Tag Archives: Kentucky Library & Museum

March Out of the Box

Chapel – students on the steps of Van MeterStudent Nurses

Elevator 3/1915 – student happenings 100 years ago

Fanlight, Spring 1990 – Kentucky Museum happenings 25 years ago

Gender & Womens Studies – collection inventory, records available for research

Health Clinic Report 1965

Potter Hall – building history which answers the question, “Who was Potter?”

Softball – a variety of sources on a favorite spring sport

University Center Board – Meeting 3/28/1990

Volleyball – a variety of sources on Volleyball

WKU Map 1965 – could you find a parking place in 1965?

WKU vs Austin Peay – men’s basketball program 2/22/1965

Womens Basketball – photos through the years

Comments Off on March Out of the Box

Filed under University Archives

Kentucky Building Song

CHH Feb. 1929 Headline

CHH Feb. 1929 Headline

Set to the tune of Auld Lang Syne, The Kentucky Building song composed by Mrs. H.R. Matthews during the fund raising campaign appeared in the March 1929 College Heights Herald.

Though we may wander from the Hill
In wider fields to roam
We’ll treasure o’er our college days
And call her portals “Home”

Chorus
Then may our hands and may our hearts
Be joined to build a great
Kentucky monument to save
The history of our state

The Indian lore and pioneer
Shall never pass away;
Our relics we shall now preserve
And in our state they’ll stay

Check out other College Heights Heralds in TopScholar.  1925-1929, Jan. 1930, 1961-1963, 1968-1969 are up.  More coming soon.

Comments Off on Kentucky Building Song

Filed under University Archives

Playing Our Song: Southern Kentucky Notes

Southern Kentuckians love music! From the amateur playing his Hawaiian steel guitar to the singers and bands that have put WKU on the map, this region’s musical heritage is rich. Whether you like Country, Classical, Rap or Rock, you will find that Southern Kentuckians are indeed playing your song. Over the years, the Kentucky Library and Museum has collected a significant sheet music collection, photographs, sound recordings, posters, and ephemera illustrating the importance of music to this region.

Jambodians

Jambodians

Including Mary Clyde Huntsman’s Merry Makers, Duke Allen and the Kentucky Ramblers, WKU faculty musicians, Hawaiian steel guitar instructor Freddie Joe Lewis, local DJ Tommy Starr, New Grass Revival, and Kentucky Headhunters, a selection of treasures given by numerous musicians and collectors are displayed. Gospel musicians, including Hillvue Heights Music Group and John Edmonds’ Gospel Truth, and Country musicians, including Jordan Pendley, Cousin Emmy, and the Mighty Jerimiahs, provide evidence of the enduring popularity of all forms of music. Nappy Roots, Government Cheese and the Hilltoppers show the Hill’s influence on our song. Enjoy the exhibit in the Harry Jackson Gallery of the Kentucky Library and Museum during the Spring and Summer of 2010 and search “Southern Kentucky Music” on KenCat to explore the rest of our song.

7 Comments

Filed under Events, Latest News

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/

3 Comments

Filed under University Archives

Archives Month

Holy Cross archivist Sarah Campbell stated that “archives aren’t lending libraries.”  Special collections serve a different mission than lending libraries.  They hold unique, one of a kind items that need special care and handling in order to preserve them for as long as possible. 

Think about the different conditions that you subject a library book to while you have it checked out.  How many other items are in your back pack with it jostling around?  Is it raining outside as you cross campus without an umbrella?  Do you read at the dining table while eating?  Do you take notes with a sheet of paper laid over the pages?

These are things that would destroy most archival materials in a relatively short time.  Special collection books and documents don’t circulate and we have rules about how they can be handled in order to ensure that you can use them as well as the person who comes in after you.

Check out the Kentucky Library & Museum collections on KenCat.

Comments Off on Archives Month

Filed under Events, University Archives

October is Archives Month

Kentucky Archives Month Poster

Barbara Niss, archivist at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York responded:  “Archives are not where information comes all neatly wrapped in a package; they are a place for searching and thinking and piecing together bits and pieces of fact, near-fact and outright lies.  Which leads to:  Archives are NOT boring!”
While we archivists do work to make the collections we care for more accessible through arrangement, research, digitization and the creation of finding aids, we cannot do the work for our users.  The materials are here, cared for and ready to be read or looked at and they are certainly NOT boring!
WKU is fortunate to have an excellent Special Collections Department in WKU Libraries.  There are manuscript collections representing individuals, families, religions, corporate entities, towns and counties across the state.  There are photographs documenting life in Kentucky from the beginning of the medium.  There are rare books, maps, oral histories, film and video.  There are university records for WKU and its founding institutions.  There is a museum full of exhibits highlighting the artifacts, costumes and artwork collected through the years.
In honor of Archives Month, try to visit an archives near you.  (Hint:  We’re located in the Kentucky Building). Check out the Kentucky Archives Month website to learn about other archives and activities throughout the state.  Take a look at KenCat to see some of what is available here in the Department of Special Collections. 

Comments Off on October is Archives Month

Filed under Events, University Archives