton Foundation to be the obvious choice to give the inaugural address in the Foundation's new biennial Helen Creighton Lecture Series. This Lecture was given in February 1992 at the …

Northeast Folklore Society Newsletter, Vol. 35, Northeast Archives Of Folklore And Oral History

Northeast Folklore Society Newsletter

When we brought out Tom Tilton: Coaster and Fisherman back in 1984 (actually it was Northeast Folklore -XXIII: 1982) we included a story about a Captain Pinhead on page 62, just the way Tom told it to Gale Huntington. The book hadn't been out long before I got a smoklngly angry letter from one Robert O. Walsh saying he was Captain Pinhead and that story was all wrong and he wanted us to do something to set the record straight. The only thing I could think of was to suggest he write up what really happened and we'd publish it …

Northeast Folklore Society Newsletter, Vol. 34, Northeast Archives Of Folklore And Oral History

Northeast Folklore Society Newsletter

On November 17, the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History and the Maine Arts Commission sponsored the "Traditional Culture in the Classroom" workshop at the University of Maine, Orono campus. The workshop was attended by elementary and secondary educators from across the state. Sessions addressed the use of folklore and oral history in the classroom, suggestions and techniques for projects, and classroom activities. The afternoon forum provided the opportunity for educators to share their experiences in developing and coordinating folklife and oral history projects. The successful event was met with requests for additional materials and workshops. As the Northeast …

Northeast Folklore Society Newsletter, Vol. 32, Northeast Archives Of Folklore And Oral History

Northeast Folklore Society Newsletter

Readers of this Newsletter will be saddened to hear of the death of Dr. Helen Creighton, Canada's foremost collector of folksongs, on Tuesday, December 12, [1989], in Halifax. She was 90 years old. There is little I can add to Stephen Pedersen's fine article from the Halifax Chronicle-Herald (12/16/89) reprinted below beyond a couple of recollections of my own.

Northeast Folklore Society Newsletter, Vol. 33, Northeast Archives Of Folklore And Oral History

Northeast Folklore Society Newsletter

The Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History is pleased to announce two new additions to its staff: Teresa L. Hollingsworth of Berea, Kentucky, who is filling the newly created position of Folklife Coordinator, and Mary E. O'Meara of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., who will replace Alicia Rouverol as the Archives' Associate Director. Ms. Hollingsworth, a graduate of the Folk Studies Program at Western Kentucky University, was the staff folklorist at the Kentucky Folklife Program at Berea College, and conducted extensive folklife surveys along the Ohio and Kentucky River Valleys.

Northeast Folklore Society Newsletter, Vol. 31, Northeast Archives Of Folklore And Oral History

Northeast Folklore Society Newsletter

The Last Smokehouse: Lubec and the Herring Smoking Industry of Maine. Funded initially by the Maine Humanities Council, this hour-long documentary film will explore the problems of the smoked herring industry in the state of Maine. The goal is to increase public awareness not only of the plight of small local industries in the modem mega-business world but also — and perhaps more importantly — of what happens to a community when one of its long-time traditional industries dies. The filmmakers, Andrea Truppin and Michel Chalufour, are now in the scriptwriting stage.

Folk Arts And The Maine Arts Commission, Edward D. Ives

Dr. Edward D. Ives Papers

Just as I believe, as an oral historian, that there is no such thing as oral history, only history, I also believe as a folklorist that there is no such thing as folk art as an entity distinct from other kinds of art, say "primitive" or "high" art. There is only art, the aesthetic response, the shaping of the world experienced into meaningful and apposite forms that can be shared with others. The creation and enjoyment of what we call art is fundamental to being human; it is not limited to any one social class or community but, as my …

An Oral Historian's Work Display Ad, Sheldon Weiss Productions

Dr. Edward D. Ives Papers

A display advertisement promoting the release of Dr. Edward D. "Sandy" Ives instructional videotape entitled, An Oral Historian's Work. The advertisement includes a photograph of the author, an image of the videotape case and promotional quotes from reviewers.

Northeast Folklore Society Newsletter, Vol. 30, Northeast Archives Of Folklore And Oral History

Northeast Folklore Society Newsletter

On July 26, 1985 — almost two years ago! — Robert O. Walsh, now of Yuma, Arizona, wrote us in response to an account of an incident mentioned in Tom Tilton: Coaster and Fisherman (Northeast Folklore XXIII 1982), starting on page 62, in which he is identified only as "Pinhead." Here is his own account of that incident, and our thanks to him both for sending it and for being so patient in waiting for us to publish it...

Northeast Folklore Society Newsletter, Vol. 29, Northeast Archives Of Folklore And Oral History

Northeast Folklore Society Newsletter

This issue is coming simultaneously with Northeast Folklore XXIV and XXV, "The Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History : A Catalog of the First 1800 Accessions." This 200+ page guide to the holdings at the Northeast Archives has been long-awaited by many, and I am sure will enlighten many more on the depth and breadth of material available in Orono. In addition to the Society's publishing the Catalog , the Archives has been involved-over the past year with the production of From Stump To Ship : A 1930 Logging Film . Details on this historic film are included in …

Northeast Folklore Society Newsletter, Vol. 28, Northeast Archives Of Folklore And Oral History

Northeast Folklore Society Newsletter

A selection of eight photographs from the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History has been reproduced as postcards and are being sold by the Society...

The black and white photographs date from the early 1900's and show the North Lincoln sorting gap with crew, river drivers and a batteau in the St. John Allagash region, a pair of horses with woodsmen on top of Mt. Chase, a lumber crew with horses posed in front of a woods camp, the steamboat M. E. Shaw at the Forest City landing on Spednic Lake with townspeople ready for the annual Fourth of …

Northeast Folklore Society Newsletter, Vol. 27, Northeast Archives Of Folklore And Oral History

Northeast Folklore Society Newsletter

Professor J. Barre Toelken, Director of the Folklore and Ethnic Studies Program at the University of Oregon, will deliver the Marshall Dodge Memorial Folklore Lecture Thursday, February 21, at 7:30 p.m. in 100 Nutting Hall on the University of Maine (Orono) campus. His topic will be "You've Got to Watch His Lips: Image and Meaning in American Indian Humor."

Barre Toelken is one of the most distinguished folklorists in the business. He's been President of the American Folklore Society, Editor of the Journal of American Folklore, Chairman of the Folk Arts Panel for the National Endowment for the Arts, and …

Northeast Folklore Society Newsletter, Vol. 26, Northeast Archives Of Folklore And Oral History

Northeast Folklore Society Newsletter

There is much activity in the northeast in folklore and oral history. On April 28 the New England Association of Oral History will observe its tenth anniversary at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, the site of the founding meeting. The New England Task Force on Folklife is continuing its work in promoting an awareness of the various research projects in folklore and folklife in the New England region. The Apprenticeship Journal was christened in Rockport in the Spring of 1983, and the Massachusetts Council of the Arts and Humanities has a full-time Folk Arts Coordinator. Oral History: An Interdisciplinary Anthology …