American Founding Era Collection

WKU Libraries is happy to announce the acquisition of the new online resource the American Founding Era Collection. This collection features thousands of digital primary documents about key figures in America’s beginnings. The collection includes:

The collection can be accessed on campus directly from here, or off campus by logging into our proxy server from our databases page.

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Scrapbooks in Special Collections (Kentucky Library)

Today, scrapbooking is a popular pastime but fortunately for historians and genealogists, this activity is not new. Many early scrap bookers were also genealogists and through their scrapbooking activities, they preserved not only a part of their life, but left a legacy of their family’s history. Many of the scrapbooks in our collections contain such diverse items as photographs, correspondence, telegrams, tickets, obituaries, booklets, programs, correspondence and newspaper photographs and clippings, certificates, telegrams, narratives, bills of undertakers, promotional notices, grade and postcards.
One scrapbook donated by Mary Vogel contained a hand written 1851 genealogical chart for Johannes Volpert who was born in Germany in 1795. Though the chart is written in German, there is a note on the chart in English “this was given me by the Priest in my mother’s home, I was in the house where she was born, in the church where my grandparents were married…”
These wonderful time capsules show that with care and consideration genealogy and family history can very easily incorporated into today’s scrapbooking to create lasting legacies.Johannes Volpert Genealogical Chart

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Java City Noon concerts continue with the return of Dewveall

dewvall

Alt-country, folk duo from Texas via Nashville returns to WKU on October 6 at noon.  Come out to Java City in Helm for a little afternoon music. It’s  beautiful Fall day for some music before heading off on Fall Break.  Thanks to Independence Bank for their sponsorship.

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BG rock band Liberation performed at Java City

Liberation at Java City

A happy crowd enjoyed the sounds of BG band Liberation last Tuesday on the patio outside Java City.  Though billed as Bowling Green’s premier nightclub rock band, they demonstrated they were alot more than that.  Thanks to Independence Bank for their continued sponsorship.

More Liberation photos

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A Free Man

Clarence's letter

Clarence’s letter

Johnny Cash should have written a song about it.  In March 1934, a guy named Clarence couldn’t wait to drop a line from Paintsville, Kentucky to his girl Mary.  “I have just got out of jail,” he wrote, “and was sure glad to get out.”  Some ex-cons might have been thinking about finding a good meal, or a good night’s sleep, or a good woman, but Clarence had only two things on his mind:  catching “the first big, black thing that comes along that looks like a freight train” and then getting his old job back.  He was tired of being chased by the law.

Clarence’s letter has recently been added to the collections of WKU’s Special Collections Library.  A finding aid (and an “arresting” image of the letter itself) can be downloaded here.

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A Family of Kentucky Gunsmiths

Felix Settle, master gunsmith

Felix Settle, master gunsmith

When smallpox swept through Barren County, Kentucky in 1808, one of its victims was 38-year-old William Settle, the county’s first gunsmith.  But his third son, Felix Settle (1801-1871), took up his father’s trade, establishing a rifle shop in Roseville, then in Glasgow.  After learning the business from their father, Felix’s sons Simon Settle and Willis F. Settle made guns in Greensburg, Glasgow, Hiseville and Russellville.

Today, a historical marker in Barren County commemorates three generations of Settle gunsmiths, and a rifle bearing the “SETTLE” mark is a prize for collectors.  Some say that Felix Settle was one of the best rifle makers in the country, but Felix’s great-grandson maintained that it was Simon Settle who had no equal in the manufacture of muzzle loading (cap and ball) rifles.  Of the three in his collection, he said: “They are neatly made, perfectly balanced, finely inlaid, and shoot true to the mark today [1943].  They are indeed a work of art.”

In addition to several Settle rifles in its collection, WKU’s Special Collections Library has more information on the family and its gunsmiths in the Settle-DeWitt Family Papers.  Click here to download a finding aid.

