Peggy Bulger
Peggy A. Bulger served as Florida's State Folklorist and administrator of the Florida Folklife Program from 1976 to 1989. Not only was she Florida's first state folklorist, she was one of the only employees during the program's first years. Laying the foundation for today's diverse program, Bulger created the bulk of the fieldwork within Folklife Collection's first years.
A native of New York State, she received her MA in Folk Studies from Western Kentucky University in 1975; and her PhD in Folklife and Folklore from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. After establishing Florida's folklife program, including apprenticeship programs, educational videos and publications, workshops, exhibits, and creating the Florida Folklife Collection, Bulger left in 1989 to work as the Folk Arts Director and Senior Program Officer for the Southern Arts Federation in Atlanta. In 1999, she was chosen as the director of Library of Congress' American Folklife Center — only the second person to hold that post since the center's creation in 1976.
In addition to her public administration work, Bulger is the author of South Florida Folklife, with Tina Bucuvalas and Stetson Kennedy, (1994) and the editor of Musical Roots of the South (1992), as well as producing several recordings including Deep South Musical Roots Tour (1992) and Drop On Down in Florida (1981), and has contributed numerous articles and presentations.
