Author Archives: Lynn Niedermeier

by | May 14, 2015 · 4:08 pm

“To Be: Not to Seem”

Cedar Bluff College commencement invitation

Cedar Bluff College commencement invitation

So declared the motto on the 1886 commencement invitation for Cedar Bluff College in Woodburn, Kentucky, a boarding school that educated young ladies from 1864 until fire destroyed its building in 1892.

In June 1877, Addie Darden was class salutatorian, and her greeting to those assembled for that year’s graduation exercises touched on familiar themes of happy memories, sad farewells, and hopes for the future.  Addie used those sentiments to introduce a then-customary feature of commencement exercises, particularly at women’s colleges, where the “sweet girl graduates” showed off their proficiency in the “ornamental” subjects of their curriculum with readings and musical performances.  “Some of our number,” she told the assembled crowd, “will give you songs and music, some of it bright and fair as their own sweet lives, and some will be in the minor chords of sadness; but each strain will speak to you in its own language, telling its own story.”

But Addie rebutted the notion that she and her classmates were just charm school graduates, academic lightweights who only seemed to be educated.  Her second speaking duty was to deliver the Latin salutatory, an address that one might more readily associate with Harvard or Princeton.  For her subject, Addie chose the Catiline Conspiracy–De Catilinae Conjuratione–and read her page-and-a-half speech, in Latin, to the gathering of parents, teachers and friends.

Addie Darden’s salutatories (both English and Latin) are part of the Manuscripts & Folklife Archives holdings of WKU’s Department of Library Special Collections.  Click here to access a finding aid.  For more collections about Cedar Bluff College and other Kentucky schools, search TopSCHOLAR and KenCat.

Comments Off on “To Be: Not to Seem”

Filed under Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Tagged as , ,

by | May 8, 2015 · 1:05 pm

“Sober Rejoicing”

World War II-era envelope illustration (SC 1819)

World War II-era envelope illustration (SC 1819)

On May 7, 1945, only two weeks after the funeral of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the White House press office issued a short statement: the new president, Harry S. Truman, planned “to make an announcement to the nation by radio at 9 o’clock tomorrow morning.”  The end of World War II in Europe was at hand.

The press release was probably typed by Elizabeth (Phillips) Brite, a Bowling Green native, graduate of the Bowling Green Business University, and secretary to White House press secretary Jonathan W. Daniels.  Elizabeth was uniquely situated to witness Washington’s anticipation of the Nazi surrender.  On May 1, Truman had authorized Daniels to state that should hostilities cease, the President would “emphasize the necessity for thankfulness and for continuation by all Americans in the great war job which still lies before us.”  On May 2, the State Department released a chronology of the week’s negotiations with Germany–the summons of a Swedish intermediary, German commander Heinrich Himmler’s secret peace offer and his claim that Hitler was fatally ill, and America’s coordination with its British and Soviet allies.  Having demanded that capitulation be unconditional and delivered to all three Allied governments, President Truman agreed with London and Moscow that their announcements of victory would be simultaneous.

In Truman’s May 1 message, he had hoped that “there will be no celebration” in light of the unfinished struggle against Japan.  Fred Vinson, a Kentuckian directing the Office of War Mobilization, took a similar stance.  The government would “not attempt to prescribe a rigid rule of conduct” for local celebrations of victory, but he urged that there be no break in war production and “no greater interruption of normal activity than the peoples’ sense of sober rejoicing demands.”  Although many heeded his request for restraint, Victory in Europe Day–May 8, 1945, which also happened to be President Truman’s birthday–nevertheless brought jubilation.

Press releases and other materials relating to V-E Day are part of the Henry and Elizabeth Brite Collection in the Manuscripts & Folklife Archives holdings of WKU’s Department of Library Special Collections.  Click here to access a finding aid.  For other World War II collections, search TopSCHOLAR and KenCat.

World War II-era envelope illustration (SC 1819) mocking Hitler by using the name of his father's unwed mother.

World War II-era envelope illustration (SC 1819) mocking Hitler by using the name of his father’s unwed mother.

Comments Off on “Sober Rejoicing”

Filed under Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Tagged as , , , , , ,

by | May 4, 2015 · 1:29 pm

#May4Matters

On the 45th anniversary of the Kent State shootings, read our 2010 blog about a Kent State professor’s letter to WKU librarian Julia Neal in the aftermath of the tragedy.

