The U. S. Government Printing Office has posted a list of resources on Ebola – much in the news right now. Carol Watwood has put a link on her Health Research Guides http://libguides.wku.edu/publichealth I will also link it to my Government pages shortly. Meanwhile I wanted you to have this important resource: http://catalog.gpo.gov/F?func=find-b&find_code=WRD&request=ebola
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Ebola Resources for the Public
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First Faraway Flix film welcomed a full faculty house.
Sixty students, faculty, and staff poured into the Faculty House on Friday, September 26 for the first film of the 2014-15 Faraway Flix series, featuring international films. Ecuador, the featured country for WKU this year, was the first country highlighted in the movie Que Tan Lejos. Participants received a free t-shirt, a sample of Ecuadorian food, and great scholar-led discussion with Dr. Sonia Lenk from Modern Languages.
“We were very pleased with the turn out for the first film of the year,” said Shaden Melky, chair of the Faraway Flix committee and organizer of the event. “There were several conflicting events so it was great to see so many attend for our kick off to a great line up of films.”
Other countries or cultures featured this year in the film series include Japan, Native America, France, Thailand, and Lebanon. For more information on each film, go to http://wku.edu/library/farawayflix/index.php
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Cynthia Elder’s Talk is Next for KY Live! Speaker Series
Cynthia Elder, local historian, photographer and editor of “the Catholic settlement” A History of St. Jerome Catholic Church 1836-2011, introduced the Church and the largest Picnic in the world (1984 Guinness Book of World Records) in her hometown Fancy Farm, KY to a Bowling Green and Warren County audience in Barnes & Noble on the evening of October 9, 2014. Her talk was part of the WKU Libraries’ “Kentucky Live!” speaker series.
Photo Album | Sound File | Podcast RSS
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The Moon in Your Sky: An Immigrant’s Journey Home (To Uganda)
Far Away Places kicked off its fifteenth year on Thursday, September 18 at Barnes & Noble with author Kate Saller of St. Louis, MO discussing her new book, The Moon in Your Sky: An Immigrant’s Journey Home.
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Ronald Reagan Speaks About Panama Canal
After a close, and acrimonious bid to win the Republican Party presidential nomination in 1976, Ronald Reagan lost to the more moderate and sitting President Gerald R. Ford. In the ensuing Bicentennial election, Ford lost to his charismatic, grinning Democratic opponent Jimmy Carter. Confident that his future included national service, Reagan never stopped campaigning over the next four years.
In 1977 Reagan was invited to speak at Western Kentucky University’s Free Enterprise Fair. Prior to his speech on September 22, Reagan participated in a press conference in which he answered questions about issues of national concern. One of the most heated topics of the day was the Panama Canal Treaty; 80% of Americans believed that the U.S. was giving the canal away. When asked about it, Reagan railed against the Carter administration for contemplating the transfer of the canal to “a man [Omar Torrijos] who’s there, not because he had the most votes, but because he had the most guns.” In his remarks, Reagan basically promotes the chief tenet of the Monroe
Doctrine which acknowledged the United States as the protector of the Americas. “I think that basically the world is not going to see this [giving away the canal] as a magnanimous gesture on our part, as the White House would have us believe,” noted Reagan. “They are going to see it as once again American backing away and retreating in the face of trouble.” When it came to giving the canal away, Reagan strongly stated: “I’m going to talk as long and as loud as I can against it.”
His press conference remarks were recorded for posterity and are located in the Manuscripts & Folkife Archives unit of the Department of Library Special Collections.
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Poetic Tribute
R.C.P. Thomas, scion of a prominent Bowling Green family and beloved member of the local bar, was appointed the District Judge of the Panama Canal Zone in June 1933 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. As he prepared to leave the U.S., local poet and friend John A. Logan penned a poetic tribute for his departing friend.
“The East is East and West is West/And ne’er the twain shall meet,”/Was prophesied, but Teddy the Great/Performed the wonderful feat.
One stroke of his club, two continents/Majestically sprang apart;/An East met West in a brotherhood/Ne’er dreamed by the great Bret Hart.
Down by the side of this great highway/Kentucky now sends her best,/To cheer the hearts of the sons of men/Where the East now meets the West.
He goes to live by the side of the road,/Where the ships of the earth go by,/Wherever he dwells, in his heart of gold,/There dwells both you and I.
As he sits by the side of this wonderful road/And looks on the tropic scene,/His heart will be with the folks at home/And beautiful Bowling Green.
