Category Archives: James T. Callow Folklore Archive

James T. Callow Folklore Collection

The James T. Callow Folklore Collection helps us celebrate the month of October and the colors of autumn with a song called “October Gave a Party” (shown below) from one submission he received. The person who submitted this noted that the song originated with her aunt who learned this from her mother when she (the aunt) was six years old. Songs like this may have been lost forever if Professor Callow hadn’t devoted time and effort into collecting them. This archive is filled with the magic of folklore, riddles, poems, and songs that visitors may recognize or, like this little song, be introduced to for the first time....

Headache Cure

The James T. Callow Folklore Archive is an interesting place to spend some time before the summer ends.  A visitor can usually discover something interesting, funny, or amazing there.  Each entry is brief but loaded with a bit of America that few other collections offer. Take this post, for example.  I was searching for something to write about and typed a few lines into Google to see what I could find.  To my delight, this brief story from the collection popped...

Riddles, Sayings, Superstitions

Professor James T. Callow along with Professor Frank M. Paulsen have done something amazing: they’ve put together a huge collection of folklore gathered from their students between 1964 and 1993, and now Professor Callow has shared this collection with UDM and the world. In 1964, Professor Callow, along with Professor Paulsen, founded the University of Detroit Folklore Archive. This amazing archive was donated to the University of Detroit Mercy Libraries /Instructional Design Studio in digital form in 2009, and we are proud to include it in our Digital Special Collections....

Dyngus Day on April Fool’s Day! No Joke!

On Monday, April 1, something very strange occurred: Dyngus Day (a traditional Polish-American holiday celebrated on the first Monday after Easter) and April Fool’s Day (traditionally celebrated each year on April 1) fell on the same day. According to Professor James T. Callow, who’s Folklore Collection is among the more interesting offerings in our digital archives, this is a rare event. It’s quite unusual for these two celebrations of mischief to fall on the same day....