Author Archives: Suellyn Lathrop

Anna Murl Fisher Scrapbook

Homecoming Poster

Homecoming Poster

Anna Fisher of McHenry, Kentucky attended WKU and graduated in the Class of 1932. This scrapbook includes unique items not found elsewhere in the University Archives collections including a homecoming poster for WKU vs University of Louisville football game and game program for WKU vs Cumberland College, 1928.

Anna Fisher went on to teach at Bunker Hill in Equality, Kentucky. A scrapbook she kept during those years “Memories of Bunker Hill School, 1929-1930” is also available in the Kentucky Library Call # SBK166.  Ask to see it in the Harrison-Baird Reading Room of the Kentucky Building.

Check out this and similar student/alumni collections in TopScholar.

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Amelia Smith Autograph Book

Amelia Smith Autograph Book

Amelia Smith attended the Southern Normal School in the mid-1880’s. During her time at the school, she kept an autograph book which has been donated to WKU University Archives.  This small book has been scanned and posted in TopScholar.  This and other student and alumni papers can be viewed in the Harrison-Baird Reading Room of the Kentucky Library Monday – Saturday 9 – 4.  Come visit.

Amelia Smith Autograph Book

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Donnie Love Autograph Book

Donnie Love's Autograph Book

Donnie Love's Autograph Book

Miss Donnie Love, a native of Horse Cave, Kentucky attended Southern Normal School about 1890. She received a teaching certificate and began teaching in Edmonson County by the age of 16. Her autograph book is now in University Archives and has been scanned for viewing online. There are 53 pages of autographs including this notation by Donnie Love herself inviting friends to write in her book.

The book is available online through TopScholar.

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Rodes Myers Scrapbook

Ogden College Orchestra

Rodes Kirby Myers son of W.H. and Helen (Kirby) Myers was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky on June 29, 1900.  He attended Ogden College from 1916-1919 and taught there in 1920 and at Morganfield High School in 1921. Myers went on to study law at the University of Cincinnati and the University of Kentucky where he obtained his LLB in 1925. 

Rodes Myers followed his father into politics and served in many capacities including state representative 1934-1939 and 1945; state senator 1948-1950 and lieutenant governor 1939-1943. He died March 10, 1960.

He appears in this photo with other members of the Ogden College Orchestra in 1917.  They are sitting l to r: Joseph Jones, Horace Huddle and Thomas Wright. Standing l to r: Douglas Potter, Thomas Rogers, Foreman Gibson, Raymond Gilliam, Rodes Myers and Joseph Tobin.
 
The University Archives holds a partial scrapbook created by Rodes Myers during his time at Ogden College.  Items are pasted over pages of a State Board of Health Report for 1908-1909.  There are many articles about Myers’ participation on the Ogden debate team and other activities.   The scrapbook has been scanned and is now available for researchers through TopScholar.

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Juanita Hood Stockton Scrapbooks

Juanita Hood Stockton, class of 1954, attended WKU between 1950 and 1954.  During her time here she created two scrapbooks which were donated to University Archives.  In late 2009 the scrapbooks consisting mainly of photographs were scanned and then taken apart in order to better preserve the images.  Ms. Stockton included images of herself and friends such as Rosemary Scholl, Reed Johnson, Barbara Marsh and Nancy Slocum.  There are images of couples preparing for Military Balls, Valentine’s Day dances, Beech Bend Park, Fountain Square Park, Hilltoppers Lunch, the Senators Club and in the dorms. 

This week pdf files of those scrapbooks have been made available through TopScholar: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/stu_alum_papers/.  Individual images which have yet to be identified are also available through KenCat – search using Juanita Hood Stockton.  Check out these sources to see a slice of campus life from the early 1950’s and help us identify some people.

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Registrar’s Office Records

The Registrar’s Office was created in 1909 and served the dual purpose of admissions/registrar and bookkeeping for the school early on.  The University Archives holds a complete run of undergraduate catalogs and commencement programs from the office.  Commencement programs list the names of all graduates.  The first graduate catalog in the collection is from 1941, the next is 1962.  Please contact us if you have graduate catalogs published between 1942 and 1961. 

