Tag Archives: Research tools

The Western Minstrel

The Western Minstrel

The Western Minstrel

The Western Minstrel is the official alumni newsletter of the WKU Department of Music. It has been in off and on since 1984. It highlights the activities of students and faculty in the Music Department and helps keep the alumni up to date.  The University Archives holds issues from 1984-1987, 1989, 1996, 2003-2009. These have been digitized and are now available on TopScholar as full text searchable documents.  These and other records created by the Music Department are available for researchers to use in the Harrison-Baird Reading Room of the Kentucky Building, Monday-Saturday, 9 to 4.

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Rodes-Helm Lecture Series

On September 27, 1961 the College Heights Herald announced the $25,000 endowment of the Rodes-Helm Lecture Series.  The money was donated by Harold and Mary (Rodes) Helm in honor of two individuals close to them.

John Rodes was a judge in the Warren County circuit court described as “one of the most distinguished jurists in the South.”  Judge Rodes was a native of Bowling Green and graduate of Ogden College.  He went on to study law at the University of Virginia.  He was also the father of Mary Grider Rodes Helm.

Margie Helm, Harold’s sister was born in Auburn, Kentucky and grew in Bowling Green.  She attended Randolph Macon Women’s College, Pratt Institute Library School and Chicago Graduate Library School.  She returned to Bowling Green in 1920 taking the position of assistant librarian at WKU.   In 1923 she was appointed head librarian and held that position for 42 years.  Two years after her retirement, WKU rededicated the library building as the Margie Helm Library in her honor.

Kelly Thompson stated that the Rodes-Helm Lecture Series “will be used to bring to the Western campus, personalities, thinkers and speakers whom we might not otherwise have an opportunity to meet.”  Some of those have included Pearl Buck, William Buckley, Chet Huntley, Buckminster Fuller and Charles Kuralt to name a few.  

The record series includes programs, press releases and recordings of some lectures.  The initial press conference announcing the gift and establishment of the lecture series was recorded on a 33 1/3 lp which is also part of the collection.  The finding aid for the series is available online at: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_fin_aid/123/  Researchers can use view and listen to the items in the Harrison-Baird Reading Room of the Kentucky Building, Monday-Saturday, 9-4.

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Edgar Stansbury Collection

Edgar Stansbury

Edgar Stansbury

Edgar Bryant Stansbury, son of Emmet and Mable Stansbury was born 1906 in Corbin, Kentucky. He attended Shepherdsville high school and came to WKU in 1926 where he played basketball and football. Upon graduation in 1930 he became assistant coach to E.A. Diddle. After World War II he returned briefly as athletic director in 1946-1947. Stansbury returned to the air force in 1947 and later worked for Rockwell. A lifelong WKU supporter, he died in Largo, Florida in 2009 at the age of 103.

A collection of his personal papers have recently come into University Archives and are being processed. They include 10 scrapbooks compiled over the course of Stansbury’s life regarding WKU athletics and his military career and a photograph collection. Three of the scrapbook have been digitized so far and are available online at: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/stu_alum_papers/

The collection is available for researchers to use in the Harrison-Baird Reading Room of the Kentucky Building, Monday-Saturday, 9 to 4.

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The Southern Educator

Before there was WKU, there was the Southern Normal. A school that evolved from the Glasgow Normal, which moved to Bowling Green and changed hands several times before the Cherry brothers took over. The Southern Normal existed between 1893 and 1906 when it split into WKU and the Bowling Green Business University.

The Southern Educator serves as a journal of pedagogy, alumni magazine, advertisement for the Southern Normal, course listings and gives an overall look into the daily life of the Southern Normal.  Published more or less quarterly from 1897 to 1906, the newspaper is being digitized and made available online to researchers.  A name index available at: http://www.wku.edu/Library/dlsc/ua/bgbu-a.htm.

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Demonstrations & Protests

Vietnam Moratorium

Vietnam Moratorium

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of the Kent State massacre. In light of that, let’s look at protest movements at WKU.  Lowell Harrison in Western Kentucky University describes the affect of Kent State on WKU.  “The Volunteers, an ad hoc committee of student activists, called for a general strike on Friday, May 8, but most classes met, although often with diminished attendance.  “Strike Western” T-shirts quickly appeared. Protests demonstrations were countered by an anti-protest rally. . .  President Downing met with a group of students on the steps of the administration building; a graduate student who was active in the peace movement . . . A “sleep-in” Friday night on the lawn next to the administration building attracted about a hundred participants, including some small children and one dog.”

