Arts and Humanities Commons^™

James Parks Wilson Family Collection (Mss 755), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscript Collection 755. Primarily genealogical research on the descendants of James Parks Wilson of Hart County, Kentucky. Includes biographical data and papers regarding the military service of his grandson, James Admiral Wilson.

Elmwood Cemetery - Owensboro, Kentucky (Sc 3683), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below for Manuscripts Small Collection 3683. Listing of graves in Elmwood Cemetery, Owensboro, Kentucky. Data consists of name, dates, and in some cases a brief description of the grave monument and/or its maker.

Gerard Undertakers, Bowling Green, Kentucky - Burial Records Book, 1887-1917 (Mss 577), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Scan of Box 9, Folder 2, Manuscripts Collection 577. This is a record book of F. C. Gerard, Undertaker (later Gerard & Gerard), Bowling Green, Kentucky, recording burials from January 1887-September 1917. Entries show the deceased’s name, age, race, residence, date of death and burial, place of burial, and cause of death.

Gerard Undertakers, Bowling Green, Kentucky - Burial Records Book, 1890-1896 (Mss 577), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Scan of Box 9, Folder 1, Manuscripts Collection 577. This is a record book of F. C. Gerard and Brother, Undertakers, Bowling Green, Kentucky, recording burials from December 1890 through February 1896. Entries show the deceased’s name, age, race, residence, date of death and burial, place of burial, and cause of death.

Coleman, Jo Ann - Compiler (Sc 3532), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3532. Index of gravestones at Smiths Grove Cemetery, Smiths Grove, Kentucky, compiled by Jo Ann Coleman as of April 2009. Where available, data includes name of deceased, birth and death dates, inscription, and other information on the gravestone.

Tichenor Collection (Mss 678), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 678. Correspondence, papers and photographs of the Tichenor family of McLean County, Kentucky, and related families, especially Cherry, Short, and Hutchison. Much relates to the home front during World War II during the Navy service of high school teacher Thomas Cherry Tichenor.

Cemeteries - Horse Cave, Kentucky (Sc 3467), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3467. Deed, 15 July 1911, from the Trustees of the Town of Horse Cave, Kentucky to Mrs. Minnie Hendrick of Lot No. 168 in the “public white cemetery” of Horse Cave. Includes an endorsement giving two grave sites on the lot to the grantee’s sister and brother-in-law.

Pioneer Cemetery - Bowling Green, Kentucky (Sc 3407), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3407. Alphabetical list, with birth and death years where available, of persons buried in Bowling Green, Kentucky’s Pioneer Cemetery. Prepared by Nellie Hoofnel as part of an initiative by the Chamber of Commerce to protect the graves, the list includes “all the names that are legible,” and a preface asks relatives who recognize names to contact the Chamber.

Rice, Bertha Eleanor (Adams), 1875-1948 (Mss 661), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 661. Genealogical research and correspondence files of Bertha (Adams) Rice, Russellville, Kentucky, mainly regarding the ancestry of Logan County, Kentucky families. Includes a large amount of data copied from deed, marriage, will, and court records of Logan and other Kentucky counties, and from published works.

Ohio River Survey (Fa 656), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 656. Kentucky Folklife Program project titled: “Ohio River Survey,” which includes interviews, tape logs, photographs and other documentation of folklife along the Ohio River in Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. Interviews may include a description of belief, traditional occupation, practice, craft, or tool, informant’s name, age, birth date, and address.

Buckberry, Ray B., Jr., B. 1934 (Sc 3227), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3227. “Warren County War Dead: World War I,” by Ray Buckberry, Jr., a compilation containing data on Warren County, Kentucky soldiers who died in World War I. Includes data on overseas cemeteries and visits by Gold Star mothers and wives of the dead.

Morgan, Nyla Margaret (Hammers) Moore, 1918-2017 (Mss 639), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 639. Information collected by Morgan about Butler County, Kentucky history and historical organizations. Genealogical records related to Morgan, Moore, and Johnson families (particularly the children of Christopher Columbus “Lum” Johnson, 1847-1921), as well as allied families. Includes two boxes of material related to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Kentucky, Tennessee, and West Virginia, particularly its women’s Relief Society.

Thomas, Fonda (Fa 1133), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1133. Student paper titled “Tombstone Motifs” in which Fonda Thomas documents cemeteries in southern Warren County—specifically Mt. Lebanon Baptist Church, Hardshell Baptist Church, and Old Union Missionary Baptist Church—to describe popular carvings found on gravestones. Thomas, who has familial ties to two of the church cemeteries, describes motifs such as rosebuds, doves, and variations of hands and offers possible theories as to the meaning of each. The collection also includes crayon rubbings of tombstones, which have been placed in a folder separate from the paper.

Bowling Green Warren County Cemetery Map Listing, Kentucky Library Research Collections

Research Collections

Warren County, Kentucky cemetery listings

Mullins, Sharman (Fa 1062), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1062. Paper titled “At Rest” in which Sharman Mullins collects inscriptions found on gravestones in family plots, as well as church cemeteries and public cemeteries in Warren County and Logan County in Kentucky. Mullins also discusses aesthetics and the recurrent religious and familial themes inscribed upon the grave markers.

Farley, Seth Thomas, Jr., 1917-1999 (Mss 617), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 617. Correspondence, documents, news clippings and ephemera from Seth Thomas Farley, Jr., a life-long educator. This collection includes a good deal of information about Farley’s teaching career prior to his work as a professor at WKU, his involvement in organizations that fought alcoholism and gambling (particularly the lottery in Kentucky), his church work, and his service on a committee to choose a federal magistrate for the western district of Kentucky. The collection includes an entire box of assessment related material related to Fort Knox Dependent Schools in the mid-1960s.

