Emelyn Gardner

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Emelyn Gardner
A young white woman with dark hair, wearing a high-collared white blouse under a voluminous dark jacket with a ribbon detail down the front placket
Emelyn Elizabeth Gardner, from the 1908 yearbook of Western Michigan Normal College
Born
Emelyn Elizabeth Gardner

(1872-07-01)July 1, 1872
Laurens, Otsego County, New York
DiedOctober 15, 1967(1967-10-15) (aged 95)
Los Angeles, California
Occupation(s)Folklorist, college professor, educator

Emelyn Elizabeth Gardner (July 1, 1872 – October 15, 1967) was an American folklorist, educator, and English professor. Gardner was co-founder with Thelma G. James of the Wayne State University Folklore Archive, one of the oldest and largest collections of urban folklore in the United States. Gardner's 1937 book Folklore from the Schoharie Hills is considered to have been groundbreaking.[1]

Early life and education[edit]

Gardner was born in Laurens, Otsego County, New York, the daughter of Emilius Gardner and Ann Eliza Cook Gardner. Her parents were Quakers.[2] She trained as a teacher at the State Normal School at Oneonta. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago in 1902.[3] She pursued graduate studies at the University of Michigan.[2] Her 1915 dissertation about the folklore of Schoharie County, New York, formed the basis of her 1937 book on the same topic,[4] considered "an exemplary field collection"[5] and "one of the best regional studies of its era."[6]

Career[edit]

Gardner was a school teacher as a young woman, and superintendent of city schools for Geneva, Illinois. She taught at the Michigan State Normal College,[3] and was an English professor at Wayne State University from 1918 to 1942.[2][7] While there, she trained a young women’s storytelling group, who worked with Italian children at the Chase Street settlement house.[8] She also began acquiring Hungarian folk materials, the beginning of an extensive folklore collection at Wayne.[8]

In 1939, with Thelma G. James, she co-founded the Wayne State University Folklore Archive, one of the oldest and largest collections of urban folklore in the United States.[9][10] "Emelyn Gardner was pioneering and proving what a large part of our folklore is international and universal and how little of it is unique," wrote Louis C. Jones.[4]

Gardner served as president of the Michigan Folklore Society 1942-43.[11]

Publications[edit]

  • "Folk-Lore from Schoharie County, New York" (1914)[12]
  • "Ballads" (1914)[13]
  • "Some Counting-out Rhymes in Michigan" (1918)[14]
  • "Some Play-Party Games in Michigan" (1920)[15]
  • A Handbook of Children's Literature, Methods and Materials (1927, with Eloise Ramsey)[16]
  • Folklore from the Schoharie Hills, New York (1937)[17]
  • Ballads and Songs of Southern Michigan (1939. with Geraldine Jencks Chickering)[18]
  • "Hex Marks the Spot" (1939)[19]
  • "Armenian Folktales from Detroit" (1944, with Susie Hoogasian)[20]
  • "Two Ghost Stories" (1945)[21]
  • "I Saw It" (1948)[22]

Personal life[edit]

