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Full-Text Articles in American Material Culture

Envisioning New Switzerland: A Founding Document For The Swiss Colonists At Vevay, Indiana, Ellen Stepleton Jun 2019

Envisioning New Switzerland: A Founding Document For The Swiss Colonists At Vevay, Indiana, Ellen Stepleton

Zea E-Books Collection

During one of the most tumultuous decades in the history of Switzerland, a small group of Vaudois republicans chose to secure their children’s familial, cultural and spiritual patrimony by relocating to the New World. In April 1800, at Le Chenit in the Vallée de Joux, five families framed a compact intended to organize a communal settlement in the Northwest Territory. Recently discovered, their pact is presented here in its original French and in English translation, along with an accompanying letter; additionally, another letter and an English translation of the compact as prepared by Jean Jaques Dufour in 1801 is supplied. …


Hopkin, Rachel Claire (Fa 581), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Aug 2012

Hopkin, Rachel Claire (Fa 581), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding Aid only for Folklife Archives Project 581. Illustrated paper by Rachel Hopkin titled “A Reel in a Bottle: The Bottle Art of Chris Wood.” This illustrated project provides insight into the art of creating bottle art, or bottle whimsies. Folk artist Chris Wood’s path from observer to artist is detailed and includes his interpretations of the work of several historical and modern artisans within the genre. The project was submitted for the 2011 Folklife Archives Award competition at Western Kentucky University.


Chappell, Katherine (Fa 582), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Aug 2012

Chappell, Katherine (Fa 582), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding Aid only for Folklife Archives Project 582. Illustrated paper by Katherine Chappell titled “Fine, Folk, or Functional? The Art of Mark Whitley.” This illustrated project provides insight into the art of furniture making and the distinctions between the artistic formation of furniture and mass production. The project details the journey of one craftsman, Mark Whitley of Warren County, Kentucky, from one who makes furniture, into an artist whose work is practical, functional, and enduring. The project was submitted for the 2011 Folklife Archives Award competition at Western Kentucky University.


Faytullayeva, Shamira A. (Fa 584), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Aug 2012

Faytullayeva, Shamira A. (Fa 584), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding Aid only for Folklife Archives Project 584. Illustrated paper by Shamira A. Faytullayeva titled “A Great Tailor in My Family.” This illustrated project describes the economic benefits of the tailoring skills of a Russian emigrant, Samisiya Faytullayeva. Samisiya’s mother taught her to sew when she was a child, and the skill has provided an income for her family in the years since her husband’s death and their subsequent immigration to the United States. This project was submitted for the 2011 Folklife Archives Award competition at Western Kentucky University.


Whitaker, Francis J., 1916-1994 (Mss 406), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Aug 2012

Whitaker, Francis J., 1916-1994 (Mss 406), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 406. Correspondence, research notes and manuscript articles of Frances J. “Thomas” Whitaker, a Benedictine monk who lived and worked at St. Maur’s Priory, formerly the South Union Shaker Village in Logan County, Kentucky, from 1954-1988. He amassed a large collection of photocopied research material on the South Union community as well as other Shaker villages and museums in the United States. Also includes his research on various Catholic topics.


Meriwether Family Papers (Mss 44), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives May 2012

Meriwether Family Papers (Mss 44), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 44. Typed copies of personal and legal papers, 1791-1840 (43) of Charles Meriwether, a pioneer doctor of Christian County, Kentucky; family letters of Caroline Gordon Tate, author and educator, 1938-1947 (18); and family letters of newspaper columnist Elizabeth Meriwether Gilmer (“Dorothy Dix”), 1930-1949 (13).


Grider, Charles J., 1905-1987 (Mss 401), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Apr 2012

Grider, Charles J., 1905-1987 (Mss 401), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscript Collection 401. Collection contains materials related to Charles J. Grider's part-time career as a music manager. Includes band advertisements, dance invitations, letters and telegrams from music corporations, lists of patrons underwriting for bands, and Grider's personal reminiscences of Bowling Green dances.


Helm, Carrie (Fa 66), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Feb 2012

Helm, Carrie (Fa 66), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 66. “Woodburn: A Memory Just Beneath the Surface”, an interpretive paper and interviews executed by Carrie Helm for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University in 1989.


Galloway, Ewing, 1881-1953 (Sc 2502), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Feb 2012

Galloway, Ewing, 1881-1953 (Sc 2502), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2502. Correspondence of Ewing Galloway, a native of Henderson, Kentucky and the owner of a photography agency in New York City, with Mary Marks, a geography professor at Western Kentucky University, related to a gift of photographs made to the Kentucky Library & Museum at WKU. Also includes clippings, chiefly related to Galloway’s return to Henderson, Kentucky and the gift to WKU.


