North Carolina enjoys a rich heritage of folk cultural traditions and a distinguished history of scholarly and popular appreciation of folklore, folklife, and folk arts. The North Carolina Folklore Journal, supported in part by East Carolina University and the North Carolina Arts Council, a state agency, is published twice a year and is a benefit of membership in the North Carolina Folklore Society The Journal is a primary resource for presenting and interpreting the variety of folk arts and cultural forms among the state's diverse ethnic groups and regions.

Frank C. Brown organized the North Carolina Folklore Society in 1913. Both Dr. Brown and the Society collected stores from individuals—Brown through his classes at Duke University and through his summer expeditions in the North Carolina mountains, and the Society by interviewing its members—and also levied on the previous collections made by friends and members of the Society. The result was a large mass of texts and notes assembled over a period of nearly forty years and covering every aspect of local tradition. members of the Society. The result was a large mass of texts and notes assembled over a period of nearly forty years and covering every aspect of local tradition.