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A color photo of aerialists in a circus performance in Hugo, Oklahoma, 2012.

AFC at 50: Folklife at Work

Posted by: Michelle Stefano

Uncle Sam and a female figure intended to personify the city of Chicago host a crowd of people dressed in international attire. The chicago fair grounds are visible in the background. The text says "All Nations are welcome to the World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893

Origins of Uncle Sam Part 3: Cartoons and Advertising in the Nineteenth Century

Posted by: Stephen Winick

Cover of a book showing a smiling man holding large mushrooms and other pictures featuring food. Text reads: The cover of AFC's new book, Sharing Food, Sharing Culture: Foodways Collections at the American Folklife Center. Allina Migoni, Meg Nicholas, Stephen Winick

New Book from the American Folklife Center: Sharing Food, Sharing Culture

Posted by: Stephen Winick

Wide shot of the welcome wall of an exhibit in the Jefferson Building's Southwest Gallery. A curved welcome wall covered in enlarged photos of many different people engaged in different aspects of folklife have been added to the wall in a format that resembles a woven basked. A monitor to the left shows a still of a looped video. A large title above the entrance reads "Alive in Many Hands." Cases with objects are visible through two entrances to the exhibit.

AFC at 50 Exhibit: Sharing and Sustaining Folklife

Posted by: Meg Nicholas

A man in a black t-shirt, flat cap, and headphones stands at a set of turntables behind a hand-built bicycle trailer, playing records from the mezzanine floor of the Jefferson Building’s Great Hall. Bright pink speaker tubes extend from the front of the bike trailer. In the background, a man carries a small child past the Sonicycle. To the rear of the set-up, a large monitor shows scenes from Diversity Plaza in Queens, New York. A large patio umbrella extends above the turntables with a stylized Sonicycle logo painted on it.

Leather britches, short snorters, and a Sonicycle: a folklife-themed Family Day

Posted by: Meg Nicholas

Two exhibit cases, one holding a decorative rug and the other holding colorful artwork and scrapbooks, appear on the left and right of the image, inside a large exhibit hall.

Veterans History Project in the American Folklife Center’s New Exhibit

Posted by: Megan Harris

Origins of Uncle Sam: Metafolklore of an American Icon Part 2

Posted by: Stephen Winick

A woven rug depicting a traditional Diné (Navajo) hogan dwelling, cattle, trucks, a bus stop and a city skyline hangs on the back wall of a display case. A hand-built wooden banjo stands upright next to it.

Alive in Many Hands: The American Folklife Center at 50 — Opening Soon!

Posted by: Meg Nicholas

Colorful junkanoo performers playing drums while marching down in the Goombay Festival parade

New Online Collection: Miami’s Goombay Festival and Little Bahamas of Coconut Grove

Posted by: Michelle Stefano