Collector of folklore from the area of soudiern Illinois known as “Egypt.” A folklorist by
avocation rather than profession, Smith did most of her work after retiring in 1938 from
the University of Iowa, where she had worked as a teacher, editor, and writer.
In 1946 Smith helped organize the Carbondale-based Illinois Folklore Society, which
remained active until 1962. She was the society’s president, a member of its board of
directors, and a contributor to its newsletter. She was also active in the American
Folklore Society, serving as a councilor from 1952 through 1957.
Smith’s published works include short articles on proverbs, folksongs, children’s
folklore, narratives, beliefs, and folk speech. She had a special fondness for supernatural
materials, tall tales, humorous anecdotes, and slang. In addition to studies of Illinois
folklore, Smith researched the traditions of her own New England family and published
studies of folk motifs in literature. She contributed forty-three short entries on folk belief
and superstition to Funk and Wagnalls Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and
Legend (1949–1950).
Although known as a regionalist, Smith took a comparative approach, tracing the
history and origins of the materials she collected. She was influenced in part by her sonin-law, Alexander Haggerty Krappe, and her work is typical of the then current literary
approach to folklore. Smith was one of the first folklorists to note the appearance of
folktale elements in modern comics. Her work with her own family’s traditions
anticipated later interest in family folklore.
Anne Burson-Tolpin
References
Burson-Tolpin, Anne. Forthcoming. Grace Partridge Smith. In Notable Women in American
Folklore, ed. Susan Kalcik and W.K.McNeil. American Folklore Centennial Volume.
Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press.
Leach, MacEdward. 1960. Grace Partridge Smith: Obituary. Journal of American Folklore 73:154.
Smith, Grace Partridge. 1952. The Plight of the Folktale in the Comics. Southern Folklore
Quarterly 16:124–127