Actually, the dulcimer revival began in the late 30s with John Jacob Niles and Frank Warner. Jean Ritchie (born c. 1914) was still a young lass in those days. But it was indeed bonnie Jean who took the Appalachian dulcimer to the Newport Folk Festival at a critical time. It attracted enough attention that the hammered dulcimer people had to call one of their societies the Original Dulcimer Something-or-other in order to distinguish themselves.

T.