Jean Bell Thomas

Jean Bell Thomas (November 14, 1881 – December 7, 1982) was an American photographer and folk festival promoter, who specialized in the music, crafts, and language patterns of the Appalachian region of the United States.

[2] Using money saved from her court reporter wages, Bell moved to New York City, where she took writing classes and continued to work as a stenographer.

During her years working in eastern Kentucky, and on subsequent visits, Thomas often carried her camera and photographed the musicians and other mountain people with whom she came in contact.

Using the skills she had acquired as a press agent, she changed his name to Jilson Setters, secured recording contracts, and booked him (as the "Singin' Fiddler from Lost Hope Hollow") in theaters.

Inspired by a traditional mountain "Singin' Gatherin'" (wherein musicians got together to perform old songs) she had witnessed, Jean Thomas staged a small folk festival for a group of invited guests at her home in September 1930.

The second American Folk Song Festival was held in 1932 on Four Mile Fork of Garner, just off the Mayo Trail, and featured eighteen acts, all of whom had learned by oral tradition, per Thomas' stipulation.

With the exception of the years 1943–1947, the American Folk Song Festival was held annually until failing health forced Thomas to retire in 1972.

or, later, his nephew, would signal the start of the performances by blowing a fox horn that had belonged to "Devil Anse" Hatfield (patriarch of the legendary feuding family of the Kentucky-West Virginia border).