Join WKU Libraries in honoring Drs. Scott Lyons and James Navalta, Editors-in-Chief of International Journal of Exercise Science, the first open access journal at WKU, on Monday, October 19, at 2 p.m. in Helm Library, Room 100. Reception following brief presentation.
A Letter From “Out of the Woodwork”
Margery Obenchain letter, 1904
Retired WKU chemistry professor Don Slocum recently discovered several pieces of paper in a clump behind the siding he pulled off his back porch during a renovation of his Chestnut Street home. He assembled the torn and stained pieces and sent a photocopy to WKU’s Special Collections Library to see if we were interested in adding it to our manuscripts collection. Indeed we were! The pieces comprised a complete letter written in August 1904 to “Alice,” possibly a former occupant of the house, by 16-year-old Margery Obenchain. Margery lived a few blocks away but was writing from Sulphur Springs, Missouri, near the end of a summer trip that had culminated in a visit to the St. Louis World’s Fair. “I have had a most glorious time,” she declared. During her visits to family and friends, she had enjoyed the company of several young men, one of whom she described as “one of the handsomest, most brilliant men I have ever met.” Concluding that, “as a rule, Northern boys are an improvement on Southern boys,” Margery had nevertheless enjoyed all her summer socializing, and promised to tell Alice more when she returned home. A finding aid and typescript of Margery’s letter can be downloaded here.
The Manuscripts & Folklife Archives section of WKU’s Department of Library Special Collections has even more on Margery, the Obenchain family, and related families the Calverts and Youngloves. Margery’s father, William A. Obenchain, was the longtime president of Ogden College and her mother, Lida Calvert Obenchain, was a dedicated woman suffragist and successful writer of fiction under the pen name “Eliza Calvert Hall.” A finding aid for the Calvert-Obenchain-Younglove collection can be downloaded here.
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Gourd Artistry
Gourd painting was the focus of a recent workshop at the Kentucky Library & Museum. Over twenty people from age three to retirees participated in the Kentucky Library & Museum Gourd Painting workshop. Participants painted pumpkins and witches as well as other autumn themes.
More pics.
Learn more about other programs and workshops.
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Archives Take Time
Archives are not the place to run in to check a quick fact and then again, sometimes they are. Archives generally are about indepth research. It takes time to read through original sources and find the information that will prove or disprove your hypothesis about a person or event. Often reference staff will slow you down and go over the question(s) that you are looking to answer. We are attempting to narrow the field of the many resources we hold to get you to the ones that have information that you are requesting. Sometimes the answer you want is not the one you get.
Then again, sometimes researchers ask a question that has been asked many times and the reference staff does have the answer immediately. It can happen. Either way, archives are a great place to find answers.
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Kentucky Live! Mike Guillerman, Western Kentucky Coal Miner
Mr. Guillerman spoke as part of our Kentucky Live series on Thursday, October 15th at Barnes & Noble on Campbell Lane.
Michael D. Guillerman worked for the Peabody Coal Company from 1974 to 1991. Over his long career, his jobs included belt shoveler, timberman, shooter, drill and shuttle car operator, rock duster, and finally section foreman. Now retired, he lives with his wife Marie in Union county, Kentucky.
More Photos | Podcast | Audio
Filed under Flickr Photos, Kentucky Live, Past Events, Podcasts
Author and Cultural Historian Jim Cullen presented at Big Read event
Author and Cultural Historian Jim Cullen discussed The American Dream and how it relates to this year’s Big Read book, The Great Gatsby. Dr. Cullen spoke to a group of about twenty at Barnes & Noble on October 12 giving a brief history of F. Scott Fitzgerald, his thoughts on “The American Dream”, how this theme flowed through Fizgerald’s novel and still resonates through American culture from Hollywood to Main Street. Dr. Cullen teaches History at the Ethical Fieldston School in New York City.
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WKU Construction
Cherry Hall Elevation
Construction on a college campus is an ongoing occurrence and that certainly seems to be true of WKU. Current renovation and construction projects include the Chapel, Van Meter Hall, Snell Hall and the College of Education. University Archives holds records of construction projects dating back to 1906. These are found in a variety of collections such as the president’s papers, photograph collection and the Building File created by the Planning, Design & Construction Office.
University Archives staff are processing the building file as it is being used by patrons. During processing, folder level descriptions are added to the finding aid. Updates are posted on TopScholar. There you will see the type of records in each folder: correspondence, construction meeting minutes and inspection reports. Correspondents are listed by name or company. Researchers can see the process of how a building has gone from the drawing board to final inspection and opening.
Student volunteers and workers have been researching building histories. These are posted online as a part of Hilltopper Heritage.
Check out these and other records in University Archives via KenCat.
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Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read
Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read
September 26 – October 3, 2009
Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States. This year WKU Libraries hosted exhibits on the Cravens 4th Floor and at the ERC. The ERC display included quotations from students in Children’s and Young Adult Literature classes about how their lives had been impacted by reading some of these “challenged” books. The books featured during Banned Books Week have been targets of attempted bannings. Fortunately, while some books were banned or restricted, in a majority of cases the books were not banned, all thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, booksellers, and members of the community to retain the books in the library collections.
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Charles H. Smith at the Darwin Conference in Brazil
Science Librarian Charles H. Smith recently spent several days at a Darwin conference in Brazil. He was invited by the conveners of the international ‘Echoes of Darwin’ symposium, the Institutos Humanitas UNISINOS (IHU), to present an evening session on the work of Alfred Russel Wallace, another evolutionist and colleague of Darwin’s. The IHU is a division of UNISINOS, a large Jesuit-founded university situated near the southern city of Porto Alegre in the Brazilian state of Rio Grande do Sul. Smith’s topic for the day was ‘Alfred Russel Wallace and the Notion of Final Causes in Evolution,’ and featured discussions of his research on both history of science and systems theory subjects. An interview of Smith conducted online prior to his arrival appeared in a UNISINOS magazine just before the conference, and while there he was interviewed again for another publication.
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“Appalachian Power Shift” on “True Cost of Coal” in Java City
The Beehive Design Collective’s ecology oriented group called the “Appalachian Power Shift” gave a stirring presentation on the “True Cost of Coal” to a crowd on the Java City patio today. The Beehive Design Collective- a non-profit, volunteer driven, political arts organization based in eastern Maine who’s mission is to “cross pollinate the grassroots” through the creation of images as an effective medium for deconstructing and educating the public about complex geopolitical issues. The Bees also presented art that illustrated the need for clean-alternatives to coal and focused on the problems surrounding Mountain-top removal in Appalachia. This event was sponsored by the Art Department, the Institute for
Citizenship & Social Responsibility, the Political Engagement Project, the Philosophy & Religion Department, the Biology Department, WKU Libraries, and a number of individual donors.
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