NOTES – 1919 February, page 1. [PMSS_notes_1919_001.jpg]
NOTES
Each year Pine Mountain Settlement School sends mailings to our interested communities and friends. That mailing, called NOTES, describes activities at the School. We are currently engaged in providing full transcriptions of the Pine Mountain Settlement School NOTES online. Want to follow along and learn about the institutional history? NOTES 1919 is the first issue produced by the School.
See: NOTES Index
What were some other top posts this last month? What else are we working on?
In process:
DEAR FRIEND LETTERS Index
ABOUT PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL ARCHIVE
This growing digital record provides an in-depth look at the historical records of Pine Mountain Settlement School, its surrounding Appalachian communities, and associated materials in the School’s archive. Located in Harlan County, in the southeastern corner of Kentucky, the remote Settlement School was founded in 1913 by Katherine Pettit, Ethel de Long [Zande], William Creech, and other community families. Located in Harlan County, Kentucky in Central Appalachia, Pine Mountain Settlement was created to serve the educational and medical needs of the surrounding remote populations. It’s programs grew to also serve a variety of other educational outreach programs that engage a broader population.
The on-site physical archive contains the history of the School’s evolution. It comprises over one hundred eleven years of institutional records, publications, photographs, in-depth biographical records, furniture, crafts, and National Historic Register architecture by one of the first women architects in the United States. This digital archive is comprised of over 2,500 pages describing the collections at Pine Mountain. Most digital collections are provided in full text and with image access to the associated documents, biographies, crafts, buildings, genealogies, student records, and much more.
The extensive PHOTOGRAPH COLLECTIONS (over 65,000 photographs) provide a rich visual journey through the School’s history (1913-2024 and the student records 1913-1949). Our current digitization efforts strongly reflect the Boarding School years (1913-1949), but also selectively pull from the later (1950 –present) programming. The later collections are particularly rich in materials that describe the development of the ground-breaking Environmental Education Programs that began in the early 1970s and continue today. Also of note is the early childhood education program developed by Millie Mahoney whose educational work contributed to the planning of the national Head Start program. Another highlight is the E.J. Carr Plant Center a large botanical collection gathered by a self-taught botanist. Carr’s work explores edible and medicinal plants in Appalachia and their identification and details the distribution of species in the region. These are but a few of the delightful surprises to be found in the over 2,300 published pages and over 65,000 images.
The Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections constitute one of the largest on-site collections of history related to the rural Settlement School Movement in Appalachia. It represents a large and growing digitally accessible record of rural settlement school history. The three — the in-situ archive, the physical campus, a Historic Register site, and the unique surrounding community, together provide an in-depth record of the evolving rural Settlement Movement ethos in the Appalachian Mountains and the range of its amazing programs and communities.
We are pleased to offer this record to the communities that built the archive and to support their pride in their communities and their eagerness to share their cultures with a larger audience. The community record is a long, unique, and exemplary Appalachian record with history lessons for all of us. ( Our Archival Mission )
OUR ARCHIVAL MISSION
The Pine Mountain Settlement School archival mission supports and draws from the institutional Pine Mountain Settlement School Mission Statement. The School operates under the watchful eye of representative Trustees, many from Berea College. The Board of Trustees along with the School’s Director, guide the institution’s strategic planning goals. This is a model that has persisted with only a few adjustments since the founding of the institution in 1913. The President of Berea College has been a member of the Board of Trustees since 1949.
The Pine Mountain Settlement School’s mission remains true to its long 113-year history and is focused on educational and social enrichment programs centered on the local community but serving the broader Appalachian region and beyond. Once a boarding school with a progressive curriculum, Pine Mountain Settlement School’s recent educational programming has moved from a residential educational model to multi-faceted offerings of short-term environmental, cultural, medical, social, agricultural, arts and crafts, and other workshops and programs for all ages. For the duration of its existence, the archive has not moved away from, nor will it move away from, a commitment to Pine Mountain as place and people. more …
OUR ARCHIVAL VISION
The Vision of the Pine Mountain Settlement School’s digital Archive is to create and provide a voice that will encourage and facilitate transformations in individual relationships within the cultures of the Appalachian region. By providing easy access to a unique and extensive body of archival material about the region, the Pine Mountain Settlement School offers an opportunity for an in-depth exploration of one of the earliest rural settlement schools within the region. As expressed and acknowledged in the Kentucky Educational Television program, The Rural Settlement School Movement, the essence of the Kentucky rural movement, was prescient and unique.
