Summary Series includes administrative files of state folklorist George Carey from 1974-1975, as well as files pertinent to fieldwork, book, archival, and film projects directed by Dr. Carey. Materials are housed in non-consecutive boxes due to the varying materials of contents. ,
George G. Carey (1934-2013) –Taught English/Folklore at UMDCP from 1967-1970, and at University of Massachusetts (Amherst) from 1971-2003. From 1974-1976, Dr. Carey directed the Maryland Folklife Program at the Maryland State Arts Council. A protégé of folklorist Richard Dorson, Carey received his PhD in Folklore from Indiana University. Dr. Carey served as Vice Chairman of the Maryland Gubernatorial Folklife Commission under then-governor Spiro Agnew. The work of the Commission initiated the creation of the Maryland Folklife Program at MSAC (in concert with the NEA) and the Maryland Folkore Archives at UMDCP. Carey was a specialist on folk narrative and belief and material culture of Chesapeake Bay watermen. He published several works on Maryland folklife, including
Final Report of the Study Commission on Maryland Folklife with an Introductory Guide to Maryland Folklore and Folklife (1970),
Maryland Folklore and Folklife (1970),
Maryland Folk Legends and Folk Songs (1971),
A Faraway Time and Place(1971, 1977), and
Maryland Folklore (1989), and helped to produce a feature-length film
The Folk Way (1976) for Maryland Public Television. Dr. Carey was a recognized scholar on 18
th Century Prison Songs, watermen’s folklore on the Chesapeake Bay, the study of Maryland legends, and cadence chanting in the Armed Forces. As the first Maryland state folklorist, Carey directed a small team of folklorists – Millie Rahn, Gladys Marie Fry, and Geraldine Johnson – whose fieldwork focused primarily on immigrant, African-American, and rural traditions, with a particular focus on quilting and rag-rug weaving.
