Smithsonian Contributions - Smithsonian Institution Libraries

well known to scholars, kindly provided bibliographical background
material for which we diank him.
From the outset, Roger Abrahams, Archie Green, and Henry
Glassie sought to interest the Smimsonian administration in including
folklore and folklife scholarship in its range of ethnographic perspectives.
Beyond those important considerations, they provided encouragement
and more than a few keen insights at key steps along the
way; we can never properly thank them for these.
Kate Rinzler conducted interviews in May 1978 with Arie Meaders
which any man would have bungled; her success in these provided
valuable information on the uses of stoneware pottery in the farm
dairy and kitchen. Beyond this, she and our colleagues, Thomas
Vennum, Archie Green and Jeffrey LaRiche, have read the manuscript
and commented freely widi marked generosity.
Finally, Sarah Lewis coordinated communications with all of those
involved, kept track of photographs, recordings and stray bits of data
over an eight-year period, and saw to it that nothing disappeared
permanently. To all of these good friends and colleagues we feel a
sense of gratitude, but beyond all, we thank the Meaders Family
whose patience, kindness, and good humor know no bounds.
Ralph Rinzler
Smithsonian Institution
August 1980
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