Starting 9/1/10 and ending 10/2/10, WKU Libraries will have a trial subscription to Children’s Literature Comprehensive Database:
CLCD is an ever growing online database with over 400,000 reviews, MARC records and related information about children’s literature. CLCD contains reviews supplied by over 38 quality review media including:
- The ALAN Review
- BookList
- KIRKUS
- National Science Teachers Association
- VOYA
You can access CLCD at their homepage or through their search engine.
Filed under Acquisitions, Latest News
On August 25, the faculty from the WKU Libraries’ Department of Library Public Services had their faculty retreat at the Barren River Lake State Resort Park.
Portrait of a thoroughbred colt by Anna Hyatt Huntington
Filed under Latest News, New Stuff, People, Stuff
Johnson & Hardin, Attorneys
A memorandum prepared in 1866 by the law firm of Johnson & Hardin, recently acquired by WKU’s Special Collections Library, provides a glimpse into the post-Civil War legal status of African Americans in Kentucky. Unlike other border states, Kentucky had not recognized the right of former slaves or free blacks to testify in court against whites. Such resistance had attracted the attention of the Freedmen’s Bureau, which possessed the authority to operate a court system in which blacks qualified as witnesses. The passage of a federal Civil Rights Act in April, 1866 only intensified the constitutional tug-of-war over how much justice should be afforded African Americans in Kentucky. Not until 1872 was the issue resolved with a state law equalizing testimony rights.
That left the Johnson & Hardin firm in June, 1866 to ponder the procedural question of bringing an indictment against three men “for outrages committed on persons of color” in Nelson County. In the absence of a grand jury, the memo explained, a county judge had no authority to indict the men. Once in session, the grand jury could consider the matter and, “if they think it their duty to find a true bill on the testimony of colored persons,” hand down an indictment. Rather than rely upon the Freedmen’s Bureau, however, witnesses had to present themselves in person to the grand jury. “The papers before the Bureau,” the memo concluded, could not be used as evidence in state court.
A finding aid for the Johnson & Hardin memo can be downloaded here.
Filed under Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
WKU Libraries’ faculty and staff kicked off the new academic year in the Kentucky Room on August 24, 2010. Mike Binder, Dean of WKU Libraries, reviewed the past achievements made by the Libraries’ faculty and staff and looked into the projects and programs that they would embark on in the near future. As part of the kick-off event, Mr. Marshall Weems from the Weems Consulting Group gave an interactive presentation on public services. Luncheon was served at the event.
Filed under Events
WKU Libraries has recently acquired “Garden Poetry” a work on paper by Bowling Green artist John Corry Grismore. A WKU graduate (but not in art), John began dabbling in abstract oil painting some eight years ago but soon switched to creating sculptures from driftwood collected on the shores of Barren River Lake. This year his sculpture “Versus” won first place in the 2010 US Bank Celebration of the Arts Show at the Kentucky Library and Museum. “Garden Poetry” involved picking, drying, arranging and pasting flower petals from his garden to paper. He used a technique which he developed himself, after numerous experiments, which allows the flower petals to retain most of their color. The end result allows us to enjoy the beauty of the flowers long after the plants have died. When not creating sculptures or other works of art John manages Western’s Postal Services Department. You can check out this eternal remembrance of a summer garden in Cravens 100.
Filed under Events, Flickr Photos, General, Latest News, New Stuff, People
Union support on an envelope (Kentucky Library & Museum)
Letters between two brothers, part of the Furman A. Smith Collection at WKU’s Special Collections Library, demonstrate the intensity of feeling that fractured families during the Civil War. Writing from central Illinois in 1863 to his brother Furman in Trigg County, Kentucky, William Riley Smith reported that “blood still gets hotter here for the cause of the Union.” William himself was a believer: “I say crush the rebellion to bug dust.” He focused most of his anger, however, on the slaves emancipated by President Lincoln’s executive order of September 22, 1862, which had taken effect on January 1, 1863. Using a racial epithet associated more with the South, William declared bitterly that “all our troubles have grown out of the n—-r.” He recalled his father’s prophesy that slaves “would prove a curse to our nation” because God would not allow their suffering to continue forever. As a result, William had lost one of his best friends to rebels who, in his opinion, preferred shedding blood over the fate of slaves to preserving “our glorious government.”
Three years after the war, William was still smoldering. Writing to Furman about another brother from whom he had not heard in six months, he complained, “I suppose he thinks that if the South could not dissolve this great Union that he will dissolve friendship between himself and those that love the Union.”
For more Civil War resources, click here or search TopScholar and KenCat.
Filed under Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Athletic Committee
Recognized as the most popular faculty committee on campus, the Athletic Committee was formed between 1910 and 1926 and has been meeting monthly ever since.
The earliest extant records for the committee date to 1926. The collection consists of meeting minutes and award lists. Topics routinely discussed were athletic schedules, awards and compliance with NCAA policies. The collection also contains Ohio Valley Conference meeting minutes.
The committee was comprised of L.T. Smith, M.A. Leiper, W.J. Craig and Florence Schneider well into the 1960’s. New members were only allowed onto the committee as these members retired. In 1962 a student member was added to the committee. The committee was admonished by administration in 1971 to set term limits to address the complaints of faculty members wishing to be appointed to the committee.
The finding aid for the series is available online at: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_fin_aid/128/ These and other university records are available for researchers to use in the Harrison-Baird Reading Room of the Kentucky Building, Monday-Saturday, 9 to 4.
Filed under Events, University Archives
Rosa Belle (Praigg) Dickerson, 1843-1902
When one of 16-year-old Rosa Belle Praigg’s stories was accepted by the popular women’s magazine Godey’s Lady’s Book in 1859, she used her earnings of $15 to buy the first oil lamp in her home town of Perryville, Kentucky. She later wrote a story based on her experiences during the Battle of Perryville in 1862.
After coming to Bowling Green to teach school, Rosa married Dr. William H. Dickerson. She became the mother of 5 daughters but continued to write, publishing under her own name and under the pen name Violet (or Violette) Woods. Her stories and poems appeared in newspapers and journals such as Peterson’s Lady’s Book, the Louisville Times, the Cincinnati Enquirer, the Kentucky Tribune, the Bowling Green Democrat and the Bowling Green Gazette.
At a time when women who took up the pen were liable to shy away from publicity, the young Rosa actually seemed to court it. In 1860, she sought an opinion from George D. Prentice, the editor of the Louisville Journal, about a poem she had recently placed in a Danville newspaper. Promising to look for the piece, Prentice assured her that “I love poetesses exceedingly” and “I expect to love you when I read your stanzas.”
A finding aid for the Rosa Belle (Praigg) Dickerson Collection at WKU’s Special Collections Library can be downloaded here.
Filed under Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
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.
Filed under Events, University Archives
