The New Jersey Folklore Society is an academic organization that formed in an attempt to spread awareness about

folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

. The group took trips throughout

New Jersey New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...

and produced a yearly publication.

Description

The New Jersey Folklore Society is a social group that was formally organized in May 1945"Folklore News"
'' The Journal of American Folklore'', Vol. 59, No. 231, January–March, 1946, page 72 ("The New Jersey Folklore Society ... was formally organized in May, 1945. ... Henry Charlton Beck, president of the Society and author of ''Jersey Genesis'' and other books about New Jersey, spoke of the manuscript and printed material on folk cures and recipes which the Society has received.") at the behest of the New Jersey Council at

Rutgers University Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a Public university, public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's ...

. During their first few months of operation, they gained affiliation with and become a chapter of the

American Folklore Society The American Folklore Society (AFS) is the US-based professional association for folklorists, with members from the US, Canada, and around the world, which aims to encourage research, aid in disseminating that research, promote the responsible ...

, a larger and more recognized group. They met monthly in various locations across the state, and produced a yearly publication highlighting New Jersey myths and

legend A legend is a Folklore genre, genre of folklore that consists of a narrative featuring human actions, believed or perceived, both by teller and listeners, to have taken place in human history. Narratives in this genre may demonstrate human valu ...

s. The organization drafted a

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

and elected leaders, the first being

Henry Charlton Beck Rev. Henry Charlton Beck (May 26, 1902 – January 16, 1965)"Rev. Henry Charlton Beck, N.J. Folklore Historian, Dies" (obituary), ''The Courier-News'' (Bridgewater, New Jersey), January 18, 1965 was an author, journalist, historian, ordained Episco ...

. Beck, a minister and scholar who became ordained during the time he led the group at

Rutgers University Press Rutgers University Press (RUP) is a nonprofit academic publishing house, operating in New Brunswick, New Jersey under the auspices of Rutgers University. History Rutgers University Press, a nonprofit academic publishing house operating in New B ...

, was an editor for the

Camden Courier-Post The ''Courier-Post'' is a morning daily newspaper that serves South Jersey in the Delaware Valley. It is based in Cherry Hill, New Jersey and serves most of Burlington, Camden, and Gloucester counties. The paper has 30,313 daily paid subscr ...

and writer for the

Newark Star-Ledger Newark most commonly refers to: * Newark, New Jersey, city in the United States * Newark Liberty International Airport, New Jersey; a major air hub in the New York metropolitan area Newark may also refer to: Places Canada * Niagara-on-the ...

. At its peak, the organization had roughly fifty members. Beck headed the society until it went dormant and disbanded in 1950. It was revived and returned to activity in the 1980s.

Publications

The society gained exposure due to its publications, which include collections of old songs and ballads from towns surrounding the Ramapo Mountains and other topics. After the re-emergence of the club in the 1980s, they focused on producing bigger articles and pamphlets that covered a larger range of topics. These articles, which were all titled ''New Jersey Folklife'', were presented to the

New Jersey Folk Festival The 'New Jersey Folk Festival'' (NJFF) is an annual folk music and cultural festival held at the Eagleton Institute of Politics (the Great Lawn) on the Douglass Campus at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey on Rutgers Day. It is a ...

each year until 1991.

References

{{Reflist

General references

Folklore News
" ''The Journal of American Folklore'', vol. 59, no. 231, 1946, pp. 72–73.
Folklore News
" ''The Journal of American Folklore'', vol. 63, no. 250, 1950, pp. 470–471.

External links

* http://socialarchive.iath.virginia.edu/ark:/99166/w6rc2xdr * https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=pst.000065368985;view=1up;seq=5 * https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=inu.30000108624408;view=1up;seq=6 * https://books.google.com/books?id=a2ahXkwF2O8C&pg=PA338 * http://www.njfolkfest.org/about-us/ * http://discover.hsp.org/Record/marc-239487 * http://www.afsnet.org/?page=USPubFolklore * https://www.jstor.org/stable/1495589?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents New Jersey folklore American folklore Folklore studies