Hindman Settlement School is a

settlement school Settlement schools are social reform institutions established in rural Appalachia in the early 20th century with the purpose of educating mountain children and improving their isolated rural communities. Settlement schools have played an importan ...

located in

Hindman, Kentucky Hindman ()Rennick, Robert. ''Kentucky Place Names''p. 141. University Press of Kentucky (Lexington), 1987. Accessed 30 July 2013. is a home rule-class town in, and the county seat of, Knott County, Kentucky, in the United States. The population w ...

in Knott County. Established in 1902, it was the first rural settlement school in America.Hindman Settlement School
Retrieved on 2010-05-29

Mission

The mission of Hindman Settlement School is "to provide educational and service opportunities for the people of the mountains, while keeping them mindful of their heritage."

Notable staff

James Still

James Still James Still (July 16, 1906 – April 28, 2001) was an American poet, novelist and folklorist. He lived most of his life in a log house along the Dead Mare Branch of Little Carr Creek, Knott County, Kentucky. He was best known for the novel '' ...

was a notable poet,

folklorist Folklore studies, less often known as folkloristics, and occasionally tradition studies or folk life studies in the United Kingdom, is the branch of anthropology devoted to the study of folklore. This term, along with its synonyms, gained currenc ...

, and novelist during his life, spanning 95 years from 1906 to 2001. James Still's friend, Don West offered him a job organizing recreational programs for a settlement school in Knott County, Kentucky. James Still gladly accepted the invitation to teach in Knott County. James Still soon became a librarian at the Hindman Settlement School Library and spent the rest of his days in Knott County. James Still is buried on the Hindman Settlement School Campus.

Fred Williams

Fred Williams was principal at Hindman Settlement School in the mid-1940s. A close friend of

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, Anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure ...

, Williams was a

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

missionary who pioneered indoor and running water sanitation in rural India (

Asansol Asansol is a (Tier-II) metropolitan city in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is the second largest and most populated city of West Bengal and the 33rd largest urban agglomeration in India. Asansol is the district headquarters of Paschim Bar ...

) and fought to eradicate caste-based discrimination.Gandhi's American Ally, 2008. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/norm-williams/gandhis-american-ally/

Marie Stewart Museum & Craft Shop

The Marie Stewart Museum & Craft Shop supports the activities of the school. The store sells traditional

Appalachia Appalachia () is a cultural region in the Eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York State to northern Alabama and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Newfoundland and Labrador, Ca ...

n crafts and has an online site. Upstairs is a small museum with exhibits about the Hindman Settlement School and regional crafts.

The school and the study of folksong

The School's goal of integrating traditional culture with education led it to welcome visiting outsiders who sought to document the musical heritage of the Appalachians, notably in

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be c ...

. The fieldwork teams of

Loraine Wyman (Julie) Loraine Wyman (October 23, 1885 – September 11, 1937) was an American soprano, noted for her concert performances of folk songs, some of which she collected herself from traditional singers in field work. Paul J. Stamler has called Wyma ...

with

Howard Brockway Howard A. Brockway (November 22, 1870 – February 20, 1951) was an American composer. Brockway was born on November 22, 1870 in Brooklyn, New York. He spent five years in Berlin, studying composition under Otis Bardwell Boise and piano und ...

, and

Cecil Sharp Cecil James Sharp (22 November 1859 – 23 June 1924) was an English-born collector of folk songs, folk dances and instrumental music, as well as a lecturer, teacher, composer and musician. He was the pre-eminent activist in the development of t ...

with

Maud Karpeles Maud Karpeles (12 November 1885 – 1 October 1976) was a British collector of folksongs and dance teacher. Early life and education Maud Pauline Karpeles was born at Lancaster Gate in Bayswater, London, in 1885. She was the third of five child ...

, working in the years of the First World War, found a wealth of beautiful melody and texts from singers at the School or from the local neighborhood.

References

External links

* {{Authority control Settlement schools Arts centers in Kentucky Appalachian culture in Kentucky Educational institutions established in 1902 Museums in Knott County, Kentucky History museums in Kentucky Education museums in the United States 1902 establishments in Kentucky Hindman, Kentucky Schools in Knott County, Kentucky