Shape-note singer and singing leader Hugh McGraw of Georgia. McGraw has received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. Photograph by Aimée Schmidt, courtesy Georgia State Council for the Arts. From the Masters of Traditional Arts DVD-ROM, produced by Alan Govenar and published by ABC-CLIO.

The History of Folklore Study

100 Years of American Folklore Study, edited by William M. Clements and available from the American Folklore Society, provides a clear and concise history of the field of folklore in this country from the mid-1800s to the late 20th century.

Published for the American Folklore Society’s Centennial in 1988, this 82-page book contains 19 brief essays, most focusing on changing concepts of "folklore," the "folk," and "folklorists."

Copies are available for $10 postpaid from AFS (Mershon Center, Ohio State University, 1501 Neil Avenue, Columbus, OH 43201-2602 USA). Make your check payable to the American Folklore Society.

The essays in the book are:

Part 1: Nineteenth Century Backgrounds

W.K. McNeil, Pre-Society American Folklorists

Simon J. Bronner, The Intellectual Climate of Nineteenth-Century American Folklore Studies

Rosemary Lévy Zumwalt, On the Founding of the American Folklore Society and the Journal of American Folklore

Part 2: The Concept of "Folklore"

Hugo A. Freund, Cultural Evolution, Survivals and Immersion: The Implications for Nineteenth-Century Folklore Studies

Mac E. Barrick, Folklore and the Verbal Text

John Michael Vlach, Folklife and the Tangible Text

Jack Santino, Folklore as Performance and Communication

Part 3: The Concept of "Folk"

Sylvia Grider, Salvaging the Folklore of "Old English" Folk

William H. Wiggins, Jr., Afro-Americans as Folk: From Savage to Civilized

Keith Cunningham, Native Americans as Folk: Collecting and Compiling Indian Traditions

Eric L. Montenyohl, The Folk Abroad: American Folklorists Outside the United States

Robert McCarl, The Folk as Occupational Group: From the Cow Camp to the Shop Floor

Susan Kalcik, Womenfolk

Part 4: The Concept of "Folklorist"

Carl Lindahl, The Folklorist and Literature: Child and Others

W.K. McNeil, The Folklorist and Anthropology: The Boasian Influence

Claire R. Farrer, The Folklorist and Linguistics: From Boas to Hymes

Lynwood Montell and Barbara Allen, The Folklorist and History: Three Approaches

Ronald L. Baker, The Folklorist in the Academy

Burt Feintuch, The Folklorist and the Public