Comments Off on #May4Matters

Filed under Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Tagged as , , , , ,

by | April 30, 2015 · 1:21 pm

Scenes from a Companionate Marriage

Joseph and Elizabeth Underwood and their home, Ironwood

Joseph and Elizabeth Underwood and their home, Ironwood

In the Winter 2014 issue of Ohio Valley History, WKU assistant history professor Jennifer A. Walton-Hanley’s article uses the letters of Joseph and Elizabeth (Cox) Underwood, housed in the Manuscripts & Folklife Archives collections of WKU’s Department of Library Special Collections, to study “an antebellum southern companionate marriage.”

Married in 1839 when he was 48 and she only 21, Joseph and Elizabeth Underwood experienced long periods of separation from 1847 to 1853 when Joseph, serving as a U.S. Senator in Washington, left Elizabeth to raise their children (and stepchildren from his first marriage) and manage their Bowling Green, Kentucky farm.  During that time, the couple exchanged hundreds of letters that offer, as Walton-Hanley writes, “a case study of one Kentucky man’s struggles to preserve his domestic connections and maintain his family position.”

Using the letters as evidence, Walton-Hanley shows how Joseph relied heavily on Elizabeth to run their household but remained actively involved in all its affairs.  He consulted and advised on finances, closely monitored his children’s health, education and behavior, and eagerly sought reports on even the most ordinary details of life at home.  But Joseph’s practice of 19th-century “masculine domesticity” did not stem simply from a sense of male privilege; rather, it reflected his unabashed yearning for home and family.  Worrying about his children and candidly expressing his love for his intelligent and capable wife, Joseph bridged their separation and maintained an emotional presence in Elizabeth’s life even as she exercised considerable autonomy within their partnership.

Click here to access a finding aid for the Underwood Collection containing the letters of Joseph and Elizabeth Underwood.  For more collections on Bowling Green families, search TopSCHOLAR and KenCat.

Comments Off on Scenes from a Companionate Marriage

Filed under Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Tagged as , , , ,

by | April 24, 2015 · 4:38 pm

Hats On for the Derby

Collections in the Manuscripts & Folklife Archives  section of WKU’s Department of Library Special Collections offer a variety of materials on the history and traditions of the Kentucky Derby.  For example:

Derby hats in the making at Dee's

Derby hats in the making at Dee’s

Our folklife collections include a project focusing on the Derby’s great tradition of distinctive headwear.  In “Dynamics of a Kentucky Derby Hat,” WKU folk studies student Becky Proctor explored the search for the perfect hat at Dee’s Craft Store in Louisville.  In their customers’ choice of ornament, color scheme and accompanying wardrobe, the proprietors of Dee’s have long known that the Derby hat combines personal expression, social statement, performance art and, perhaps, setting the trend for next year.

Ashland Oil's Derby Party programs

Ashland Oil’s Derby Party programs

For guests of the Ashland Oil & Refining Company, the 1969 Derby highlighted a packed weekend of tours, receptions and parties.  VIPs from U.S. Steel, Getty Oil, B.F. Goodrich, Texaco, du Pont and other companies received a kit that included an event schedule, name badges, taxicab vouchers, and invitations to cocktails, country club breakfasts, champagne dinner parties and a Derby Ball. “If the weather pays any attention to our instructions, you’ll be enchanted with Kentucky in the spring,” wrote a representative, providing some helpful hints for appropriate dress at the opening dinner, bluegrass farms tour, and farewell banquet.  Derby Day itself was to begin with brunch on board the Belle of Louisville–but, she warned, “a little food ahead of time might be a good idea, as mint juleps on an empty stomach can be devastating.”

Click on the links to access finding aids for these collections.  For more historical materials on the Kentucky Derby, search TopSCHOLAR and KenCat.

Comments Off on Hats On for the Derby

Filed under Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Tagged as , , , ,

by | April 17, 2015 · 1:55 pm

What They Saw

Lowell Harrison; Jewish memorial at Bergen-Belsen (Wikimedia Commons)

Lowell Harrison; Jewish memorial at Bergen-Belsen (Wikimedia Commons)

This week marks the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.  Arriving on April 15, 1945, British troops surveyed a landscape of unspeakable suffering and cruelty.

Kentuckians serving in Europe at the end of the war were among many eyewitnesses to the atrocities perpetrated in the camps.  Their experiences are documented in some of the Manuscripts & Folklife Archives holdings of WKU’s Department of Library Special Collections.

