The Louisiana Folklore Digital Archive houses all collections of the Center for Louisiana Studies. Included are the Archives of Cajun and Creole Folklore (the largest), which has evolved to become the premier oral history and recorded music collection in Southwest Louisiana. Originating in 1974, it is the most comprehensive repository of recorded and transcribed materials on French in Louisiana, the Upper Mississippi River Valley, French Canada, the West Indies, and Africa.
The Archive represents the collection and preservation activities of several generations of folklorists, ethnomusicologists, linguists, and other cultural resource management professionals such as: Barry Jean Ancelet, Elizabeth Brandon, Carl A. Brasseaux, Joseph Medard Carriere, Donald Hebert, Otis Hebert, Catherine Joliecoeur, John Laudun, Alan Lomax, Sylvie Marchand, Harry Oster, William Owens, Harry Prochon, Helena Putnam, Patricia Rickels, Ralph Rinzler, Corinne Saucier, Wiskes and Crutcher, and various students. The oldest recordings contained in the collection are on wax cylinders, and many music and oral history interviews were originally recorded on reel-to-reel tape. Materials cover folktales, legends, ballads, dance tunes, oral history, and popular culture.
Housed on the third floor of the Edith Garland Dupré Library on UL-Lafayette's campus, it is accessible to researchers Monday through Friday, 7:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and by appointment, and features four listening carrels equipped with computers, Ethernet connections, and speakers/headphones.
Please call 337.482.1320 for further information.
