Produced in partnership with the Library of Congress, the exhibit features the research of a young folk music collector named Alan Lomax, one of the legendary folklorists of the 20th century.

The exhibit reflects the tremendous diversity and cultural heritage of Michigan through music, Acting Director Lora Helou said. 

“Students can dig in and learn about the heritage brought to us through immigrants, and through the immigrant community. It gives us an appreciation of our traditions and culture," Helou said.

Lomax’s research, recorded for the Archive of American Folk-Song at the Library of Congress, is displayed through ten banners detailing the histories of different Michigan folksong legacies. The exhibit also features a video component and an interactive section.

In the interactive component, students and visitors can anonymously post responses to the questions “What [kind of music] and where in Michigan would [Alan Lomax] collect today?” and “If you were a folklorist or ethnomusicologist where would you find your collections.” Many of the responses included the diverse music scene of Detroit, including underground punk and rock, blues and gospel.

The interactive exhibit is due to the larger space the MSU Museum was able to offer the exhibit, Helou said.

“We’ve given the gallery a larger space, which allows us to add interactive components, and things from other collections.” Helou said. Within the gallery there is a selection of instruments the MSU Museum already had in their collections, which they brought out to add to the richness of the exhibit.

In addition to the classic northern Michigan folk tunes, Lomax also recorded dynamic mix of 1930’s music from Detroit to the western Upper Peninsula.

The exhibit was curated by Kurt Dewhurst, a professor in the Department of English and is part of MSU Museum’s “Our Daily Work/Our Daily Lives” brown bag series.