Tag Archives: Research tools

by | March 18, 2010 · 7:20 am

Going Up? The Elevator

Elevator

Elevator


The Elevator was the first student publication at Western Kentucky State Normal School. It was published “monthly” during the school year from 1909 through 1916. Volume II has been posted on TopScholar using optical character recognition software to make the issues full-text searchable. In this first volume are accounts of the first baseball team: “we have hopes of securing a professional coach;” faculty activities: “Prof. Webb went fishing and swimming in a creek in east Tenn,” lists of graduates; news from alumni: “Miss Lillian Moore is teaching English and History in the Natchez Miss. High School;” student compositions; advertisements for local merchants and general news of the school. Check it out on TopScholar.

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by | March 4, 2010 · 9:26 am

Elizabeth Tucker Scrapbook

etsb011Elizabeth Curd Tucker was born February 9, 1863 near Glasgow, Kentucky. She attended Glasgow Normal School graduating in 1880 when she delivered the valedictory speech at commencement. The Glasgow Normal School was the first incarnation of what has become Western Kentucky University.  In 1975 her daughters donated Mrs. Tucker’s scrapbook to University Archives.

The bulk of the scrapbook is made up of newspaper clippings of poetry and articles regarding education and sermons. There are Glasgow Normal School commencement programs and drawings by her son Charles and an unidentified artist in the scrapbook as well. The following articles are of particular interest regarding the Glasgow Normal School:

    “Glasgow Normal Senate,” Friday May 28, 1880 which mentions Ms. Curd, p. 49.”Glasgow Commencement Exercises,” June 30, 1880 which mentions Ms. Curd giving the
    valedictory, p. 50.”Graduates of Glasgow Normal School,” p. 58.

    Glasgow Normal School commencement programs

The scrapbook has been digitized and is now available on TopScholar.

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by | December 16, 2009 · 9:28 pm

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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by | December 7, 2009 · 9:55 pm

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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by | October 20, 2009 · 12:06 pm

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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by | October 19, 2009 · 12:03 pm

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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by | October 8, 2009 · 4:22 pm

WKU Construction

D92

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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by | October 6, 2009 · 9:14 pm

Debate Team in WKU Archives

Debate Team at Harvard, 1959

Debate Team at Harvard, 1959

The debate team, now known as the WKU Forensics Team, has been around nearly as long as WKU.  And they’ve been winning awards all through the years.  The WKU Archives holds some documents regarding the team.  These include programs for oratorical contests dating back to 1910, group photos and photos of individuals in debates.  These records are part of record group UA68/6/2  English Department Student Organizations.  This picture includes Mary Grise and Lerond Curry, but the remaining team members have not been identified.  Please contact the University Archivies at archives@wku.edu if you recognize it.  Members of the team from any era are invited to share memories of great debates for inclusion on Shared Memories.

The University Archives is a great resource for research on student organizations.  Check out Hilltopper Heritage and KenCat for more information.

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by | September 25, 2009 · 2:56 pm

Carlton Jackson & the Hilltoppers

The Hilltoppers, 1952

The Hilltoppers, 1952

Jimmy Sacca, Billy Vaughn, Don McGuire and Seymour Spiegelman were students at Western Kentucky State College (now WKU).  In 1952 they hit the  big time as the Hilltoppers quartet with their song “Trying.”   The group had several more hits including “P.S. I Love You” and performed together through 1963.  Billy Vaughn went on to have a successful musical career with his orchestra.   The group was honored at WKU’s homecoming in 1972.  Check out the University Archives website: http://www.wku.edu/library/archive/ex1.php for more information regarding the group.

Carlton Jackson came to the WKU History department in 1960 where he served with distinction through 2001.  He is the author of nearly 20 books and innumerable articles which earned him the title Distinguished Professor of History. 

In 2003, he began researching the Hilltoppers.  Dr. Jackson met and corresponded with surviving members of the group and fans, including fan club president Bobbie Ann Mason.  The result was his book P.S. I Love You: The Story of the Singing Hilltoppers.  The research notes and correspondence he compiled along with the drafts of the book are now a part of the University Archives Faculty/Staff Personal Papers Collection.  Just processed, these papers are now available for researchers and fans interested in the back story of the Hilltoppers.  The finding aid is now available through TopScholar at: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_fin_aid/79/

If you have Hilltopper records, photographs or memorabilia that don’t appear in the finding aids, please contact the University Archives at 270-745-4793 or via email at archives@wku.edu. 

Check out KenCat to get information on other University Archives collections:  http://wku.pastperfect-online.com/35749cgi/mweb.exe?request=ks

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by | September 8, 2009 · 8:51 pm

Hilltoppers in University Archives

Varsity Lettermen 1959

Varsity Lettermen 1959

WKU athletic records and photographs are a hot item in University Archives.  We answer many questions related to coaching staff, student athletes and teams throughout the year.  In order to facilitate research several series of records have been processed and detailed finding aids made available online.  These include two sets of photographs: 

 

Digitized images are available through KenCat (http://wku.pastperfect-online.com/35749cgi/mweb.exe?request=ks). 

Several athletic department office records have been processed. 

 

These last records are especially useful to anyone interested in the Hilltoppers as they consist of Media Guides for every major sport(http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_fin_aid/55/), Student Biographical File 1979-2004 (http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_fin_aid/54/) and Clipping File 1962-present (http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_fin_aid/53/).

We are currently processing the Basketball Office records which consist of correspondence regarding schedules, tournaments and athletes and hope to have a finding aid posted in the near future. 

The University Archives also houses an extensive film, video and audio collection, the bulk of which is made up of athletic film.  The master list is available online at: http://digitalcommons.wku.edu/dlsc_ua_fin_aid/198/

If you have Hilltopper documents, photographs or memorabilia that don’t appear in the finding aids, please contact the University Archives at 270-745-4793 or via email at archives@wku.edu. 

Check out KenCat to get information on other University Archives collections:  http://wku.pastperfect-online.com/35749cgi/mweb.exe?request=ks

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