Shakers (Sc 356), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Feb 2012

Shakers (Sc 356), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 356. Letters, 1834-1851 (6), of the Shakers, chiefly of South Union, Kentucky, concerning the seed industry, religious affairs, economic conditions, wagon blueprint, etc., and receipts, 1868, 1870 (2).


Silva, Ann (Fa 53), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Jan 2012

Silva, Ann (Fa 53), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 53. “A History of the Logan County Tobacco Festival” Paper written about an annual festival celebrating tobacco culture held in Russellville, Kentucky. Paper was written for a history class at Western Kentucky University.


Richards, Alta Beatrice (Lightfoot), 1900-1989 (Mss 381), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Jan 2012

Richards, Alta Beatrice (Lightfoot), 1900-1989 (Mss 381), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 381. Materials chiefly related to Allen County-native Alta Beatrice Richards’s interest in weaving, developed while working at Berea College. Includes correspondence with other weavers, weaving patterns, and weaving techniques. Also, information concerning noted Kentucky weaving authority Lou Tate of the Little Loomhouse, Louisville, Kentucky.


Kentucky Heritage Quilt Society (Mss 374), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Nov 2011

Kentucky Heritage Quilt Society (Mss 374), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 374. Administrative papers, board minutes, correspondence, project files, and publications of the Kentucky Heritage Quilt Society, a state-wide membership organization of quilters that promotes better understanding of historic quilts and the design and construction of new quilts. Major projects include a collection of oral histories with Kentucky quilters and a survey of historic quilts from Kentucky.


Ferguson, Lynne Marrs (Hammer), B. 1956 (Fa 570), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Sep 2011

Ferguson, Lynne Marrs (Hammer), B. 1956 (Fa 570), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text (click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 570. Paper: [Examination of a Speech Titled "Shake Rag Revisited"] written by Lynne Marrs Hammer Ferguson for a Western Kentucky University folk studies class. The speech was delivered on 21 October 2004 by Herbert Oldham at the dedication of a historical marker in the neighborhood.


Settle-Dewitt Family Papers (Mss 332), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Sep 2010

Settle-Dewitt Family Papers (Mss 332), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans of Folders 2 and 3 relating to genealogy (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Collection 332. Includes correspondence, genealogical materials; wills, deeds and other legal documents of the Settle and DeWitt families; and the memoir of Marcus Bearden DeWitt, a minister in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church and a Civil War chaplain (Click on "Additional Files" below). Also of interest is information related to the Settle rifle makers of Barren County, Kentucky.


Hart County, Kentucky - Prescriptions (Sc 2279), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Jun 2010

Hart County, Kentucky - Prescriptions (Sc 2279), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2279. Prescriptions written primarily by physicians practicing in Hart County, Kentucky and surrounding counties. Some are written on the physician's own form while others are written on the form of a local druggist or drugstore.


Doyon, Anne Marie P. (Mss 300), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Apr 2010

Doyon, Anne Marie P. (Mss 300), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 300. "Kentucky's Traditional Courthouses: Preservation in the Heart of the Community," a Master's project written by Ann Marie P. Doyon for the Department of Historic Preservation, College of Design, University of Kentucky.


Ground Family Graveyard - Warren County, Kentucky (Sc 2203), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Mar 2010

Ground Family Graveyard - Warren County, Kentucky (Sc 2203), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and full text (click on Additional Files below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2203. Record book listing burials of Ground and related family members in Ground family graveyard, Three Forks, Warren County, Kentucky. Includes diagram of graveyard and genealogical material about those buried within.


Taylor, Carrie (Burnam), 1855-1917 (Sc 2206), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Mar 2010

Taylor, Carrie (Burnam), 1855-1917 (Sc 2206), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2206. Correspondence relating to the Mrs. A. H. Taylor Company, a Bowling Green, Kentucky dressmaking firm. Includes letters from customers and a measurement questionnaire. A letter by an unidentified writer recommends the wages paid by Mrs. Taylor. Includes transcriptions of the letters made by Western Kentucky University student Theresa L. Jureka for her 1983 thesis on Taylor, and one unrelated letter from a father to his son.


Avery, James Russell, B. 1921 (Sc 2128), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Jan 2010

Avery, James Russell, B. 1921 (Sc 2128), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2128. "My Story," the autobiography of James Russell Avery, a Hardin County native, prepared as a project of WKU gerontology student Shaylin Gimborys. Includes illustrations and genealogical information on the Avery family.


