It’s an honor to receive the American Folklife Center’s 2026 Gerald E. and Corinne L. Parsons Fund Award for my research and future book project, “As I Roved Out: Jean Ritchie as Folk Musician, Folklorist, and Appalachian Advocate.” The award funds will support my research into the life and work of Kentucky folk musician, folklorist, and record label owner, Jean Ritchie, focusing specifically on her early years in New York City during the nascent folk revival, her work as a folklorist in Ireland, England and Scotland, and roles as a representative of and advocate for Appalachia and Appalachian culture.
Rural Free Delivery Collection Now Available via the Library of Congress
I'm pleased to share that my 2021 Archie Green Fellowship Occupational Folklife project Rural Free Delivery: Mail Carriers in Central Appalachia is now accessible via the Library of Congress.
The project documents the value of rural carriers to their communities and includes interviews with 25 rural mail carriers and clerks in Appalachian regions of Kentucky, West Virginia, North Carolina, Virginia, and Ohio, as well as photos of rural post offices.
There are also some choice videos of retired rural mail carrier, guitar maker, and National Heritage Fellow Wayne Henderson jamming with current rural carrier Brian Grim, and Merle Haggard's guitarist Redd Volkaert (I found that many rural mail carriers are also musicians).
Read more about the project in this interview on the American Folklife Center blog.
Smithsonian Postal Museum Research Conversation: Rural Free Delivery
On May 31, 2023, I look forward to presenting a research conversation at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in D.C. on my American Folklife Center Archie Green Fellowship project "Rural Free Delivery: Mail Carriers in Central Appalachia."
This occupational folklife project documents the expressive culture and experiences of 25 rural mail carriers and clerks (formerly known as postmasters) in the upper mountain South (VA, WV, KY, OH, NC), the region which birthed the country’s first rural free delivery route in 1896. Rural Free Delivery focuses in particular on the function rural postal workers serve as important resources in their community, as well as how their place of work—rural post offices—are invaluable community hubs in remote areas. Additionally, the project explores how long-time rural carriers have witnessed changes in their work (namely increased monitoring and technological advances), community, and landscape, across their career.
DC folks are welcome to attend in person by RSVPing to Susan Smith at NPMResearchChair@si.edu and others can join via Zoom here.
Folklorist Archie Green, courtesy American Folklife Center
2021-2022 American Folklife Center Archie Green Fellowships
I'm so honored to be awarded an American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress 2021-2022 Archie Green Fellowship for my occupational folklife oral history project “Rural Free Delivery: Mail Carriers in Central Appalachia.” I've long admired Archie's work in occupational folklore and aspired to this fellowship, so I'm very grateful for this recognition and support.
Over the next year, I'll be documenting the expressive culture and experiences of approximately 25 rural mail carriers and clerks (formerly known as postmasters) in the upper mountain South (VA, WV, KY, OH, NC, and TN). The project will focus, in particular, on the function mail carriers serve as lifelines in their community, as well as how their place of work—rural post offices—are invaluable community hubs in remote rural areas. I'm also interested in recording how, through their regular routes, long-time rural mail carriers may have witnessed changes in the landscape—due to farm loss, deforestation, climate change, mountaintop removal mining, and other factors. The interviews and other project materials will be archived at the Library of Congress.
Thank you to Brett Ratliff at WMMT FM/ Appalshop for their support, past fellows Katy Clune & Kim Stryker for their guidance, and everyone at the AFC, especially Nancy Groce & John Fenn.
Read more about this year’s American Folklife Center fellowship awardees via Folklife Today.
West Virginia Folklife Progam Receives Gerald E. And Corinne L. Parsons Fund Award
The Gerald E. and Corinne L. Parsons fund was founded by American Folklife Center reference librarian Gerry Parsons (1940-1995) in honor of his parents. Parsons Fund Awards provide support to bring people to the Library of Congress to make use of primary ethnographic materials housed at AFC and elsewhere at the Library.
Emily Hilliard, West Virginia’s State Folklorist, was awarded a Parsons Fund Award for a one-week research trip to research AFC’s collection of sound recordings, photographs, field notes, and ephemera related to West Virginia, focusing particularly on archival content related to African Americans and other cultural communities whose “presence and contributions are often marginalized in historical and vernacular culture narratives of the Mountain State.” Her research will inform ongoing and future work of the West Virginia Folklife Program and culminate in a series of multimedia blog posts.