The transformation of the people of Eastern Kentucky and the Southern Appalachians is a continuously unfolding and dynamic story. It is a story that has sometimes been misrepresented, romanticized, or only partially understood and described. By providing full-text documents and photographs in this digital archive we envision a deep, vibrant, and vital resource that will encourage further exploration. It is also a collaborative dialogue about the hidden and sometimes contested history of the rural settlement school and its integral contributions to the Appalachian milieu and the country. We envision a broader dissemination of educational research materials across all public, private, and federal sectors interested in Appalachian cultures and lives. more …
The on-site and digital collections at Pine Mountain are complemented by the Settlement Institutions of Appalachia (SIA) materials held by the Berea College Archive, Berea, KY. The SIA selective microform collection of the early Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections covers the years of 1913 to 1983. The Berea microform collection duplicates many materials found in this Pine Mountain Settlement School Collection but is only a fraction of the onsite holdings. Scholars would be advised to schedule an on-site visit to gain access to the full PMSS archival collections including the National Historic Register buildings.
Since 1949 Berea Presidents and faculty have served on the Pine Mountain Settlement School Board of Trustees as trusted advisors. Recently the School reached out to the Berea College Special Collections and Archives to initiate a collaborative process to integrate the Pine Mountain and the Berea SIA microform archival materials in a more coordinated and accessible manner to interested users.
ABOUT THE COLLECTIONS
INDEX TO SERIES AND GUIDES
FULL INDEX TO COLLECTIONS
STILL NOT FINDING WHAT YOU WERE LOOKING FOR? Alternatively, you can utilize the GOOGLE search box [above] to look up specific topics. Also, by using the enhanced AI search engine, the PMSS materials may be connected to information on the expanding Web.
REQUESTING PERMISSION FOR THE USE OF MATERIALS IN THE COLLECTION
Work is ongoing with the materials in the Pine Mountain Settlement School physical collections and new material is frequently added. Any for-profit use of archival material requires permission from the Pine Mountain Settlement School. If visiting in person, research scholars will need to arrange for their visit before arrival at the School [(606) 558-3571] . Appropriate citation of the research material is requested. See the following USE AGREEMENTS, citation guidelines, and details for USE and for requesting permissions..
If you wish to DONATE material, please see our DONOR AGREEMENT AND DEEDS OF GIFT or contact the School directly (606) 558-3571.
COLLECTION USE AGREEMENTS AND ACCESS GUIDELINES
PUBLIC USE OF MATERIAL FROM THIS ARCHIVE (Non-Commercial)
COMMERCIAL USE OF MATERIAL FROM THIS ARCHIVE
ORAL HISTORY RELEASE AGREEMENT
ORAL HISTORY ASSOCIATION – PRINCIPLES AND BEST PRACTICES
CITATION OF MATERIALS:
Any PUBLIC use of material must properly cite Pine Mountain Settlement School. Suggested: “[Identification of Item],” [Collection Name] [Series Number, if applicable]. [date], Pine Mountain Settlement School, Pine Mountain, KY. [date accessed]
COLLECTION DONATIONS
If you hold material related to Pine Mountain Settlement School and wish to DONATE materials to the School, please contact office@pinemountainsettlementschool.com or (606) 558-3571 to discuss your donation and the DONOR AGREEMENT. We are, of course, always delighted to accept monetary donations in support of the collections.
UPCOMING EVENTS AND WORKSHOPS AT
PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL
VISITING OR STAYING AT PINE MOUNTAIN?
