Peggy Bulger

Education

A native of Albany, New York, Bulger graduated from The Milne School in 1968. She received her BA in Fine Arts from SUNY at Albany in 1972; her MA in Folk Studies from Western Kentucky University in 1975; and her Ph.D. in Folklore and Folklife from the University of Pennsylvania in 1992. Her dissertation topic was on Florida folklorist, author, and activist Stetson Kennedy ("Stetson Kennedy: Applied Folklore and Cultural Advocacy"), which was published as a book of the same name in 2017. It was the first comprehensive biography of Kennedy.

Career

Peggy Bulger began her professional career in Florida by serving as Florida's State Folk Arts Coordinator in 1975 and became administrator of the Florida Folklife Program from 1976 to 1989. As Florida's first state folklorist, she was the prime creator of the Florida Folklife Collection, which later included the work of several prominent folklorists. The collection, today housed at the State Archives of Florida, features many Florida folk artists such as singer-songwriter Gamble Rogers, basket maker Lucreaty Clark, blues performer Moses Williams, and painter Pharaoh Baker.

After helping to establish the Florida Folklife Program, including apprenticeship programs and producing 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 named director of Library of Congress' American Folklife Center – the second person to hold that post, after the founding director Florida folklorist Alan Jabbour.

Bulger retired from her position as Director of the American Folklife Center (AFC) at the Library of Congress on December 31, 2011.

Did You Know?

• Bulger co-produced the double-album recording 'Drop On Down in Florida' in 1981, re-issued by Dust-to-Digital of Atlanta in 2012.
• She served as president of the American Folklore Society in 2001.
• Bulger received an honorary doctorate of humane letters from Goucher College in 2012.