Folklore

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of twelve interviews that concern the 1980 Indian Land Claims Settlement Act. Conducted by David Slagger, the interviews explore various tribal, state, federal, legal, and historical perspectives on the legislation, as well as opinions on the long term cultural and economic effects.

Scope and Contents

Personal stories, narratives, and anecdotes about the great January 1998 ice storm.

Scope and Contents

Series of interviews by historian Barry H. Rodrigue on life in Alaska.

Scope and Contents This collection contains 38 cassette recordings of interviews with residents of the towns of Alexander and Crawford, Maine, conducted under the auspices of the Alexander-Crawford Historical Society between the years of 1980-1991. Topics range from aspects of the history and lifeways of the area; to Townsend House; the School in the Woods; mills; stage routes; blueberries; Princeton; Pembroke; woods work; lakes; Alexander Frost; ghosts; and many other topics pertaining to Alexander and...

Scope and Contents

A photo collection of the work of the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in Acadia National Park from 1934-1935.

Scope and Contents A collection of fourteen series deposited by University of Maine graduate student, Russell Carey between March, 1992 and November, 1993. The collection features videotaped and or audio interviews with workers at the American Thread Company’s wooden spool mill in Milo, Maine, and contributed to research for Carey’s Master’s thesis entitled 3,750,000,000 Perfect Wooden Spools (University of Maine, 1994) (See NA 2329). The collective oral history of the mill’s workers documents conditions,...

Scope and Contents Material collected for ANT 325 (Oral History and Folklore: Fieldwork), fall 1985. Class materials collected pertaining to Halloween traditions in Maine. Eight-two individual accessions including tapes and transcripts and note cards containing citations of Halloween references in late 19th and early 20th century Maine newspapers. Interviewee ages range from 8 to 88 years old. Topics discussed include costumes; trick or treating; school and parties; Halloween treats; Finnish Easter; pranks;...

Scope and Contents

This collection contains student papers from ANT 326 and 431 Folklore, the Environment, and Public Policy Collection. Topics of some of the papers include traditional medicine, basket making, environmental sustainability, energy resources, etc.

Scope and Contents

Materials donated by Barry H. Rodrigue (primarily of USM).

Scope and Contents

Interview notes and cemetery information about Atusville, an African-American community in Maine.

Scope and Contents

A series of interviews about country music in Maine recorded for a class (AY 123, AY 325) taught at the University of Maine by Edward D. “Sandy” Ives in 1975. Most focus on country music in the 1930s in the Bangor, Maine, area. Topics covered include bands and performances and country music on the radio.

Scope and Contents

This collection includes a series of interviews done by Margaret Owings conducted in 1981 for Ay 125 Oral History and Folklore: Fieldwork taught by Edward D. “Sandy” Ives at the University of Maine. The interviews focus on Burwash and Lakenwild, lakeside developments and recreational areas on Big Lake in Washington County. The Burwash project is one of the main subjects (Burwash is a lakeside development located near Machias, Maine).

Scope and Contents

Student papers on a wide variety of folklore and oral history topics, most focused on Maine traditions.

Collection Note

This collection consists of two interviews conducted by Pauleena MacDougall in November and December 2008 about the development of the Bangor waterfront. John M. Rohman was the CEO of WBRC, a firm of architects and engineers. Rodney McKay was Director of Community and Economic Development for the city of Bangor. Included in the collection is a copy of the Bangor Waterfront Master Plan and a Powerpoint presentation about Maine’s creative economy.

Scope and Contents

Research materials from a family research project Harpaz did in the early 2000s. The project resulted in the publication of the book “Finding Annie Farrell: A Family Memoir” (2004), by Journalist Harpaz, then (2002) of Brooklyn New York. Part of the focus is on musical Farrell brothers, Augusta-area radio performers.

Scope and Contents

This collection consists of a series of interviews conducted by Betty Duff in connection with her PhD dissertation for the history department at the University of Maine. They were recorded in Millinocket, Maine and Benham, Kentucky, and focused on life in a company-owned or dominated towns.

