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Collecting Memories: Oral Histories of American Folklorists, 2011-2018

Overview of the Collection

Creator
Utah State University, Special Collections and Archives
Title
Collecting Memories: Oral Histories of American Folklorists
Dates
2011-2018 (inclusive)
Quantity
3 boxes, (3.5 linear feet)
Collection Number
UUS_FOLK COLL 46
Summary
Collecting Memories contains oral histories (and related materials) of American folklorists. The project is a joint effort of Utah State University and the American Folklore Society.
Repository
Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives Division
Special Collections & Archives
Merrill-Cazier Library
Utah State University
Logan, UT
84322-3000
Telephone: 4357978248
Fax: 4357972880
scweb@usu.edu
Access Restrictions

No restrictions on use, except: not available through interlibrary loan.

Languages
English
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Historical Note

Collecting Memories: Oral Histories of American Folklorists is a joint effort by the American Folklore Society and Utah State University Special Collections and Archives. The American Folklife Center at The Library of Congress was the project advisor. Collecting Memories is an effort to collect, preserve, and disseminate the voices and images of American folklorists and the field of folklore studies through oral histories (memories and personal commentary) and related materials (photographs, curriculum vitae, personal papers, diaries, logs, etc.).

The project helps document the development and change of the field since the mid-twentieth century in order to more fully tell the story of folklore scholarship and to make accessible the institutional memory of the American Folklore Society, the premier folklore society in the United States. Project products (media, transcripts/logs, images and affiliated materials) are housed at Utah State University, the official repository of the American Folklore Society Records: MSS 206. USU hosts the products of Collecting Memories in this physical collection and in a digital collection.

In October 2009, Randy Williams (Utah State University) proposed the project to Tim Lloyd (Executive Director American Folklore Society) and Michael Taft (Head of the Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress). All parties agreed to participate. Simon Bronner and Jill Terry Rudy (members of the American Folklore Society History Section) and Guha Shankar (Folklife Specialist, Research and Programs, American Folklife Center, LOC) were invited to help Lloyd, Taft, and Williams draft the project forms. Williams applied to USU's Institutional Review Board for IRB approval, which was awarded: USU IRB protocol number 2761. The project was introduced at the 2010 American Folklore Society Meeting in Nashville, TN, by Bronner, Lloyd, Rudy, Taft and Williams.

Members of the American Folklore Society (and their students) are invited to participate in the project by being interviewed or by interviewing a member of the society. Project forms are available to guide the process. For history of folklorist oral history efforts see Simon Bronner's "American Folklorists' Voices in Print: A Critical Survey" (2011 Folklore Historian).

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Content Description

The collection contains original sound, interview transcript/log, photographs, and associated materials. Release forms housed in a collection file.

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Use of the Collection

Restrictions on Use

It is the responsibility of the researcher to obtain any necessary copyright clearances.

Permission to publish material from the Collecting Memories: Oral Histories of American Folklorists must be obtained from the Curator of the Fife Folklore Archives and/or the Special Collections Department Head.

Preferred Citation

Collecting Memories: Oral Histories of American Folklorists. (FOLK COLL 46). Utah State University. Special Collections and Archives Department.

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Administrative Information

Arrangement

Collection arranged by interview chronologically by date and year.

Location of Collection

USU Special Collections and Archives

Preservation Note

Materials in this collection include interview media (sound), transcript and associated materials, such as photographs and curriculum vitae, etc.

Processing Note

Processed August 2011 by Randy Williams. Finding aid created by Randy Williams, August 2011 and updated April 2012 and May 2019.

Acquisition Information

The items in this collection were donated by the collector (interviewer) and/or interviewee. Each interview is accompanied by a release form.

Related Materials

Collecting Memories (digital version of the collection; includes links to American folklorist oral history efforts housed at other institutions)

USU MSS 206: American Folklore Society Records.

Folk Collection 20: The Barre Toelken Native American Collection

Folk Collection 35: The Barre Toelken Book Collection (American, German, and Native American folklore)

Folk Collection 35a: The Barre Toelken Image Collection (fieldwork images (1954-2002): topics include cemeteries, Native American, German/Austrian, Japanese, USA, and special motifs)

Folk Collection 35b: The Barre Toelken Sound Recording Collection (fieldwork recordings)

Custodial History

After the deposit of interview materials by the collector (interviewer) and/or interviewee, Utah State University Special Collections becomes the custodian of the material.

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Detailed Description of the Collection

Names and SubjectsReturn to Top

Subject Terms

  • Folklore archives--United States--History
  • Folklore--Study and teaching--United States--History
  • Folklore--United States--History
  • Folklorists--United States--History
  • Oral history--United States--History

Personal Names

  • Edison, Carol, 1951-, Interviews
  • Lloyd, Timothy, Interviews
  • Siporin, Steve, Interviews
  • Thomas, Jeannie Banks, Interviews
  • Toelken, Barre, 1935-2018, Interviews
  • Wilson, William, 1933-2016, Interviews

Form or Genre Terms

  • Oral history

Finding aid created by Randy Williams, August 2011
2011

CC Attribution
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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