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Legislation in 1979 (79-322, SB 1208) transferred the Florida Folk Arts component of the Stephen Foster Memorial to the Florida Department of State. Operating as the Bureau of Florida Folklife Programs from ca. 1985 until 1995, the Bureau coordinated the annual Florida Folk Festival and directed such programs as Folk Arts Apprenticeships, Folk Arts in Education, Folk Heritage awards, annual research surveys and numerous other projects and programs. From 1995 through June 30, 2021, the renamed and reorganized Florida Folklife Program continued the majority of these operations from within the Division of Historical Resources, Bureau of Historic Preservation in Tallahassee. During the 1995 reorganization, the State Archives of Florida acquired the Florida Folklife Collection from the Bureau of Florida Folklife Programs’ previously maintained Florida Folklife Archives. Legislation in 2021 (2021-71, L. O. F., HB 909) transferred the Florida Folklife Program and its operations from the Division of Historical Resources to the newly renamed Division of Arts and Culture, previously the Division of Cultural Resources, effective July 1, 2021. The program is charged to "identify, research, interpret, and present Florida folk arts, artists, performers, folklore, traditions, customs, and cultural heritage and make folk cultural resources and folklife projects available throughout the state."
The Maritime Heritage Survey is closely related to the Florida Folk Festival. Each year a special section, or folklife area, is established at the festival that consists of performances, demonstrations, and workshops dedicated to a special theme. Because the "folklife associated with the people who live and work along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts as well as the shores of the inland lakes, rivers, and streams of the state occupies an important place in the history and culture of all Floridians," maritime traditions were featured at this folklife area for the festival in 1987. Initially referred to as the Florida Maritime Project, the survey was co-sponsored by the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, and was conducted primarily by Project Director David A. Taylor, Merri Belland, and Nancy Nusz between 1986 and 1987. Plans for the folklife area called for at least 20 representatives of maritime traditions from communities throughout the state divided into sections for craft demonstrations, foodways demonstrations, music and oral traditions performances, and exhibits.
Summary:
This series consists of the project administration and fieldwork files of Maritime Heritage Survey Project Director David A. Taylor. The series includes fieldnotes, interview lists, informant information sheets, audio cassette tapes, photographs, newspaper and magazine articles, and other materials documenting Taylor's efforts to identify and arrange interviews with informants and the Bureau staff's conduct of the interviews and other project activities. The survey focused in particular on maritime traditions (boat building, net making, oyster fishing, etc.) of Apalachicola and the Apalachicola Bay region, and of the town of Mayport, on the east coast at Jacksonville.
Finding Aids:
Folder listing available.
Additional Physical Form:
Reproduction Note:
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Associated Materials:
Series 1592, Maritime Heritage Survey Files, contains additional records documenting this project.
for detailed listing.