An older man in a red vest holds a hat in one hand and gestures with the other while speaking into a microphone outdoors. Trees and people are visible in the background.

Elemore Morgan Jr., Untitled (Nathan Abshire), 1976. Archival pigment print. On loan courtesy of the artist.

Elemore Morgan Jr. — Photographs from the Festival of American Folklife, 1976

Presented by Festivals Acadiens et Créoles in collaboration with the Smithsonian Folklife Festival and Center for Louisiana Studies

Printed for the first time from the original slides, and paired with ephemera from the artist’s papers, twenty-two photographs are presented fifty years on, during America’s 250th Anniversary.

October 9, 2026 – February 20, 2027

In the summer of 1976, Cajun and Creole musicians from south Louisiana took the National Mall as part of the Smithsonian’s Festival of American Folklife, the centerpiece of the nation’s Bicentennial. Louisiana artist Elemore Morgan Jr. (1931-2008) was there with his camera, drawn as much to the country and its people as to the music. He photographed the Cajun and Creole musicians who traveled from home: ballad singers Inez Catalon, Lula Landry and Alma Barthélémy, the Balfa Brothers with Ally Young, the Ardoin Family with Canray Fontenot, Nathan Abshire, Vinesse Lejeune, Lionel Leleux, Don Montoucet, and Elton Quibodeaux. He also turned his lens on the crowds who gathered to hear them and the artisans beyond the stages, gathering images for an ambitious body of painting he never fully realized. His photographs are at once witness and interpretation, document and authored image: a nation reflecting on itself.

Elemore Morgan, Jr.: Photographs from the Festival of American Folklife, 1976 presents 23 photographs, printed for the first time from Morgan’s original slides, alongside ephemera from the artist’s archives, shown fifty years on, during America’s 250th. Together they return to the questions that originally drew Morgan to the Mall: what makes a people, and what holds their differences together?

A musician wearing a hat and tank top plays an electric guitar and sings into a microphone on a wooden stage, with a chair and wooden wall in the background.

Large crowd gathers by the Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C., with the Washington Monument in the background on a clear day. Many people are sitting, standing, or wading in the water.

A person wearing a red bonnet, red dress with white polka dots, and a white apron passionately sings or speaks into a microphone on stage, evoking the vibrant spirit often captured in the works of Elemore Morgan Jr.

Five people play music outdoors; one plays accordion, another fiddle, while others smile and watch. The group includes men and a woman, all casually dressed. Trees and greenery are visible in the background.

People in colorful outfits dance around a maypole, weaving ribbons, while a crowd watches outdoors. Trees and a white tent are visible in the background on a sunny day.