After Francis Sawyer's death, they moved to Maine, where they had spent many summers. Upon the Sawyers' eventual return to New York City, Ruth Sawyer completed secondary school and then enrolled at the Garland Kindergarten Training School. In 1900, after two years at the school, she went to Cuba to teach storytelling to teachers organizing kindergartens for orphans. Because of this work, Sawyer was given a scholarship at Columbia University, where she majored in folklore and storytelling. After her graduation in 1904 with a B.S. degree in education, Sawyer was selected by the New York Lecture Bureau (affiliated with the school system) to do storytelling with foreign-born groups. While in college, Sawyer had done some writing for the
New York Sun, so during the summers of 1905 and 1907 the newspaper sent her to Ireland to gather material for feature articles. In addition to her special assignment, she was able to travel into remote areas where she listened to the
seanachies recite and collected Irish tales. In December 1910, Ruth Sawyer retold the Irish Christmas tale of "The Voyage of the Wee Red Cap" to Irish-American children at a branch of the New York Public Library.
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