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Talc and soapstone statue from North Carolina.

Who Were the Mysterious Moon-Eyed People of Appalachia?

Tales of strange, nocturnal people haunt the region—and so do theories about who they were, from a lost Welsh "tribe" to aliens.
by Hadley Meares via Atlas Obscura on October 22, 2024
A car in a dark night on an empty road with a ghostly apparition.

The Vanishing Hitchhiker Legend Is an Ancient Tale That Keeps Evolving

The classic creepy story—a driver offers a lift to a stranger who is not of this world—has deep roots and a long reach.
by Mark Hay via Atlas Obscura on October 10, 2024
The Jersey Devil, a winged creature with horns and a goat-like head, amidst trees wrapped with vines.

Birthing the Jersey Devil

A mythical creature that lurks in the pinelands of New Jersey has served as a reminder of the horrors that result when reproductive freedoms are destroyed.
by Katherine Churchill via JSTOR Daily on July 3, 2024
Map of the Chesapeake Bay.

Our Local Monster

Whose knowledge matters in a changing region?
by Kathryn Carpenter via Contingent on May 19, 2024
Captain Lightfood on horseback firing a pistol.

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot: The American Creation of Irish Outlaw Folk Heroes

Martin’s confession relates outlaw adventures that appear to be original. But were they real? 
by Jerry Kuntz via Commonplace on August 8, 2023
A train yard in Montgomery, Alabama, 1897

The Ballad of Railroad Bill

The story of Morris Slater, aka Railroad Bill, prompts us to ask how the legend of the "American outlaw" changes when race is involved.
by Ashawnta Jackson, Burgin Mathews, John W. Roberts via JSTOR Daily on March 20, 2023
A painting of Osceola by George Catlin

Ghost Stories at Flagler College

Telling a spooky story around a campfire—or in a dorm room—may be the best way to keep a local legend alive.
by Julia Métraux, Jason Marc Harris via JSTOR Daily on October 30, 2022
The ship, Jose Gaspar, in Tampa Bay during the Gasparilla Festival

The True History and Swashbuckling Myth Behind the Tampa Bay Buccaneers' Namesake

Pirates did roam the Gulf Coast, but more myths than facts have inspired the regional folklore.
by Nora McGreevy via Smithsonian on February 4, 2021
original

Legends and Lore

A roadside marker program in New York State embraces the gray area between official history and local lore.
by Allison C. Meier on October 23, 2018

William Ferris: The Man Who Shared Our Voices

An interview with the legendary folklorist, who fundamentally changed America’s understanding of the South.
by Chuck Reece via The Bitter Southerner on May 30, 2018
Illustration of the folk hero, John Henry, face down with a hammer in his hand.

A History of American Protest Music: This Is the Hammer That Killed John Henry

How a folk hero inspired one of the most covered songs in American history.
by Tom Maxwell via Longreads on October 4, 2017

Jump-Rope Songs Were Once a Cornerstone of American Folklore. Now It’s Memes.

The Library of Congress is turning to the internet for a new generation of shared culture.
by Jacob Brogan via Slate on September 4, 2017
William Gropper's map of American folklore.

A Popular '40s Map of American Folklore Was Destroyed by Fears of Communism

The government saw Red when looking at William Gropper's painting of the United States.
by Kyle Carsten Wyatt via Atlas Obscura on March 27, 2017
Old photo of Zora Neale Hurston laughing and holding a cigarette.

Go Hard or Go Home

On folklorist Zora Neale Hurston, who passed away sixty-five years ago today.
by Huda Hassan via Mother, Loosen My Tongue on January 28, 2025
The Gateway Arch in St. Louis.
partner

Walt Disney Presents Manifest Destiny

On the St. Louis theme park that never made it past the drawing board.
by Devin Thomas O’Shea via HNN on April 30, 2024
Old car holding up a mining chute on the over of the book “The Bootleg Coal Rebellion”

Rock-Fuel and Warlike People: On Mitch Troutman’s “The Bootleg Coal Rebellion”

Native son Jonah Walters finds something entirely too innocent about the tales told about the anthracite industry’s origins.
by Jonah Walters via Los Angeles Review of Books on March 21, 2024
Collage of African Americans' faces.

