Books to Note from VOICES

Volume 33
Spring-Summer
2007

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New York Folklore Society
P.O. Box 764
Schenectady, NY 12301
518/346-7008
Fax 518/346-6617
nyfs@nyfolklore.org

When the Trains Ran: The Diary of a Delaware County Woman, 1877-1928, by Jennie McKenzie Hewitt Doland. Delhi, New York: Delaware County Historical Association, 2006. 138 pages, index, appendix, $10.00 CD-ROM.

It is not often that an organization like a local historical society attempts to move beyond geographical confines or has the resources to produce large exhibits or publish books. New technologies, however, now enable smaller organizations to publish works inexpensively on CD-ROM. I applaud the efforts of the Delaware County Historical Association, which has released the diaries of Jennie McKenzie Hewitt Doland on CD-ROM.

When the Trains Ran is a compilation of data from the diaries of Jennie McKenzie Hewitt Doland over an almost continuous fifty-year span, dating from 1877 to 1928. She was born and spent her entire life in the Halcottsville–Kelly Corners area of Delaware County. The diaries are more a listing of daily happenings, than a journal of thoughts and ideas. One of the few moments of reflection relate to her first husband’s death, when she wrote, “I am alone in the world.”

Perhaps because of this paucity of self-reflection, the Delaware County Historical Association chose to present a compendium of information from the diaries, as opposed to a transcription. The organization has painstakingly taken her diaries and gleaned from them a broad selection of information, presented under topics such as “Immediate Family” and “Home and Transportation,” with subheadings that include genealogical information, family life, and the railroad. Doland kept painstaking accounts of expenses and income during both of her marriages. She faithfully recorded items ranging from butter purchases to jobs done by her second husband, David Doland, in 1914. She also recorded the deaths of friends and family in her diaries. President Theodore Roosevelt’s death in 1919 merited a mention.

Throughout the CD-ROM are photographs of diary pages and of people (including a wedding photo from her first marriage), buildings that were important to Doland (homes and schoolhouses), and, of course, trains. One of the pleasant surprises in the CD-ROM is the inclusion of paper ephemera related to Doland, including her teaching certificates and advertisements for items she bought, such as an 1895 Montgomery Ward washing machine. The appendices include recipes for foods from chili to ginger cakes, remedies—From 1888, “How to restore gray hair to its natural color: Take equal parts of black tea and butternut bark and a few rusty nails. Steep and put on 2 times a week.”—and dyes.

The work that went into this electronic presentation of Doland’s diaries is daunting. I can’t imagine how long it took to accomplish. For the person looking for data about one small region from one person’s point of view, When the Trains Ran is a fine piece of work. I recommend When the Trains Ran to anyone interested in a glimpse of life in Delaware County from 1877 to 1928. Folklorists and other scholars, however, may want to read the primary source for ourselves. This CD-ROM is a good starting point for further research.

—Elinor Levy,
Northwest Jersey Folklife Project

Folklore in Utah: A History and Guide to Resources, edited by David Stanley. Logan: Utah State University Press, 2004. 343 pages, preface, appendices, index, $24.95 paper.

This remarkable book uses historical and folkloristic methodology to trace the development of folklore study in Utah through three generations of scholarship and public folklore administration. Interpretive essays on folklorists, academic research, and public programs offer much valuable and intriguing information. Fourteen of the essays originally appeared in the Utah Folklife Newsletter from 1985 to 1991; the others came later. Written in a lively and engaging style, this book will appeal to a broad readership: students, academic and public folklorists, historians, journalists, writers, artists, festival-goers, and others.

David Stanley’s introductory historical essay, “Folklore Work in Utah: A Historical Survey,” helps the reader to view Utah’s folklore from a broad historical perspective. Describing what remains of early Native settlements, he explains, “The variety of food crops, pottery, woven cloth, seashells, and feathers from tropical birds found in archeological sites only hints at the diversity of interactions and observations among Native bands during pre-European times” (6). Printed folklore began circulating in Utah in 1891, but the practice and observation of folklore began millennia earlier.

Stanley describes some of the first generation of Utah folklorists’ important discoveries, noting their significance and their occasional comic incongruities. Alta and Austin Fife, traveling along the “Mormon Trail” in 1946, learned that a storyteller named Bertha Booth was one of the best sources of folk tradition in Salt Lake City. After locating Booth and hearing her tell a series of mesmerizing stories, the Fifes gave her their full names and address. Reading what they had written, Booth cried, “So you’re a Ph.D., too!” and pulled out a thesis from a cupboard. She had earned a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1915, then immersed herself in the fascinating folklore of Utah.

Besides chronicling the Fifes’ achievements, the book’s first section summarizes the work of Edward A. Geary, Hector Lee, Wayland D. Hand, Lester Hubbard, Thomas Cheney, Olive Woolley Burt, and Helen Papanikolas. The second section provides many details about prominent folklorists William A. Wilson, Barre Toelken, and Jan Harold Brunvand, then briefly considers members of the third generation of Utah folklorists, whose work is currently emerging.

The book’s third section, “Studies in Utah Folklore and Folklife,” offers insights into the traditions of ethnic and religious groups: Native Americans, Mormons, Latinos, and Greeks, among others. Photographs of Daughters of Utah wearing pioneer costumes, Andean musicians performing in Liberty Park, and Greeks enjoying fellowship in the Open Heart coffeehouse demonstrate the diversity of Utah’s celebrations. In section four, seven authors describe and analyze Utah’s public programs. Elaine Thatcher’s essay, “Public Folklore in Utah,” makes some excellent points, including the desirability of collaboration between public and academic folklorists. Anne Hatch’s “Under the Big Top: The Utah Humanities Council and Folklore” takes a close look at how public programming works, with special attention to getting grants and overcoming political challenges. My favorite essay in the section is Barbara Lloyd’s “Lessons of Summer: The Fife Folklore Conference,” which vividly describes the development of the Fife Conference since 1977. Epic hikes, sing-alongs, folk arts presentations, and steak fries have made this conference a cherished experience for many folklorists and students. Lloyd observes, “The conference was a perfect time for us to gather together people we loved, to talk about ideas we loved, and nothing else really mattered. It was and is a brief and shining moment for folklore” (235).

The appendices provide useful information about academic programs, college and university folklore archives, and folk arts collections. A calendar of festivals and community celebrations lists such varied events as a rhubarb festival in March, a bear dance in April, a Mormon miracle pageant in June, Wheat and Beet Days in July, and a Slovenian picnic in August.

Clarifying past achievements and present resources, Folklore in Utah offers a fine model for future studies of other states’ folklore and folklorists. Like Utah, New York State has a diverse population, whose folklore has been studied by several generations of professional folklorists. Since 1945, the New York Folklore Quarterly, New York Folklore, and Voices have published substantive essays about New York’s folklore and folklorists. Perhaps at some point in the near future, New York’s folklorists will produce a volume that chronicles the development of their home state’s folk culture.

—Libby Tucker,
Binghamton University

Books-to-Note is a regular feature of Voices and was published in Voices Vol. 33, Spring-Summer, 2007. Voices is the membership magazine of the New York Folklore Society. To become a subscriber, join the New York Folklore Society now.