Links of special interest
to
What is folklore,
anyway?
Folklore -- what is it? An essay by MFS' Don Holliday, in Ozarkswatch
(Some more views on the question from
the New York Folklore Society;
were you expecting a single simple answer,
rookie?)
For students and teachers -- a guide to fieldwork
and to working with
folklore and tradition-bearers in the classroom --
both from the Fife Folklore Archives
at Utah State University
Some Ozarks Folktales an essay with commentary by MFS' Don Holliday, from Ozarkswatch
Virtually Missouri -- provides centralized access to the digitized collections of our state's libraries, museums and historical societies. This important database is growing all the time; check back often, and offer your own collections.
Tributes to Missouri Folklorists, past and
present
Editor’s
choice: check this link for Hobo signs and signals – how gentlemen of the
road communicate about prospects for handouts, chances for work, and mean dogs:
http://www.slackaction.com/signroll.htm
A bit of internet
lore: “Missouri Explained”
A
special message for folklorists doing online research
Major national and international
organizations:
Visit the Mudcat Forum --
a place where folk music enthusiasts discuss their business and passion (and
much besides)
The American Folklore Society offers support for travel to the annual national meeting for people who research, present, preserve, and/or advocate for the folklore of a community without formal training in folklore or a related discipline. Click here for details on how to apply.
Special link to Folklore (the journal of the Folklore Society)
-The American Folklore Society
-The American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress
-"Mizzurah" er "Mizzuree"? The American Dialect Society
-The American Names Society (onomastics): How'd they come up with a name like "Kingdom City"?
-Folklore organizations of other states and regions
-The Smithsonian Insitution's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage
-The Stars and
Stripes Museum -- On
Genres of folklore:
-Verbal and partially verbal lore:
There’s
considerable dispute as to what the “rebel yell” actually sounded
like. Here’s a .wav file from a reunion of
http://www.stonewallbrigade.com/articles_rebelyell.html
A rare recording
of the “rebel yell” performed by a 90-year old Tar Heel veteran in
1935
OK, this is history
rather than folklore, but have you ever wondered what the voice of Teddy
Roosevelt sounded like? Or William McKinley? Or even Benjamin Harrison? Find out
at
http://www.lib.msu.edu/vincent/presidents/index.htm
Colorful language from Missouri and
Missourians
(warning: offensive content
Archives of Appalachia
Southern Appalachian culture, history, and literature (closely cognate with
Ozarks culture)
African
Missouri : an online resource for lore and history of African Americans in
Missouri--
including PRESERVATION
ISSUES -- a rich source on vernacular architecture, including shotgun
houses and slave dwellings
Russian
Proverbs and Sayings
-- a small, thought provoking collection
MO-TELL: Missouri storytelling
MOST: Mid-Missouri Organization of Storytelling
Urban Legends from Snopes.com -- the leader in the field! Recommended by MFS' Jan Harold Brunvand
-Please contribute to our new, developing page on gardening and weather lore .
"Slave
Songs of the United States" (1867) is now up on the web in a
full-text-searchable HTML edition.
Source Description:
(title page) Slave Songs of the
William Francis Allen, Charles Pickard Ware, and Lucy McKim Garrison
xliv, 115 p.
New York
A. Simpson & Co.
1867
Call Number M1670 .A42 (Rare Book Collection, University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill)
As presented at the 2004 meeting in Cape Girardeau: The Rough Truth of John Handcox, in a new CD from the West Virginia University Press (.pdf file)
Hampton
and Its Students
http://docsouth.unc.edu/church/armstrong/armstrong.html
spirituals at the
mudcat
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=38686
Thomas Wentworth
Higginson's 1867 Atlantic Monthly article on "Negro Spirituals"
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/TWH/Higg.html
The
Child Ballads
http://ling.lll.hawaii.edu/faculty/stampe/Oral-Lit/English/Child-Ballads/child.html
Songs
of the Sailor and Lumberman at the Mudcat
(includes chords)
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=54759&messages=167
The Scott Joplin International Ragtime Foundation, in Sedalia, MO
A historical page on John William "Blind" Boone, Ragtime Pioneer
Frogman Music
Traditional and Folk Song Archive
The Frogman is building a database of traditional music with tabs. It's still
pretty preliminary, but drop on by and be folkish.
The Missouri
Federation of Square & Round Dance Clubs
has a directory of interest groups in the state (the square dance was adopted
as
Sacred Harp and shape-note singing -- an introduction and links
Visit the Mudcat Forum -- a place where folk music enthusiasts discuss their business and passion (and much besides)
Click here for the Scott Joplin International Ragtime Association
The Sing Out! Pages Sing Out!'s mission is to preserve and support the cultural diversity and heritage of all traditional and contemporary folk musics, and to encourage making folk music a part of our everyday lives.
After multiple requests, we're
starting a page on Missouri outhouses.
