Digital Commons Network^™

Krause, Janet L. (Fa 872), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 872. Paper titled: “Fishing Lore of Hadley Community.” Project includes survey sheets with brief descriptions of various aspects of fishing including methods, gear, terminology, sayings and beliefs. Sheets include a brief description of each topic, informant’s name and some illustrations.

Harbison, Kay (Fa 874), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 874. Paper titled: “Uncle Bozo Carver: World’s Oldest Living Country Musician and Entertainer.” Project details the life of Noble “Uncle Bozo” Carver as an entertainer. Project includes lengthy interview, lists of songs, and some stanzas.

Linder, Gary (Fa 953), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 953. Paper titled: “White Mills.” Project includes a description and photo of White Mills village and the watermill in Hardin County, Kentucky.

Costellow, Ann Tapp (Fa 873), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 873. Paper titled: “Quilt Patterns.” Project includes survey sheets with brief descriptions of various quilts. Sheets include a brief description including quilt pattern, informant’s name, and photo or

illustration of quilt.

Abney, William Irving (Fa 871), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 871. Paper titled “A Collection.” Project includes survey sheets with brief descriptions of various aspects of life in Tompkinsville according to informant, Ulysses Gee Boyles of Monroe County, Kentucky. Sheets include a description of each topic.

Duke, Yvonne E. (Fa 875), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 875. Paper titled: “Death Narratives: Return From Dead.” Project includes survey sheets of death narratives. Sheets include a brief description of experience and informant’s name.

Coffey, Gary Lee (Fa 869), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 869. Paper titled: “The Adam Monin Estate.” Project includes a paper describing a house three miles southeast of Glendale, Kentucky. Includes footprint drawings and photos of the house.

Walker, Joyce (Fa 868), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 868. Paper titled: “Possum Hunters: A Vigilance Committee.” Project includes a short interpretive paper and interviews with one former member (unidentified) and several people who remembered the Possum Hunters in Muhlenburg County, Kentucky. Sheets include transcribed interviews and informant’s name. The Possum Hunters was a common name given to vigilante groups in the Green River valley.

Walker, Edith (Fa 870), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 870. Project titled: "Joe Coleman: A Local Legend." Includes typescripts of interviews and survey sheets collected by Edith Walker about Joe Coleman, an accused murderer in Cumberland County, Kentucky. Survey sheets includes lines of a ballad about Coleman and various informant's memories of the ballad or the veracity of the incident in Adair County, Kentucky.

Wathen, Leslie (Fa 867), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 867. Project titled: “Games.” Project includes survey sheets with descriptions of games gathered chiefly from Kentuckians. Sheets include a brief explanation of the game and informant’s name.

Mansfield, Martha (Fa 866), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 866. Paper titled: “A Collecting Project of Folk Houses from Barren County, Kentucky.” Project includes survey sheets with brief descriptions of folk housing in Barren County. Sheets include a brief description of the structure, informant’s name, and a drawing of the building’s footprint.

American Myths, Legends, And Tall Tales: An Encyclopedia Of American Folklore, Christopher R. Fee, Jeffrey Webb, Danielle R. Dattolo, Emily A. Francisco, Bronwen Fetters, Jaime Hillegonds, Andrew Wickersham

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

Folklore has been a part of American culture for as long as humans have inhabited North America, and increasingly formed an intrinsic part of American culture as diverse peoples from Europe, Africa, Asia, and Oceania arrived. In modern times, folklore and tall tales experienced a rejuvenation with the emergence of urban legends and the growing popularity of science fiction and conspiracy theories, with mass media such as comic books, television, and films contributing to the retelling of old myths. This multi-volume encyclopedia will teach readers the central myths and legends that have formed American culture since its earliest years of …

The Past Is Open To The Future: Lithuanian Folk Pottery 1861 - Present, Anthony E. Stellaccio

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

In 2011, following several years of in-country research, I published a book on Lithuanian folk pottery. I enrolled in the Folk Studies master’s program at Western Kentucky University (WKU) in 2014, well after my research and book had been completed. In the present study, I use my newly acquired knowledge of folklore In my previous work to revisit Lithuanian folk pottery.

In my previous work, I had sought to create a picture of “authentic” Lithuanian folk pottery that was confined to the narrow temporal borders of 1861-1918. Here I deconstruct conventional ideas about authenticity, as well as culture and heritage, …

Waiting For A Place: At Gravedigger’S Pub, Jeffrey Alan Tolbert

Faculty Journal Articles

In this essay I consider how place can defeat our attempts to analyze it by become meaningful to us in ways that exceed the scope of our scholarly interests and methods. Discussing my fieldwork at a Dublin pub, I touch on the concepts of sense of place, nostalgia, and the importance of human relationships that form in places even in the context of what might be considered "failed" research.

