Beginning in 1899, Katherine Pettit and May Stone spent three summers in social settlement work in Kentucky at Camp Cedar Grove, Camp Industrial, and Sassafras Social Settlement before founding the Hindman Settlement School in 1902. The camps taught homemaking skills; provided kindergartens; assisted local people with health, homemaking, and educational problems; and assisted local teachers. This book contains Pettit's and May's journals of those first three summers in the mountains. The introduction details the early life of Pettit and Stone, the social movements prevalent at the turn of the century that influenced their work, and the founding and early history of the Hindman Settlement School. The diary-record of the Cedar Grove 6-week summer camp, which specifically trained girls and women in modern methods of domestic science and housekeeping, tells of camp organization; lessons in sewing, reading, and cooking; giving supplies to local schools; and the local people's poor living conditions and bad cooking. At Camp Industrial, which later became the Hindman Settlement School, the summer camp was larger and served more people. Pettit and Stone conducted a teachers' institute as well as teaching their regular classes in domestic arts. Details of their visits to local homes are given, as well as the words to local ballads, idiomatic expressions, and a list of class members and guests. The daily journal of the Sassafras summer camp is a record of the harsh conditions of daily life (rain, fleas, accidents) and individual interactions with local residents at the remote location. Two photo essays include 93 photographs of the social settlement summers and the early years of the Hindman Settlement School. Contains 51 primary and secondary source references. (SAS)