Center for Louisiana Studies — UL Lafayette

The Archive of Cajun and Creole Folklore holds over 12,000 hours of field recordings — the world's largest collection of Cajun and Creole folklore, dating to the 1930s. Barry Ancelet, the folklorist who helped create Festivals Acadiens et Créoles, spent his career building this archive at UL Lafayette. It includes the Festivals Acadiens et Créoles records, the Rendez-vous des Cajuns broadcast archive, and documentary photography. The archive preserves the culture that formed when Acadian refugees settled in this region. After the British expelled French-speaking Acadians from Canada at the end of the Seven Years' War, many settled among the Attakapa people in what is now south Louisiana. They intermarried with other settlers, forming what became known as Cajun culture. In 1971, the Louisiana State Legislature officially recognized 22 parishes and "other parishes of similar cultural environment" for their strong French Acadian cultural aspects. The Center for Louisiana Studies was founded in 1973 around the university's Louisiana Colonial Records Collection — microfilmed primary sources on the discovery, exploration, settlement, and development of the Mississippi Valley between 1682 and 1803. Over one million pages from French archives, 1.5 million from Spanish archives, 20,000 from British depositories, and 165,000 from Louisiana sources. Together with the Library of Congress and the University of Memphis, the Center is one of only three repositories for the colonial documents of France in the United States. The Center operates UL Lafayette Press, which publishes over 100 titles — the largest publisher of exclusively Louisiana-related books in the world. Glenn Conrad, the director from 1973 to 2003, edited the U.S.L. History Series from 1970 until the fifteenth and final title in 1985. Contact the Center for access and research hours.