The Agitator, one of the first underground student newspapers debuted in 1964. After it came The Skewer [1965], The Expatriate [1970] and we still have The Big Red Tool in 2010.  The issues discussed in these publications include prostitution, freedom of speech/press, Vietnam war, and campus issues.   Students held a sit in regarding the racial issues in September 26 and a Vietnam Moratorium October 15, 1969.  In more recent years students have gathered to protest against the Ku Klux Klan and the Gulf War.  The 1971 political paper Spread Eagle has been digitized.

Some images from the period are available on KenCat.  Finding aids for the underground student newspapers and demonstration/protest photographs are available on TopScholar.  Read about protests in the Board of Regents minutes and the College Heights Herald.  Check out the online exhibit, Get on the BusShare your memories of these and other events.  Visit the Harrison-Baird Reading Room in the Kentucky Library to see these and other primary sources regarding protests and demonstrations.

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Lavinia Hunter Photo Album

Lavinia Hunter

Lavinia Hunter

Lavinia Hunter was born in Gastonia, North Carolina in 1894. She was educated at Converse College in Spartanburg, South Carolina receiving an AB degree in 1915. Her career began with teaching Gastonia first graders from 1923-1931. During that time she also attended George Peabody College for Teachers earning her MA. The following year Lavinia moved to Bowling Green to educate the first graders in the WKU Training School, a job she held until her retirement in 1965. Miss Hunter had a perfect attendance record for over 30 years.

During her tenure as the first grade teacher she received, as most teachers do, school photos from her students. These she collected and put into a photograph album arranged by year and neatly labeled with each child’s name. There are three decades of students represented in the collection. The album also contains a few group and classroom photographs and student teachers.

The finding aid for this collection is now available on TopScholar. There you will find the names of many of the students who attended the Training School. This and many other collections are available for researchers in the Harrison-Baird Reading Room of the Kentucky Library.

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Southern Normal School

One of WKU’s five founding institutions was the Southern Normal School and Business College, generally referred to as the Southern Normal.  The teacher training school was founded by A.W. Mell and Tom Williams when they moved the Glasgow Normal School to Bowling Green in 1884.  The University Archives holds some administrative records, publications, class lists and photographs for the school.  An outline of sources and a finding aid are available online.  These are available to researchers in the Harrison-Baird Reading Room Monday – Saturday 9 – 4.

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The Vista

The Vista

You may know the Talisman and may have heard about the Towers, but did you know that the first Western Kentucky State Normal School yearbook was The Vista? Published in 1915, it was a one off. There would not be another yearbook until the Talisman debuted in 1924. The Vista has the expected campus views, faculty and student photographs. It also includes class wills, poems and songs as well as snap shots of student life. Take a look at campus life 95 years ago. The Vista and other school yearbooks were digitized during the WKU Centennial and are available online.

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Training School & College High Collection

Girls Basketball Team 1927

Girls Basketball Team 1927

Founded as a teachers college in 1906, WKU soon found the need to have a training school located on campus. The first was located in the old Southern Normal Training School building. Upon moving to the Hill, the training school was moved to the original Potter Hall. Lastly, in 1925 the training school and high school moved into its own building, currently known as the Science and Technology Building.

University Archives holds about 10 cubic feet of records from the training school and high school. These include class rolls, catalogs, scrapbooks, photographs, basketball scorebooks, event programs, curriculum guides and cookbooks.

These materials are available for researchers in the Harrison-Baird Reading Room, Monday to Saturday 9 to 4.  Check out KenCat  to see digitized photographs.  See also the new online exhibit in commemoration of the rededication of the Science & Technology Building.

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Zephyrus

In Greek mythology, the Anemoi were the wind gods. Zephyrus was the west wind and bringer of light spring and early summer breezes.

1969 Cover

1969 Cover

At WKU, Zephyrus is the fine arts magazine published annually by the English department. It features art, poetry and short stories created and written by students. University Archives holds the full run of this magazine which first appeared in 1969. We are in the process of digitizing every issue for publication on TopScholar.  Originals are available for researchers in University Archives UA68/6/1.

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