Cole Brothers "Asia" tableau, 1935. Photo courtesy of the Circus World Museum. Part of the cultural documentation in Wisconsin's Local Legacy projects.

Wisconsin

The American Folklife Center was created in 1976 by the U.S. Congress through Public Law 94-201 and charged to "preserve and present American folklife." The Center incorporates the Archive of Folk Culture, which was established at the Library of Congress in 1928, and is now one of the largest collections of ethnographic material from the United States and around the world.

Collections

The collections of the American Folklife Center contain rich and varied materials from Wisconsin that document the diversity of the state's folk traditions. Among its recordings are music and folklore of lumberjacks, including some in French- Wisconsin dialect; numerous immigrant ethnic traditions, including Croatian, Irish, Finnish, Swiss, Dutch, Swedish, German, Polish, Cornish, Bohemian, Belgian, Lithuanian, and Norwegian. In addition, the Folklife Center's collections include early cylinder recordings of Winnebago, Ojibwa, and Menominee people. In 1982, the Center's Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools Project documented a Latvian school in Milwaukee.

Wisconsin participated in the Library's Bicentennial Local Legacies project, which includes documentation of local traditions and celebrations for the American Folklife Center's Archive of Folk Culture.

• View Wisconsin Local Legacies projects

Field Research Projects

• 1982 Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools Project (Latvian)

Public Programs

• "Inside Our Homes, Outside Our Windows" (exhibit), Lakefront Memorial Center, Milwaukee

Publications

• Wisconsin Field Recordings in the Archive of Folk Culture (Finding Aid)

Ethnic Heritage and Language Schools in America

Published Recordings

• American Sea Songs and Shanties, Library of Congress AFS L26 and L27
• Folk Music from Wisconsin, Library of Congress AFS L55