American Antiquarian Society
The American Antiquarian Society library collections document the life of America's people from the colonial era through the Civil War and Reconstruction. Thw online catalog contains records for the Society's collections of books, pamphlets, manuscripts, newspapers, lithographs, broadsides, songsters, secular music, hymnals, sheet music and sound recordings.
Archive of Folk Culture Collections
The American Folklife Center includes the Archive of Folk Culture, which was founded at the Library in 1928 as a repository for American folk music. The Archive of Folk Culture became part of the American Folklife Center in 1978. Today, its multi-format, ethnographic collections are diverse and international, including over one million photographs, manuscripts, audio recordings, and moving images. It is America's first national archive of traditional life, and one of the oldest and largest of such repositories in the world
Digital Tradition Folk Song Database
Sponsored by the Mudcat Cafe, the Digital Tradition Database indexes about 9000 songs in the folk and blues traditions and contains many unique features.
John Quincy Wolf Folklore Collection
John Quincy Wolf, Jr. was "one of the few real scholars to become interested in Ozark folklore." This Website contains documents, audio recordings, and other materials from the John Quincy Wolf Folklore Collection, part of the Regional Studies Center at Lyon College. Collection highlights include: Ozark Folksongs, containing transcriptions and audio files to hundreds of folksongs collected by Wolf from 1952-1970. (Songs are indexed by song title.) Sacred Harp documents Wolf's interest in Sacred Harp singings. Wolf's recordings of Sacred Harp singings will be added to this site in early Spring 2004. Memphis Blues discusses Wolf's interest in the blues, and by Spring 2004 will include recordings of several bluesmen visiting Wolf's folklore classes.
Maine Folklife Center
The Maine Folklife Center at the University of Maine is the nation's leading collection of folklore, oral history, traditional music, and photographs of Maine and Eastern Canada. Its mission is "to enhance understanding of the folklife, folklore, and history of Maine and Atlantic Canada, to encourage appreciation of the diverse cultures and heritage of the region, and thereby to strengthen and enrich our communities."
New Hampshire Historical Society
The richest single resource for the study of New Hampshire history, the Society's library and museum collections contains approximately 40,000 printed volumes, 1.5 million manuscripts, 800,000 newspaper pages, 250,000 photographic images, 4,000 broadsides and ephemera, and 30,000 artifacts. Ranging in date from pre-contact to the present day, the Society's holdings reflect broadly the state's economic, political, social, and cultural history.
New Hampshire Library of Traditional Music and Dance
The New Hampshire Library of Traditional Music and Dance, created in 1992, consists of contributions from individuals and organizations, and contains books, periodicals, printed music, recordings, photographs, and archival materials that pertain to many aspects of the world's musical heritage. However, the principal focus of the Library is on English and American music and dance. With resources ranging from 18th century manuscript scores to handbooks that teach square dancing to physically handicapped people, the Library of Traditional Music and Dance serves the research needs of a wide range of historians, folklorists, musicians, callers, and dancers.
Southern Folklife Collection
The Southern Folklife Collection (SFC), at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, ranks as one of the nation's foremost archival resources for the study of American folk music and popular culture. SFC holdings extensively document all forms of Southern musical and oral traditions across the entire spectrum of individual and community expressive arts, as well as mainstream media production. The SFC contains over 160,000 sound recordings including cylinders, acetate discs, wire recordings, 78rpm and 45rpm discs, LPs, cassettes, CDs, and open reel tapes. Moving image materials include over 3,000 video recordings and 18 million feet of motion picture film. Paper-based materials include thousands of photographs, song folios, posters, manuscript materials, ephemeral items and research files, as well as an exceptionally strong collection of discographical materials for the 78rpm era.
Vermont Folklife Center
The Vermont Folklife Center, founded in 1984, is dedicated to preserving and presenting the folkarts and cultural traditions of Vermont and the surrounding region. Ongoing field research, a multimedia archive and an apprenticeship program document and conserve cultural heritage which could easily be lost; exhibits, media, publication and educational projects bring recognition to the skills, talents and traditions of Vermonters, past and present. The Center has made preservation of the spoken word the core of its endeavors, and the VFC archive now comprises over 3,800 taped interviews, which have been transcribed and electronically indexed.