To house a repository of research and fieldwork by state folklorists as well as collected recordings, photographs, crafts, oral history interviews, and other items donated to the archives by private individuals and families of Alabama's folk musicians, crafters, shape-note singers, and other tradition bearers.
ARCHIVES
At the present time, the AAFC has processed only a small portion of the extensive fieldwork collected over 25 years by state folklorists and the Alabama Folklife Association. The initial collections include soundboard recordings of the performers of the Alabama Folklife Festival and at the Alabama Folk Sampler Stage at the City Stages festival, fieldwork used to produce the Alabama Folklife Association publication Benjamin Lloyd's Hymn Book that including 100 hours of Primitive Baptist congregational hymn singing and Maggie Holtzberg's Gandy Dancer railroad track lining crew chants and song recordings.
GENRES
Oral history interviews; photographs; video and audio documentation; material culture artifacts; bibliographic printed matter and ephemera.
DATES
Primarily c.1920-today.
LOCATIONS
Primarily Alabama, but some material from Georgia, Mississippi and Louisiana.
HIGHLIGHTS
The 100 hours of African American congregational hymn singing and moaning represents what we believe to be the largest body of recordings of this type of a cappella singing.
FORMATS
Sound Recordings - Approximately 300 cassettes and DATs representing over 500 hours of peformances
Moving Images - 22 betamax videos and 16 mm reels
Photographs - Approximately 500
Paper Records - 8 cubic feet
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