Cinderella

 This was a relatively big week.  The first notable thing was that I met my 1,000 digitized item mark and well exceeded it. I have now digitized around 1300 items!  It’s a personal goal and I feel relatively proud of my progress so far!

I was also able to attend one of the Benjamin Botkin Folklife Lecture Series at the Library of Congress.  The lecture was given by Margaret Yocom from George Mason University.  The lecture came at a perfect time- I had recently returned from a weekend home with my niece.  One of her favorite movies currently is Disney’s “Cinderella.”  The lecture I went to happened to be about a lesser known Cinderella than the mainstream, less gruesome and politically incorrect version that the Brothers Grimm originally created.  Even before other authors changed the original version, the Grimm Brothers edited their own version to change with the times.  However, the themes that stuck were incest and fur.  Those are two things that current Cinderella models leave out completely.  Cinderella in the Grimm Brothers’ versions was called “Allerleirauh” which translates into “all kinds of fur.”  

It wasn’t the story itself- as terrifying and odd as the original version is- that got my attention.  It was the mysteries that Dr. Yocom solved to find the origins of Cinderella.  She analyzed the works and illustrations in a way that allowed her to learn new things about folklore and the stories of Allerleirauh and Cinderella.  What kind of parallels could have been drawn between the previous versions and those of today had the manuscripts been digitized and preserved as we are doing with the Moses Asch project?  This can extend to all manuscripts that have been completely or partially destroyed or lost.  I am currently digitizing letters between Folkways and everyone that contacted it.  Will this help people draw different types of connections in the future if something happens to the originals?  

The lecture was not only interesting- and a great topic for dinner conversation- it also allowed questions about my current work to grow.  These are the best kind of lectures, I think.  The brain wasn’t made to just listen, it was made to process and apply what we hear to help up create or understand other things.

The week ended with meetings at the Dibner and Cullman libraries.  These libraries contain the American History and Natural History museum’s rare book collection.  It was a dream come true.  I have always loved museums, but there’s something about rare books that draws me in more completely.  

However, it was my trip to the Natural History museum store that led me back to Moses Asch.  One of the people working at the store and I started talking about Folkways records.  She was so excited to hear about my internship and what I was doing with the Smithsonian.  Her interest in Moses Asch was a great way to see that this project was going to be important to people- even people you just happen to meet.  My conversation with the Smithsonian employee really made Moses Asch seem like a superstar of the Smithsonian!