ERC part-time library assistant Robbie VanValin has decided to retire after nearly 7 years with the ERC, where she has been a friendly face and a welcoming voice to ERC patrons. We will miss her very much—her willingness to help, her sweet personality, and her genuine interest and engagement with our patrons and student workers. We would like to wish Robbie all the very best for her retirement.
Pictured are Robbie VanValin sitting in the chair next to ERC staff member Ellen Michelleti.
Comments Off on Farewell to Robbie VanValin
Filed under ERC, People, Uncategorized
John Pleasant Potter, and a flower he picked near French soldiers’ graves at Chateau-Thierry
A recent biography calls him “the trigger”: 19-year-old south Slav nationalist Gavrilo Princip, who, in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914, fired his pistol at Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and (though he claimed it was unintentional) at the Archduke’s wife Sophie. Both died almost instantly. A month later, Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, and the rest of Europe, for various geo-political reasons, followed them into the abyss of World War I.
Here in Kentucky, Bowling Green lawyer Clarence McElroy learned of the widening conflict from clients living abroad. In letters from Surrey, England, Margaret Whitehead Robertson’s reactions ranged from uncertainty to defiance to resignation. Having recently sold a house, she asked McElroy in August 1914 to invest the proceeds at home rather than overseas, “as no one is sure about the war. Of course, we all hope England & her allies will win but the war may last 2 or 3 years.” A few weeks later: “This war is such a dreadful calamity, and everybody I know thinks Kaiser Wilhelm II will have a great deal to answer for, for bringing about a European war. The Allies are doing splendidly, and we are all disgusted with German atrocities and their terrible military system, which wants to rule the world.”
By October, Margaret was recovering from the initial upheaval. Vacationing in Eastbourne with her sister Charlotte, who was knitting socks for the soldiers, she noted that the area was enjoying a prosperous autumn “to make up for the bad summer season when people were afraid to come to the seaside at the beginning of the war.” But after Christmas, rumor had again unsettled her. She wanted to escape wet and snowy England for Switzerland, but had heard that if Italy entered the war, the food supply to Switzerland might be cut off. “These are horrible times,” she observed, “and I do wish the war were over.”
The Manuscripts & Folklife Archives section of WKU’s Special Collections Library holds many other World War I-era collections, especially relating to the period after the United States entered the war in 1917. For example: a scrapbook chronicling the military service of Bowling Green’s John Pleasant Potter, lovingly kept by his mother; letters from Victor Strahm, the son of WKU music director Franz Strahm and a much-decorated air ace; letters of Simpson County native George DeWitt Harris, who died of battle wounds suffered in France; as well as patriotic speeches, poems and postcards. For other collections about World War I, search TopSCHOLAR and KenCat.
Comments Off on The Great War Centennial
Filed under Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Western Kentucky University’s research and creative database (TopSCHOLAR) has added a new feature called Readership Map. The new map pinpoints where researchers are located from around the world and what specific data they are viewing at that moment.
“This truly shows the international reach of the intellectual capital of WKU,” said Dean Connie Foster of WKU Libraries. “If you go to the website at any time, faculty, staff, and students’ materials are being downloaded all over the world. It’s a visual method to see where our scholarly works are reaching.”
According to Bepress, the parent company for the repository software Digital Commons, the following describes how the Readership Map works:
The Digital Commons Readership Map provides a dynamic visual display of location-based article downloads of open-access materials from Digital Commons and SelectedWorks sites. When a visitor downloads an article, a highlighted pin drops on the map to indicate the approximate location of the download. The title of the article and the title of the article’s publication (e.g., Dissertations) appears in a feed to the left of the map. When another download occurs, another pin drops; the highlight moves to the second pin, and the feed updates with new title information.
Go to www.digitalcommons.wku.edu to see the Readership Map in action.
Comments Off on WKU’s Research and Creative Database acquires new Readership Map feature
Filed under New Stuff, Reference, Uncategorized
Martha Potter
Bowling Green had just endured a frigid winter. Five months later, in a letter to her children on July 25, 1934, Martha Potter confessed again that her news would be mostly “about the weather, for that is all we talk or think about down here.” Her description of the summer heat in Bowling Green gives a vivid picture of life in the days before air conditioning.
“People have been sleeping outdoors all night on the ground or on porches or anywhere to keep out of the house for the houses register ninety degrees at bed time,” she wrote. “Ted [her brother-in-law] said he looked out the other night just before day and a big fat man in yellow pajamas was ‘baking’ in the moonlight on the tin roof at Mrs. Green’s.” The sheer numbers of those seeking relief in a yard nearby had even prompted a neighbor to call the police. “We live under the fans and the refrigerator door is open most of the time after water or ice,” reported Martha. “But it is such a joy!” she declared of her new appliance, purchased two months earlier. “We have always had plenty of ice even in this weather.”
Social activities had required a few concessions to the heat. Attending a music practice for a program at WKU, Martha pronounced the hall “the hottest place I ever felt. . . . The men wore cloths around their wrists to keep the perspiration off the strings.” Pursuing one of her favorite activities with her sister, Martha wrote that they were “golfing under umbrellas, and it is much cooler, as we do not have to wear any hats.” Nevertheless, she was planning a trip to the beauty shop to get her hair bobbed. “I can’t have hair in this kind of weather.”
Martha Potter’s letters chronicling daily life in Bowling Green are part of the Lissauer Collection in the Manuscripts & Folklife Archives section of WKU’s Special Collections Library. Click here to access a finding aid. For more collections, search TopSCHOLAR and KenCat.
Comments Off on The Heat is On
Filed under Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Date Built – 1931
Architects – Brinton Davis
Contractor – J.U. Schickli Construction Company
History: The pool was adjacent to the Health & Physical Education Building now known as Helm Library on the site of the current Cravens Graduate Center & Library. “It was located in a lovely spot, although the overhanging trees created a problem in keeping the pool clean. Used for both classes and recreation, the pool was reserved during the 5:30-6:30 hour for the Bowling Green public. Admission was fifteen cents with discounts ranging up to twenty swims for two dollars when payment was made in advance. ‘A warm soap bath,’ ‘regulation cotton suits,’ and rubber caps were required. ‘Spitting, blowing the nose, spouting water are forbidden.'” [Harrison, p. 102]
The pool was heated and had underwater lighting. It was 60′ x 120’ in size and the depth ranged from 3 to 7 feet. The pool was removed in preparation for the construction of Cravens Graduate Center & Library in 1970.
Comments Off on WKU’s pool (built in 1931) was open to the public from 5:30 – 6:30 pm for $.15 per visit
Filed under General, University Archives
Comments Off on May Out of the Box
Filed under University Archives