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“Set the Night on Fire” – Art by Tom Poole

"Set the Night on Fire" by Tom Poole

One of the most popular recent art additions in the Helm-Cravens Library is “Set the Night on Fire,” a tribute to Jim Morrison of the rock group, The Doors. Born James Douglas Morrison in Melbourne, Florida in 1943, Morrison was a singer-composer-poet whose band became an icon of the late 1960s with hits like “Light My Fire” which in 1967 became the number one song of the “summer of love.” After completing his seventh album, a documentary film, three collections of poetry and a screenplay Morrison was discovered dead in his Paris apartment on July 4, 1971. He’s buried at Paris’s Pere Lachaise cemetery near the graves of Moliere, Balzac, Edith Piaf, Chopin and Oscar Wilde. See Jerry Hopkins entry in American National Biography Online, a WKU e-book.

Poole is an award winning Kentucky artist who paints with watercolors, acrylics, oils, pastels and mixed media. His work has appeared in many state, regional and national exhibitions. He’s a signature member of the Louisiana and Kentucky Watercolor Societies and the International Society of Acrylic Painters. Tom was a huge fan of The Doors and Jim and viewed his death at 27 as a great tragedy. His poem below is used with permission:

Dance with the Shaman

Tom Poole, Kentucky Artist
Can’t you reach a little higher?
Take a trip to hide the pain
Don’t you know
Cocaine is just another chain?

Spin and swirl
Dance with the Shaman

You are approaching your tortured destruction
Death is doing His best seduction
Reach out…your friend is here but The End is coming
C’mon…break on through…Transcend!

Spin and swirl
Dance with the Shaman

Click here to visit Tom Poole’s MySpace page.

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A Message from the King

World War I message from King George V

World War I message from King George V

“Well, I got my gun,” wrote Wilson Sprowl to his family from Camp Custer in Battle Creek, Michigan.  It was June, 1918, and the Monroe County, Kentucky resident, in training for duty with the American Expeditionary Force, boasted of his prowess on the rifle range.  Tied with another soldier for the top score, he reported that “I warent beet.”  A month earlier, Wilson’s biggest complaint was the series of inoculations that had left him with a sore arm and caused some of his mates to become sick or faint.

One of the letters Wilson sent home was not his own; it was instead a neatly handwritten message from George V of the United Kingdom.  The King welcomed Wilson and his fellow recruits “on your way to take your stand beside the Armies of many Nations now fighting in the Old World the great battle of human freedom.”  He wrote of his desire to shake the hand of each American soldier and “bid you God speed on your mission.”

Wilson Sprowl’s mission, unfortunately, ended with his death on October 4, 1918.

A finding aid for Wilson Sprowl’s letters in the collections of WKU’s Special Collections Library can be downloaded here.  For more World War I materials, search TopScholar and KenCat.

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WKU Student Singer-songwriter Appeared with His Band at Java City

Alec Vinsant and his band at WKU Libraries' Java CityAlec Vinsant, a WKU student singer-songwriter appeared with his band today at Java City to a large appreciative group.  The casual rocking sound featured Vinsant’s originals to old favorites like “Hold My Hand” by Hootie and the Blowfish.

Photos of the Event

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Hawkins Portraits Featured in Book on Kentucky Actress

Joseph W. Hawkins

Joseph W. Hawkins

Portraits of Joseph W. Hawkins and George Ann Nicholas Hawkins are featured in a newly published biography, “Marie Prescott: A Star of Some Brilliancy” by Kevin Lane Dearinger.
Marie Prescott bio

Marie Prescott bio

The book explores the family roots, life and career of this native of Paris, Kentucky, including an ancestor, Joseph W. Hawkins, who was influential in the founding of the state of Texas. Prescott led a somewhat unconventional and often notorious life that included directing and starring in Oscar Wilde’s first play,”Vera, or the Nihilists.”After cataloging, the book will be available in the Harrison-Baird Reading Room of the Kentucky Library & Museum.

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