{"id":16866,"date":"2014-11-16T18:13:13","date_gmt":"2014-11-16T23:13:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/getitright.pmss.net\/?page_id=16866"},"modified":"2017-10-01T18:01:16","modified_gmt":"2017-10-01T22:01:16","slug":"katherine-true","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/staging.pinemountainsettlement.net\/?page_id=16866","title":{"rendered":"KATHERINE TRUE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pine Mountain Settlement School<\/strong>
\n<\/strong>Series 22: Friends and Visitors to PMSS
\nSeries\u00a009:\u00a0\u00a0Biography
\nVisitor<\/strong><\/p>\n

KATHERINE TRUE<\/h2>\n

Katherine [“Kay”] True<\/strong>
\nDean of Girls. Berea Academy [Berea College]<\/strong>
\nSeries: PHOTOGRAPHY<\/strong><\/p>\n

*About Katharine True as described by Marian Kingman<\/a> to Mary Rogers<\/a> in a letter accompanying the donation of the album.<\/p>\n

Dear Mary,…<\/em><\/p>\n

I must explain this album. Katherine True was Dean of Girls in the old Academy of Berea College (in which I taught my first 4 years here.) She retired to Pleasant Hill, Tenn<\/b>. some years ago, and died this last year. Margaret Dizney who also is retired and living in Pleasant Hill, evidently had some responsibility in sorting Kay’s belongings, and so sent me this album. I think it belongs at Pine Mt., and if there is anything of value in it for the mountain room, you will know. These pictures may be duplicated in those already there — but, do whatever you\u00a0 wish with it.<\/em><\/p>\n

I was so disappointed that I didn’t get to the Nativity Play — weather was just too uncertain, I’ll try again next year!<\/em><\/p>\n

My greetings and love to you and Burton.<\/em><\/p>\n

Marian [Kingman]<\/em><\/p>\n

P.S. Don’t bother to answer or have anyone answer for you!”<\/em><\/p>\n

Katherine was the sister\u00a0of the noted botanist\u00a0Rodney Howard True (1866-1940). \u00a0She \u00a0was born and raised in southern Wisconsin\u00a0and was the daughter of the\u00a0New Englanders, John M. and Mary Annie (Beede) True. The John M. True family were skilled farmers, but also placed considerable emphasis on the education of their children. \u00a0All the siblings, Rodney, his brother Gordon, Katherine and her sister Eunice all graduated from the University of Wisconsin. \u00a0All chose careers that kept them in academe. Both Katherine and Eunice taught at Berea College. Rodney True taught at the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Botany but also worked as a physiologist and historian for the\u00a0Bureau of Plant Industry in the United States Department of Agriculture. \u00a0His particular historical interests centered on the history of agriculture and the agricultural practices of Thomas\u00a0Jefferson and Andr\u00e9 Michaux and the botany of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. \u00a0His work with the Philadelphia Society for Promoting Agriculture, the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society, and the Agricultural History Society was not far from the interests of his siblings though Katherine’s interests centered on human resources. The strong interest in landscape and farm life seen in the True album pull from the same well \u00a0of influence.<\/p>\n

The note that accompanied the donation of the Katherine True Photograph Album<\/a>\u00a0underscores the close connection of Berea women with Pine Mountain Settlement School in the early years of the institution. \u00a0The journey that Katherine True made with Enid Rutledge to the School and to the surrounding region in 1923, captures a landscape and an emerging economy that were beginning to shape the lives of the people in the remote areas of eastern Kentucky. \u00a0The images in Katherine True’s Album are well composed and capture the area through the eye of a “passer-through”, rather than the eye of one who lived within the communities of interest.<\/p>\n\n\t\t