Emelyn Elizabeth Gardner (July 1, 1872 – October 15, 1967) was an American folklorist, educator, and English professor.

[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.

[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.

[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.