Laurel House II, autumn, distant view. [laurel_hse_II_445b.jpg]
To learn more about the School’s current workshops, community interaction, annual events, and over-night stays, go to the PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL MAIN PAGE where you will find information about visiting the campus, lodgings, current programs, and donating to the School.
RECENT ARCHIVAL ADDITIONS
HISTORIES PMSS 1899 A Novel Excursion by Maria McVay
“A Novel Excursion” 1899, is important to the very early history of Pine Mountain Settlement School. As the first journey of Katherine Pettit into Harlan County with some interesting traveling companions, McVay’s account sheds light on Pettit’s choice of the area for a school. Fourteen years after helping to found Hindman Settlement School, Pettit left Hindman Settlement in Knott County and founded Pine Mountain Settlement School. Maria McVay recorded the 1899 trip for a Cincinnati newspaper. In 1901 Ellen Churchill Semple, a well-known geographer, also on the “Novel Excursion,” published “The Anglo Saxons of the Kentucky Mountains: A Study in Anthropogeography.”[LC copy]
GRACE M. ROOD – STORIES of “AMAZING GRACE”
The stories of Grace M. Rood describe the working life of a nurse at Pine Mountain Settlement School. The “Amazing Grace” GRACE M. ROOD and her jeep, entertains, vents, and reflects in these stories about her years of adventure serving the rural community and the PMSS School. As an early graduate of the Johns Hopkins nurse-training program, she first served as a nurse in rural India where she learned to be self-sufficient. Her early training was well suited to the many challenges she faced in her long career in the Appalachian mountains. The stories of her life are truly AMAZING.
LETTERS To a Sweetheart [A new, very large, and lively collection recently donated by the COOLIDGE FAMILY. Additions to this collection are ongoing until completed.]
Discover the true joy of expressing admiration, affection, and love by reading WWII-era letters between OLIVE COOLIDGE and her fiance, Robert Butman, while she served as a worker and nurse assistant at PMSS.
The letters and photographs from this large family collection were recently donated in digital form by Marcia Butman, the grandniece of Olive Coolidge and relative of President Calvin Coolidge and Thomas Jefferson. Work on organizing and archiving the Coolidge collection and adding it to the PMSS Collections website continues to be underway.
Then see —
WHAT’S NEW Latest Digital Additions – Lists of pages that have been recently updated or newly published on the PINE MOUNTAIN SETTLEMENT SCHOOL COLLECTIONS website.
WHAT’S NEW! – Archive of former previews of promoted pages and posts, 2015-2021.
ARCHIVE Past Digital Additions 2020-2021
ARCHIVE Past Digital Additions 2022
ARCHIVE Past Digital Additions 2023
COMMENTS and CONTACT
Comments and feedback directly on the website are not enabled. Users may contact the editors through the Pine Mountain Settlement School Office.
office@pinemountainsettlementschool.com or (606) 558-3571.
We welcome your identification of people and activities on our site and, particularly, corrections to the record. Further, we always welcome the addition of materials relevant to the history of the School and the region.
ABOUT OCR TEXT
Some of the texts included in this site have been automatically generated using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. In some cases, these texts have not been manually reviewed or corrected. OCR enables the searching of large quantities of full-text data, but it is not 100% accurate. The level of accuracy depends on the print quality of the original publication and its condition at the time of creation. Publications with poor-quality paper, small print, mixed fonts, multiple-column layouts, or damaged pages may have poor OCR accuracy.
STATEMENT REGARDING PRIVACY
Please read OUR PRIVACY POLICY and contact the PMSS office if you believe we have violated your rights to privacy in our online archival resources.
The manuscript collections and archival records in the Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections may contain sensitive and/or confidential information derived from historical archives that may be protected under federal and state right-to-privacy laws and regulations. Researchers who wish to publish and users who may share material from the Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections are advised by this notice that the disclosure of certain information about identifiable living individuals represented in some collections within the Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g. may be a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy if facts concerning an individual’s private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person for which Pine Mountain Settlement School assumes no responsibility.
