The Atchafalay National Heritage Area encompasses 14 parishes in south-central Louisiana and is home to Cajun culture, as well as a diverse population that reflects the European, African, Caribbean and Indigenous cultures which have shared the region for generations. The heritage area preserves music, foodways, language and both cultural and natural landscapes.
Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve collection, 1985Call Number: AFC 1985/022
Collection of field recordings of interviews and photographs collected by Mary Hufford comprising part of the preliminary fieldwork for a proposed cooperative project with the National Park Service's Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve in southern Louisiana. Photographs document a local cemetery, boats, waterways, traditional foods and housing, the preparation of nutria hides, Park Service staff, and aerial photographs of the Mississippi Delta, some taken by Tom Tankersley.
There is an online presence for this collection.
- A. James Delahoussaye collection of Atchafalaya River Basin recordings
Call Number: AFC 2012/044
Collection of field recordings of interviews with Atchafalaya River Basin, Louisiana, residents about their lives, traditions, and folkways, recorded from 1974-2010, as well as approximately 635 digital images documenting the same traditions.
- Acadian folksongs from Louisiana
Call Number: AFC 1956/004
Acadian folksongs sung by John DuBois who learned these songs as a child, while he spent summers on his grandfather's farm in Kaplan, Louisiana.
- John DuBois collection of Acadian French folk songs
Call Number: AFC 1973/038
Collection of recordings of ten Acadian folk songs and lullabies sung by John DuBois originally by Kaplan, Louisiana, accompanied by Bunyan Webb on guitar.
This collection consists of video/sound recording and photographs of a concert in the Coolidge Auditorium, Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress on September 7, 2016 as part of the Homegrown concert series sponsored by the American Folklife Center. Yvette Landry grew up in Breaux Bridge, Louisiana, not far from the levees of the Atchafalaya Basin. She is a member of The Lafayette Rhythm Devils, Balfa Toujours, and several other Cajun bands.
Folklorist and University of Louisiana Professor Barry Jean Ancelet discussed his career in the academic study of Cajun and Creole folk culture, as well as his work creating archives where the culture has been preserved, festivals, and other programs where Cajun and Creole culture has been shared with diverse audiences.
The Cane River National Heritage Area (CRNHA) was home to Indigenous people, as well as French and Spanish settlements. The interaction of these groups, along with enslaved Africans, led to the development of a distinctive Creole culture which forms the heart of the heritage area's preservation efforts.
- Harry Oster collection of Louisiana, Mississippi and Iowa recordings
Call Number: AFC 1967/003
Field recordings made by Harry Oster in Iowa, Louisiana, and Mississippi, March 11, 1957-November 12, 1966. The collection includes songs, folk tales, rhymes, street cries, jokes and recitations from African American, Anglo American, German American, and French-speaking Creole performers.
Video recording, sound recording, and photographs of a concert in the Coolidge Auditorium, Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress on July 29, 2015 as part of the Homegrown concert series sponsored by the American Folklife Center. Creole United is a group representing three generations of Louisiana Creole music culture from southwest Louisiana. Their goal is to bring together active, retired, and upcoming Creole musicians of both traditional and emerging styles, and who each perform with other groups, to collaborate on recording projects and concerts. The current group includes Edward Poullard, Lawrence Ardoin, Rusty Metoyer, Sean Ardoin, and Andre Thierry. The event included Zydeco dance by audience participants.
Joshua Caffrey, Alan Lomax Fellow in Folklife Studies, Kluge Center, examines the songs recorded in the summer of 1934 by John A. Lomax with assistance from his son Alan, who was then a teenager. While the music they recorded there has often been described as Cajun or Creole music, what they actually found was much more complex. This talk coincides with the release of Caffery's book "Traditional Music in Coastal Louisiana"
Marce Lacouture concert collection, 2010 June 23
Collection consists of digital sound recordings and photographs documenting a concert performed by Marce Lacouture with David Greely and Kristi Guillory in the Coolidge Auditorium. The concert features songs, ballads, and waltzes referred to as "home music" -- traditional songs sung among family and friends, in Cajun and Creole French; several of these songs were first recorded by John and Alan Lomax in Louisiana in 1933-1934.
