WKU Libraries blog

Great news! Need a fun place to escape the heat and humidity over the July 4th weekend? Take your out of town guests to the Kentucky Library & Museum. While the building is closed on July 4th, the museum galleries are open on Friday, July 3rd and Sunday, July 5th. Current exhibits include a new exhibit on the career of Dorothy Grider, a nationally recognized illustrator of children’s books who is a Bowling Green native, and ongoing exhibits on the Civil War in Kentucky and food icon Duncan Hines. Gallery hours are 9to 4 on Friday and 1 to 4 on Sunday.

An exhibit celebrating the career of children’s book illustrator Dorothy Grider opened at the Kentucky Library & Museum on July 1, 2009. Driven to become an artist from the age of eight, this Bowling Green native became Rand McNally’s most popular children’s book illustrator in the late 1940s, and her work often stood alone in coloring books, picture books, and activity publications. Illustrating more than 100 books, including six as both author and illustrator, her work is available today in more than 200 libraries around the world.

The Military Order of the Stars and Bars has selected Josie Underwood’s Civil War Diary, edited by Nancy Disher Baird as the winner of the 2009 Basil W. Duke Award, which recognizes the publisher who reissues the best work in Confederate history.

Available for the first time in print, Josie Underwood’s Civil War Diary offers a vivid, firsthand account of a family that owned slaves and opposed Lincoln, yet remained unshakably loyal to the Union. Josie’s father, Warner, played an important role in keeping Kentucky from seceding. Among the many highlights of the diary is Josie’s record of meeting the president in wartime Washington, which served to soften her opinion of him. Josie describes her fear of secession and war, and the anguish of having relatives and friends fighting on opposite sides, noting in the spring of 1861 that many friendships and families were breaking up “faster than the Union.” The diary also brings to life the fears, frustrations, and deprivations of living under occupation in strategically important Bowling Green, KY known as the “Gibraltar of the Confederacy” during the war. Despite the wartime upheaval, Josie’s life is also refreshingly normal at times and she recounts travel, parties, local gossip, and the search for her “true Prince.”

Students who participated in the “Exploring Cultures Camp” learned about the music, crafts, foods and traditional costumes of cultures in Asia, Africa, and Europe.

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The Southern Kentucky (SOKY) Book Fest partners have received a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to host another Big Read project in Bowling Green and the surrounding region. The Big Read gives communities the opportunity to come together to read, discuss, and celebrate one of 30 selections from American and world literature. The Big Read in Bowling Green will center on the classic book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald<. The project will be held September 15 to November 15 and focus on the theme of the American Dream.

The partners chose The Great Gatsby because of several Kentucky ties to the book. Author Fitzgerald was stationed in Kentucky during WWI, and he frequented the famous Seelbach Hotel in Louisville. His wife Zelda’s family was also from Kentucky. The Great Gatsby characters Nick and Daisy meet in Louisville where she is said to be from a wealthy Southern family.

SOKY Book Fest is one of 269 organizations nationwide and seven in Kentucky to receive a grant to host The Big Read during the upcoming academic year. To date, the NEA has given more than 800 grants to support local Big Read projects. For more information about The Big Read please visit www.neabigread.org

SOKY Book Fest is a partnership project of WKU Libraries, Warren County Public Library, and Barnes and Noble booksellers. For more information visit www.sokybookfest.org or contact Tracy Harkins at 270-745-5016.

Summer campers who participated in the Fine Art Camp built upon their basic drawing, painting, and design skills. By the time this camp ended, they had experimented with using pen & ink, charcoal, watercolor, pastels, and acrylic paint.

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WKU’s Project Muse database has been expanded to include “Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies” and “Western American Literature.”

“The Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies” contains original peer-reviewed research and book reviews on the humanities in Asia, focusing at present on of China, Japan, Korea, and Inner Asia. WKU Libraries provides access via Project Muse beginning with volume 69 (2009). The library also provides access to the journal in JSTOR from 1936 to 2003.

“Western American Literature” is a peer-reviewed journal published quarterly by the Western Literature Association and Utah State University. Devoted to groundbreaking critical essays on the literature, culture, landscape, and art of the American West, the journal publishes criticism dealing with Western culture and literature (both contemporary and traditional). WKU Libraries provides access to this journal through Project Muse beginning with volume 44 (2009).

To access these journals, use WKU Libraries’ E-Journal Finder (TDnet) available on the Libraries’ Website.

On Friday, June 5, Kentucky Heritage Quilt Society member Becky Leavy led participants in the Bowling Green Gallery Hop and Alumni College events through the 2009 KHQS Annual Quilt Show, “Save the Planet.” The quilts and wall hangings in this feature were made into patterns depicting the seasons, the world (World Without End, Wonder of the World, etc), natural phenomena (Ocean waves, Storms at Sea, etc) with fabric featuring clouds, waves, water, animals, planets, and other nature themes.

Photo Gallery

Campers discovered history is all around them. Field trips included visits to explore the Historic Railpark and L&N Train Museum, Lost River Cave, Riverview at Hobson Grove, Fountain Square Park and much more.

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In June a group of children in grades 1 – 5 attended a week long summer camp at the Kentucky Library & Museum. Led by artist Davie Reneau, they learned clay hand building techniques including pinch pots, coil and slab work.

More photos.