Katherine Jackson French Ballad Collection

Katherine Jackson French was influenced to collect mountain ballads through friends who had attended a lecture—in 1905—at which two instructors from Berea College, Kentucky, spoke about the uncollected ballads in the mountains of Kentucky.  She was writing her dissertation at Columbia University at the time and she delayed investigating the matter of collecting mountain ballads until 1909 when she returned to London, Kentucky, to attend her mother who was ill. On at least two occasions in the period 1909-1910, she visited Kentucky where she collected songs and ballads from the mountain people, the students at Berea College, and the townspeople of Berea.  The appendix to this guide contains an alphabetical listing of the names of the singers from whom French obtained the ballads. In the fall of 1910, French corresponded with Berea College’s president, William Frost, requesting his assistance in publishing the ballad collection—offering to donate any royalties to the college—and forwarded a copy of the ballad manuscript to him.  The manuscript was never published and she retrieved it from President Frost in 1915, to use for a lecture she presented at Corbin, Kentucky’s Cumberland Valley Teachers’ Association meeting in the same year.  She retained possession of the ballads until Elisabeth Peck, college historian, approached French by letter and obtained the collection as a centennial gift for the college. Married in 1911 to William F. French, she mothered one child, a daughter.  Katherine French lectured on English literature from 1919 to 1937 at the Women’s Department Club in Shreveport, Louisiana, and became professor of English at Centenary College in 1924.  She wrote a book on Pennsylvania history, authored several articles related to her field of study, and retired in 1948.