My Dreaming - Boobera Lagoon - Gamilaroi Country, Phil Duncan, Thawun Birru, Gomeroi Nation

Indigenous Water Justice Symposium (June 6)

Presenter: Phil Duncan, Gomeroi Nation, New South Wales Aboriginal Land Council

2 pages (includes color illustrations)

Shrine Pilgrimage (Ziyārat) In Turco-Iranian Cultural Regions, Mehdi Ebadi

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

Academic studies, dedicated to various aspects of religiously motivated travel have increased steadily, especially in recent years. Despite the huge amount of publications related to tourism and religious pilgrimage, there is still a gap between abstract theory and empirical research. Studies devoted to pilgrimage in the developing countries generally, and Islamic regions in particular are rather few in number in spite of its socio-economic importance and widespread practices. The present work tries to address this relative lack of attention and will shed more light on the tradition of shrine pilgrimage (known as ziyārat) in Turco-Iranian cultural milieu that is almost …

Folk Music In A Digital Age: The Importance Of Face-To-Face Community Values In Filk Music, Sally Childs-Helton

Scholarship and Professional Work

Filk is broadly defined as the traditional folk-based music and related community created by and for a sub-community of science fiction and fantasy fans. Born in the 1950s, filk today includes international participants of various experience levels and musical styles. Social context and music are equally important in this tradition; prominent values include self-expression, play and building a face-to-face co-creative, collaborative group experience. This article, founded on Textual Poachers (1992), assumes that filk remains a folk music in many ways, and that filkers still prefer face-to-face musical and personal interaction in spite of a lively, diverse online filk community. I …

Brame, Lawrence R. (Fa 861), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 861. Collection consists of Negro spirituals collected from individuals in Kentucky. Song lyrics are provided along with the names of sources who provided each song. This project was conducted by Lawrence R. Brame for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University.

Bryant, Patty M. (Fa 862), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 862. Paper: “The Poisonous Bite of the Blue Gummed [Negro].” Scholarly (chiefly from North Carolina) and local (chiefly from Mississippi) examples of the folk belief are provided. This project was conducted by Patty M. Bryant, a student at Western Kentucky University for a course in folk studies.

Molesky, Constance H. And Gayle Wilson (Fa 858), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 858. This collection includes a paper discussing the Shakers and the craftsmanship found in their furniture designs of the region and period. Concentrates on the Shaker community at South Union, but includes general information about Shakers and specific specimens from Pleasant Hill. Black and white photos of furniture are included in the collection. This project was conducted by Constance H. Molesky and Gayle Wilson for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University.

Kubic, Ruth (Fa 860), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 860. Collected Cherokee Indian legends passed down by oral tradition. Collected from Mary Jeffries, daughter of a full-blood Cherokee, who also provided examples that can be found in the paper. This project was conducted by Ruth Kubic for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University.

Lee, James C. (Fa 857), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 857. Paper: “The Negro Church” which covers various aspects of the African American church experience, including songs, leadership, and self-expression. Titles and song lyrics are provided from the Eleventh Street Baptist Church in Bowling Green, Kentucky. This project was conducted by James C. Lee for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University.

Fish, Dianne (Fa 859), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 859. Paper: “A Collection of Breckinridge County Folklore.” This project was conducted by Dianne Fish for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University.

Place(Ment), Ashley Lynn Byers

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Throughout her time at the University of Arkansas Master of Fine Arts program, Ashley Byers has been creating work about the folklore, landscape, and people of the Ozarks. Though she continues to create work with the Ozarks in mind, it became a motif used for a broader conversation about the ad hoc, holiness, painting, landscape, the figure, and intimacy.

In many ways, the concepts within her work are born out of the Ozarks.

When can remnants come together to become more than the sum of their parts? Derelict, easily dismissed objects, when set in the right context or viewed through …

Blewett, Keith (Fa 856), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archive Project 856. This collection discusses Shaker folklore. Topics included are Shaker beliefs, architecture, furniture, inventions, and lifestyle.A few photos are included. This project was conducted by Keith Blewett, a student at Western Kentucky University.

Karl, Debbie (Fa 854), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archive Project 854. Paper titled “The Bell Witch” discusses the legend of the Bell Witch, located in Adams, Tennessee, and the effects on the family and community. A few photos are provided as well. This project was conducted by Debbie Karl, a student at Western Kentucky University.

Petrocelli, Joseph (Fa 855), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archive Project 855. This collection consists of a paper and photographs discussing the legend of the Bell Witch and other legends and paranormal activitiy in and around Adams, Tennessee. This project was conducted by Joseph Petrocelli a student at Western Kentucky University.

Graham, Kenny (Fa 851), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archive Project 851. Collection titled “Epitaphs,” a study of epitaphs collected from tombstones in the Franklin County Cemetery in Frankfort, Kentucky. Western Kentucky University student Kenny Graham completed this project for a grade in his folk studies course.

Armstrong, E. Thomas (Fa 852), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archive Project 852. Survey of folk housing in northeast Oldham County, Kentucky, with a focus on remnants of vernacular houses in the area and the types represented. Project conducted by E. Thomas Armstrong, a student at Western Kentucky University for a folk studies class.

Karl, Debbie (Fa 853), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archive Project 853. Collection titled “The Bell Witch: Witch or Ghost” uses motifs to help determine whether the famous Bell Witch of Adams, Tennessee, was a witch or a ghost. The motif index by Stith Thompson is cited throughout the paper. Debbie Karl, a student at Western Kentucky University, completed this project for a folktale course.