Don Yoder

Don Yoder (August 27, 1921– August 11, 2015) was an American folklorist specializing in the study of Pennsylvania Dutch, Quaker, Amish, and other Anabaptist folklife in Pennsylvania. he specialized in religious folklife and the study of belief. He is known for his teaching, collecting, field trips, recording, lectures, and books. He also co-founded a folk festival in Pennsylvania, which is the USA's oldest continual annual folklife festival, and is credited with "bringing the idea of "folklife" to the United States".

Early life and education Yoder was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania. He was the ninth generation of a Pennsylvania German lineage. ), they used the term "folklife" – distinguished from "folklore" – to describe this all-encompassing view.

In 1956, Yoder joined the University of Pennsylvania. Yoder was key to the creation of the university's Department of Folklore and Folklife, He co-founded the Pennsylvania Folklife Society in 1949. He served as editor of the journal, Pennsylvania Folklife, for many years. In 1951 he was scheduled to lead a 46-day tour of Europe offered through Franklin and Marshall College. He also regularly conducted research in Europe, especially Germany and Switzerland, the ancestral homelands of many Pennsylvania cultures.

Affiliations Yoder served as president of the American Folklore Society in 1981. An annual lecture at the Society is named in his honor as well as a graduate award.

Yoder was influential in the creation of the American Folklife Center. In 1970, Yoder was one of the witness before Congress as part of the hearings examining the concept of an American Folklife Foundation, where he testified in favor of such a foundation. When the American Folklife Center was founded six years later, Yoder was named as one of its original trustees. His art and ephemera collection is now housed in the library at Cabrini University. He and his cousin William Woys Weaver donated much of their Roughwood Collection of Pennsylvania German materials to Kutztown University . Further materials are held by the Library Company of Philadelphia and the Library of Congress .

Selected publications Yoder, Don (1961). Pennsylvania Spirituals. Lancaster: Pennsylvania Folklife Society. . Yoder, Don (1968). 'Foreword' to Johnson, Guy Benton (1968) Folk Culture on St. Helena Island, South Carolina, Hatboro, Pa.: Folklore Associates. Yoder, Don (1972). "Folk Cookery," "Folk Costume," and "Folk Medicine" in Folklore and Folklife: An Introduction (ed. Richard Dorson). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. . Yoder, Don (1976). American Folklife. London : University of Texas Press. . Yoder, Don (1980). Pennsylvania German Immigrants, 1709–1786: Lists Consolidated from Yearbooks of the Pennsylvania German Folklore Society, Genealogical Publishing Company. . . Yoder, Don (1990). The Picture-Bible of Ludwig Denig; a Pennsylvania German Emblem Book. New York, N.Y.: Hudson Hills Press in association with the Museum of American Folk Art and the Pennsylvania German Society: Distributed in the United States ... by Rizzoli International Publications. . . Yoder, Don (1990). Discovering American folklife: studies in ethnic, religious, and regional culture. Ann Arbor.: UMI Research Press. . Yoder, Don and Graves, Thomas E. (2000) Hex Signs: Pennsylvania Dutch Barn Symbols & Their Meanings. New York: E.P. Dutton. . . Yoder, Don (2003). Groundhog Day. Mechanicsburg, Pa.: Stackpole. . Yoder, Don (2005). The Pennsylvania German broadside: a history and guide''. University Park, PA: Penn State University Press for the Library Co. of Philadelphia and the Pennsylvania German Society. .