Monthly Archives: March 2015

by Jonathan Jeffrey | March 30, 2015 · 3:34 pm

African American Church Records Donated

Mount Union Baptist Church Minutes – Green County, Kentucky

Stella Hill of Louisville recently donated a minute book from Mount Union Baptist Church in Summersville, Green County, Kentucky to the collections of the Manuscripts & Folklife Archives unit of the Department of Library Special Collections. The minutes from church business meetings chronicle the church’s history from 1898 to 1921. The minute book also contains membership lists and financial information related to the church.

Mount Union was established, like many African American churches in the region, soon after the Civil War ended. After completion of their new church building in 1868, the Liberty Church of Dezarn, Kentucky, donated their old log building to African Americans in the immediate vicinity. These blacks had been members of Jacob Grove Baptist Church in Summersville, Kentucky. They worshipped in the log structure until they purchased ten acres one mile northeast of the Liberty Church in order to construct a new building. This new structure burned around 1907, so the congregation erected a new church.

Along with the donation of the minute book, Ms. Hill donated a photograph of her parents, Richard F. & Margaret “Maggie” Owens. Interestingly, Mr. Owens served as church clerk for many years and you can find his beautiful penmanship throughout the minute book.

Richard F. & Margaret “Maggie” Owens. Mr. Owens was church clerk at Mount Union for many years.

The Manuscripts & Folklife Archives houses records for a large number of churches in south central Kentucky. To see finding aids related to these records, click here.

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by Haiwang Yuan | March 24, 2015 · 8:50 pm

“We’ve Been Everywhere:” Florence, Rome, and the Amalfi Coast

Brent Fisk, a circulation and information assistant from WKU’s Visual and Performing Arts Library and his wife Holly Hedden, a former library assisant of the WKU Libraries’ Educational Resources Center and now reference and technical services manager from the Warren County Public Library in Bowling Green, KY have made a trip to several of the significant cities in Italy including Rome, Florence, and Naples. On the morning of Tuesday, March 24, 2015, he shared their trip with his colleagues of the WKU Libraries in Cravens 111. His presentation was part of the Libraries’ “We’ve Been Everywhere” speaker series designed for library employees to share their world trip experiences with their peers in line with the university’s goal of building it into one of international reach.

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by Christopher McConnell | March 19, 2015 · 8:18 pm

Political Cartoonist ~Xavier Bonilla AKA “Bonil” to Speak for Far Away Places

After speaking at the Gary Ransdell Hall on WKU campus as part of the “Tracing the Unexplored: An Ecuadorian Tapestry” series in the afternoon of March 26, 2015, Ecuador’s most famous “caricaturist” Xavier Bonilla, also known as “Bonil,” spoke for the WKU Libraries-sponsored “Far Away Places” speaker series off campus at the Barnes & Noble Bookstore in Bowling Green on the evening of the same day.

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by Lynn Niedermeier | March 17, 2015 · 1:12 pm

“Irish folklore flourishes”

St. Patrick

On St. Patrick’s Day, as we all get in touch with our inner “Irish,” here are two collections in the Manuscripts & Folklife Archives holdings of WKU’s Department of Library Special Collections that offer a glimpse into the folklore and traditions of The Emerald Isle in America.

“In the month of March, Irish folklore flourishes,” confirmed Andrew Oberdier in his paper examining its usage in the media, most notably The Boston Globe. For example, as way of enhancing the holiday mood, raising interest in its news stories, or selling advertised products, the Globe‘s content during the 1988 holiday was replete with images of shamrocks, leprechauns, and even the Blarney Stone. Oddly enough, except for one feature article, St. Patrick himself remained largely in the background, confirming that, for many, the day’s religious aspects have taken a back seat to commerce and general revelry.

In 2005, a representative of the Kentucky Folklife Program documented the St. Patrick’s Day parade and associated activities in Louisville, Kentucky. Sarah Milligan identified several parade participants–trade unions, neighborhood associations, musicians, and members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians–as sources of information about Irish heritage in the city. Her video record highlights both the parade and a performance of Irish music at the Filson Historical Society. While she found that the “Irish scene” in Louisville is not comparable to that in major centers like New York and Chicago, the roots still run deep and, as we see every March, the green bursts forth anew.

Click on the links to access finding aids for these collections. For more of our collections documenting folklore across the country and the world, search TopSCHOLAR and KenCat.

Will of John McCollock, County Antrim, 1790 (Will S. Hays Collection)

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Tagged as Andrew Oberdier, Irish folklore, Kentucky Folklife Program, Sarah Milligan, St. Patrick's Day

by Ryan Dowell | March 13, 2015 · 5:54 pm

KY’s Nate Northington, First African American Football Player in SEC

WKU Libraries’ Kentucky Live! series hosted Nathaniel Northington, the first African American football player in the Southeastern Conference (SEC), on the evening of Thursday, March 19 at Barnes & Noble bookstore.

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by Susan Broady | March 10, 2015 · 8:54 pm

SOKY Book Fest used book sale

The Southern Kentucky Book Fest held its used book sale this past weekend. The event was delayed a day due to winter storm weather that kept the parking lots and roads snow covered on the original starting date Friday, March 6. The cold, snowy weather didn’t keep out the crowds as they eagerly sought out their favorite authors and books on Saturday and Sunday with the discount book day on Monday.

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by Lynn Niedermeier | March 4, 2015 · 2:40 pm

A Stormy Inauguration

Lyrics sung to the tune “Yankee Doodle” alluded to the pre-inauguration plot against Lincoln (SC 2264)

Prior to 1937, Inauguration Day for U.S. presidents was March 4. On that day in 1861, there was great excitement, but also grave uncertainty. Abraham Lincoln took office at a time of national crisis, with the South in the midst of secession and Lincoln himself the recent subject of a rumored assassination plot. Soon after his swearing-in, tensions only escalated with the attack on Fort Sumter and the secession of Virginia in April.

Collections in the Manuscripts & Folklife Archives holdings of WKU’s Department of Library Special Collections afford a glimpse at the mixed emotions the new president elicited from Americans. In August, a letter to Barren County, Kentucky merchant Wade Veluzat from a Lincoln voter denied that either he or his candidate were abolitionists. “But,” he wrote, “if the people of the South will make war on us because we vote for whom we please for President, then let it come.” In September, a defiant secessionist in Russellville, Kentucky took up the challenge in a letter sent to Ohio. “We are not afraid of the Lincoln Negro Party, we say whip us if you can.”

Four years later, Lincoln’s first-term record drew a similarly wide range of comment. As we have previously seen, Bevie Cain of Breckinridge County had nothing but scorn for supporters of the President’s “wicked unwise rule.” She dared a Unionist friend to “just tell me one item of good that his reign has accomplished or will accomplish.” An Indiana man was on the other side of the fence, finding Lincoln to be, in fact, insufficiently radical. He expected, nevertheless, to vote for the reelection of “old Abe,” observing presciently that he “is a good honest man, and has already said and done enough to make his name famous among the friends of universal Liberty everywhere and for all time.”

Click on the links to access finding aids for these collections. For more on Lincoln, presidents and presidential inaugurations, search TopSCHOLAR and KenCat.

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by Suellyn Lathrop | March 2, 2015 · 1:49 pm