Author Archives: Jonathan Jeffrey

Stephen Ruemmele’s rendering of the restored Capitol Theater with its attractive marquee.

The Capitol Theater has a storied past in Bowling Green’s entertainment history.  An earlier theater at 416 East Main Avenue was called the Columbia.  It went through extensive renovation in 1920 and was renamed the Capitol.  That building was razed and a modern structure erected; it opened in March 1939.  The architect designed the Streamline Moderne structure using local limestone and Carrara glass and crowned the cornice with an appropriate belt course of stars.  The building was in constant operation until 1977.  A few years later local citizens and government officials decided to renovate the theater and use is as a community arts center.  Volunteers helped raise the $1.2 million necessary to restore the building in 1981.

Recently the Southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center (SKYPAC) assumed management of the Capitol.  During the transfer, six architectural renderings of the theater’s exterior and interior from 1979 were donated to the Manuscripts & Folklife Archives in WKUs Special Collections Library.  Each drawing has two components:  a mylar sheet with a line drawing of the facility and a colored back sheet that gave depth and visual interest to the otherwise staid renderings.

Stephen Ruemmele executed the Capitol renovation drawings in 1979.  To find the drawings in KenCat click here.  Manuscripts & Folklilfe Archives houses over 2,000 architectural drawings sets, some consisting of only one drawing, while larger projects contain twenty or thirty drawings.  The renderings chiefly date from 1920 to 1990 and document the built environment in southcentral Kentucky with an emphasis on Bowling Green.  The collection includes drawings of residences, schools, churches and governmental structures.  Click here to search KenCat for cataloged architectural drawings.

Joe Bolton

Manuscripts & Folklife Archives in the Special Collections Library has recently opened the papers of Kentucky native and poet Joe Bolton, which includes his accumulated loose poems.  Bolton’s highly biographical poetry received widespread praise and was published in three compilations:  Breckinridge County Suite, Days of Summer Gone and The Last Nostalgia, as well as in a number of literary journals.  The Last Nostalgia was published posthumously and edited by Pulitzer Prize winning poet Donald Justice.

Joseph Edward Bolton was born on December 3, 1961 in Cadiz, Kentucky, the son of Ed and Nancy (Foster) Bolton.  His parents were schoolteachers.  Bolton attended public schools in Cadiz.  He started his college studies at the University of Mississippi but transferred to Western Kentucky University (WKU) the following year.  He graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor’s of Arts degree from WKU, where he also received the Jeoffrey McCelvey Memorial Award and the Gordon Wilson Award.  He then matriculated at the Univeristy of Floirda (UF), where he received a Master’s in English in 1988.  He also finished all the requirements for a MFA from the University of Arizona.  He did other graduate work at the University of Houston and UF.  For a brief period he taught creative writing at UF.  Bolton committed suicide on 30 March 1990.

Besides Bolton’s poetry, the collection features Donald Justice’s research notes and correspondence related to publishing The Last Nostalgia.  Justice corresponded with Bolton’s father Ed and with one of his close college friends, Tonya Parsons, who provided information about Joe’s life while attending WKU.  The correspondence contains biograpical information about Bolton and reveals how friends and family deal with suicide.  To see a copy of the collection finding aid click here.  To search for other literary collections held by Manuscripts & Folklife Archives search TopSCHOLAR.

Jessica Mather, Folklife Archives Intern

My name is Jessica Mather, and I am a senior at WKU.  This spring, I have been working as an intern in Manuscripts & Folklife Archives in the Special Collections Library.  I have really enjoyed my time here, since I have been able to work on projects that are close to my heart.  Both sides of my family are from Warren County, and I have been interested in Kentucky history, genealogy and local architecture most of my life.  I had been to the library several times for my own research, so I was thrilled to get the opportunity to work here.

One project I worked on was indexing a collection of folk songs.  I love the old songs and am interested in how the stories of the past are carried to us through these songs.  I just wish I could sing, so I could carry them on! 

Another big project I worked on was creating finding aids for folklife projects.  These projects contain oral histories, genealogies, photographs and other materials that are valuable resources for researchers and people like me.  I enjoyed learning about communities both near my home and in other parts of Kentucky.  I also got to transcribe a taped interview with a woman who worked as a teacher in a coal mining community. Wow! What an experience!  I’m glad I got to be a part of making these resources easier for people to search and discover the treasures we have here in the Kentucky Library & Museum.

