Saturday, April 18, 2009

Library of Congress

[Originally posted 11 October 2008, 12:30 am.]

Quickly, because I'm completey exhausted after a hot and sweaty Jonathan Richman show...

The Library of Congress has an extensive collection of interviews and narratives created by writers working for the Federal Writer's Project (1936-1940), part of the Works Progress Administration. There are many documents (roughly 100, based on a cursory search) related to circuses and carnivals, including extensive interviews with trapezes artists, kootch girls, rousties, medicine showmen, and most of the seem to be part of a series titled "American Life Histories."

You can search just that collection (click the link above) or you can search a broader catalog of 35 collections that come under the heading "Culture, Folklife." This catalog also includes photographs, posters, region-specific narratives, etc.

Wow.

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