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History

Western Kentucky University

Selected Works

Women's higher education

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The Duck Supper: Roasting Gender In Early Twentieth-Century Bowling Green, Lynn E. Niedermeier Jan 2012

The Duck Supper: Roasting Gender In Early Twentieth-Century Bowling Green, Lynn E. Niedermeier

Lynn E. Niedermeier

In 1901, a scandal rocked Potter College for Young Ladies in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Five students attempted to climb from their dormitory window for a midnight rendezvous with some boys from town. When the college's president, Reverend Benjamin F. Cabell, interrupted the prank, a chaotic exchange of gunfire ensued between him and the boys. Cabell’s subsequent attempt to hush up the matter, his solicitude for the boys, and his harsh treatment of the female students drew outrage from citizens and mockery from the press. Both the incident and its aftermath highlighted the tension, affecting even this small Kentucky town, between …


Wku And The Pleasant J. Potter College: A Shared Heritage, Lynn E. Niedermeier Jul 2007

Wku And The Pleasant J. Potter College: A Shared Heritage, Lynn E. Niedermeier

Lynn E. Niedermeier

Opened in 1889, the Pleasant J. Potter College for Young Ladies was the first occupant of “the Hill” that is now home to Western Kentucky University. Day and boarding students pursued a liberal arts curriculum at this fashionable private school. Down the hill on College Street, at Henry Hardin Cherry’s Western Kentucky State Normal School (chartered in 1906), students often came from more humble backgrounds to study in a coeducational setting. Nevertheless, when Potter College closed in 1909 and WKU purchased its property, it absorbed some of the traditions of the young ladies’ college it replaced.