History Commons^™

The Perpetual Progression In The Schleswig-Holstein Duchy: History, Politics, And Religion, 1460-1864, Christian Anthony Ahlers

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

German nationalism in the Schleswig and Holstein duchies that predates the German Unification Wars of the Nineteenth Century continuously transformed in response to Danish encroachment, civic disputes regarding treaty legitimacy, and war. The Germans in the duchies fought to retain their ancestral homelands and, in doing so, embraced a pan-Germanic consciousness that is the foundation for early modern nationalism. This consciousness dates back hundreds of years. This case study examines the Germans of Schleswig and Holstein and their experiences with the consistent and pressing Danish encroachment. Despite the encroachment, the Germans remained connected with their culture, traditions, religion, and their …

Folklore And Zooarchaeology: Nonhuman Animal's Representation In The Historical Narrative, Nicholas Miller

Field Notes: A Journal of Collegiate Anthropology

It has been argued before that archaeology and folklore go hand-in-hand, with a variety of scholarship and studies focusing on landscapes and monuments in reference to this pair; however, this research argues for a different approach. As the title suggests, this paper engages with folklore topics and zooarchaeological data to argue that faunal remains (along with landscapes and monuments) are intertwined and cannot be separated from the historical narrative. While faunal evidence helps provide scientific explanations of the natural interconnectedness of humans and nonhuman animals, folklore aids in creating and developing cultural understandings. By exploring the relationship between humans and …

Georgia Ghosts: History, Folklore, And The Roots Of The Southern Gothic, Katherine M. Mcdowell

Master's Projects

There is something quintessentially human about ghost stories, yet particular regions tend to be more powerfully associated with haunted folktales than others. One of the regions is the southeastern United States. In fact, these oral traditions appear to have influenced the area's best-known literary subgenre: the Southern Gothic.

Why is the South considered haunted? Are there particular qualities in historical events that make them more likely to engender ghost stories? What makes the South's folkloric spirits so powerful that they appear even in modern literature? Most of all, what connects the region's history and folklore with the Southern Gothic? By …

Witches On The Wind: Weather Magic In New England Folktales, Zephyros Quinn Craven

Thinking Matters Symposium

The English language folktales collected from coastal New England in the 19^th and 20^th centuries display a prominence of weather magic motifs compared with folktales from other regions of the United States. This paper aims to explain the success of the weather magic theme in New England folklore collections and to serve as a starting point for scholarly discourse on the subject, which has hitherto been sparse. This study utilizes climate research, both scholarly and popular collections of folktales, local travel guides, and colonial and labor histories. Through a combination of historical analysis, comparative study, and textual analysis, …

Regional Folk Beliefs, Edward D. Ives

Dr. Edward D. Ives Papers

This accession contains over 4,000 folk beliefs organized on individual, 4x6-inch index cards. A majority of the belief cards were collected by students participating during the 1960s as part of the American Folklore course taught by Dr. Edward D. “Sandy” Ives. Folk beliefs originate primarily from Maine and the Maritimes, but occasionally extend into other areas. Each download contains a copy of the 1965 syllabus for American Folklore, explaining the assignment given to students.

Please Note: A significant number of these cards are handwritten and are not currently available as typed transcriptions. The belief cards are organized into categories noted …

Page, Tate Cromwell "Piney," 1908-1984 (Fa 1397), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1397. Papers of Page, former Dean of the College of Education at Western Kentucky University, primarily concerning his work documenting the people, places, history and folklore of the Ozarks region in Arkansas where he was raised. Also includes his photographs of historic structures, made mostly in western Kentucky.

Exploring Food Traditions Within The Four Quarter Days Of The Irish Calendar Year, Caitríona Nic Philibín

Dissertations

This study explores food traditions in the four quarter days of the Irish calendar year. Imbolg or St. Brigid’s Day, Bealtaine, Lughnasa and Samhain mark significant moments in the agricultural calendar. Food traditions, customs and practices relating to these days are recorded in the abundant resources of the collections in the Folklore Department, University College Dublin. However, to date, with few exceptions, little food specific research has been carried out on these collections. This thesis aims to begin to fill that gap whilst highlighting many opportunities for further research. Throughout this process we witness the illumination of a rich food …

La Llorona, Picante Pero Sabroso: The Mexican Horror Legend As A Story Of Survival And A Reclamation Of The Monster, Camille Maria Acosta

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

For centuries, the relationship between Mexico and its infatuation with scary stories has been profoundly complex, but why? Perhaps it is the easiest way to communicate a Mexican culture, although proud and resilient, riddled with haunting narratives. For myself personally, the Mexican horror narrative La Llorona has served as a lens for conversation and communication that is unique and important.

