Folk Life at Fifty: People, Places, and Publications During the Society’s First Half-Century

Notes

• Since this paper was researched, an archive for the Society has been established at St Fagans, National History Museum, near Cardiff (a part of Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum Wales). Members of the SFLS past and present are therefore urged to contact the Society’s Secretary if they wish to offer for preservation any papers, photographs, or sound recordings they may have relating to the work of the Society.
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• On Peate, see Trefor Owen, ‘Iorwerth Cyfeiliog Peate, 1901–1982’, Folk Life, 21 (1982–83), 5–11; Catrin Stevens, Iorwerth C. Peate (1986); H. J. Fleure, ‘Introduction’, in Geraint Jenkins (ed.), Studies in Folk Life: Essays in Honour of Iorwerth C Peate (1969). Many of Peate’s closest professional contacts contributed to Studies in Folk Life.
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• Gwerin, ii.2 (December 1958), 50; ii.4 (December 1959), 143; iii.1 (June 1960), 1–2; iii.3 (June 1961), 113; iii.4 (December 1961), 163; iii.5 (June 1962), 225; and iii.6 (December 1962), 271–72; Iorwerth Peate, ‘The Society for Folk Life Studies’, Folk Life, 1 (1963), 3–4.
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• Gwerin, iii.4 (December 1961), 163; and iii.6 (December 1962), 271–73. For examples of Peate’s forthright editorials, see Gwerin, i.2 (December 1956), 51–52; i.4 (December 1957), 146; and iii.5 (June 1962), 225–26. Gwerin iii.4, 163 encouraged readers to join the SFLS and included a membership application form.
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• Alexander Fenton, ‘The Scope of Regional Ethnology’, Folk Life, 11 (1973), 9. Sadly, no other documentation is available that records this debate in any detail.
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• Annual membership figures are available from the AGM reports that are reproduced in the Folk Life Newsletter from the late 1980s. Some earlier figures are cited in the ‘Notes and Comments’ sections in the first ten volumes of Folk Life, 1 to 10 (1963–72), passim.
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• I am grateful to Alan Gailey and John Williams Davies for these observations. This fall-off of support by non-museum specialists can be seen in the changing membership of the ordinary committee members of the SFLS Council, published in each edition of Folk Life.
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• For an account of the origins and development of the SHCG, see Steph Mastoris, ‘From GRSM to www.shcg.org.uk: Some Thoughts on the First 35 Years of the Social History Curators Group’, Social History in Museums, 34 (2010), 11–18. For an insight into the differing attitudes by members of the SHCG and SFLS, see May Redfern, ‘Social History Museums and Urban Unrest’, Social History in Museums, 34 (2010), 19–25, and David Fleming, ‘Social History in Museums: 35 Years of Progress?’, Social History in Museums, 34 (2010), 39–40.
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• Steph Mastoris, ‘The Society’s Membership Survey’,Folk Life Newsletter, 16 (2001), 6.
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• I am grateful to Alan Gailey for this information. Peter Brears served as President for only one year because a number of personal and professional circumstances combined to prevent him giving his full attention to the office for the rest of the three-year term (Peter Brears, pers. comm.).
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• Trefor Owen, ‘Folk Life Studies: Some Problems and Perspectives’, Folk Life, 19 (1981), 5–16.
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• Geraint Jenkins, ‘Interpreting the Heritage of Wales’, Folk Life, 25 (1986/7), 5–17.
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• Alan Gailey, ‘Migrant Culture’, Folk Life, 28 (1989/90), 5–18.
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• Brian Loughbrough, ‘Experiences of Places and People’, Folk Life, 31 (1992/3), 7–16.
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• Ross Noble, ‘Presidential Address 1995 [Meeting the Challenge: Some Thoughts on the Future of Ethnology]’, Folk Life, 34 (1995/6), 7–13.
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• Catherine Wilson, ‘‘I’ve got a brand new combine harvester … but who should have the key?’ Some thoughts on Rural Life Museums and Agricultural Preservation in Eastern England’, Folk Life, 41 (2002/3), 7–23.
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• Roy Brigden, ‘Recording Change’, Folk Life, 48·1 (2010), 3–12.
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• ‘Notes and Comments’, Folk Life, 1 (1963), 112.
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• Linda-May Ballard, ‘Fifty Years of Folk Life’, Folk Life, 50·1 (2012), 1–6.
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• ‘Editorial’, Folk Life, 18 (1980), 5–6; Alan Gailey, pers. comm.
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• However, Eurwyn Wiliam comments that, ‘Geraint himself couldn’t stand anything to do with beliefs and customs, but as an editor he welcomed anything that would give a balance as well as fill a volume’.
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• Geraint Jenkins (ed.), Studies in Folk Life: Essays in Honour of Iorwerth C Peate (1969), 335–338.
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• Mastoris, ‘From GRSM to www.shcg.org.uk’, 11–18; Peter Brears, pers. comm.
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• Rob Shorland-Ball, Farming Countryside and Museums (2000); Catherine Wilson, ‘Rural Life Museums Action Group’, Folk Life Newsletter, 16 (2001), 2; 17 (2002), 2; 18 (2003), 2–3; and Cozette Griffin-Kremer, ‘Rural life museums in the Uk — a decade of development?’, ibid, 25 (2011), 7; David Viner and Catherine Wilson, ‘Sorting the Wheat from the Chaff: Establishing the Methodology Towards a Distributed National Collection of Agricultural Heritage’, Folk Life, 47 (2009), 1–19; Hilary McGowan, Rural Museums: Ten Years On (2011) (published on the Rural Museums Network website, where a digital version of Farming, Countryside and Museums is also available: <www.ruralmuseums. specialistnetwork.org.uk/home>).
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• Many thanks are due to Dafydd Roberts and David Eveleigh for compiling this list of conference venues.
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• These one-day events are noticed in the ‘Notes and Comments’ section of Folk Life, 1–10 (1963–72) and in Folk Life Newsletter, 1–27 (1986–2012), passim.
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• Steph Mastoris, ‘Fiftieth Anniversary of the Society for Folk Life Studies Discussion’, Folk Life Newsletter, 27 (2012), 11 and 12.
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