This section highlights folklore resources in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's library as well as other resources University of Illinois students, staff and faculty have access to at other libraries.
| 306.46 | Material Culture (i.e. folk art, vernacular architecture, textiles and crafts) | 398.3 -398.4 | History and Criticism of Specific Subjects of Folklore |
| 390 | Folkways | 398.4 | Paranatural and Legendary Phenomena of Folklore |
| 391 | Costume and Personal Appearance | 398.41 | Folk Belief |
| 392 | Customs of Life Cycle and Domestic Life | 398.5 | Chapbooks |
| 394 | General Customs | 398.6 | Riddles |
| 394.26 | Holidays | 398.8 | Rhymes and rhyming games |
| 398 | Folklore | 398.9 | Proverbs |
| 398.092 | Folklorists | 610 | Folk Medicine |
| 398.2 | Folk Literature | 745 | Folk Arts |
| 398.2089 | Ethnic and National Groups | 793.31 | Folk Dancing |
| 398.21 -398.27 | Tales and Lore on a Specific Topic | 781.62 | Folk Music |
| 398.3 | Real Phenomena as Subjects of Folklore | 782.42162 | Folk Songs |
MLA International Bibliography
Fortean Times
398.2 AA74VET1964
English Library (Reference)
Aarne, Antti. The Types of the Folk-tale: A Classification and Bibliography. 1964.
A classic reference within folklore scholarship, providing an expansive categorization of folktales and bibliography.
Q398. 097303 En199
Education and Social Science Library (Reference)
Bronner, Simon J. (ed.). Encyclopedia of American Folklife. 2006.
A rich reference resource that addresses a broad range of topics on American culture, including entries for many ethnic communities within the United States, information on specific cultural and social practices on which regional, state, city identities are built such as cuisine and community celebrations. The four volumes cover a range of folklore genres such as material culture, festivals and belief, folk narrative, religion, and music. It also includes a discussion of key concepts and approaches to the study of folklore. Examples of entries range from youth subcultures such as "skateboarders," to "powwowing," "polka," and "intellectual property and traditional knowledge."
Q 398.20973
Education and Social Science Library (Reference)
Brunvand, Jan Harold (ed.). American Folklore: An Encyclopedia. 1996.
This one volume encyclopedia covers a large range of folklore topics from folk music to material culture and ethnic folk communities. Its geographic and cultural range includes Canada, but excludes Native American cultures (which are addressed in a separate volume). The text also provides a rich source of information on prominent, nonliving folklore scholars and concepts within the field of folklore studies.
398.02573 B283f
Education and Social Science Library (Reference)
Folklife Sourcebook: A Directory of Folklife Resources in the United States . 1994.
A directory of folklife related institutions organized by state with information on contacts, key collections, and facilities. The institutions include archives, state arts agencies, and music and dance organizations, among others.
398.203 G658e
Education and Social Science Library (Reference)
Gordon, Stuart. The Encyclopedia of Myths and Legends. 1993.
A collection of entries on mythical figures, narratives, and chroniclers throughout the world, though its focus is on European, Near Eastern, and Indian myths. Text also includes some entries focused on more contemporary phenomenon such as the "Rosewell incident" and its connection to UFO narratives and "phantom hitch-hikers."
398.20973 G857
Education and Social Science Library (Reference)
Green, Thomas A. (ed.). The Greenwood Library of American Folktales . 2006.
A collection of American folktales organized by region (Northeast, Midwest, Mid- Atlantic, South, Caribbean, Southwest, Plains and Plateau, West, Northwest, and Cyberspace). Narratives include jokes, folktales, legends, myths, as well as personal experience narratives and were collected from a variety of sources ranging from nineteenth century ethnographers to email forwards. Many come from the "Golden Age" of regional collecting from 1880-1960.
98. 072073 M77a
Education and Social Science Library (Reference)
Mood, Terry Ann. American Regional Folklore: A Sourcebook and Research Guide. 2004.
A guide to conducting folklore research with an emphasis on the use of library resources. Several chapters focus on folklore resources (mainly texts and museums) within specific regions of the United States. The guide is largely limited to texts that emphasize literary methods to the study of folklore, overlooking many materials that take a more ethnographic approach.
398. 08996073 G856
Education and Social Science Library (Reference)
Prahlad, Anand (ed.). The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African American Folklore. 2006.
A rich resource providing entries for a range of terms and key figures in African American folklore and culture. The geographic scope of the text includes North America, the Caribbean, and Central and South America. Brer Rabbit, cornbread, Bob Marley, Grandmaster Flash, and Capoeira are just a few of the hundreds of subjects addressed in this encyclopedia.
398.3 T37M
Education and Social Science Library
Thompson, Stith. Motif-index of Folk-literature: A Classification of Narrative Elements in Folktales, Ballads, Myths, Fables, Mediaeval romances, Exempla, Fabliaux, Jest-books, and Local Legends. 1955.
A seminal index of motif elements in folk narratives, identifying key components of narratives and the stories where they are found. An important resource in locating and analyzing themes within folk literature.
The Hermilda Listeman Community Cookbook Collection contains 700 community cookbooks from around the country, from Maine to Alaska to Hawaii. Dating from the 1870's, these culinary treasures were put together to raise money through women's groups, with the strongest representation by churches. Some examples of this include raising funds for veterans and injured soldiers of the Civil War, the homeless, local schools and of course, churches. The cookbooks can be read for their 'receipts' as well as for their representation of American food preferences, the advancement of technology in the kitchen and the evolution of nutritional theory. There are unique recipes written in rhyme as well as local advertisements of the day. At present the collection remains unprocessed. For more information, please contact the Library's Office of Collections. In addition, for more information about community cookbooks and collections across the country, please visit the online exhibit, Communal Cuisine: Community Cookbooks 1877-1960.
