Chicken and Pastry, or What Have You

We are so excited that this week’s NC Food Blog installment also introduces you to our new online exhibits feature!

This exhibition introduces the history and process of Chicken and Pastry making through both written and visual documentation. From our fieldwork archives, Edith Green of Columbus County, North Carolina, is pictured teaching NC Folk fieldworker Anna Scott her traditional recipe as photographed by Christopher Fowler. For the online exhibition, author Frances Dowell contributed an accompanying essay about this traditional dish.  These collaborations are just one example of what is possible when we have the resources to put into our existing archive online. We hope it is just the beginning!

Click to read and enjoy Chicken and Pastry, or What Have You or any of our other online exhibits.

Our starting online exhibits have been curated by Trista Porter, who explains a little more about it here:

“Chicken and Pastry, or What Have You” is part of the North Carolina Folklife Institute’s new series of online exhibitions—available through the recently updated online archive . Other exhibitions include “Gordon’s Net Works” and “The East Arcadia Blue Monday Shad Fry, 2013,” both of which feature photographs, information, and resources gathered through a 2013 survey of Bladen, Brunswick, and Columbus counties. The survey consisted of photographing, interviewing, and documenting a variety of people and communities in the southeastern part of North Carolina, and the art, craft, music, and food traditions—to name a few—that they have preserved for decades.

This online exhibition format transforms material from the online archive by including detailed information, largely gathered through interviews with the subjects of the photographs. Online exhibitions allow this invaluable information to be distributed into the world at a quicker pace and in a widely accessible and permanent format—significant for those who are unable to travel to attend a physical exhibition, or who need the information for research purposes. In addition to photographs and information, we have provided extra resources about the exhibited subjects when available.

Other photographs and information from the 2013 survey can be found in the Bladen, Brunswick, Columbus (BBC) County Collection, located in the online archive. This archive, consisting of individual items, collections, and online exhibitions featuring specific people, groups, shops, or traditional practices, is an ongoing project. It is our hope that the online archive would increase the awareness and accessibility of folklife traditions from all areas of North Carolina through a greater Internet presence in our increasingly digital era. By making resources such as photographs available in an online format, they can be used by anyone for research purposes, while also increasing both Internet and physical traffic for the documented people, communities, and businesses.

You can browse the archives according to topics, people, and places by clicking “Browse by Tag” under “Browse Items,” or you can search for specific people and topics by clicking “Search Items.” The online archive currently includes photographs by Christopher Fowler from the Bladen, Brunswick, and Columbus (BBC) County survey, but it will continue growing to include a larger variety of photographs, videos, interviews, and information about any aspects of folklife from around the state.

Stay tuned for updates and additions to the online archive. For more information or access to photographs with higher resolution, contact staff@ncfolk.org.