Gardner retired in 1942,[23] and moved to Pomona, California, where she lived with her sister Lucy Gardner.[24] She died in Los Angeles, California in 1967, at the age of 95.[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Bronner, Simon J. (1988). American children's folklore. Internet Archive. Little Rock : August House. ISBN 978-0-87483-068-2.
  2. ^ a b c d McHale, Ellen (2005-05-19). "Emelyn Elizabeth Gardner". In Eisenstadt, Peter (ed.). The Encyclopedia of New York State. Syracuse University Press. p. 620. ISBN 978-0-8156-0808-0.
  3. ^ a b Michigan State Normal College, The Aurora (1908 yearbook).
  4. ^ a b Jones, Louis C. (1985-05-01). "Early Days of the Folklore Renaissance". In Bergmann, Frank (ed.). Upstate Literature: Essays in Memory of Thomas F. O'Donnell. Syracuse University Press. pp. 203–205, quote on 205. ISBN 978-0-8156-2331-1.
  5. ^ Dorson, Richard M. (1986-02-22). Handbook of American Folklore. Indiana University Press. p. 482. ISBN 978-0-253-20373-1.
  6. ^ Dorson, Richard Mercer (2008). Bloodstoppers & Bearwalkers: Folk Traditions of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Univ of Wisconsin Press. pp. xii. ISBN 978-0-299-22714-2.
  7. ^ Mathias, Elizabeth; Raspa, Richard; Todesco, Clementina (1988). Italian Folktales in America: The Verbal Art of an Immigrant Woman. Wayne State University Press. pp. ix, xvii, 5. ISBN 978-0-8143-2122-5.
  8. ^ a b Hanawalt, Leslie L. (1968). A place of light; the history of Wayne State University. Internet Archive. Detroit, Wayne State University Press.
  9. ^ "Collection: Thelma G. James Papers". ArchivesSpace@Wayne. Retrieved 2023-03-04.
  10. ^ "Collection: Folklore Archive: Studies and Research Projects Records". ArchivesSpace@Wayne. Retrieved 2023-03-04.
  11. ^ Journal of American Folklore July-September 1943: Vol 56 Iss 221. Internet Archive. American Folklore Society, Inc. 1943.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  12. ^ Gardner, Emelyn E. (1914). "Folk-Lore from Schoharie County, New York". The Journal of American Folklore. 27 (105): 304–325. doi:10.2307/534623. ISSN 0021-8715. JSTOR 534623.
  13. ^ Gardner, Emelyn E. (1914). "Ballads". The Journal of American Folklore. 27 (103): 90–93. doi:10.2307/534799. ISSN 0021-8715. JSTOR 534799.
  14. ^ Gardner, Emelyn E. (1918). "Some Counting-out Rhymes in Michigan". The Journal of American Folklore. 31 (122): 521–536. doi:10.2307/535059. ISSN 0021-8715. JSTOR 535059.
  15. ^ Gardner, Emelyn E. (1920). "Some Play-Party Games in Michigan". The Journal of American Folklore. 33 (128): 91–133. doi:10.2307/534953. ISSN 0021-8715. JSTOR 534953.
  16. ^ Gardner, Emelyn Elizabeth; Ramsey, Eloise (1927). A Handbook of Children's Literature, Methods and Materials. Scott, Foresman.
  17. ^ Gardner, Emelyn Elizabeth (1937). Folklore from the Schoharie hills, New York. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan press.
  18. ^ Gardner, Emelyn Elizabeth (1939). Ballads and songs of southern Michigan. Geraldine Jencks Chickering. Ann Arbor. ISBN 978-0-472-75146-4. OCLC 1336142478.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  19. ^ Gardner, Emelyn E. "Hex Marks the Spot." (1939): 441-441.
  20. ^ Hoogasian, Susie; Gardner, Emelyn E. (1944). "Armenian Folktales from Detroit". The Journal of American Folklore. 57 (225): 161–180. doi:10.2307/535963. ISSN 0021-8715. JSTOR 535963.
  21. ^ Gardner, Emelyn E. (1945). "Two Ghost Stories". The Journal of American Folklore. 58 (228): 155–156. doi:10.2307/535507. ISSN 0021-8715. JSTOR 535507.
  22. ^ Gardner, Emelyn E. "I Saw It" New York Folklore Quarterly 4 (1)  (Spring 1948): 249.
  23. ^ Avery, Marjorie (1942-05-10). "Former Pupils Give Party at City Club for Miss Gardner". Detroit Free Press. p. 28. Retrieved 2023-03-04 – via Newspapers.com.
  24. ^ "Travel Party Will Fly to Mexico". The Pomona Progress Bulletin. 1949-12-17. p. 6. Retrieved 2023-03-04 – via Newspapers.com.
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