Kayla with Robert Penn Warren looking over her shoulder

My name is Kayla Wright; I am an English graduate student at WKU.  For the spring 2012 semester, I have been the Robert Penn Warren fellow.  Being the RPW fellow means that I’ve worked with the Robert Penn Warren collections in the manuscripts section of the Special Collections Library.

While working in the library, I’ve gone through transcripts of interviews that were conducted in order to learn more about people on whom RPW based characters.  I also worked on a finding aid for this same collection, which means I got to play detective for a little while and match up people and dates.  (Surprisingly enough, this was a lot of fun.  It strengthened my research skills, and I was always excited when I knew information matched up correctly.)

I have also been working on adding to the finding aid for RPW’s correspondence.  It’s been incredibly interesting reading correspondence between RPW and his friends and colleagues.  It is interesting to see what was going on in his life while he was writing different works.  While he was always busy working on something, I have also enjoyed reading about his family getaways to the country or to Italy.

I’ve learned a lot about Robert Penn Warren and his family; at this point, I feel as if I know them.  Overall, this has been a wonderful experience, and I have learned so much.

Membership Directory, 1980-1981

Members of the now disbanded Bowling Green Warren County Medical Society Alliance have donated the records of their organization to the Manuscripts & Folkife Archives at WKU.  If not for these posterity-minded individuals, the organization might only be remembered for two nursing scholarships that it administered for many years.  These scholarships–the Newman & Lena Harris Scholarship (begun in 1972) and the Maydelle Johnson Funk Scholarship (started in 1978)–will continue to be awarded annually to WKU nursing students under the aegis of the College Heights Foundation.

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KHQS's logo features the Kentucky Star quilt pattern

        Nothing says comfort like a handmade quilt. These cultural gems are closely associated with Kentuckians; thousands of these pieced, applique, and whole-cloth quilts are safely tucked away in closets or chests, proudly displayed on beds or quilt racks, or exhibited in museums across the Commonwealth. Kentucky’s vintage quilts and their makers are featured in the recently processed Kentucky Heritage Quilt Society (KHQS) Collection found in Manuscripts & Folklife Archives. The 62-box collection houses over 20,000 items. Processing the collection, which started in May, was partially funded by the Society. Click here to see the collection finding aid.

        In December 1980, Katy Christopherson and Melzie Wilson convened a meeting in Louisville to consider the establishment of a state-wide organization for quilters. The group voted to establish the KHQS, with three major functions:  promote the understanding, appreciation and knowledge of the art and craft of quiltmaking; support and expand the collections and preservation of Kentucky quilts and the records of Kentucky’s quiltmakers and their work; and, undertake activities such as shows, contests and workshops. In January 1981, the fledgling group created a set of by-laws and elected officers and committee chairpersons. The organization’s articles of incorporation were filed with the Secretary of State’s office in April 1981, and by July the organization’s membership had grown from 15 to 105.

        KHQS’s first major project was a statewide quilt contest in 1982. This successful effort included a series of seminars on “What Makes a Prize-Winning Quilt.” Since that time, KHQS has offered varied programming, ranging from design seminars, presentations about historical quilts, its popular hands-on workshops at Pleasant Hill, and its annual “Quilter’s Getaway” which has been held in various locations across the state.

        KHQS also undertook a project to interview Kentucky quilters about their craft and their product. The grant-funded project, titled “Quilters on File,” allowed a cadre of women to be trained in interviewing techniques prior to conducting field work. The project resulted in 92 interviews captured on cassette tapes as well as a training manual. Auxiliary information and transcripts are sometimes available with the interview.

        Surely the most daunting, but useful, project undertaken by KHQS has been a comprehensive registry of vintage quilts made in Kentucky. As of 2011, sixty counties have been surveyed. Each quilt was assigned a unique number, and information was captured about the quilt and its maker and owner. In addition the quilts were photographed. In the early years, black and white photographs were made, but since the introduction of digital photography only color images are taken. To see the registry go to www.khqs.org