Campbell, Olive D. (Olive Dame), 1882-1954

Between 1908 and 1909, Olive Dame Campbell assisted her husband, John, on a fact-finding mission regarding social and cultural conditions in Appalachia. While traveling through the region, Campbell noted that many of the local ballads had strong ties to English and Irish folk songs. As her interest grew, Campbell began collecting the words and music to these songs, later published as "English Folk Songs from the Southern Appalachians." She also founded and directed the John C. Campbell Folk School and related cooperatives at Brasstown, North Carolina in an effort to preserve the crafts, tools, and techniques of the Appalachian people and to improve their quality of life through education.

This collection is built around Olive Dame Campbell's efforts to collect and publish the folk songs of the Appalachian people. The collection contains ballads (lyrics only), sheet music, correspondence, manuscripts, newspaper clippings and booklets.

John C. Campbell (1867-1919) was born in La Porte, Ind., on 14 September 1867 to Gavin and Anna Barbara (Kipp) Campbell, and grew up in Steven's Point, Wisc. He graduated from Williams College in 1892 and received a Bachelor of Divinity degree from Andover Theological Seminary in 1895. That same year, he married Grace H. Buckingham of Stevens Point, Wisc., who died in 1905. He married Olive Arnold Dame of West Medford, Mass., in 1907.

Campbell was a missionary teacher in Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia. He was principal of a mountain school academy in Joppa, Ala., 1895-1898; taught in public school in Stevens Point, Wisc., 1898-1899; was principal of a mountain academy in Pleasant Hill, Tenn., 1900-1901; and was superintendent of secondary education (1901-1902), dean (1902-1903), and president (1903-1907) of Piedmont College in Demorest, Ga. Campbell received a research grant from the Russell Sage Foundation to study the mountain regions of the South in 1909 and soon became an expert on the economic and social conditions of the Appalachians. He was secretary of Southern Highland Division of the Russell Sage Foundation in Asheville, N.C.; author of the Foundation's survey of conditions in the Southern Appalachians; and organizer of the Conference of Southern Mountain Workers.

Olive Dame Campbell (1882-1954) assisted her husband; founded and directed the John C. Campbell Folk School and related cooperatives at Brasstown, N.C.; and participated in the formation of the Southern Highland Craft Guild. While working with her husband, she collected mountain ballads and, after his death in 1919, prepared the report of his survey for publication.

Through the Conference for Southern Education, the Campbells became interested in the Scandinavian folk school as an alternative to the church and independent settlement school. After her husband's death, Olive Campbell continued his work with the conference and visited Denmark and other Scandinavian countries to study folk schools, 1922-1923. Upon her return, she opened the John C. Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, N.C.