Scope and Contents

Interviews of inhabitants of the Maine-New Brunswick borderlands. The interviews were conducted by members of the NEH Summer Teacher Institute, Borders and Borderlands: the Acadian Experience in Maine. The recordings are housed here with NAFOH and the Acadian Archives.

Scope and Contents

Students from Bowdoin college investigated topics and wrote papers related to the folklore and folklife of Maine communities, including beliefs of fishermen, cookery, farm life, Prohibition and rum-running, mill work, Bath Iron Works, lobstering, quilting, folk medicine, ghosts,lighthouse keeping, boat building, lumbering, ship building, carpentry, hunting, and storytelling.

Scope and Contents

Interviews about boat building in Brooklin, Maine conducted by Maine Folklife Center's Pauleena MacDougal. Interviewees are George Allen, Frank Day Jr., Eric Dow, Wade Dow, Gilford W. Full, Havilah “Haddie” Hawkins, Brian Larkin, Brion Rieff, James F. “Jimmy” Steele, J. Steven White.

Also included: 35 photographs (P09157 - P09175, P09271 - P09286): Brooklin, Hawkins, Sails and Peapods, Brooklin School, Joel White.

Scope and Contents This collection consists of two parts. The first, Jones Tracy, is a set of interviews (NA2968-NA2976) conducted by Richard Lunt in 1963 and 1964 which served as the basis for Lunt’s University of Maine M.A. thesis. Some material was also published as Jones Tracy: Tall Tale Hero from Mount Desert Island (Northeast Folklore, Vol. X). Interviewees recorded on tape include: Chauncey Somes, Ralph Tracy, Laurie Holmes, John Carroll, Robert Smallidge, George Tracy Reed, Lydia Storer, Clark Manring,...

Scope and Contents

A series of CBC radio programs dealing with the folklore of the Canadian Maritime Provinces.

Scope and Contents This collection includes a series of interviews conducted by MFC staff with men who were enrolled in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930s, who and served at one of the three camps run by ANP: the Eagle Lake or Bar Harbor camp, the Long Pond or Southwest Harbor camp; and the Ellsworth camp. Also included in the collection are interviews with women who married men from the camps and other local residents who remember the camps. Included are 226 photographs (P08475-P08701). In...

Scope and Contents

Interviews done in 2013-2015 by Maine Folklife Center's Director Pauleena MacDougall and graduate research assistant Adam Cilli for the 40th anniversary of the UMaine Climate Change Institute. The interviews focus on the history of the Climate Change Institute, climate change in general, and the interviewees' specialties.

Scope and Contents In this series of six interviews, Clifford R. Murphy interviews New England country music musicians. Spanning from the 1930s all the way to the 2000s and multiple generations of musicians, these interviews provide an intimate look at country music in New England. As members of a close-knit community, the interviewees talk about each other, including other influential musicians like “Hal Lone Pine” Breau, Lenny Breau, Hawkshaw Hawkins, and Wilf Carter, the various bands they were in,...

Scope and Contents

This is an arbitrary collection of accessions created in June 2014 to bring together interviews that deal with country & western music. There are 44 series in NAFOH that relate to Country, Western, and Bluegrass Music, but 3 belong solely to this collection.

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of three interviews about the history of Cowing’s Tavern in Lisbon Falls, Maine.

Collection Notes

Interviews about crab-picking in Maine.

Scope and Contents

A series of 20 accessions featuring interviews done by Stephen Cole and Linda Gifford (1982-1983) documenting cranberry growing in southeastern Massachusetts.

Scope and Contents The collection focuses on the Curran Family Homestead, a living history museum in Orrington, Maine. Interview topics include: memories of Alfred, Eddie, and Catherine Curran; dairy farming in East Orrington during the first half of the twentieth century; MA Crook and Sons Hillside Dairy; relationship between the Kimball family and the Currans; swimming in the Fields Pond in the summer; tobogganing on the Curran property in the winter; a genealogy of the Curran family; growing up in Orrington...

Scope and Contents

A collection of five interviews conducted as research for her Master’s thesis (1977) at Brown University on dances in rural New England.