In 1928, the Library of Congress founded its Archive of American Folk Song, the first archive in the United States to record the cultural expressions of average people. The idea was to record American oral culture—as rich a culture as any in the world due to its primarily immigrant nature— before it disappeared with the rise of the radio and phonograph. The archive’s first paid employee was Alan Lomax, son of another enthusiastic folk song archivist, John A. Lomax. Starting in 1933, Alan Lomax was dispatched to all sections of the country to track down folk music traditions and songs and record them for the archive.