Lake Erie Fishermen: Work, Identity, and Tradition by Timothy C. Lloyd and Patrick B. Mullen is a powerful work of scholarship that examines the traditions of Lake Erie fishermen. Archival materials from their fieldwork are hosted at the CFS Archives. The co-authored monograph was published by the University of Illinois Press in 1990, whose summary of the book is as follows:
Timothy C. Lloyd and Patrick B. Mullen began their fieldwork in March 1983 and ended it in September 1985. They spent a total of twelve weeks on or along the Lake, observing, interviewing and documenting the work of commercial fishermen on fishing boats, at shore seining sites, at local fish wholesale houses and at leisure in restaurants, VFW halls, bars, and at kitchen tables. They interviewed active and retired fishermen, members of their families, wholesale distributors, State of Ohio biologists and wildlife enforcement agents. They were lucky enough be able to document the techniques and customs of gill-net fishing before it was prohibited by state regulation a year ago. They found active verbal, material and customary traditions shared among local fishermen, through which the culture and identity of this group are expressed.
The book is available to read on the ACLS Humanities E-book website, where you can also access multimedia collection materials from the original fieldwork from our Folklore Archives.