The Franklin Julius Meine Collection in Folklore, Local Color, and Humor includes approximately 8,500 volumes. Franklin J. Meine was a Chicago publisher and book collector particularly interested in American humor in all its forms. Formal literary satire, joke books, humorous ballads, reminiscences of famous comedians, cartoons and comic almanacs, and humor magazines were all prominently represented in his collection. It included every important American humorist in first editions, as well as variant editions. The contents are listed in the printed catalog of the Rare Book Library. The collection was purchased in 1955 and is located in the Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
In addition, the Rare Books and Manuscripts Library acquired two more recent collections: The Meyer Collection of American Wit and Humor, which consists of several thousand books, including many folklore titles and is largely unprocessed and The Robert B. Downs Collection, a straightforward folklore collection, much of which remains uncataloged.
The Mandeville Collection is an endowed collection of approximately 8,000 volumes relating to the occult sciences and parapsychology, established by the late Merten J. Mandeville, a Professor of Management at UIUC. Under the terms of the endowment, works of a serious nature, and those which emphasize the positive aspects of the occult are acquired. The primary subject areas for which materials are purchased are astrology; the divinatory arts and palmistry; esoteric religion and mysticism; occult techniques for health, happiness and success; psychical phenomena and research, including clairvoyance, ESP, and out-of-body experiences; spiritualism, including apparitions, mediumship, and reincarnation; unidentified flying objects; and witchcraft and magic. Newer books and the unbound issues of more than 20 journals are located in the Education and Social Science Library. The bulk of the collection is housed in the Main Library Bookstacks. Please direct all comments or requests for information to Amy Killoran.
University of Illinois Ethnomusicology Archive
The archive is housed in the
Music
Building of the Urbana-Champaign campus and is established under the aegis of the Division of
Musicology.
Begun in 1965 by Bruno Nettl as a repository for non-commercial and non-processed field recordings made by faculty and students of the University, it continues to function as a working collection of materials produced by members of the Division or used in their research and teaching. It makes no attempt to be a comprehensive archive of field recordings of traditional music.
The Archive includes materials from all parts of the world but is strongest in Native American, Middle and Near Eastern, and South Asian cultures. Consisting largely of reel-to-reel tapes, some of which have been transferred to audio cassettes, it is organized by collections (material provided by one scholar from one culture or nation and recorded during a specific period). There are ca. 200 "collections," ranging in size from less than one hour to over 100 hours of music. Documentation in varying degrees of detail is available for about half of the collections.
Use is restricted to departmental faculty and graduate students, but arrangements for use in serious scholarship by others may be arranged. For more information please contact Gabriel Solis (217) 244-2679.
The Robert E. Brown Collection (ethnomusicology) is housed at the Music Library and includes an extensive donation of books, scores, and recordings, in addition to a Javanese puppet theatre, gamelans, and other musical instruments from Indonesia, India, Turkey, and Afghanistan. The donation also includes the relocation of the Center for World Music at UIUC currently housed at the Levis Center. As of summer 2007, the collection was still being processed by Music Library staff. For more information please contact John Wagstaff .
The Sousa Archives and Center for American Music (SACAM) acquires and preserves significant archival records and historical artifacts in multiple media formats that document America's local and national music history and its diverse cultures.
The Center, part of the University of Illinois Library and University Archives, arranges, describes, and makes its collections accessible in support of scholarship, exhibitions, publications and education. It offers these services in a professionally managed reference center and through on-line databases, finding aids, and other forms of publication. It provides expert advice on accepted archival practices and standards to University colleagues, scholars, and the general public.
The Storytelling Nook in the Center for Children's Books houses a collection of roughly 1,500 folk and fairy tale texts used by student and alumni storytellers for developing their performance repertoires. These texts are also resources for Storytelling courses (LIS409) taught at the Graduate School of Library and Information Science, and they are accessible through the University Library catalog. Although the collection is non-circulating, it is available for examination by scholars, teachers, librarians, students, and other educators.
The Campus Folksong Club Oral History Project includes online audio interviews with former club members and participants. In addition, the online site includes photographs and links to the club's recently digitized newsletter Autoharp. During its height in the 1960s, the CFC claimed over 500 members-making it an astonishingly large student organization and an important force in bringing culture from Illinois and beyond to the UIUC campus. Folk music scholar Neil Rosenberg describes the Campus Folksong Club as "one of the most vigorous of the many university folksong clubs during the sixties: (1993: 3). The CFC was unique in its commitment to including a variety of traditional music ranging from gospel and blues to old-time Appalachian and Ozark music, as well as ethnic music from outside the United States. Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, the Stanley Brothers, and Mike Seeger are among the best known musicians that the CFC brought to the UI campus. At the same time, the club also brought students and local people together through a common appreciation for traditional music.
Lists other folklore resources found at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign outside of the library.
A rich collection of artifacts from Ancient Mediterranean, Africa, Asia, Oceania, Europe, and the Americas. The Spurlock's holdings include a number of folk art objects, especially carvings and textiles. The museum website allow users to Search the Collections of the Spurlock Museum and to view digital images of many objects in the collection.
Museum holdings include objects of interest to those studying non-Western material culture. The museum website displays key examples from its collection.
Folklore Reading Group
For more information contact:
Susan Davis, (217) 244-4240.
Illini Folk Dance Society
For more information contact: Brian Jewett, bjewitt@uiuc.edu.
* A list of all registered student organizations is available at the Registered Organizations Directory.
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Last modified by: Jennifer Hodges on 4/21/09