The American Culture Folklore and Oral History Archives consists of folklore collection reports prepared by undergraduate students in the American Folklore course offered by the University of Michigan Program in American Culture. Prior to the transfer to the Bentley Historical Library, the folklore reports were organized according to general topics by students in the course and placed in archival folders and boxes under the direction of the professor. That order has been retained. Very often the media and objects included in the report have remained. The collection is meant to directly serve students who may take the Survey of American Folklore class in the future, and indirectly to those who, years from now, may re-discover and research aspects of American folklore that were pertinent during present day.
There is considerable overlap in subject matter between the categories of collecting topics. In the collection, folders for the first set of reports in a series are ordered according to their pre-assigned number (which can be found in the Administrative Files series) and not according to the last name of the student or title. For the second set, however, where no such number exists, the reports are ordered by surname of the student. In this finding aid, only the student's name and title of the report is listed. Further in the series names will appear to be in alphabetical order when the pre-assigned numbers were not continued.
The University of Michigan Program in American Culture offered an undergraduate survey course on American Folklore beginning in 2005. Professor Bruce Conforth began teaching the course. The course focused on the conventional beliefs, customs, traditions and rituals that shape culture as well as urban legends. Students in the survey course were taught fieldwork methodology and were assigned a folklore collection project. The collection projects required students to identify a folklore topic, conduct oral interviews and write a report and prepare transcripts of the interviews. The collection projects were then accessioned into the American Culture Folklore and Oral History Archives (originally housed in the Program in American Culture). In 2010 the archives of collected folklore was transferred to the Bentley Historical Library.
The folklore collection projects focused on an aspect of American folklore, which could range from a variety of topics. Students were given a large degree of independence in choosing their topic. Some of the most popular topics included traditions involving food, popular jokes, significant cultural objects, and customs and traditions surrounding the University of Michigan.
Interviewing informants comprised a large part of the project, as students had to interview at least one person (informant) as a source, although many students interviewed more than that. In many cases, the recording devices or tapes or discs containing the interviews were included along with the hardcopy reports. Transcripts of the interviews were also a part of the written report. Some students included photographs of the subject they were researching, and in rare cases the object itself is included in the collection.
Requirements for what should be included in the collection report evolved over the years. More recent projects include informant release forms, autobiographical sketches written by the student, as well as brief biographies about each of the informants.
Note: Not all informants authorized the use of their name in the interviews. Consult release forms regarding use of the interviewee's name.