In this thesis, I explore how Mexicans and Mexican Americans alike use the legend of La Llorona as a unique form of communication through personifying what truly haunts us. From using the narrative as a tool for entertainment, cautionary tales, …

Digital Occult Library, Alexis Brandkamp

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This capstone project is a website, titled Digital Occult Library, hosted by the CUNY Commons and built with WordPress. The site address is:

digitaloccultlibrary.commons.gc.cuny.edu

It features (in this iteration) twenty-five unique pages with information on and discussion of occult and esoteric topics. It also hosts a forum that can be accessed and utilized by anyone, not just those registered on the Commons. The purpose of the site is to inform three types of interested parties on the highlighted topics: a general audience with no current knowledge of the occult, practitioners of esoteric traditions, and academics. Not only is the …

Ferrell, Ann Katherine, B. 1972 (Fa 1381), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1381. Interview conducted on 11 December 2019 by Ann Ferrell with Michael Ann Williams, who discusses her education and academic career as a folklorist and vernacular architecture historian. From 1987-2018, Williams was a faculty member in the Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology at Western Kentucky University.

"La Llorona": Evolución, Ideología Y Uso En El Mundo Hispano, Raquel Sáenz-Llano

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis studies the evolution, ideology and use of the myth of La Llorona through time in the Hispanic World. Considering this myth as one of the most known traditional narratives of the American continent, I begin by providing visual, ethnohistorical and ethnographical insights of weeping in Mesoamerica and South America and the specific mention of a weeping woman in some Spanish chronicles to say how western values were stablished in “the new continent” through this legend. I suggest that during the postcolonialism the legend did not tell anymore about a mother that cries and search a place for their …

Clarke, Kenneth Wendell, 1917-2012 (Mss 635), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 635. Manuscripts, notes, publisher’s correspondence, and photographs relating to the scholarly work of WKU English and folklore professor Kenneth W. Clarke, principally "Bud Long: The Birth of a Kentucky Folk Legend" and "The Harvest and the Reapers."

Monstrous Maternity: Folkloric Expressions Of The Feminine In Images Of The Ubume, Michaela Leah Prostak

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The ubume is a ghost of Japanese folklore, once a living woman, who died during either pregnancy or childbirth. This thesis explores how the religious and secular developments of the ubume and related figures create a dichotomy of ideologies that both condemn and liberate women in their roles as mothers. Examples of literary and visual narratives of the ubume as well as the religious practices that were employed for maternity-related concerns are explored within their historical contexts in order to best understand what meaning they held for people at a given time and if that meaning has changed. These meanings …

Winchel, Beulah Rhea, 1912-2015 (Mss 609), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 609. Correspondence, photographs, travel materials, genealogy, and other personal papers of Beulah R. Winchel, a Breckinridge County, Kentucky, native and a teacher and librarian who served in Japan, Germany and France with the U.S. Army Special Services and the Department of Defense Dependents Schools.

Maine Folklife, Vol. 21, Iss. 1, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

The University of Maine celebrated its 150th anniversary as Maine's Land Grant Institution throughout 2015. The Folk and Tradition Arts area reflected the University of Maine's special milestone with programming provided by students, faculty and staff from several departments on campus.

Political And Theoretical Feminisms In American Folkloristics: Definition Debates, Publication Histories, And The Folklore Feminists Communication, Jeana Jorgensen

Jeana Jorgensen

What role does feminist theory play in American folkloristics, and which versions of feminism have become mainstreamed in the nearly forty years since folklorists first became attuned to the promises and premises of feminism? By attending to these issues, I hope to at least partially answer the question Alan Dundes asked in his 2004 Invited Presidential Plenary Address to the American Folklore Society: "What precisely is the 'theory' in feminist theory?" (2005, 388). In lamenting the lack of grand theory in folkloristics, Dundes remarks, ''Despite the existence of books and articles with 'feminist theory' in their titles, one looks in …

Maine Folklife, Vol. 20, Iss. 2, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

The Penobscot Dictionary Project is well underway. It is a project that brings together Native culture, linguistics and digital humanities. On the one hand, we are engaged in on-going discussions with members of the Penobscot Language committee on Indian Island to make sure that our work helps their work in teaching and sustaining their language program. On the other hand, we are building a digital file with all of the linguistic information that we can incorporate into the dictonary. Working with a part of the dictionary that was digitally entered onto 5 1/4 inch floppy disks in the 1980s, the …

Wilson, Alexander Gordon, 1888-1970 (Sc 2857), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2857. Typescripts and a few photocopies of a printed newspaper column titled “Tidbits of Kentucky Folklore” written by WKU English professor Gordon Wilson, Sr. This grouping includes columns that were not incorporated into the bound volumes of his work found in the Kentucky Library Research Collections (GR110 .K4 W542)

Maine Folklife, Vol. 19, Iss. 1, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

Bobby Ives was honored at a brunch held by the University of Maine Foundation to launch the new Sandy and Bobby Ives Fund on Oct. 19, 2014. David Taylor and LeeEllen Friedland established the fund, the purpose of which is to support undergraduate students doing ethnographic and/or oral history research who have had formal training and/or a mentor at UMaine and/or by attending field schools. Students Hilary Warner-Evans and Taylor Cunningham, currently minoring in folklore studies, attended the event and talked about their research.

