FOUNDING FOLKLORE

IT IS A TREASURE trove of Newfoundland and Labrador culture.

Few people realize the role Memorial University’s Newfoundland Folklore and Language Archive (MUNFLA) has had in preserving the province’s heritage. It is a place populated with friendly ghosts, containing more than 50,000 recordings and photographs of beloved family members from generations ago. It’s one of the only places Newfoundlanders and Labradorians can go to hear their ancestors’ voices.

A joint venture between the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences’ departments of English and Folklore, MUNFLA was established in 1968 by Dr. Herbert Halpert and Violetta Halpert, who passed away in 2000 and 2009, respectively. The vision was to co-ordinate diverse research in Newfoundland and Labrador studies, facilitate the use of common material organized for research and publication and to create a permanent record for future generations of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians. It has spawned such groundbreaking publications as Dr. Halpert’s and Dr. John Widdowson’s Folktales of Newfoundland.

Dr. Widdowson, who was appointed as a professor of English language and literature at Memorial in 1962, greeted the Halperts upon their arrival to Newfoundland from Kentucky that same year.

I didn’t know anything about folklore. One day Herbert suggested that I might want to sit in on one of his classes. When I eventually did, he asked around the class, could they give him an example of what folklore was, and I said, rather archly, that I didn’t have any folklore, I grew up in the city, not in the country.

To remedy the situation, Dr. Halpert suggested Iona and Peter Opie’s The Lore and Language of School Children (1959), and asked Dr. Widdowson to write down any examples of folktales he knew. It was then that he began to understand what folklore is.

“Eventually, I had about 500 examples of folktales I already knew, so it was like a Damascus moment when I added my interest in folklore to my interest in language,” Dr. Widdowson said. “He was my mentor, the supervisor of my doctoral thesis and the most generous sharer of information.”

Today, the archive contains a vast collection of Newfoundland and Labrador folksongs, folk narratives of many kinds, oral histories, folk customs, beliefs and practices, childlore and descriptions of material culture. Over the decades, thousands of Memorial students contributed to its population. Students not only work at the archive as assistants doing jobs such as cataloguing and digitizing, but their donations of course-related work is the bedrock upon which MUNFLA was built.

The student journey

Dr. Martin Lovelace, a former head of the Department of Folkore, first arrived at Memorial as a student in 1972. He completed his master’s and doctoral theses under Dr. Halpert’s supervision.

“I don’t think I’ve met anybody else in university life who were as committed to their discipline as Herbert and Letty,” said Dr. Lovelace. “She was an absolute scholar in her own right and knew everything that Herbert did, maybe more. When you went to their home, you could see her massive collection of works on domestic crafts and arts, quilts, textiles. Letty did foundational work in the archive in the early stages. By the time I arrived, the archive was established and beginning to fill with materials.”

He emphasizes the value of student contributions to the archive, as well. “So many students in those years, particularly those coming from rural areas of the province, were the first generation of their families to go to university. I think they must have found it extremely empowering and encouraging to realize that already they knew things that were valuable. They knew this culture. They might have feared they didn’t know as much about ‘high culture’ as they should — though whether the townies knew any more than they did was an open question,” he said with a laugh.

The Halpert Estate Bequest

The Halperts donated their personal folklore library, containing approximately 13,000 volumes and considered one of the finest private collections in the world, to the Queen Elizabeth II Library. MUNFLA retained the contents of Dr. Halpert’s office, now known as the Herbert Halpert Research Collection.

Additionally, the Halperts established a generous bequest from the estate of Violetta Halpert, which includes a Travel Research Award to fund costs related to national and international travel for the presentation of folklore research using the Herbert Halpert Research Collection and/or any other collection housed in MUNFLA. They also left a significant donation to MUNFLA.

“After decades of underfunding and understaffing, it feels like the archive has been gifted new life,” said Dr. Holly Everett, head of the Department of Folklore.

Archivist Pauline Cox says she was “rendered speechless” and shed tears upon hearing the news.

“You cannot look at any of our earliest collections or indexes and not see the impact Herbert and Letty had,” she said. “In later years, their son, Nick, also made contributions to the archive. Without the Halpert family, MUNFLA simply would not be. With this most generous bequest from the estate, they have ensured our future, and all that it exists to collect and preserve for generations to come. Our future is much brighter thanks to their generosity. We will do all that we can to ensure we carry on their legacy in a manner that would make them happy and proud.”

Readers who are interested in making a legacy gift of their own are encouraged to contact Catherine Barrett or Michelle Smith at the Office of Development at 709-864-2157 or legacy@mun.ca.