Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 30 of 81
Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Sinnet, Edwin, 1827-1902 (Sc 3528), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Sinnet, Edwin, 1827-1902 (Sc 3528), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below). Letter, 21 January 1862, written to his wife in Granville, Ohio, by Dr. Edwin Sinnet while serving as a surgeon with the 94th Ohio Volunteer Infantry. From Mill Springs Kentucky, he writes of the fate of the Confederate forces after the recent battle: their ill-advised attack from their winter quarters; their flight and abandonment of arms, equipment and horses; their burning of flatboats used to cross the Cumberland River; and the “bloody corpses” scattered across fields and roads. He tells of encountering a survivor still lying wounded on the battlefield.
Gray, John H. (Sc 3483), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Gray, John H. (Sc 3483), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and full-text scan of typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3483. Letter, 15 October 1862, to his family from John H. Gray, serving with the 101st Indiana Infantry. He describes his experiences en route to Perryville, Kentucky in the wake of the recent battle there: the lack of rations that required improvisation when preparing meals, the prevalence of diarrhea (“the quick step”) among the troops, and his hospitalization at Perryville, where he sees the decaying body of a Confederate soldier, houses and hospitals full of suffering wounded, piles of spent ammunition, and destruction of …
Warr, Joseph W., 1836-1864 (Sc 3482), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Warr, Joseph W., 1836-1864 (Sc 3482), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and typescript (Click on “Additional Files” below for Manuscripts Small Collection 3482. Letter, 11 February 1862, to his mother and siblings from Joseph Warr, Company A, 2nd Minnesota Volunteers. From Somerset, Kentucky, he writes of troop movements toward Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he expects a victorious battle. He describes a recent encounter with Confederate forces crossing the Cumberland River and the severe wounds of those taken prisoner, but declares that the enemy would otherwise have shown no mercy. He notes the long knives of the Confederates (“Mississippi toothpicks”) and the homemade quality of their uniforms. He also urges …
Gray, John H. (Sc 3445), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Gray, John H. (Sc 3445), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3445. Letter, 17 October [1862], to his sister Jennie from John H. Gray, serving with the 101st Indiana Infantry. Recovering in hospital at Perryville, Kentucky after an arduous march, he describes conditions in the aftermath of the Battle of Perryville: property damage, unburied dead, Confederate prisoners of war, the suffering of the wounded, and shortages of food and water. He regrets being unable to recuperate without benefit of a furlough and, as he prepares to rejoin his regiment, refers sarcastically to the “lovely war.”
Buckberry, Ray B., Jr., B. 1934 (Sc 3446), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Buckberry, Ray B., Jr., B. 1934 (Sc 3446), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3446. “First Warren County Soldier to Die on D-Day,” a paper by Ray Buckberry describing known details of the death of Lieutenant James Lee Durham, Bowling Green, Kentucky on 6 June 1944 during the invasion of Normandy, France. A member of the 82nd Airborne Infantry Division, Durham participated in a nighttime parachute drop early on D-Day. Includes a photograph of Durham’s gravestone in Bowling Green’s Fairview Cemetery.
Griffin, Lowell M. (Mss 669), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Griffin, Lowell M. (Mss 669), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 669. Civil War related material, chiefly recorded audio presentations to the Louisville Civil War Round Table of which Lowell Griffin was a member. Also includes some news clippings about the Civil War and Abraham Lincoln as well as transcripts of several presentations on Civil War topics.
Borrone, Bert Joseph, Jr., 1919-1995 (Sc 3368), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Borrone, Bert Joseph, Jr., 1919-1995 (Sc 3368), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3368. Prelude to Invasion,” two programs written by Sergeant Bert J. Borrone, Bowling Green, Kentucky, for the American Expeditionary Station News Bureau to be broadcast on 23 May and 30 May 1944. Borrone, then stationed in North Africa, details possible scenarios and tactical challenges for the highly anticipated Allied invasion of Europe, and expresses confidence in victory.
Weir Family Collection (Mss 651), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Weir Family Collection (Mss 651), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid for Manuscripts Collection 651. Letters and papers of the Weir family of Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, and related members of the Rumsey and Miller families. Well-to-do merchants and farmers, the Weirs were leading supporters of the Union during the Civil War, providing advocacy, financial support, and military service. Includes full-text scans of a letter from the brother of steamboat pioneer James Rumsey defending his legacy as an innovator; James Weir's journal; James Weir's will; the annotated recollections of Edward Weir, Sr.; and two letters from former Weir slaves recolonized in Liberia (Click on "Additional files" below).