Other less, well-known records include a short run of baccalaureate programs 1911-1918 and 1932-1965 and commencement schedules.  In the early days, commencement activities included baccalaureate service, graduating exercises, alumni symposium, concerts, receptions, chapel services for alumni and an excursion to Mammoth Cave.

Student registers include student name, date enrolled, address, county and in some cases religious affiliation and parents’ names.  They can also contain the number of course hours taken.  The archives does not currently house student grades.  These records are extant for the years 1907-1949; and 1956-1960.  There is also a statistical file which gives information regarding enrollment numbers.

The records of the Registrar’s Office have been processed and finding aids posted in TopScholar.  These records are available for researchers to use in the Harrison-Baird Reading Room.

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E.A. Diddle

E.A. Diddle w/ SIAA trophy

E.A. Diddle w/ SIAA trophy

E.A. Diddle came to WKU in 1922 as athletic director.  He coached the football team through 1929 and the baseball team until 1957.  But as most people know, he came to fame waving a red towel while coaching the Hilltopper basketball team to a 759-302 career record.

A collection of records regarding Diddle has been created from a variety of sources including the Diddle family.  These records, housed in University Archives, include early athletic department correspondence, photographs, scrapbooks and interviews.

The finding aid for this collection is now available at http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_fin_aid/7/. Images are available at KenCat.  Allied collections are also described in KenCat.

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County Delegation Presidents Club

The County Delegation Presidents Club was formed in February 1932. It was an outgrowth of the older county clubs that students were placed in upon arrival at WKU. These county clubs were formed to help students connect with their peers. A county with a large number of students stood on its own. Counties with smaller populations were combined. There was also an “out of state” club.

A faculty sponsor was assigned to several counties. Their role was to encourage attendance at chapel, elect officers and find out the names of local county papers. The secretary-treasurer was to write up press releases to be reviewed by the faculty sponsor and sent to the local papers. In this way, Dr. Cherry kept county constituents in the loop and recruited new students.

The county clubs were also instrumental during summer sessions when county teachers institutes were held throughout the western part of the state. Students were recruited to help organize the institutes. Once the County Delegation Presidents Club was formed it acted as a de facto student government organization. The club spearheaded the 1932 clean up day, ran Senior High School Day events, and over Christmas break that year collected artifacts, books and manuscripts from their respective counties for the Kentucky Library & Museum which was being created.

The few documents related to the County Delegation Presidents Club are available for researchers to use in University Archives. For more information check out the collection inventory:

http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_fin_aid/85/

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Hilltopper Heritage

Chapel

Students Attending Chapel

Archives are not a digital Mecca where every text of every document is online and searchable by keyword ~ archivist Luncinda Glenn, Graduate Theological Union Archives.

That being said, more and more individual images and documents are going online every day, along with descriptions of collections. These are put up to conserve fragile documents, to provide easier and greater access to records that are in high demand among researchers and to draw attention to an archives collections in order to bring people in for more indepth research.

Hilltopper Heritage is the University Archives “digital Mecca” for WKU sources including historic events, biographies of faculty, staff and alumni, photographs and departmental histories. You will find digitized yearbooks, College Heights Herald articles and building histories. While we will never digitize the entire collection, it is a good place to begin your research.  Hilltopper Heritage also allows for users to share their memories of WKU experiences with us through Share a Tradition.

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Ogden College

Ogden College

Ogden College

Before there was a WKU, Bowling Green was home to a number of private colleges. One of these was Ogden College. Located between State and Chestnut Streets, Ogden opened in 1877 as a boy’s school offering a 2 year prepatory course and 4 year college work. In 1927 the Ogden trustees and Western regents came to an understanding whereby the property was leased to Western. The campus is now home to the Ogden College of Science & Engineering. The records of the school were transferred to University Archives and are now available for researchers. These include images, student records, student newspapers and yearbooks.  Check out the following websites for more information regarding Ogden College:

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