Narrative Reports and Publications, 1899 - 1979

This series consists of narrative reports, pamphlets, brochures, and flyers: publications generated by the Hindman Settlement School staff and student body. The emphasis and detail of each publication vary from that of the simple promotional flyer, to the “Dear Friends” newsletter, a more sophisticated reporting and promotional method. Also included are copies of the Mountain Echo (1924-1930), a pamphlet that provided a forum for school announcements, reports, and creative writing efforts. Copies of student newspapers produced in the thirties and forties are also a part of this series.

The narrative reports and daily records of the social settlements (summers, 1900-1901), documents generated by Katherine Pettit and May Stone, chronicle the settlement work activities and the observations and impressions of life in the mountains during the years prior to the school’s incorporation date in 1902. The language, reporting method, and tone of these documents reveal their function as formal daily records, not intimate personal diaries, and point to their possible use as a report, or the basis for a report to the sponsoring organization, the Kentucky Federation of Women’s Clubs.

The “Diary of Experiences in the Kentucky Mountains, Summers of 1899-1901” can be described as being an anthology of important historical records which includes duplicates of the original daily records of the social settlements (1900-1901). This record also gives information on Camp Cedar Grove (the summer social settlement of 1899), the founding of Knott County (typescript copied from the Louisville Commercial July 8, 1885), the “Traveling Library in the Mountains of Kentucky” (a ten-page description of activities and expenses, 1899), and other historical writings. The “Notebook of Historical and Promotional Writings,” c. 1949, is an even more general and varied anthology and includes reports on the Hindman Settlement School program, genealogical data and other historical documentation. To some extent, it also duplicates other source material. Despite duplication in the record, each unit was microfilmed in its entirety in order to avoid possible confusion and to present the complete scope and subjects of the individual source document.