Author Archives: Lynn Niedermeier

Ladies’ Literary Club program 1924-25

One spring afternoon in 1880, Matilda Stevens stopped by the Bowling Green home of her friend Hallie Thomas Hines.  Mrs. Stevens, a local teacher of “marked individuality,” had been thinking about starting a club.  Some of the city’s more prominent gentlemen had recently formed their own group, the XV Club, to discuss the cultural and political topics of the day over a hearty supper.  Mrs. Stevens believed the women ought to have a club too; unlike the men, however, she thought it unseemly to use the device of a meal to bring such a knowledge-hungry group together.  There should be no refreshments.

The result was the Ladies’ Literary Club, organized in March 1880 with 12 members and now recognized as the oldest club of its kind in Bowling Green.  Over the decades, members have met twice monthly to study countless topics in literature, culture and history: Mozart, Mary Queen of Scots, Japanese religion, the Bible in literature, Chinese emigration, evolution, precious gems, English poets, and assorted book reviews, to name just a few.

As the club minutes show, preparation was extensive, discussion was lively, and presenters were talented and intellectually curious.  In the early years, several teachers from Potter College for Young Ladies were among the more formidable members.  Giving “an elaborate historical talk” at the February 1, 1898 meeting, Gertrude Anderson “told the Club how Bismarck had put Germany in the saddle, taught her to hold the reins and ride triumphantly.”  On February 15 her colleague, Mrs. M. E. Shelburne, “in her usual comprehensive style” gave the club “a most entertaining paper on the great German pessimist Schopenhauer.  She seemed to take especial delight in airing his views on woman and her shortcomings.  But,” the minutes continued, “the 19th century Club woman is too optimistic in her views to be depressed by such effete ideas.”

The Ladies’ Literary Club Collection, which includes minute books, correspondence and historical sketches, can be viewed in WKU’s Special Collections Library.  Click here to download a finding aid.  For collections on other local clubs and organizations, search TopSCHOLAR and KenCat.

Ralph Bunche (Library of Congress)

Public supported education for African Americans in Barren County began inauspiciously in 1866, when the General Assembly earmarked a mere one-half of revenues generated from taxation of property owned by blacks for the support of black schools in Kentucky.  Although common school funds were later distributed to districts on a strictly per capita basis, black schools continued to struggle; the number of black elementary schools in Barren County declined from 27 in 1892 to 18 by 1931.

In Glasgow, the Glasgow Training School served black elementary students as a unit of the county system.  In the mid-1920s, the school added two years of high school work, which was soon expanded to four.  In 1950, the school became the first state-accredited, 12-year institution for black students in Barren County.  It was renamed the Ralph Bunche School in honor of Ralph Bunche (1904-1971), a political science professor, civil rights advocate, diplomat and Nobel Peace Prize winner.  Today, the school is succeeded by the Bunche Center which, along with the Liberty District Association, seeks to aid and counsel high-risk youth and families.

In 2009, with funding from the Kentucky Oral History Commission, a WKU student interviewed 10 African Americans about their experiences at the Ralph Bunche School when it was still a segregated institution.  The seven women and three men talk about the school, its teachers, the values they learned there, segregation and attitudes toward African Americans, and the importance of the school to the community.  Their recorded interviews are part of the collections of WKU’s Special Collections Library.  Click here to download a finding aid for the Ralph Bunche Community Center Oral History Project, and here for a related series of interviews about the Ralph Bunche National Historic District in Glasgow.  For more on African Americans in Kentucky, search TopSCHOLAR and KenCat.

Mazie Lee Thomas

Among the students at Tennessee Agricultural and Industrial University (now Tennessee State) in 1953 was a 47-year-old resident of Adairville, Kentucky named Mazie Lee Thomas.  Born in Georgia, Thomas (1906-2001) had begun teaching herself to draw and paint at an early age.  One day, having grown tired of “piddling around” with her skills, she took a bus to Nashville to show some of her paintings to one of Tennessee A&I’s art teachers.  After the teacher made a personal trip to Adairville to secure her husband’s cooperation, she enrolled at the school for a year’s training.

In addition to painting in oil, watercolor and acrylic, Thomas fashioned greeting cards and craft items such as corn shuck dolls and paper mache figures.  Today, some of her paintings are held in the collections of Morehead’s Kentucky Folk Art Center and at WKU’s Special Collections Library.

The Library also holds manuscript materials documenting the work of this African-American folk artist.  Included are clippings and artwork collected by her niece into a scrapbook, slides of her paintings, and a short video of Thomas discussing her work.

Click here to download a finding aid for the Mazie Lee Thomas Collection.  For more on African Americans and folk artists, search TopSCHOLAR and KenCat.

Mazie Thomas’s artwork

John H. Brown’s drugstore accounts

The question of how to streamline, share and protect medical records in an electronic age is high on the agenda for health care reform.  In the mid-nineteenth century, however, record keeping was far less complex and more likely to reflect the idiosyncracies of the health care providers of the day.  Take, for example, the account book of physician-druggist John H. Brown.  Born in Greensburg, Kentucky in 1832, Brown was raised in Illinois, where he took up his profession in the Mississippi River town of Cairo.  His account book, dating from 1856-1862 and now held by WKU’s Special Collections Library, offers a unique look at his trade with the local population, and how he kept track of a rather curious pageant of customers.