Fr. Phil Hoebing's article on the churches of Brother Adrian Wewer
An AP feature on MFS' Brett Rogers and his excavation of slave quarters on a
plantation near Arrow Rock
A brief dictionary of gravestone motifs and symbolism
African
Missouri : an online resource for lore and history of African Americans in
Missouri--
including PRESERVATION
ISSUES -- a rich source on vernacular architecture, including shotgun
houses and slave dwellings
-Howard Wight Marshall's
Vernacular Architecture in Rural
and Small Town Missouri:
An Introduction
is now available in this online edition, the only resource
of its kind on the web...
The page is graphics-rich, and loads slowly, but it's well
worth the wait!
-More historic and vernacular architecture:
- The Rotunda, a round barn in Hermann
-Covered bridges in Missouri, from Dale J. Travis
-Round barns in Missouri, from Dale J. Travis
-Two "bank barns" at the Cedarcroft B&B (Warrensburg) built by John A. Adams
-authentic log cabins of Missouri
"What Wondrous Life: the World of George
Husmann" --an interpretive exhibit on the Hermann resident
who fathered the Missouri Wine Industry and saved the grapes of
Visit the Baker Creek Seed Company, near
-Traditional Games: A Collection by Irwin Rice
-Marbles, folk- and parlour-games of
yesteryear
-Walking Wheel Spinning -- a traditional domestic craft of the Ozarks
-Missouri State Quilters Guild
-Traditional amish quilt blocks
Images of Native American artifacts of Missouri
Some Notes on Cupstones of Adair County, MO --
observations on a common but little-studied type of Native American artifact
The Max Hunter Collection at the
http://maxhunter.missouristate.edu
The Sheperd Room at the
The 1925 Missouri Farm Women's Cookbook
The Institute for Small Town Studies, publishers of Fishwrap, a modest but impressive interdisciplinary journal
The Amish in Missouri -- a brief essay by Adam Brooke Davis
Cupstones of Adair County: essay on a little-studied Native American artifact type
A Few Words About Folk Medicine: Argues
against uncritical use of traditional healing
practices, especially by non-members of the cultures which generate the
traditions.
Click
here for Judy Prozzillo Byers' MFSJ essay on folklorist Ruth Ann Music
H.M Belden, the
English Club, and the Missouri Folk-Lore Society;
an article by Susan L. Pentlin and Rebecca Schroeder from the 1986 MFSJ
Women of Old-Time Music: Tradition and Change
in the
Holly
Go to http://www.violetproductions.com
and click on Women of Old-Time Music
Click here for texts of Missouri ballads collected in
the field by students of West Plains High School (class of 1911) at the
direction of Goldy
Here's a link to some stories from Pissing in the Snow , Vance Randolph's classic collection of salty folktales he collected in the Ozarks. WE didn't violate any copyrights.
Fr. Phil Hoebing's
interview with turtleman John Richards, expert on the alligator snapper
Missouri's memories of the Great War (as we called it before we realized we
were going to have to number them): http://www.usgennet.org/usa/mo/county/stlouis/mo1stww.htm
Archives of Appalachia
Southern Appalachian culture, history, and literature
Virtually Missouri -- provides centralized access to the digitized collections of our state’s libraries, museums and historical societies. This important database is growing all the time; check back often, and offer your own collections.
The Missouri Heritage Project -- primarily for teachers, the site archives materials on the state's heritage, from local legends and dusty newspaper files to personal collections and reminiscences. This growing site invites contributions from schools and school districts engaged in local history projects.
Country Folk Magazine captures the essence of the Ozarks. Visit their site to sample some issues and for a subscription form.
Ozark
The Ozarks Mountaineer, an Ozarks-wide magazine publication, now has subscribers in all 50 states, and a few foreign countries as well. Visit their site to sample some issues and for a subscription form.
The magazine offers histories of people and places, folklore, out-of-the-way places to see and visit, arts, crafts, pioneer skills, folk music and much, much more. In addition to articles, there are columns featuring cookery, poetry, humor, events, gardening, then and now, folk music, reviews of recordings and reviews of books.
-The Missouri Heritage Readers Series , under the general editorship of MFS' Rebecca Schroeder
-A searchable database of traditional ballads at CSU Fresno
-Folklore and Mythology: Electronic Texts (a valuable classroom resource provided by D.L. Ashliman)
-The Jack Conroy
American Studies Collection (Moberly Area Community College)
VOICES WEST: COWBOY POETRY AND
SONG HOMEPAGE
OZARKIAN
AND HAITIAN FOLK MEDICINE
A brief essay by Bonnie Thomas-Stevenson
Click here to examine a series of books containing stories by Ozark folk historian, Silas Claborn Turnbo, edited by Desmond Walls Allen.
Notes and an article from Goldy Hamilton
, collaborator with Belden, pioneer collector of folksong and children's lore
St. Andrew's Society of
-St. Louis Folk Fire: Dance and Music
-Missouri Valley Folklife Society
-Presses of Interest to Missouri Folklorists
Mid-Missouri Organization of StoryTelling
the Missouri Archaeological Society
Back to the Missouri Folklore
Society homepage