His thoughts will be of our tiny lakes/And his heart in sweet accord,/With their gentle wave-lips whispering love/As they kiss the soft green sward.
He will dream of the warbled melody/Of Kentucky’s myriad birds,/And the redolence of home grown flowers/Beyond the power of words.
We send him away that the world may know/That hospitality/With justice and mercy go hand in hand/With Kentucky gallantry.
With an aurevoir, just for a day/We send our friend away./Let these flowers with their perfumed breath/Speak the words we cannot say.
Thomas did an admirable job in Panama, but declined reappointment after his four-year term ended in 1937. He returned to Bowling Green, retired from his law practice, and spent time working with a herd of Jersey cows on his farm until he died in 1939. To research the worldwide contributions of Kentuckians, check out KenCat and TopSCHOLAR.
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Allen Dossey Kicks Off the 12th Season of KY Live! Speaker Series with His Purple Toad Winery
Allen Dossey, Proprietor of the Purple Toad Winery in Paducah, KY, is talking to a Bowling Green community audience at Barnes & Noble for the Kentucky Live! event co-sponsored by WKU Libraries and the bookstore.
WKU Libraries kicked off the 12th season of KY Live! speaker series with a program about one of the newest and most acclaimed vineyards and wineries in Kentucky started by WKU alum Allen Dossey. The Purple Toad Winery sits on the edge of Paducah, Kentucky and includes a tasting room, walkable vineyard, and a facility that can be rented for parties, weddings and other social events. The event happened on the evening of Thursday, September 11, 2014 in Barnes & Noble Booksellers in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The bookstore is a partner of the talk series with WKU Libraries.
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Maurice Hudson Thatcher
Maurice Hudson Thatcher was born in Chicago, Illinois on August 15, 1870. The Thatcher family moved to Morgantown, Kentucky when Maurice was about 3-yrs-old and he grew up in Butler County. Maurice Thatcher worked as a circuit court clerk for Butler County, before he became Assistant U. S. District Attorney for Kentucky’s Western District, 1901-1908. Thatcher held the office of State Inspector and Examiner for Kentucky, 1908-1910. In 1910, Maurice Thatcher was appointed by the former U. S. President William Howard Taft as a member of the Isthmian Canal Commission which supervised construction of the Panama Canal.
Maurice H. Thatcher served as Civil Governor of the Canal Zone, 1910-1913, during the construction of the Panama Canal. The Thatcher Ferry Bridge over the Panama Canal was named for Maurice Thatcher in 1961. Former U. S. President Robert F. Kennedy reportedly gave Maurice Thatcher the pen with which Kennedy signed the bill that named the bridge after Thatcher. However, the Thatcher Ferry bridge was later renamed as the Bridge of the Americas.
Maurice H. Thatcher served in the House of Representatives, 1923-1933, from Kentucky’s 5th District. Thatcher sponsored legislation for the establishment of Mammoth Cave as a National Park. Thatcher actively supported a national parkway system from the Great Smoky Mountains National Park through the Mammoth Cave National Park and to the Natchez Trace Parkway near Nashville, TN. Thatcher also helped establish the Gorgas Memorial Laboratory in Panama City for the study of tropical diseases in honor of his old colleague on the canal commission, Colonel William C. Gorgas.
In the House of Representatives address on May 29, 1930, the Honorable Maurice H. Thatcher concluded his speech on page 20 about the History and Significance of the Panama Canal with, “This slight ligament, which through the centuries gone has physically bound together North and South America, in the centuries to come, by the fact of its severance, shall bind and hold together the two continents in the closest bonds of commercial, political, and social friendship, and shall quicken and increase our contacts with all the lands of the earth.”
*Photo of Maurice H. Thatcher can be found in the Department of Library Special Collections.
Thatcher was honorary life president of the Panama Canal Society in Washington, D. C. and honorary life member of the Isthmian Historical Society. Other honors include: a medal and plaque of the Order of Vasco Nunez de Balboa from the Panama government, as well as honors from Venezuela and Ecuador for his service.
Maurice H. Thatcher was the sole surviving member of the Isthmian Canal Commission when he celebrated his 100th birthday on the 56th anniversary of the opening of the Panama Canal. Former U. S. President Richard Nixon called to wish Thatcher a happy birthday.