Specters of the Mythic South

How plantation fiction fixed ghost stories to Black Americans.
by Alena Pirok via Southern Cultures on January 24, 2024
An painting depicting a murder ballad, with the murder happening in the background and a band playing music in the foreground.

Blood Harmony

The far-flung tale of a murder song.
by David Ramsey via Oxford American on December 5, 2023
Gremlins climbing on a World War II warplane.

How Gremlins Went From Fairy Stories to Warplanes to Hollywood Legend

Meet these slippery, mischievous reflections of our anxieties about technology.
by Hadley Meares via Atlas Obscura on October 24, 2023
Ghostly woman.

Why Are There So Many Female Ghosts?

Female ghosts seem to dominate the afterlife. Whether the spirits are real or not, the reasons for the disparity could be revealing.
by Nathaniel Scharping via Atlas Obscura on October 6, 2023
Cover of "Playing for the Man at the Door" album.

Smithsonian Releases an Unheard Treasure Trove of Blues Music

A Smithsonian curator John Troutman and a blues musician discuss a new folk album, "Playing for the Man at the Door," from late chronicler Mack McCormick's collection.
by Dom Flemons, John Troutman, Scott Detrow via NPR on August 5, 2023
Portrait of a girl wearing a red coral necklace.

The Labor of Polyps and Persons

The meaning of coral jewelry in nineteenth-century America.
by Michele Currie Navakas via Lapham’s Quarterly on July 12, 2023

The Peculiar Game of the Yankee Peddler—Or What Do You Buy?

Part of the utility of the game is how many intersections can be addressed, a Choose Your Own Adventure of lesson planning.
by Rachel Tamar Van via Commonplace on July 4, 2023
Children in costume looking out a window by the light of a jack o' lantern.

Halloween: A Mystic and Eerie Significance

Despite the prevalence of tricks and spooky spirits in earlier years, the American commercial holiday didn’t develop until the middle of the twentieth century.
by Betsy Golden Kellem via JSTOR Daily on October 26, 2022
illustration of Civil War soldier carrying sack of gold

A Lost Trove of Civil War Gold, an FBI Excavation, and Some Very Angry Treasure Hunters

“I’m going to find out what the hell the FBI did and I’m going to expose it to the world.”
by Chris Heath via The Atlantic on June 17, 2022
A purported "jackalope" (jackrabbit with antelope horns) mounted to a wall.

The Legend of the Horned Rabbit of the West

Jackalopes have migrated from Wyoming across the nation, but what’s really known about the mythical creature?
by Michael P. Branch via High Country News on February 24, 2022
Man holding a Jack-O-Lantern.

Why Do We Carve Pumpkins Into Jack-O'-Lanterns For Halloween?

It's a tale thousands of years in the making.
by Edgar B. Herwick III via WGBH on October 29, 2021
Phil Wiggins performs at the Blair Mountain Centennial. | Rafael Barker, collection of the WV Mine Wars Museum.

The Singing Left

At a recent commemoration of the Battle of Blair Mountain in West Virginia, songs of struggle took center stage.
by Kim Kelly via The Baffler on September 21, 2021
John Henry swinging a hammer, with the steam drill behind him.

John Henry and the Divinity of Labor

Variations in the legend of a steel-driving man tell us about differing American views of the value and purpose of work.
by Jake Maynard via Current Affairs on July 6, 2021
A pirate ship decorated for the Super Bowl.
partner

The Buccaneers Embody Tampa’s Love of Pirates. Is That a Problem?

How brutal outlaws became romanticized.
by Jamie L. H. Goodall via Made By History on February 5, 2021
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