Subject Guides: Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History: NAFOH

About NAFOH

Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History (NAFOH)

Edward "Sandy" Ives playing guitar The Maine Folklife Center's archive of oral history recordings, often referred to as the Northeast Archives of Folklore and Oral History or NAFOH, had been a large part of the Maine Folklife Center’s identity well before its official founding in 1992. Collecting began in the 1950s with boxes of tapes, photos and type-written transcripts kept by their founder, Edward "Sandy" Ives.

Most of the materials were sent to the Library of Congress in 2012 with the goal of digitizing them for public access. Special Collections holds digitized duplicates of NAFOH materials, as well as some additional items donated to the Folklife Center since the LOC transfer. Management of NAFOH materials was transferred to Fogler Library's Special Collections Department in 2017. For more information, contact the Special Collections Department by phone, 207.581.1686 or email, um.library.spc@maine.edu.

Accessing NAFOH

Fogler Library staff members are working to upload digitized items (pdfs, mp3s, jpgs) that are free from access restrictions, but it is an ongoing project.

Links to these files are being added to the Special Collections's ArchivesSpace online database.

Links to these items will also be added to the library's URSUS Catalog. To retrieve these records,the best option is to start at the Advanced Search screen. Then for Material Type, scroll down to select ME Folklife Center. This will limit the search to only items in the folklife collections.

Those interested in this collection may also want to be aware that the Library of Congress has added information to their guide to materials on Maine and a record in their catalog for the Maine Folklife Center Collection (AFC 2012/047).

Collection Updates

Collections now available online*

MF 001, Airline Road and Airline Community Project
MF 002, "Anna May: Eighty-Two Years in New England" Julie Hunter Collection
MF 003, Argyle Boom Collection
MF 004, Aroostook Oral History Project
MF 006, Bowdoin College Folklore Papers
MF 007, Canada Road Survey
MF 008, Norman Cazden Collection
MF 009, Rum Running / Bootlegging Collection
MF 010, Cowing's Tavern Collection
MF 011, R. B. Hall and the Community Bands of Maine / Gordon W. Bowie
MF 012, Lumberman's Life Series
MF 015, Curran Family Homestead Project
MF 016, Deering Lumber Company Project
MF 017, F.O.L.K. (Focus On Local Knowledge) Collection
MF 018, Folksong Student Papers
MF 019, Foxfire Bicentennial Project
MF 021, Morgiana Halley Projects
MF 022, ANT 325 Halloween Holiday Traditions Collection
MF 023, "Hancock County Elders” Hancock County Cooperative Extension Service
MF 024, Maine Public Broadcasting Network
MF 025, Honest Woodsman Collection
MF 026, Islands and Bridges: Communities of Memory in Old Town, Maine / French Island Collection
MF 028, "The Last Smokehouse" Film Project
MF 029, “Our Life, Our Work” Lewiston Western Older Citizens Council/Marcella Sorg & Stefan Duplessis
MF 030, Lincoln County Project / Leighton Photo Collection
MF 033, Machias River Project
MF 037, Life of the Maine Lobsterman Project
MF 039, Traditional Music of Maine Project Collection
MF 040, Maine Women During the Depression and World War II
MF 045, One Year Later: The Closing of Penobscot Poultry and the Transition of a Veteran Employee
MF 046, Eastport History / Hugh French Collection
MF 047, Penobscot Bay Fisheries and Industries Project
MF 048, Penobscot Bay Islands Interviews
MF 049, Penobscot River Commercial Fisheries Project/David Taylor
MF 052, "Remnants of Our Lives: Maine Women and Traditional Textile Arts" Project & Exhibit
MF 080, Nash Island Light Project Collection
MF 081, Lynn Franklin Collection
MF 082, C. Richard K. Lunt Collection (Jones Tracy & Boat Builders)
MF 085, Thomas "Archie" Stewart Collection
MF 095, Dowsing and Dowsers Collection
MF 097, Frank Spizuoco / Dexter Town History Collection
MF 106, “Value Formation in Lesbian Lives”/Deo McKaig
MF 108, Norman Soucie Photograph Collection
MF 111, Folksongs in February Collection
MF 120, Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in Acadia National Park
MF 123, Spiritualist Church/Bonita Freeman Witthoft Collection
MF 129, Emigration from the Maritimes / John Myers Collection
MF 145, Jeffrey "Smokey" McKeen Collection
MF 160, Fisheries/Ted Ames Collection
MF 174, Fannie Hardy Eckstorm Oral History Collection
MF 175, NAACP & Civil Rights in Maine Project
MF 176, Maine Ethnographic/Barry H. Rodrigue Collection
MF 180, Woods Music Collection
MF 181, Hunting, Trapping, Poaching, and Recreational Fishing
MF 192, Climate Change Institute 40th Anniversary Oral History Project
MF 211, Little City, Bangor Collection

*some portions of these collections may remain restricted; only files cleared for access have been made available online.