WKU Libraries blog

On October 16, 2009, a panel discussion on John Brown by Drs. Glenn Lafantasie, John Hardin and Robert Dietle was conducted in Helm Library 100. This discussion was co-sponsored by the History Department and the Department of Public Library Services, Western Kentucky University. Scores of WKU students and faculty members, including some of the Libraries employees attended the discussion.

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Warren County, Ky. Equity Court Cases

In the 19th century, equity court (sometimes called chancery court) was the forum where Kentuckians sought justice for wrongs that could not adequately be remedied in a court of law.  For example, where a court of law might simply award monetary damages for breach of contract, an equity court could order the contract performed exactly as written, or order it undone as if it had never been made.  Equity courts could order a person to act in a certain way–to give an accounting of ill-gotten profits, for example–or not to act in a certain way, such as selling property that was likely to be seized for debt, or leaving the jurisdiction in order to avoid a lawsuit.  Equity courts also handled other cases requiring the broader application of principles of justice, such as divorces, estate disputes, and problems involving title to land.  The Kentucky Library & Museum holds a large collection of Warren County Equity Court cases covering the years 1802 to 1856.  A list of these cases is now available online, showing the names of the plaintiff and defendant, the date, the number of documents in the file, and a summary of the type of case.  The list is arranged by case number and can be most easily searched by using the “Find” function of your word processing software.  Remember: standards of literacy varied widely, so use your imagination when searching for a name and possible alternate spellings.  The list of Warren County Equity Court cases (with a more detailed finding aid to be posted in the future) can be downloaded at:http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_mss_fin_aid/962

Ogden College

Before there was a WKU, Bowling Green was home to a number of private colleges. One of these was Ogden College. Located between State and Chestnut Streets, Ogden opened in 1877 as a boy’s school offering a 2 year prepatory course and 4 year college work. In 1927 the Ogden trustees and Western regents came to an understanding whereby the property was leased to Western. The campus is now home to the Ogden College of Science & Engineering. The records of the school were transferred to University Archives and are now available for researchers. These include images, student records, student newspapers and yearbooks.  Check out the following websites for more information regarding Ogden College:

• Finding Aid
• Images
• Sources
• Cardinal Yearbooks
• Entrance Exam
• Snell Hall

Professor Debbie Kreitzer from the Department of Georgraphy and Geology is the first speaker in the tenth series of talks on “Far away Places with Strange Sounding Names” sponsored by the friends of WKU Libraries and the Kentucky Museum. Debbie teaches classes on World Regional Geography, the Georgraphy of North America and Geographic Information Systems. She led a Study Abroad group to Slovenia in 2007 and made a return visit in 2008. This event was held at Barnes and Noble on Thursday September 17th at 7:00 p.m.

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Join WKU Libraries in honoring Drs. Scott Lyons and James Navalta, Editors-in-Chief of International Journal of Exercise Science, the first open access journal at WKU, on Monday, October 19, at 2 p.m. in Helm Library, Room 100. Reception following brief presentation.

Margery Obenchain letter, 1904

Retired WKU chemistry professor Don Slocum recently discovered several pieces of paper in a clump behind the siding he pulled off his back porch during a renovation of his Chestnut Street home.  He assembled the torn and stained pieces and sent a photocopy to the Kentucky Library & Museum to see if we were interested in adding it to our manuscripts collection.  Indeed we were!  The pieces comprised a complete letter written in August 1904 to “Alice,” possibly a former occupant of the house, by 16-year-old Margery Obenchain.  Margery lived a few blocks away but was writing from Sulphur Springs, Missouri, near the end of a summer trip that had culminated in a visit to the St. Louis World’s Fair.  “I have had a most glorious time,” she declared.  During her visits to family and friends, she had enjoyed the company of several young men, one of whom she described as “one of the handsomest, most brilliant men I have ever met.”  Concluding that, “as a rule, Northern boys are an improvement on Southern boys,” Margery had nevertheless enjoyed all her summer socializing, and promised to tell Alice more when she returned home.  A finding aid and typescript of Margery’s letter can be downloaded at:http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_mss_fin_aid/960

The Kentucky Library & Museum has even more on Margery, the Obenchain family, and related families the Calverts and Youngloves.  Margery’s father, William A. Obenchain, was the longtime president of Ogden College and her mother, Lida Calvert Obenchain, was a dedicated woman suffragist and successful writer of fiction under the pen name “Eliza Calvert Hall.”  A finding aid for the Calvert-Obenchain-Younglove collection can be downloaded at:http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_mss_fin_aid/281

Gourd painting was the focus of a recent workshop at the Kentucky Library & Museum. Over twenty people from age three to retirees participated in the Kentucky Library & Museum Gourd Painting workshop. Participants painted pumpkins and witches as well as other autumn themes.

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Learn more about other programs and workshops.

Archives are not the place to run in to check a quick fact and then again, sometimes they are. Archives generally are about indepth research. It takes time to read through original sources and find the information that will prove or disprove your hypothesis about a person or event. Often reference staff will slow you down and go over the question(s) that you are looking to answer. We are attempting to narrow the field of the many resources we hold to get you to the ones that have information that you are requesting. Sometimes the answer you want is not the one you get.

Then again, sometimes researchers ask a question that has been asked many times and the reference staff does have the answer immediately. It can happen. Either way, archives are a great place to find answers.

Mr. Guillerman spoke as part of our Kentucky Live series on Thursday, October 15th at Barnes & Noble on Campbell Lane.

Michael D. Guillerman worked for the Peabody Coal Company from 1974 to 1991. Over his long career, his jobs included belt shoveler, timberman, shooter, drill and shuttle car operator, rock duster, and finally section foreman. Now retired, he lives with his wife Marie in Union county, Kentucky.

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Author and Cultural Historian Jim Cullen discussed The American Dream and how it relates to this year’s Big Read book, The Great Gatsby. Dr. Cullen spoke to a group of about twenty at Barnes & Noble on October 12 giving a brief history of F. Scott Fitzgerald, his thoughts on “The American Dream”, how this theme flowed through Fizgerald’s novel and still resonates through American culture from Hollywood to Main Street. Dr. Cullen teaches History at the Ethical Fieldston School in New York City.

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