Olive Dame Campbell

In 1903 she met her future husband John Charles Campbell (1867–1919), 15 years her senior, who was a missionary school teacher, marrying him in 1907, after which he went on to become a noted educator and social reformer.

[1] Olive was Campbell's second wife, and together they traveled to Appalachia, where John had received a grant in 1909 to study the area's social and cultural conditions in hopes of improving their school systems.

[4] Accompanied by her sister Daisy Dame and colleague Marguerite Butler, the women spent 18 months traveling between Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland, visiting local schools along the way.

With Olive's encouragement, idle men sitting outside of Fred O. Scroggs' General Store found a way to bring much-needed income to their families by carving realistic animals.

Today the Folk School attracts students from all over the country (and some from abroad) while still offering people from the surrounding Appalachian area ways to improve their quality of life.

On Tuesday nights live music and a caller are provided so that students and neighbors can get a taste of the Folk School's decades old tradition of contra dancing.

The Folk School's motto "Sing Behind the Plow" is a reminder of Olive Dame Campbell's original vision of finding a joyous way for people to improve their quality of life through the experience of community.

[6] In 2008 Revels Repertory Company created a tribute to Olive and the music she collected titled Voices from the Mountain, which was performed throughout eastern Massachusetts during the 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 seasons.