\nInterim Director 1931<\/strong><\/p>\n
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Evelyn K.Wells and dulcimer melv_II_album_313_restored r<\/p><\/div>\n
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TAGS: <\/strong>Evelyn K. Wells,\u00a0<\/strong>secretaries, education, Appalachian music, folklore, folk music, ballads, balladry, mountain music, folk tales, sociology, anthropology, folk danc; English Folk Dance and Song Society, Country Dance Society, Playford tunes, broadsides, Marguerite Butler, Katherine Pettit, Luigi Zande, Glyn Morris, Wellesley College,<\/p>\n Evelyn K. Wells. [pmss_photo_MOD_wells_evelyn_portrait_enlarged-jpg]<\/p><\/div>In 1916 she traveled to Pine Mountain Settlement School, where she was employed as the secretary for the School for the next 15 years. In 1931 she served as acting head of the School until a permanent director could be appointed. That director was Glyn A. Morris<\/a>\u00a0whose changes in the Pine Mountain program often caused friction between the two.<\/p>\n Following her departure from Pine Mountain Wells still remained connected and served for a time on the Board of Trustees for the School. It was during this period, in the late 1930s that the two strong personalities of Wells and Morris clashed. Many of the confrontations centered on administrative issues, for the two remained constant in their affection for mountain life and for the European traditions that the School so strongly supported.<\/p>\n Miss Wells returned to Wellesley College in 1932 and graduated in 1934 with a Master of Arts degree. She remained at Wellesley for the remainder of her career, becoming prominent in the study and teaching of English Literature and Anglo-American folk dance and song. She retired in 1956 as a Professor of English after twenty years at Wellesley College, subsequently becoming an Honorary Member of the Alumnae Association.<\/p>\n Her extended stay at Pine Mountain contributed in part to her keen interest in folk music, as she described in the acknowledgments for her book, The Ballad Tree: A Study of British and American Ballads, Their Folklore, Verse and Music, Together with Sixty Traditional Ballads and Their Tunes:<\/em><\/p>\n IN the preparation of this book I am obligated to many individuals and experiences. My long-standing associations with the Pine Mountain Settlement School in Kentucky, the English Folk Dance and Song Society, and its American branch, the Country Dance Society, have focused my attention on the collecting and teaching of traditional song, while a course given for a number of years at Wellesley College has served as proving ground for its presentation in more or less the form of this book. \u2026<\/em><\/p>\n Evelyn K. Wells, reading. [Katherine Pettit Album I.]<\/p><\/div>\n In the ninth year of the Pine Mountain Settlement School’s existence, The\u00a0Atlantic Monthly\u00a0<\/em>magazine\u00a0reprinted an article, “A\u00a0Glimpse of the Kentucky Mountains<\/a>,” describing the Appalachian community surrounding the School. Miss Wells wrote an eloquent letter, dated January 7, 1921, to the magazine’s editor, protesting the article’s negative characterizations of “country folk.”\u00a0Her words demonstrated a deep respect for the mountain people whom she came to know while working at Pine Mountain Settlement School.<\/p>\n EVELYN K. WELLS: GALLERY<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\t
\nBIOGRAPHY<\/h3>\n
\nEvelyn \u00a0K. Wells<\/strong>\u00a0[ the K. is for Kendrick] earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Wellesley (Massachusetts) College in 1913. Her first appointment upon graduating was at the Hartridge School, a private, nonsectarian school in Plainfield, New Jersey, which lasted until 1915.<\/p>\n![\"Evelyn](\"http:\/\/staging.pinemountainsettlement.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/pmss_photo_MOD_wells_evelyn_portrait_enlarged-2-879x1024.jpg\")
\n EVELYN K. WELLS, <\/em>Wellesley, Mass., <\/em>January 1950<\/em><\/h5>\n
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