Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Carley Family Papers (Sc 3223), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3223. Letters and papers of George Carley of Georgetown, Kentucky and family (mainly daughters, a granddaughter, and nieces). Relatives in Ontario, Canada and in Pennsylvania report family news and mourn the soldiers of World War I; a daughter writes from Arkansas of taxes and the economy, her stepson writes of medical studies during the influenza pandemic, and her brother-in-law writes of oil and investments. George’s papers include solicitations from makers of fencing and farm supplies.

Also includes children’s letters and poems.

Clarke, Kenneth Wendell, B. 1917 (Mss 635), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 635. Manuscripts, notes, publisher’s correspondence, and photographs relating to the scholarly work of WKU English and folklore professor Kenneth W. Clarke, principally "Bud Long: The Birth of a Kentucky Folk Legend" and "The Harvest and the Reapers."

Harris, Henry Thornton, 1831-1899 (Sc 3197), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3197. Miscellaneous papers related to Henry T. Harris, a lawyer of Lincoln County, Kentucky. Includes an invitation to “Bachelor’s Hall,” an article written for the Saturday Evening Post, a short note to an aunt written from “awful Niagara,” a flyer for Montrose Law College, Frankfort, Kentucky, and an exterior sketch of the Law College building with rooms identified. Also includes poems, recipes, a trade card for Louisville’s Alexander House, a sample print strip from a telegraph machine, and genealogical data.

Miller, John Goodrum, Sr., 1853-1936 (Mss 629), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 629. Writings of John Goodrum Miller, Sr., a lawyer and native of Caldwell County, Kentucky. Includes a family history, a personal memoir, and manuscript chapters on early Kentucky history, English church history, and the U.S. Constitution. Also includes a small amount of material related to The Black Patch War, Miller’s book on the Night Riders.

Parker, Dickey (Wilkinson), 1905-1998 (Sc 3146), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3146. Letter, 12 February 1985, of Dickey Parker, Bowling Green, Kentucky, to “Miss Ruby,” enclosing a poem by Callie Beals titled “A Day in My Garden.” Mrs. Parker notes that Callie Beals was her Sunday School teacher in her early teen years and praises the impact she had on her life.

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

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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.

Mcguirk, Martha (Stiles), 1937-2023 - Collector (Mss 618), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 618. Chiefly correspondence, speeches, and ephemera related to William Thomas Beard of Smiths Grove, Kentucky; prescriptions, remedies, and recipes collected by Mabel Kirby; and a baby book and cheerleading letters that belonged to Martha (Stiles) McGuirk.

Valentines (Sc 3134), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3134. Handmade and colored valentine “from Eunice” to an unnamed recipient, featuring a drawing of a young girl with lettered greeting, “My heart I lay at your feet, O be my Valentine sweet.”

Beninger, John, 1850-1922 (Sc 3133), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3133. Notebook containing original and copied poetry by John Beninger, a native of Ohio County, Kentucky. Beninger resided in Versailles, Kentucky, for a number of years, and several of the poems refer to people or places in that community. Beninger often mentions the source of his poem’s inspiration and the date he penned it. Mr. Beninger is buried in the McCord Cemetery in Ohio County, Kentucky.

Ennis, William Franklin, Sr., 1856-1939 (Mss 614), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 614. Journals with short entries about daily happenings and listings of farm expenses for William F. Ennis, a farmer, quarry owner, and businessman from Warren County, Kentucky. Also includes some poetry, weather information, and data about an unnamed individual conducting a school.

Rice, Laban Lacy, 1870-1973 (Mss 605), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 605. Correspondence, writings, photographs, clippings, and papers of Laban Lacy Rice, a Webster, County, Kentucky native, educator, author, lecturer, poet, and president of Cumberland University, Lebanon, Tennessee. Includes his scientific writing, principally on astronomy, relativity and cosmology, as well as fiction, poetry, and autobiographical writing. Also includes some correspondence and papers relating to his brother, poet and dramatist Cale Young Rice, and sister-in-law, author Alice Hegan Rice.

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

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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.

Boone, Joy (Field) Bale, 1912-2002 (Mss 588), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 588. Papers of poet, editor and activist Joy Bale Boone, Elkton, Kentucky, relating primarily to her service as chair of the Committee for the Center for Robert Penn Warren Studies at Western Kentucky University. Includes correspondence, Committee records, collected data on Robert Penn Warren, and photographs. Also includes audio and video interviews of Boone and colleagues.

Wedding Family Papers (Sc 3053), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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Finding aid for Manuscripts Small Collection 3053. Miscellaneous papers of the Wedding family of Ohio County, Kentucky: “A Soldier’s Valentine,” a Spanish-American War-era poem by C. L. Wedding; clippings, including article about the poem and obituary of Denver E. Wedding; 1942 Hopkins County Rationing Board notice appointing Christine Wedding as a registrar; and 1942 letter to Christine Wedding from a serviceman’s wife regarding his departure overseas. For Spanish-American War related material in this collection, click on "Additional Files" below.

Yancey, Clara Louise (Robertson) Keech), 1908-2004 (Mss 579), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 579. Correspondence, photographs, interviews and papers of Louisville, Kentucky native Clara Louise (Robertson) Keech Yancey. Includes papers and correspondence of her parents, Eugene and Clara Mae Robertson, brother James Thomas Robertson, husband William J. Keech, son William Robertson Keech, and family data.