Mcfarland, Jonnie, B. 1873 (Sc 2120), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Dec 2009

Mcfarland, Jonnie, B. 1873 (Sc 2120), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2120. Autograph album of Jonnie McFarland, Bristow, Kentucky. Includes part of a menu from J. A. Rabold, Bowling Green, Kentucky.


Barr, Lawrence L. (Sc 2103), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Dec 2009

Barr, Lawrence L. (Sc 2103), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text paper (click on Additional File" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2103. Paper: "A New Look at the History of Soldier's Retreat" produced by Lawrence L. Barr for an adult education class at Senior House, Inc., Louisville, Kentucky. Soldier's Retreat was built around 1789 in Jefferson County, Kentucky.


White, Vernon, 1915-2008 (Mss 255), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Apr 2009

White, Vernon, 1915-2008 (Mss 255), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 255. Correspondence, research notes, slides, and photographs related to Vernon White's interests: covered bridges, hominy holes, archaeology, and grave covers, chiefly in Kentucky. Also includes drafts of his books and information about the White family of White Mills, Hardin County, Kentucky as well as information about White's participation in World War II. To view a selection of illustrative material from the White Collection go to this website: http://www.wku.edu/library/dlsc/vernonwhite.php


Harris, Catherine Hill, B. 1964 (Fa 395), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Apr 2009

Harris, Catherine Hill, B. 1964 (Fa 395), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 395. Interviews (8) with people who had lived at Hobson House (also known as Riverview at Hobson Grove) or who had helped in the restoration and/or administration of the property as a house museum. Hobson House is a historic property in Bowling Green, Kentucky, completed by Atwood Gaines Hobson in 1872.


Hanor, Elizabeth Jane, 1850-1927 (Sc 38), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Sep 2008

Hanor, Elizabeth Jane, 1850-1927 (Sc 38), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 38. Loom weaving draft, "Nine Snowball Draft," made by E. Jane Hanor, Bowling Green, Kentucky. Coverlet draft.


Neal, Mary Julia, 1905-1995 (Mss 4), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Jul 2008

Neal, Mary Julia, 1905-1995 (Mss 4), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Correspondence, speeches, and writings of Shaker scholar and English professor, Mary Julia Neal, a native of Auburn, Kentucky. Neal served as director of the Kentucky Building at Western Kentucky University from 1964 to 1972. Includes photos and correspondence with twentieth century eastern Shakers.


Horton, George Lewis, 1894-1957 (Sc 1569), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Jan 2008

Horton, George Lewis, 1894-1957 (Sc 1569), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 1569. Letter, 24 July 1923, from George L. Horton, Ashland, Kentucky to Clare Anderson, Cleveland, Ohio, concerning her upcoming visit to Ashland. Includes a colorful handkerchief printed with the nursery rhyme "Ride a cockhorse to Banbury Cross" that was enclosed with the letter.


Interview With Oda Shouse, Sr. And Clara Shouse Regarding Their Lives (Fa 154), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Aug 1986

Interview With Oda Shouse, Sr. And Clara Shouse Regarding Their Lives (Fa 154), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Oral Histories

Transcription of an interview with Oda Shouse, Sr. and Clara Shouse conducted by Keith Smith for an oral history project titled "A Generation Remembers, 1900-1949." Mr. Shouse does most of the speaking. He discusses his life and times including information about floods, the Great Depression, tobacco farming, rural medicine, rural electrification, automobiles and telephones.


Interview With Mary Bryant (Benton) Fitts Regarding Her Life (Fa 154), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Aug 1986

Interview With Mary Bryant (Benton) Fitts Regarding Her Life (Fa 154), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Oral Histories

Transcription of an interview with Mary Brant (Benton) Fitts conducted by Karen Owen for an oral history project titled "A Generation Remembers, 1900-1949." Fitts discusses her life and times, including information about growing up in Utica and Owensboro, Daviess County, Kentucky, her children, social life and customs, race relations, World War II, and sundry other topics. Mrs. Fitts was a housewife and mother of two.


Interview With Gwendolyn Johnston Regarding Her Life (Fa 154), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives Aug 1986

Interview With Gwendolyn Johnston Regarding Her Life (Fa 154), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Oral Histories

Transcription of an interview with Gwendolyn Johnston conducted by Keith Smith for an oral history project titled "A Generation Remembers, 1900-1949." Johnston discusses her life and times, including information about growing up in West Louisville, Kentucky, education, games, a tornado that struck Louisville in the 1890s, automobiles, the Ku Klux Klan, Ronald Wilson Reagan, and parochial schools.