Kutztown University, Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center, Undergraduate Research The Folk Festival Photos Project
Digitizing a Photographic Record of the Longest Running Folklife Festival in America
In summer 2025, I received a KU BEARS research grant to help Kutztown University’s Pennsylvania German Cultural Heritage Center organize, catalogue, and upload over 600 images showing the Kutztown Folk Festival.
My work on this project included digitally scanning original projector slides, investigating the content of each slide, and writing descriptions for accessibility and metadata.
Learn more and view the collection on Kutztown University Research Commons.
Man and two women peeling potatoes inside tent.
Woman, wearing long dress and apron, frying funnel cake in metal pot.
Row of tents and and crowd on wide grass walkway on Festival grounds.
Man and women, both holding woven baskets, speaking on covered outdoor stage. Other presenters and crafts visible onstage behind speakers.
Man, wearing gray suit, and woman, wearing orange hat and holding microphone, standing on bedroom set with antique furniture.
Man and woman stirring two large kettles of cooking apple butter.
Dr. Bill Frey playing guitar with band outdoors.
Arlene Francis interviewing Dr. Shoemaker on wooden outdoor stage.
Two babies, in bonnets and white dresses, sitting in antique strollers in front of food stands.
Man driving horse-drawn wagon full of children among crowd of tents and people on Festival grounds.
Group of children sitting on large wooden horse-turned mill.
Woman in long dress and bonnet hanging hand-dipped candles on wheel-shaped wooden frame.
Two people sitting on a wooden fence overlooking large, sparsely-filled parking area.
Large crowd watching performance on small outdoor stage at sunset.
Large group of children and adults playing in straw and climbing on wooden wagon frame.
Group of vendors and attendees at booth selling canned food in glass jars.
Pairs of women in matching dresses and bonnets and men in straw hats, dancing on covered outdoor stage.
Crowd walking along line of tents on Festival grounds.
Replica church building and graveyard on Festival grounds, surrounded by crowd of Festival attendees.
Group of young men in straw hats shucking corn beside food tent on Festival grounds.
Three women hand-sewing large quilt for audience.
Two women, in aprons and bonnets, standing with man among display of paper star and printed paper cards and decoration.