Emelyn Gardner Explained

Emelyn Gardner
Birth Name:Emelyn Elizabeth Gardner
Birth Date:1 July 1872
Birth Place:Laurens, Otsego County, New York
Death Place:Los Angeles, California
Occupation: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

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. 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

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, and was an English professor at Wayne State University from 1918 to 1942.[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.

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.

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

Publications

Personal life

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.

Notes and References

  1. Book: Bronner, Simon J. . American children's folklore . 1988 . Little Rock . August House . 978-0-87483-068-2.
  2. Book: McHale, Ellen . https://books.google.com/books?id=tmHEm5ohoCUC&dq=Emelyn+Gardner&pg=PA620 . The Encyclopedia of New York State . 2005-05-19 . Syracuse University Press . 978-0-8156-0808-0 . Eisenstadt . Peter . 620 . en . Emelyn Elizabeth Gardner.
  3. Michigan State Normal College, The Aurora (1908 yearbook).
  4. Book: Jones, Louis C. . https://books.google.com/books?id=XaNd2ua7gVgC&dq=Emelyn+Gardner&pg=PA203 . Upstate Literature: Essays in Memory of Thomas F. O'Donnell . 1985-05-01 . Syracuse University Press . 978-0-8156-2331-1 . Bergmann . Frank . 203–205; quote on 205 . en . Early Days of the Folklore Renaissance.
  5. Book: Dorson, Richard M. . Handbook of American Folklore . 1986-02-22 . Indiana University Press . 978-0-253-20373-1 . 482 . en.
  6. Book: Dorson, Richard Mercer . Bloodstoppers & Bearwalkers: Folk Traditions of Michigan's Upper Peninsula . 2008 . Univ of Wisconsin Press . 978-0-299-22714-2 . xii . en.
  7. Book: Mathias . Elizabeth . Italian Folktales in America: The Verbal Art of an Immigrant Woman . Raspa . Richard . Todesco . Clementina . 1988 . Wayne State University Press . 978-0-8143-2122-5 . ix, xvii, 5 . en.
  8. Book: Hanawalt, Leslie L. . A place of light; the history of Wayne State University . 1968 . Detroit . Wayne State University Press .
  9. Web site: Collection: Thelma G. James Papers . 2023-03-04 . ArchivesSpace@Wayne.
  10. Web site: Collection: Folklore Archive: Studies and Research Projects Records . 2023-03-04 . ArchivesSpace@Wayne.
  11. Book: Journal of American Folklore July-September 1943: Vol 56 Iss 221 . 1943 . American Folklore Society . English.
  12. Gardner . Emelyn E. . 1914 . Folk-Lore from Schoharie County, New York . The Journal of American Folklore . 27 . 105 . 304–325 . 10.2307/534623 . 534623 . 0021-8715.
  13. Gardner . Emelyn E. . 1914 . Ballads . The Journal of American Folklore . 27 . 103 . 90–93 . 10.2307/534799 . 534799 . 0021-8715.
  14. Gardner . Emelyn E. . 1918 . Some Counting-out Rhymes in Michigan . The Journal of American Folklore . 31 . 122 . 521–536 . 10.2307/535059 . 535059 . 0021-8715.
  15. Gardner . Emelyn E. . 1920 . Some Play-Party Games in Michigan . The Journal of American Folklore . 33 . 128 . 91–133 . 10.2307/534953 . 534953 . 0021-8715.
  16. Book: Gardner . Emelyn Elizabeth . A Handbook of Children's Literature, Methods and Materials . Ramsey . Eloise . 1927 . Scott, Foresman . en.
  17. Book: Gardner, Emelyn Elizabeth . Folklore from the Schoharie hills, New York. . 1937 . University of Michigan press . Ann Arbor.
  18. Book: Gardner, Emelyn Elizabeth . Ballads and songs of southern Michigan . 1939 . Geraldine Jencks Chickering . 978-0-472-75146-4 . Ann Arbor . 1336142478.
  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 . 10.2307/535963 . 535963 . 0021-8715.
  21. Gardner . Emelyn E. . 1945 . Two Ghost Stories . The Journal of American Folklore . 58 . 228 . 155–156 . 10.2307/535507 . 535507 . 0021-8715.
  22. Gardner, Emelyn E. "I Saw It" New York Folklore Quarterly 4 (1)  (Spring 1948): 249.
  23. News: Avery . Marjorie . 1942-05-10 . Former Pupils Give Party at City Club for Miss Gardner . 28 . Detroit Free Press . 2023-03-04 . Newspapers.com.
  24. News: 1949-12-17 . Travel Party Will Fly to Mexico . 6 . The Pomona Progress Bulletin . 2023-03-04 . Newspapers.com.

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