Morrow, David L. (Fa 1019), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1019. Folk studies student project titled: “Forms and Origins of Gravestones in Various Parts of Russell County, Kentucky,” which includes descriptions of gravestones in Russell County, Kentucky. Included are brief information of gravestone producers, graveyard and gravestone information, a tale, and photos.

Joiner-Rogers Collection (Mss 590), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and full text scans of selected items (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Collection 590. Personal and professional papers of Christian County, Kentucky teacher and administrator Erleen (Joiner) Rogers, and novels, poems, skits, epigrams and witticisms written by her father, Robert Tinnon Joiner. Includes a collection of Joiner’s writings titled Nonsense and Wisdom From Flat Lick, Rogers’ family history titled Seven Generations in and From Flat Lick, other family data, and photographs.

Oldham, Barbara (Fa 924), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 924. Paper titled: “Negro Folklore.” Includes survey sheets with brief descriptions of African American beliefs and superstitions in Ohio County, Kentucky. Sheets include a brief description, informant’s name, and motif index number.

Gerard Family Papers (Mss 577), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 577. Funeral records, correspondence, account books and other financial papers related to various undertaking establishments run by the Gerard and Bradley families, including Gerard and Gerard Funeral Home, Eugene Gerard Company Mortuary and the Gerard and Bradley Funeral Chapel in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Also includes financial records related to an earlier furniture making business operated by John C. Gerard, a French immigrant.

Ground's Graveyard Burial Association - Warren County, Kentucky (Sc 3022), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3022. Constitution of the Ground’s Graveyard Burial Association, Warren County, Kentucky, and related documents regarding condemnation proceedings to obtain a right-of-way to the Ground Cemetery. Includes two obituaries and a list of graves.

Helm, Margie May, 1894-1991 (Mss 552), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 552. Personal and professional correspondence and papers of Margie Helm, Auburn, Kentucky native and longtime Western Kentucky University head librarian. Includes ancestral and family correspondence and papers, photographs, and genealogical research on the Helm, Carson, Porter, Blakey and related families.

Gordon, Charles (Fa 834), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 834. This collection of epitaphs was taken from three cemeteries located in Glasgow, Kentucky. Some epitaph examples included contain references to the Bible, children, and were often rhyming. This project was completed by Charles Gordon, a student at Western Kentucky University, for credit in a folk studies class.

Outdoor Art League Of Louisville - Louisville, Kentucky (Sc 2914), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2914. Form letter soliciting funds for the Zachary Taylor Memorial Lane Committee of the Outdoor Art League of Louisville. The letter, from committee chairman Mrs. Charles D. Greer, laments the neglect of the tomb of President Zachary Taylor near Louisville, Kentucky, and outlines the Committee’s intent to construct an entrance to a “Memorial Lane” leading from Brownsboro Road to the monument at the cemetery in which Taylor is interred.

Includes a rendering of the proposed entrance.

Rasdall Family Papers (Mss 542), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 542. Correspondence and papers of the Rasdall and Smith families of Smiths Grove, Kentucky, principally the two generations following Urias Rasdall (1812-1892), credited with platting the town of Smiths Grove. Includes research collected into a family history by Barbara Schan.

Kirby, Carlisle Wilkins, 1890-1968 (Mss 530), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 530. Note cards, memoranda, and grave registration forms compiled by Carlisle W. Kirby and others for the Veterans’ Graves Registration Project in Warren County, Kentucky, a project created by the Works Progress Administration to identify the graves of war veterans from the American Revolution through World War I. Included are names, service data, and the name of the cemetery, where known. Also includes clippings from the (Bowling Green, Kentucky) Park City Daily News about local soldiers serving in the Korean War.

Chelf, Frank Leslie, 1907-1982 (Mss 492), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 492. Correspondence, photographs, scrapbooks, audiotapes, film and miscellaneous material relating primarily to the political career of Democrat Frank L. Chelf, who represented Kentucky’s Fourth District in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1944-1966. Includes Chelf’s voting record and bills, research and speeches related to his legislative interests.

Jones, Drucilla Montgomery (Stovall), 1907-2007 (Mss 493), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 493. Correspondence, chiefly from the Fort and Flowers families of Logan County, Kentucky, which includes prisoners of war correspondence from the Civil War. Also includes cemetery, church, and funeral home records, as well as news clippings about historic sites, people and events in Logan County.

Lanier Collection (Mss 488), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and full text of post-World War II pen pal letters and selected images from ciphering book of Collins Lanier from Manuscripts Collection 488. Collection consists chiefly of letters written to Deanna June (Linville) Lanier by friends and her family, particularly her mother Lena (Harris) Linville. Includes some interesting pen pal letters with a German child, 1948 to 1950. Includes genealogical material about the Lanier and Linville families. Also includes early Warren County, Kentucky material from brothers, Byrd Lanier and Collins Lanier, including a little correspondence, bills and notes, receipts, and property records.

Oak Forest Union Church Cemetery - Warren County, Kentucky (Sc 1205), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1205. Trust agreement between Naomi Davenport Willis, Bowling Green, Kentucky, “others interested in the preservation and upkeep of the Oak Forest Union Church Cemetery,” in Warren County, Kentucky, and the church trustees.