Ligon, Lucy Ann (Parker) Robbins, 1833-1891 - Letters To (Sc 3278), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Ligon, Lucy Ann (Parker) Robbins, 1833-1891 - Letters To (Sc 3278), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and typescripts (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3278. Letters to Lucy Ann Robbins Ligon, the daughter of Fulton County, Kentucky judge Josiah Parker and his wife Lucy A. Parker, written while she lived in Crittenden County, Arkansas with her late husband’s brother, and in Hickman, Kentucky after her remarriage. Lucy’s parents relay news of her siblings and of pre-Civil War Hickman, and at the outbreak of war dramatically describe the division of loyalties, the townspeople’s fear and uncertainty as invasion threatens from the North, the enlistment of local men, two destructive fires, economic conditions, …
Fry, Samuel Van Buren, 1840-1903 (Sc 3276), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Fry, Samuel Van Buren, 1840-1903 (Sc 3276), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3276. Letter, 31 July 1864, of Samuel V. Fry, 16th Kentucky Infantry, to Ruth Jane Sapp. From Dalton, Georgia, he writes of engaging Confederate forces near Atlanta in a "big fight every day” and hopes to see her if he survives the war. He urges her not to “give me up for lost and take some other gentle man in my place.”
Miller, George W., B. 1843? (Sc 3220), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Miller, George W., B. 1843? (Sc 3220), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3220. Letter, 19 January 1863, of George W. Miller to his sister. In camp at Bowling Green, Kentucky, the unhappy soldier writes of the threat of death from battle and disease, of “tyrannical” officers, and of a debt owed to him at home. He is angered to learn that an uncle in Fostoria, Ohio is a secessionist. He also mentions his brother Jacob’s engagement in a “big fight” lasting five days.
Messer, George, 1833-1863 (Sc 3211), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Messer, George, 1833-1863 (Sc 3211), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and full text transcription (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3211. Letters, 6 January-31 May 1863, of George Messer to his wife Lottie in DeWitt County, Illinois, while encamped in Hart County, Kentucky and at Camp Hobson, Glasgow, Kentucky. He writes of illness and death among his comrades, troop strength, wage payments, food, and his commanding officers. Weary of a soldier’s life and anxious for the South’s total defeat, he criticizes conscription laws that allow exemption on payment of a fee, and accuses politicians and “Eastern men” of prolonging the war. He notes local citizens’ …
Williams, Samuel J., D. 1864 (Sc 3167), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Williams, Samuel J., D. 1864 (Sc 3167), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and full-text typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3167. Letter, 31 October 1861, of Samuel J. Williams, 33rd Indiana Infantry, to “friend Lorinda.” From Camp Calvert in Laurel County, Kentucky, he writes of illness among the soldiers and of preparing the camp’s defenses. He also writes of a nervous sentry’s mistaking a tree stump for an intruder, two orders to prepare for battle, and the capture of two Confederates. The letterhead includes an engraving of a flag-bearing woman and the slogan “Onward to Victory!”
Messer, George, 1833-1863 (Sc 3118), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Messer, George, 1833-1863 (Sc 3118), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and full-text typescript (click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3118. Letter, 23-24 May 1862 [sic], of George Messer, 107th Illinois Infantry, to his wife Lottie in DeWitt County, Illinois. From Camp Hobson, Glasgow, Kentucky, he reports on his health and the possibility of battle, and mockingly describes the two-men “dogtents” issued to the troops. He also discusses recent promotions and the prospects for a military draft, notes the arrival of an Indiana regiment decimated at the Battle of Perryville, and criticizes "shoulder strap gentlemen” who take credit for soldiers’ achievements.
Winchel, Beulah Rhea, 1912-2015 (Mss 609), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Winchel, Beulah Rhea, 1912-2015 (Mss 609), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 609. Correspondence, photographs, travel materials, genealogy, and other personal papers of Beulah R. Winchel, a Breckinridge County, Kentucky, native and a teacher and librarian who served in Japan, Germany and France with the U.S. Army Special Services and the Department of Defense Dependents Schools.
Rice, Laban Lacy, 1870-1973 (Mss 605), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Rice, Laban Lacy, 1870-1973 (Mss 605), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
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.
Parsons, James T., 1835-1875 (Sc 2990), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Parsons, James T., 1835-1875 (Sc 2990), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and full-text of letters (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2990. Letters of James T. Parsons to his parents, written during his service with the 17th Ohio Infantry. He details his regiment’s arduous marches through Kentucky, especially Boyle and Pulaski counties, and remarks on bad roads, picket duty, and high prices charged by the sutler. He criticizes Kentucky soldiers as both braggarts and cowards. In December 1861, he speculates on the “great Battle to come” at Bowling Green but, in hospital at Nashville in August 1862, doubts the prospects for victory over the South. He …
Helm, Margie May, 1894-1991 (Mss 552), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
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.