Edmunds And Willis Family Papers (Mss 549), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 549. Almost exclusively correspondence of the Edmunds and Willis families of Barren County, Kentucky. The Willis family correspondence (the bulk of the collection) is almost exclusively amongst females, so housekeeping, sewing, fashion, family matters are discussed frequently. Frank Willis, the family patriarch, does discuss farming with his daughters. Many of the letters are addressed to his wife, Laura (Edmunds) Willis, and a majority of those are from her daughters.

Ranney Family Papers (Mss 584), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 584. Information and photographs about the family of Charles and June (Carnegie) Ranney of Ohio County, Kentucky. Includes information about Charles’s days playing basketball in Ohio County as a youngster, his time as a teacher, and eventually his real estate career. Includes information about June’s interest in crafts, a ledger for a craft store, and photos of quilts and othertextile arts she produced. Genealogical information about the Ranney and Carnegie families is included.

Doll, Howard D. And Anne (Parker) Doll (Mss 573), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 573. Correspondence and papers of of the Pool, Keel and Beauchamp families of Metcalfe (formerly Barren) County, Kentucky. Includes papers of related families: Mitchell, Clark, Rogers, Cook, Shirley Yates, and others. Civil War letters include a letter from James F. Keel (Click on "Additional Files" below for typescript) describing activity at Nashville, Tennessee in July 1862.

Upton, Larry Thurman, B. 1940 (Mss 553), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 553. Letters from Stella Minton to her daughter, Elizabeth Allen “Betty” Minton, about family matters, local happenings in Bowling Green and Warren County, church affairs in the local Mormon congregation, quilting, gardening, and cooking. Includes research notes by Larry Thurman Upton for his book Memory is a Wonderful Thing that goes over the history of the Upton family. In addition the collection contains information about the beginning of stock car racing at Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Carter, Lillie Mae (Bland), 1919-1982 (Mss 558), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 558. This collection documents native Kentuckian Lillie Mae (Bland) Carters’ work as a poet and public school teacher in Toledo, Ohio. It includes correspondence, publications, unpublished poems, and printed material pertinent to her educational career and achievements. Of particular note is a folder of letters and autographs from African American poet Langston Hughes.

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

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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.

Nourse, Charles Ewing, 1826-1866 (Sc 3000), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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Finding aid and typescripts of three Mexican War letters (click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3000. Correspondence of Charles Ewing Nourse, Bardstown, Kentucky, and his wife Mary “Mollie” (Brown) Nourse. Three letters of Charles, serving in the 4^th Kentucky Infantry during the Mexican War, describe military life, illness, Mexican cities, and encounters with the enemy. Mary’s father writes from Cadiz, Kentucky, of his work as a circuit judge, and an 1850 letter wishes Charles and Mary well on their marriage. Includes Mary’s letter to Charles with family news, and two verses, both probably by Charles; one …

Lambert, James Knox Polk, 1864-1960 (Mss 545), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 545. Diaries, speeches, notes and postcards of Simpson County, Kentucky native James Knox Polk Lambert relating to his YMCA work with the American Expeditionary Force at the end of World War I, his tours of Europe thereafter, and his involvement in Freemasonry.

Murton, Jessie Wilmore (Jones), 1886-1973 (Mss 439), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 439. Correspondence, writings, scrapbooks, and financial records of Kentucky native and poet Jessie Wilmore Murton. Although born and raised in Kentucky, she spent most of her adult life in Battle Creek, Michigan. Her poetry and prose was published in several solo books and anthologies and appeared extensively in religious publications of the mid-twentieth century. The contents of Box 9 Folder 7 related to the League for Sanity in Poetry has been scanned and can be accessed by clicking on "Additional Files" below.

Hitler, Adolf, 1889-1945 - Letter To (Sc 2926), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2926. “A Letter to Hitler” from “America,” handwritten on letterhead of The Armored Force, Fort Knox, Kentucky. The mocking letter describes in explicit verse what awaits Hitler when U.S. forces arrive in Berlin.

Browning, James Clarence, 1914-1942 (Mss 556), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 556. Letters of U.S. Army officer J.C. Browning to his wife Lila (Hardcastle) Browning, written during his World War II military service. Browning was killed in North Africa on 8 November 1942. Includes letters of condolence to his wife, papers relating to his military service, and miscellaneous family cards and letters.

Current Events Club - Bowling Green, Kentucky (Mss 543), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 543. Minutes, yearbooks, administrative papers and program information relating to the Current Events Club, a ladies literary club in Bowling Green, Kentucky, that was founded in 1902.

Baker, Walter Arnold, 1937-2010 (Mss 539), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 539. This small collection contains material related to legislative matters of interest to Kentucky legislator and jurist Walter A. Baker, Glasgow, Kentucky. Also includes files about several trips abroad and family material.

Denhardt, Henry Herman, 1876-1937 (Mss 533), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 533. Correspondence, military orders, and instructional materials relating to Henry Herman Denhardt’s World War I service as a field artillery officer and postwar training as an officer in the Kentucky National Guard. Includes a few personal and political items relating to Denhardt’s campaign for Governor of Kentucky.

Shelton Family Papers (Mss 527), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

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Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Collection 527. Letters and compositions written by Butler County, Kentucky native Curran Ralph Shelton, while a student at Glasgow Normal School. Also includes a diary in which he records family, church, and local community happenings in 1891. Also includes several small diaries kept by Curran’s wife John Annie during the Great Depression.