Kentucky Folklore Record (Mss 501), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 501. Correspondence, manuscripts, and subscription and financial records relating to the content, editing, publication and management of the Kentucky Folklore Record, a quarterly journal of the Kentucky Folklore Society.

Kentucky Folklore Society (Mss 497), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 497. Records of the Kentucky Folklore Society, primarily correspondence of president Janet Gilmore and of Dr. Camilla A. Collins, editor of the Society’s journal, the Kentucky Folklore Record. Also includes some financial and organizational information.

Feather Crowns (Sc 1115), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1115. Correspondence concerning inquiry of Tom Russell, Dallas, Texas, with Western Kentucky University personnel, Bowling Green, Kentucky, about feather crowns. Includes family story regarding the formation of the crowns in a goose down pillow after an individual’s death.

Maine Folklife, Vol. 18, Iss. 1-3, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

When we began developing the Maine Song and Story Sampler, our graduate assistant, Josh Parda, worked on the project as his primary task at the Folklife Center. Folks who follow us on Facebook or check our website frequently have seen the occasional posts of a song here or a story there that is relevant to some holiday or other event(s) going on in the wider world. And, thanks to our Archives Manager, Katrina Wynn, the full Sampler is available through Digital Commons. However, we went a full year without actually adding material to the Sampler.

Wilson, Alexander Gordon, 1888-1970 (Mss 445), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 445. Correspondence, published and unpublished writing, and research of Alexander Gordon Wilson, faculty member in the English department of Western Kentucky University from 1915-1959. Includes genealogical and autobiographical material as well as extensive research data and writing on the ornithology of Bowling Green and Warren County, Kentucky, on folklore and linguistics, and on the ornithology and folkways of the Mammoth Cave region of Edmonson County, Kentucky.

Williams, Camilla Reynolds, 1923-2005 (Sc 790), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 790. Photocopies of story written by Camilla Reynolds Williams entitled, “Ma Motley’s Robbery Tale,” 1863?, which supposedly occurred in Warren County, Kentucky. She won second place in the 1971 Kentucky Woman’s Club Folklore Contest for this entry. Also Hays family genealogical chart prepared by Joseph S. Hays.

Oral History, Working Class Culture, And Local, Pauleena M. Macdougall

Publications

Stories of factory closings from many industries throughout the latter part of the twentieth century are common and numerous studies have documented the economic impact of these unfortunate events. In this case study of Brewer, Maine, oral histories with former workers at the primary source of local employment, Eastern Corporation, illuminate the nature of management-worker interactions at the mill. Eastern’s former employee narratives reveal a surprisingly unified perspective regarding the closing of the mill that does not reflect the public narrative put forward by management and business leaders.

Maine Folklife, Vol. 17, Iss. 1-2, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

The Maine Folklife Center has embarked on an ambitious project to digitize the entire collection of the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History. To that end, the University of Maine has contracted with George Blood L.P. of Philadelphia to provide audio digitization services to create a digital preservation master of each of our sound files for the Library of Congress and the University of Maine from our original copies of analog tapes (reel to reel, cassettes, and VHS). George Blood L.P. was chosen from a group of companies who responded to a request for proposals because his company was …

Slavery - Tennessee (Sc 704), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 704. Photostats of slave narratives which relate a folk history of slavery in Tennessee from interviews with former slaves. The records were prepared by the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1938. Originals (typed) are in the Library of Congress.

Maine Folklife, Vol. 17, Iss. 2, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

A new collaboration between the Library of Congress' American Folklife Center and the University of Maine will preserve a unique archival collection that documents the history and traditions of Maine, other New England states the Canada's Maritime Provinces. That collection, the entire holdings of the Northeast Archives of Folklore and History, is part of UMaine's Folklife Center.

The library will acquire the entire collection, preserve it at its state-of-the art facilities and serve it online and in person to researchers from around the world. Digital copies will remain accessible at UMaine's Maine Folklife Center.

The folklife center will contract with …

Maine Folklife, Vol. 16, Iss. 1, Maine Folklife Center

Maine Folklife Center Newsletter

British Ballads from Maine, edited by Phillips Barry, Fannie Hardy Eckstorm and Mary Winslow Smyth was published by Yale University Press in 1929. It is an academic collection of Child ballads that the authors collected from singers in Maine. Each ballad is listed with Child numbers with variants used to illustrate the sources and dates of the collection. The authors hoped to demonstrate the richness of New England as a ballad area, to prove that many American ballad texts are old compared with those printed in the Child collection, and to provide a handbook for fieldworkers who might wish to …