Nourse, Charles Ewing, 1826-1866 (Sc 3000), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Nourse, Charles Ewing, 1826-1866 (Sc 3000), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
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 4th 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 …
Smith, Elvin, Jr. - Collector (Mss 534), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Smith, Elvin, Jr. - Collector (Mss 534), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection MSS 534. Collected research of Elvin Smith, Jr. relating to the Civil War in Kentucky and consisting mostly of typescripted soldiers’ diaries and letters. Also includes compiled data on regiments stationed in Bowling Green, Kentucky and at Lost River Cave near Bowling Green, and lists of soldiers’ deaths at Bowling Green.
Potter, Thomas Corwin, 1841-1863 (Sc 2892), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Potter, Thomas Corwin, 1841-1863 (Sc 2892), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and typescript (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2892. Letter, 7 January 1862, of Private Thomas C. Corwin, Battery B, 1st Ohio Light Artillery, to his sister in Michigan. Writing from camp at Somerset, Kentucky, he reflects on the war’s duration and describes camp life, troop positions around Somerset, and local citizens’ fear of a coming battle. He also describes skirmishes with Confederate pickets and his hopes for an advance though Kentucky.
Tolle Collection (Mss 524), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Tolle Collection (Mss 524), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 524. Correspondence and papers of the Tolle family of Barren County, Kentucky. Includes data on the Tolle, Snoddy and Bransford families, William Daniel Tolle’s history of Barren County, and materials relating to his work as a veteran’s pension claims agent.
Ebelhar, Melissa (Sc 1262), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Ebelhar, Melissa (Sc 1262), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1262. Paper, “The Fairy Belle,” written by Melissa Ebelhar for a WKU history class. She discusses the service of her grandfather, Lucian D. Keller, Owensboro, Kentucky, as a waist gunner in the 392nd Air Force Division in Europe during World War II.
Daniels, Herbert, 1836-1899 (Mss 500), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Daniels, Herbert, 1836-1899 (Mss 500), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 500. Letters of Herbert Daniels, serving with the 7th Rhode Island Infantry, to Salina A. (Brewster) Waterson in Worcester, Massachusetts. He reports on camp life in Kentucky, Maryland and Washington, D.C., gossips about other soldiers, and makes candid references to his sexual relationship with Salina.
Wilson, John W. (Sc 2865), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Wilson, John W. (Sc 2865), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid and full text (click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2865. Letter, 2 July 1864, of John W. Wilson, Company B, 2nd Kentucky Battalion Cavalry, written from Bristol, Virginia to the father of Private James Minter informing him that his son was killed at the 2nd Battle of Mt. Sterling, Kentucky and praising his character. Includes associated data on Wilson and Minter.
Alexander Family Papers (Mss 505), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Alexander Family Papers (Mss 505), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only Manuscripts Collection 505. Correspondence, business and estate papers, deeds and miscellaneous records of the Alexander, Fontaine, Lucas, Graham and associated families, principally of Henry County, Virginia; Cumberland, Metcalfe and Warren counties in Kentucky; and Pontotoc County, Mississippi. Includes letters of Martha (Lucas) Graham written from Bowling Green, Kentucky during the Civil War (Click on "Additional Files" below).
Vanbuskirk, Michael Henry, 1840-1905 (Sc 1383), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Vanbuskirk, Michael Henry, 1840-1905 (Sc 1383), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid for Manuscripts Small Collection 1383. Diary, 1862-1864, kept by Michael H. VanBuskirk, while serving with Co. F, 27th Regiment of the Indiana Volunteers. He was taken prisoner in Virginia on 25 May 1862, and released on 13 September 1862. He gives a good description of military life. Also includes an 1862 letter written in rhyme to his parents (Click on "Additional Files" below for scan).
Parker Family Papers (Mss 118), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Parker Family Papers (Mss 118), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 118. A wide array of materials, chiefly correspondence, of the Liddell and Spencer families of Alabama and the Parker family of Bowling Green, Kentucky. Of particular interest are Civil War letters written to Mary E. “Mollie” Liddell, items related to Howard College and Judson Institute in Marion, Alabama, letters to Lorena Parker from a missionary in Ethiopia, and a letter mentioning Texas politics in 1860.
Hughes, George Henry (Sc 1220), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Hughes, George Henry (Sc 1220), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 1220. Civil War letters written to Sarah Catherine Prose, by George Henry Hughes, while serving probably with the Ohio 18th Infantry. He describes military life and battles, particularly in Tennessee and Alabama.
Allen, John G., 1837?-1863 (Sc 2795), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
Allen, John G., 1837?-1863 (Sc 2795), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives
MSS Finding Aids
Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2795. Pocket diary of John G. Allen, containing a few brief notations made while Allen was serving in the Union Army in 1862 and was encamped near Nashville; letter to his sister from camp, 24 November 1862, assuring her that he has had enough to eat; two promissory notes of Allen’s; and a summons to Allen to appear in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky Court to answer a claim for debt.