In a newspaper article written by William Greider, February 18, 1968, entitled …Always a Congressman, Thatcher said, “I keep my citizenship back in Kentucky,” he explained, “but I am domiciled here. I stayed here because of these public matters I was interested in. I felt I could do more good by staying here and could serve Kentucky and the Panama Canal better than I would by going back.”
Maurice Hudson Thatcher died on January 6, 1973 at the age of 102 at his home in Washington, D. C. and he was buried in Frankfort, Kentucky.
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Panamaniacs
Americans were fascinated by the Big Dig going on in Panama in the early-1910s. The Latin American isthmus project was a sterling example of American ingenuity, Big Stick diplomacy, and cooperation. A Kentuckian with keen interest in the project was Earl Palmer of Paducah. He was co-founder of the Ferguson & Palmer Lumber Company of Paducah in 1898 and a man of adventure and florid words. The industrialist decided to satisfy his curiosity about the canal project by visiting Panama in 1913 and preserving his observations for posterity in print form. This first paragraph from the resulting book, titled The Panamaniacs, gives you an impression for Palmer’s prose and sense of humor:
“When one packs a steamer trunk and fares forth to foreign parts in search of new experiences, fresh ideas and palpitating thrills, he is under no particular obligation to any one [sic] to reduce said experiences, fresh ideas and palpitating thrills to writing. Indeed he is more highly esteemed if he does nothing of the kind. But as the attempt is not yet actually prohibited by law, which possibly is due to oversight on the part of our dilatory legislators, I shall hasten to get into the game before our law-makers are awakened to a proper sense of duty.”
Title page from “Panamaniacs”
Palmer never mentions the names of his traveling companions; he simply refers to the other Paduchans as a Banker, a Lawyer, a Merchant, and himself. He calls himself “the first person singular personal pronoun,” in other words “I.” The Paducah party left by rail on the morning of 17 January 1913 accompanied by their “four loving and lovable wives, each fair, fat and forty.” Upon reaching Jacksonville, they added to their party the Human Encyclopedia, the Entertainer, and the Altruist and then proceeded to Key West where they added the Pessimist and the Boy, “bringing the total up to the fateful and ominous number of thirteen, which doubtless accounts for much which befell the party.”
Besides his brief descriptions of the canal construction, which he observed on a four-hour train ride from Colon to Panama City, Palmer discusses his views on Panamanian history, culture, geography. The party also stopped in Cuba and enjoyed the nightlife in Havana which Palmer faithfully records.
Autographed and dated frontispiece photograph of Earl Palmer.
This small book is not listed on WorldCat, meaning that the Kentucky Library Research Collections in the Department of Library Special Collections at WKU may be the only repository worldwide to own this title. It was purchased, by chance, at a small antique store in Paris, Kentucky. The book features a bookplate indicating that it once belonged to Margaret Yopp. For decades the Yopps ran a seed cleaning and seed selling operation in Paducah. From the description of the Palmer party, it is unlikely that Margaret participated in the Panamanian jaunt. The small monograph features only one photograph and that is of the author which he signed “Very Truly Yours Earl Palmer Mch. 22, 1913.” The Young Printing Company of Paducah published the “Limited Edition” travel account for Palmer, and it undoubtedly was a small printing run.
For those receiving this small book as a token of affection or friendship, Palmer noted in the a foreword: “This modest booklet does not pose as an object lesson of perfection in orthography, etomology [sic], syntax or prosody…Therefore, should anyone upon whom this book is bestowed be too greatly annoyed by the many obvious errors in construction…may return the book to the donor, and his thanks will be cheerfully refunded.”
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New Online Resources from WKU Libraries!
We’ve recently added some exciting new resources, and upgraded several of our databases! All resources listed below can be found through the library catalog or under “databases” on the library homepage.
Oxford English Dictionary online: The definitive dictionary of the English language, with over 600,000 entries. (Now there’s no excuse for dictionary.com citations).
Applied Science & Technology Full text (EBSCO): We upgraded our citation index to include full text from over 700 publications.
JSTOR Arts & Sciences IX & X: An upgrade to our JSTOR subscription providing access to an additional 400 titles in Sociology, Law, Education, Archaeology, and other disciplines.
EBSCO’s Academic Search Complete: Through our partnership with the Kentucky Virtual Library, we have upgraded our main EBSCO database to include an additional 4,000 full text titles.
And more:
New York Review of Books (online)
Records of the Antebellum Southern Plantations (online)
Chronicle of Higher Education (online — off campus users must register with their wku.edu email address)
Harvard Dictionary of Regional English (online)
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