Multimedia History: Archives of American Folk Art and Life
Library of Congress Local History and Folklife Digital Collections
Thousands of digitized archives spanning multiple centuries on local histories and documentation projects, folklore, art and music culture, maps and records from across a diverse American landscape. Also offers curated collections from different regions, historical eras, and various ethnic group/subculture focuses.
Visit the LOC Digital Collection/American Folklife Center galleries
Metcalfe, R. H. & Dovydenas, J. (1977) Jazz Alley, 50th and Langley, Chicago, Illinois. Chicago Ethnic Arts Project Collection, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress
The Galleries for Folk and Self-Taught Art at Smithsonian American Art Museum
The galleries viewable online via Washington, DC’s Smithsonian American Art Museum “represents the powerful vision of America’s untrained and vernacular artists.” Outsider art, folk art and more can be viewed through various collections and exhibitions.
View the online galleries for Folk and Self-Taught Art at the Smithsonian
Ralph Fasanella, Modern Times, 1966, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Maurice and Margo Cohen, Birmingham, MI, 2002.10, © 1966, Estate of Ralph Fasanella
WWII-Era Digital Collections: Dorothea Lange
The New York Public Library's digital collections contain nearly 900,000 items digitized from its physical archives. An enormous and expansive collection of historical multimedia works from still images, video, maps, news archives, books, and more, from all over the world. A major highlight are the thousands of images from the US Farm Security Administration, a New Deal photography initiative that commissioned documentation of folklife during the Depression. The influential Dorothea Lange, most famously known for the 1936 image ‘Migrant Mother’, provided an extensive photographic archives of life across America, focused primarily on labor and economic migration. Visit the collections on the NYPL here.
Lange was also the documentarian for the relocation and internment of thousands of Japanese American citizens during World War II, a project which was subsequently censored during the war by the Federal Government and then digitized and made public online in 1998. You can view the Dorothea Lange galleries on Japanese internment at Densho Digital Repository.
Tobacco sharecroppers and family at back of their house, c. 1939. Person County, North Carolina. Photo by Dorothea Lange for the Farm Security Administration from the New York Public Library. Original image here.
The American Folk Art Museum (Vimeo Channel)
The Vimeo Channel for the American Folk Art Museum features video content with extensive information, panels, discussions, presentations, and lectures on special exhibits, art topics, and more. The American Folk Art Museum is a “leading institution shaping the understanding of art by the self-taught”. Visit the official website for much more, including collections, exercises.
The American Folk Art Museum Story (Vimeo, 2019)
Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG)
“The Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG) is an educational and research archive that collects, preserves, documents, and exhibits posters relating to historical and contemporary movements for social change.”
LaborArts
The LaborArts’ mission is “to document and celebrate the artistic and cultural heritage of working people and the labor movement, and encourage understanding of their often overlooked contributions to our society” [quoted from the website]. Collections include brochures, posters, murals, photographs, memorabilia and more.
Sit-down strikers at Woolworth's in New York City's Union Square, Library of Congress Collection (1937) via LaborArts
Western Neighborhoods Project and OpenSF History (San Francisco)
The Western Neighborhoods Project (WNP) is a non-profit organisation that preserves and shares the history and culture of the neighborhoods in western San Francisco. Features historical photos, videos, radio and podcast content, articles, community projects and tours.
OpenSFHistory features scanned images donated to WNP by a single anonymous San Francisco collector active for over 4 decades who was passionate about the historical preservation of San Francisco.
“Large group, two women, two babies, four men with food on Great Highway near Balboa, passing the Lurline Pump Station. The Pie Shop in the background.(Vietnam Delegation, 1951 Peace Conference)” (Western Neighborhoods Project - wnp12.0115)
Black History and Culture (Google Arts & Culture)
Google Arts & Culture has collaborated with dozens of institutions, museums, and galleries to curate a comprehensive set of multimedia resources dedicated to Black history and culture in America. This collections includes essays and articles, historical photography and video archives, folk and fine art, biographies, and links to more resources.
Visit the Black History and Culture Project (via Google Arts & Culture)
Many Paths, Many Voices: Oral Histories (University of Washington)
Oral history is the study of experience and information as recorded by the spoken accounts of individuals. “The University of Washington Special Collections began collecting oral histories in the 1960s as part of an effort to document the history and culture of our regional ethnic communities” [quoted from website]. These recorded and digitized oral histories can be accessed by project category and span a range of decades.
