"This selection of images from the 19th and 20th centuries display aspects of life on American farms: landscapes, work, play, and everyday moments from dinner to doctor visits."

The above is the Library's description. These images are not centered around any one topic, region or time period. These may be useful if you want to show:

• Types of work on the farm. There are images of braiding rugs, threshing, collecting eggs, etc.
• The diversity of people living on farms - images include a diverse range of subjects in race, gender, age and region of the country
• Differences across time periods. Some of the images would be useful in contrasting the methods of farming today versus 80 years ago.  rural history  

In case you missed this July Folklife Today blog post . . .

This is a guest post written by folklorist Nicole Musgrave, who was contracted by the American Folklife Center to conduct interviews with Appalachian-based child care workers about their pandemic experiences. The post details Musgrave’s inspiration for the project, her initial findings, and why interviewing child care workers is important for understanding Americans’ experiences with COVID-19. 

Her first project, “Early Learning During COVID-19” sought to understand how pandemic lockdowns and restrictions were affecting children, families, and child care providers living in eight eastern Kentucky counties, and how the nonprofit could better support their community.

Her current project, “It Takes a Village: Rural Central Appalachian Childcare Providers’ COVID-19 Experiences,” takes place in five states in Central Appalachia—Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia.

If you attended the July 2024 Rural American Experience colloquium at the Library of Congress, you probably visited the fabulous new exhibit called Collecting Memories: Treasures from the Library of Congress. Did you know that exhibits at the Library remain online in their digital form for years after their physical displays have been taken down? 

The Secret Place

If you didn't have enough time to admire every item displayed (who did?), you can pretend you're back at the Library by clicking HERE. At the bottom, you'll find all eight categories of treasures:

• Collected Stories, Collected Experiences
• Compendium of Knowledge
• Homeland
• Personal Narrative
• Memorialization and Commemoration
• Recording and Retelling
• Mechanics of Memory
• Guiding Memory 

  Library Exhibitions    Treasures