WKU history professor and Russell County native Lowell Harrison was serving as a combat engineer when his division arrived at the concentration camp at Nordhausen, in the heart of Germany.  “It was something that was unbelievable,” he recalled.  “You see pictures. . . , you read about it, but you couldn’t believe that people could be treated that way until you actually saw them.”  Richardsville native William R. Hudson, drafted after the Nazi surrender and sent to Germany to serve with occupation forces, was exposed to German atrocities when he was appointed to guard war criminals, including Hermann Goering.  It was then that he witnessed the evil infrastructure of the Holocaust: railroad cars, gas chambers, crematoria, and the bones of victims “stacked up like haystacks.”

Soldiers struggled to convey their experiences to incredulous civilians.  Writing from Germany in May 1945, Bowling Green native Harry L. Jackson reacted sharply when his sister complained of being inundated with “atrocity propaganda.”  “I HAVE seen more than enough,” he assured her, to know that the reports were not exaggerated.  But trying to describe to her the sight of a German slave labor camp, with its stench, filth, and starving inmates reduced to “the basic instincts of the animal” was beyond his capacity.  While man’s power to degrade and destroy seemed boundless, “our inadequacy and limitations surface,” he declared, “when we are asked to define what WAR really is.  It cannot be put into words.”

Click on the links to access finding aids to these collections (contact us at mssfa@wku.edu about the Harry Jackson Collection).  For more collections on World War II in Germany and beyond, search TopSCHOLAR and KenCat.

Comments Off on What They Saw

Filed under Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Tagged as , , , , , ,

by | April 2, 2015 · 8:55 am

Easter Greetings

Easter cards customarily combine a religious message of hope and renewal with images of a kinder and gentler season.  Whether adorned with Easter eggs or Easter lilies, they celebrate the promise of brighter days ahead.

Easter card of artist Mazie Lee Thomas

Easter card of artist Mazie Lee Thomas

Homemade Easter cards are included in some of the Manuscripts & Folklife Archives holdings of WKU’s Department of Library Special Collections.  One is from Mazie Lee Thomas, a largely self-taught African-American folk artist who resided in Adairville, Kentucky.  Perhaps the most unusual card is one created by Mary Alice Kimbrough in 1944.  Made with tiny, hand-cut pieces of postage stamps, the colorful greeting was sent to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and was undoubtedly a unique addition to his beloved stamp collection.

Click on the links to access finding aids for these collections.  For other Easter materials in the Department of Library Special Collections, search TopSCHOLAR and KenCat.

Mary Alice Kimbrough's card (with detail)

Mary Alice Kimbrough’s card (with detail)

 

Comments Off on Easter Greetings

Filed under Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Tagged as , ,

by | March 17, 2015 · 1:12 pm

“Irish folklore flourishes”

St. Patrick

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)

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

Comments Off on “Irish folklore flourishes”

Filed under Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Tagged as , , , ,

by | 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)

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.

Comments Off on A Stormy Inauguration

Filed under Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Tagged as , ,

by | February 26, 2015 · 2:38 pm

Bookworms

Eclectic Book Club yearbook, 1957-58

Eclectic Book Club yearbook, 1957-58

During last week’s snowstorm, you might have spent some extra time relaxing with a book.  Bowling Green’s long history of literary clubs testifies to its citizenry’s love of the same pursuit, regardless of the weather.

Take the Eclectic Book Club, organized in 1939 by WKU librarian Edna Bothe with the expressed aim of promoting “the mutual enjoyment and mental development that result from the reading and discussion of good books.”  Throughout its 65-year history, the club’s members met regularly to exchange books and to deliver programs on travel, famous men and women, and other topics of intellectual interest.  Their reading was indeed eclectic–from Random Harvest, Berlin Diary, The Psychology of Christian Personality and God is My Co-Pilot to Famous Kentucky Duels, Essays of E. B. White, Jackie O!, The Bell Jar, Elvis and Me and Seabiscuit.  At the conclusion of business, however, all found common tastes in enjoying the refreshments served by that meeting’s hostess, arranging picnics, Christmas parties and pot luck suppers, and taking rueful delight in having a club name that was “more consistently misspelled in the local press” than any other.

The records of the Eclectic Book Club are part of the Manuscripts & Folklife Archives holdings of WKU’s Department of Library Special Collections.  Click here to access a finding aid.  For other collections relating to Bowling Green’s many literary clubs, search TopSCHOLAR and Ken Cat.

Comments Off on Bookworms

Filed under Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Tagged as , ,