The Hindman Dulcimer…

As many of you are already aware, Hindman is known world-wide as the birthplace of the Cumberland style mountain dulcimer.  The rich and colorful history of this instrument is woven throughout the stories of many Eastern Kentucky families.  You may in fact have one of these heirlooms hanging on your own wall, and a story to go with it!

 Best known of the early dulcimer makers was J.E. “Uncle Ed” Thomas, who lived up at “Big Doubles” in the late 1800’s, at what was then called Bath, Kentucky.  Pushing a handcart loaded with his work (including mason jars of “cherry bark tea”) up Troublesome Creek into Hindman, he famously sold his delicate, unique instruments to staff and guests at the then-new Hindman Settlement School.

Following in Uncle Ed’s footsteps, Jethro Amburgey, manual arts instructor at the school, made a large number of these instruments, all patterned closely after Uncle Ed’s.  Between the two of them, these Hindman craftsmen sent nearly 2,700 signed and numbered dulcimers out into the world, paving the way for more recent makers such as Homer Ledford, John Tignor, Charlie Whitaker and Warren May.  They also equipped artists like Jean Ritchie, who became an absolutely catalyst of the Great Folk Revival of the mid-20th Century.  Many others were to take an interest in instrument; Joni Mitchell, The Rolling Stones, Cindi Lauper and countless other pop musicians also used mountain dulcimers to shape their sound.