In particular, names were not always a necessity for Brown.  His book tallied charges for a “Little Scotchman” who purchased unspecified “Pills and powds.”  There was the “Old Gentleman who lived beyond Mr. Givins” and his modest account for “Tonic Powds.”  Brown sold some “medicine” to “Pastry Cook John” and similarly dosed the daughter of the “Dutch sausage maker.”  The aforesaid Little Scotchman must have provided a good recommendation, because soon afterward Brown sold a toothbrush, pills and “solution for mouth” to the “Big Irishman who stays with little Scotchman.”  No doubt the “Sore mouth gentleman at Mr. Hanes” required the same relief, although his account also included a bottle of “sherry wine.”  Sales to various customers “on boats” provided evidence of Brown’s ongoing trade as a riverside pharmacist.

But Brown’s account book was not as chaotic as it might seem, for at the front was an index allowing one to easily find “Gentleman, Old who lives beyond Mr. Givins” on page 59, “Boy at King’s brickyard” on page 62, or “Irishman, Big who stays with little Scotchman” on page 61.

A finding aid for John H. Brown’s account book can be downloaded here.  For other collections on medicine and medical-related topics, search TopSCHOLAR and KenCat.

Letter of W. H. Smith, 1840

Bowling Green has many unique aspects, but its name is not one of them.  In addition to the Kentucky city, there are “Bowling Greens” in Ohio, Virginia, Missouri, Florida, Indiana and South Carolina, as well as the famous park in Lower Manhattan.  Accordingly, when the Special Collections Library acquired an 1840 letter written from “Bowling Green,” our first task was to confirm that it was indeed a local product.

Finding clues in the letter was made more difficult by the fact that it was written in the crosshatch method–filling a page, then turning it 90 degrees and writing over the completed text, in order to save paper and postage.  The author, W. H. Smith, was writing to his brother Joseph in Warrenton, Virginia.  His main topic was the illness of several family members.  One was “taken with a severe chill and burning fever” so extreme, he reported, that she became deranged and begged their slaves to throw water on her.  Others succumbed to similar symptoms, requiring the application of “heated salt red pepper & whiskey” on their arms and legs, as well as repeated doses of quinine, to break their chills.  Turning to other matters, Smith discussed his efforts to “buy a negro boy” at a reasonable price, and his mother’s distress at the prospect of unruly slaves being whipped.

Interesting, but not indicative of any particular location.  But then there was this: “We are to have a large & grand whig festival here on 5 Oct[obe]r to celebrate the Battle of the Thames,” wrote Smith, referring to a political event commemorating an American victory in the War of 1812.  Did Bowling Green, Kentucky host such a festival?  An internet search revealed a broadside in the collections of the Western Reserve Historical Society in Cleveland, Ohio, announcing the very same event, sponsored by the “Whigs of Warren.”  This could have referred to Warren County, Ohio, were it not for the fact that among the individual sponsors of the event were men named Grider, Quigley, Covington, and Wilkins–easily recognizable as prominent citizens of Warren County, Kentucky.  Mystery solved!

Click here to download a finding aid and typescript of W. H. Smith’s letter.  For more collections, search TopSCHOLAR and KenCat.

New Year’s postcards, early 20th century

Like all Americans, Kentuckians throughout history have responded to the arrival of each new year with a range of activities and emotions.  Their varied expressions of hope, excitement or trepidation can be found in some of the collections of WKU’s Special Collections Library.

On January 1, 1861, 20-year-old Bowling Green native Josie Underwood wrote in her diary of the splendid New Year’s ball she had attended in Memphis, Tennessee.  The spell of the evening was broken only once when, “like Banquo’s ghost,” the spectre of Southern secession entered the conversation–then, wrote pro-Union Josie, “we were all off like horses in a race.”  A year later, with the Civil War raging, Josie’s entry for December 31, 1861 mourned “the last night of this sad and trying most eventful year of my life–and our country’s life.  God grant us Peace before another shall end!”

After the war, hope returned.  While staying with relatives in Indiana, 14-year-old Mary Elizabeth Cosby wrote to her father in Muhlenberg County of the commotion surrounding the 1866 New Year’s celebrations.  “I never in all of my life heard such rin[g]ing of bells and firing of guns as there was at twelve o’clock that night,” she reported; even the local waterworks blew its whistle.

Much later, in Bowling Green, Mackie Smith had two reasons to celebrate the dawn of the year 1900: January 1 marked both a new century and her 20th birthday.  To commemorate this fresh beginning, she set out her lofty aims in the pages of her new journal.  “Little book,” she inscribed, “into thy pages shall I pour my joys and griefs for this coming year.  Keep thou the secrets I shall impart to thee. . . . Oh may I learn many valuable lessons this year. . . . Oh may the resolves and resolutions I make ever form a bright picture oh may it not fade and grow dim, but live and shed its undying lustre with matchless splendor.”

Click on the names to download finding aids for these collections.  For more collections relating to Christmas, New Year’s and other holidays, search TopSCHOLAR and KenCat.