America Works

By: Library of Congress
  • Summary

  • Features the voices of contemporary workers from throughout the United States talking about their lives, their workplaces, and their on-the-job experiences. Drawn from hundreds of longer oral history interviews collected by fieldworkers for the American Folklife Center's Occupational Folklife Project (OFP), America Works is a testament to the wisdom, wit, knowledge, and dedication of today's working Americans. These engaging oral histories, which have are preserved in the American Folklife Center's archive, are enriching and expanding America's historical record.
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Episodes
  • Dale Baumgartner, Head Cheese Maker, Tillamook Cheese. Tillamook, Oregon.
    Oct 17 2024

    Dale Baumgartener, long-time Head Cheese Maker at the Tillamook County Creamery Association, a farmer-owned cheese and dairy cooperative, talks with folklorist Jared Schmidt for his Occupational Folklife Project “Tillamook: Cheesemakers in Coastal Oregon.” He talks about growing up on a dairy farm, his start in the cheese industry, and his pride in working for a nationally respected brand like Tillamook Cheese.

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    5 mins
  • Phuong Mai Nguyen and Amp Phettaphong, Family Restaurant Owners. Columbus, Ohio.
    Oct 10 2024

    Phuong Mai Nguyen and her husband Amp Phettaphong, owners of the popular Indochine Café in Columbus, Ohio, came to the US as refugees and, after working a variety of other jobs, stared their own restaurant. The couple talk with folklorist Jess Lamar Reece Holler at their restaurant between lunch and dinner shifts by as part of Hollar’s Occupational Folklife Project “Back of House: Kitchen Workers in Central Ohio.”

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    7 mins
  • George Neiden, German sausage maker. Maple Heights. Ohio.
    Oct 3 2024

    German sausage maker George Neiden, who owns and runs the Old Country Sausage Kitchen in Maple Heights, Ohio, talks with folklorist Lucy Long about learning and plying his trade – (and the delight he takes in creating new sausage flavors!) — for her Occupational Folklife Project “Ethnic Grocers in the Urban Midwest.”

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    6 mins

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