Director of Fairmont State's Folklife Center selected for prestigious AFC research award

On July 17 Director of the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center Dr. Lydia Warren was announced as a recipient of the American Folklife Center (AFC) Gerald E. And Corinne L. Parsons Fund Award for Ethnology at the Library of Congress. This year the award was split between Warren and one other researcher, Dr. Everardo Reyes.

The Gerald E. and Corinne L. Parsons fund was founded by AFC reference librarian Gerry Parsons (1940-1995) to honor the memory of his parents Gerald and Corinne Parsons. The fund allows individuals to come to the Library of Congress to pursue research at the American Folklife Center and other Library of Congress divisions with ethnographic holdings.

“I am honored and grateful for the opportunity to continue the hammered dulcimer research started by our other Folklife Center staff and faculty,” said Warren. “Researching at the archives of the American Folklife Center will allow me to learn more about the history of our own regional music tradition, and this will shape our own archives and courses at Fairmont State.”

With the award, Warren plans to support her research on ‘Preserving the West Virginia Hammered Dulcimer Tradition at the Frank and Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center.” During her visit, she will explore AFC and Library holdings on hammered dulcimers and hammered dulcimer music.

“Our long-term goal is to become the foremost research center for students, scholars, and musicians interested in the regional hammered dulcimer tradition,” said Warren. “With this grant, our tradition and our research are being recognized on a national scale.”

Warren describes how having access to the AFC Library will help her and her colleagues work on a major project, digitizing collections from Appalachian musicologist Patty Looman.

“At the Frank and Jane Gabor Folklife Center, we're working to preserve and promote our regional culture, and one of our major projects is digitizing and providing access to our Patty Looman Collection,” said Warren. “Looman was a prolific songcatcher, performer, and teacher and we are lucky to have her recordings and papers at our archive, thanks to traditional music expert and adjunct professor Lynette Swiger. Professor Swiger, librarian Charley Hively, and I are working on phase one of online access to Looman's items, and this grant will enable us to provide rich, detailed contextual information in our finding aids and LibGuides.”

Housed in an award-winning repurposed historic barn building on the Fairmont State University campus, the Frank & Jane Gabor West Virginia Folklife Center is home to the Ruth Ann Musick folklore archives, the Phyllis W. Moore West Virginia Authors archives, and the Patty Looman collection. These collections and additional archival materials can be made available for scholars and student researchers. The Center is part of the College of Liberal Arts and houses the University’s undergraduate programs in folklore and museum studies. The Center serves the University and the broader community through scholarship, publications, workshops, exhibitions, and outreach events.