The Library of Congress wants your family Halloween photos from 2014. Are you photographing hayrides, haunted houses, parades, or trick-or-treating this year with adorable children and grandchildren? The Library of Congress wants you! (And I hope someday the American Folklife Center (AFC) will want vintage family photographs of Halloween like the one above.)
The AFC at the Library of Congress invites Americans participating in holidays at the end of October and early November – Halloween, All Souls Day, All Saints Day, Dia de los Muertos – to photograph hayrides, haunted houses, parades, trick-or-treating and other celebratory and commemorative activities to contribute to a new collection documenting contemporary folklife.
Between 22 October and 5 November, the American Folklife Center invites people to document in photographs how holiday celebrations are experienced by friends, family, and community, and post photos to the photo-sharing site Flickr under a Creative Commons license with the tag #FolklifeHalloween2014.
When you submit:
- Title: Give your photo a title
- Short Description (including photographer and location): Include a brief description. What is significant about the image? Where was it taken? Who is the photographer?
- License: Because the photographer holds the copyright, potential inclusion in the collection depends on licensing the photo under a Creative Commons license.
Additional information is available on the AFC blog at blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2014/10/share-your-photos-of-halloween/.
The American Folklife Center (AFC) will review the stream of photographs shared on Flickr and pick a selection of images to be archived. Of particular interest are images that capture the diversity of practices, people, and places that are distinctive in their association with these holidays.
Selected images accessioned by the Library will be shared via the blog Folklife Today in a series of blog posts beginning in November 2014. Depending on the response to this project, the American Folklife Center may continue using this method to collect documentation of other holidays and other topics.
The American Folklife Center (AFC) was created by Congress in 1976 and placed at the Library of Congress to “preserve and present American Folklife” through programs of research, documentation, archival preservation, reference service, live performance, exhibition, public programs and training. It includes an archive of folk culture, which was established in the Library in 1928, and is now one of the largest collections of ethnographic material from the United States and around the world. Visit the AFC on the web at www.loc.gov/folklife/.
Here’s your opportunity in just six days: the Library of Congress wants your family Halloween photos, so it’s up to genealogists to represent.
Leave a Reply