Evelyn K. Wells

This article is about the American folklorist born in 1891; for the American writer born in 1899, see Evelyn Wells. For the American politician born in the 1940s, see Evelyn Wells (politician).

Evelyn K. Wells
Evelyn K. Wells, from the 1913 yearbook of Wellesley College
Born	Evelyn Kendrick Wells February 20, 1891 Newton, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	August 1979 Summit, New Jersey, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Folklorist, college professor, educator
Relatives	Eliza Hall Kendrick (cousin)

Evelyn Kendrick Wells (February 20, 1891 – August 1979) was an American folklorist and educator, on the faculty of Wellesley College from 1936 to 1956.

Early life and education

Wells was born in Newton, Massachusetts, the daughter of Henry Bartlett Wells and Emma Claflin Wells.[1] Her father was a businessman. She graduated from Wellesley College in 1913. She completed a master's degree at Wellesley in 1934. She was a member of Phi Beta Kappa.[2]

Career

Wells worked at the Hartridge School in New Jersey after college. She was secretary of Pine Mountain Settlement School in Kentucky for fifteen years,[3] beginning in 1916, and was interim director of the school in 1931. She was an English professor at Wellesley College from 1936 to 1956.[4][5] She taught a course on the ballad that gained some press attention in 1937.[6] She was a contributing editor of The Country Dancer, the journal of the Country Dance Society of America.[7] She served on the board of directors of the Northeast Folklore Society.[8]

Publications

• "A Little True Blue American" (1920)[9]
• "Playford Tunes and Broadside Ballads" (1937)[10]
• The Ballad Tree: A Study of British and American Ballads, Their Folklore, Verse and Music, Together with Sixty Traditional Ballads and Their Tunes (1950)[11]
• "Some Impressions of the Conference" (1951)[12]
• "Some Currents of British Folk Song in America 1916-1958" (1958)[13]
• "Cecil Sharp in America" (1959)[14]

Personal life

Before 1940, Wells lived with her older cousin, Eliza Hall Kendrick, who taught Biblical history at Wellesley.[15] Wells died in 1979, at the age of 88, in Summit, New Jersey.

References

1. "Wells Estate". The Courier-News. 1933-03-23. p. 11. Retrieved 2024-03-01 – via Newspapers.com.
2. "Wellesley Professor to Speak Tomorrow". Poughkeepsie Journal. 1959-04-02. p. 19. Retrieved 2024-03-01 – via Newspapers.com.
3. "Will Tell About Mountain School". The Montclair Times. 1922-04-15. p. 12. Retrieved 2024-03-01 – via Newspapers.com.
4. "Evelyn K. Wells, Staff Interim Director". Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections. Retrieved 2024-03-01.
5. "Wellesley Club Christmas Party". The Item of Millburn and Short Hills. 1957-12-05. p. 15. Retrieved 2024-03-01 – via Newspapers.com.
6. "Wellesley Gives Course in Ballad; English Literature Students Learn by Singing Verses and the Refrain". The New York Times. April 4, 1937. Retrieved 2024-03-01.
7. "Masthead" (PDF). The Country Dancer: 2. Summer 1962.
8. "Northeast Folklore Group Meets". The Bangor Daily News. 1960-08-05. p. 3. Retrieved 2024-03-01 – via Newspapers.com.
9. "Wells, Evelyn K. "A Little True Blue American" Over Sea and Land: Our Southern Mountains (1920): 138-139". Pine Mountain Settlement School Collections. Retrieved 2024-03-01.
10. Wells, Evelyn K. (1937). "Playford Tunes and Broadside Ballads". Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. 3 (2): 81–92. ISSN 0071-0563. JSTOR 4521108.
11. Bronson, B. H. (1951). "Review of The Ballad Tree: A Study of British and American Ballads, Their Folklore, Verse, and Music". Western Folklore. 10 (1): 88–90. doi:10.2307/1496647. ISSN 0043-373X. JSTOR 1496647.
12. Wells, Evelyn K. (1951). "Some Impressions of the Conference". Journal of the International Folk Music Council. 3: 2–3. doi:10.1017/S0950792200008498. ISSN 0950-7922. JSTOR 835759.
13. Wells, Evelyn K. (1958). "Some Currents of British Folk Song in America 1916-1958". Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. 8 (3): 129–141. ISSN 0071-0563. JSTOR 4521556.
14. Wells, Evelyn K. (1959). "Cecil Sharp in America". Journal of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. 8 (4): 182–185. ISSN 0071-0563. JSTOR 4521582.
15. Palmieri, Patricia Ann (1997-02-27). In Adamless Eden: The Community of Women Faculty at Wellesley. Yale University Press. pp. 107–108. ISBN 978-0-300-06388-2.