American Studies Commons^™

Roberts, Elizabeth Madox, 1881-1941 - Relating To (Sc 3425), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3425. Notes by an unidentified individual of an interview of author Elizabeth Madox Roberts. Apparently sent to WKU student Paul Wharton from Roberts’ home city of Springfield, Kentucky, the notes recount her comments on her novels The Time of Man and He Sent Forth a Raven, and on the title of her most recent book, Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair.

Beeler, Andrew J., Jr., 1912-1998 (Sc 3418), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3418. Letters to WKU faculty member Frances Richards from A. J. Beeler, curriculum director for the Louisville, Kentucky public schools. A letter of 1 May 1946 encloses his list of recent Kentucky literature, and a letter of 3 January 1958 reports on his family and Christmas holiday. Includes his reviews of three books by Janice Holt Giles.

Diversity And Democracy At War: Analyzing Race And Ethnicity In Squad Films From 1940-1960, Lara K. Jacobson

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

Both the Second World War and the Korean War presented Hollywood with the opportunity to produce combat films that roused patriotic spirit amongst the American people. The obvious choice was to continue making the popular squad films that portrayed a group of soldiers working together to overcome a common challenge posed by the war. However, in the wake of various racial and ethnic tensions consistently unfolding in the United States from 1940 to 1960, it became apparent to Hollywood that the nation needed pictures of unity more than ever, especially if America was going to win its wars. Using combat …

The Narrative Of Revolution: Socialism And The Masses 1911-1917, Stephen K. Walkiewicz

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis seeks to situate The Masses magazine (1911-1917) within a specific discursive tradition of revolution, revealing a narrative pattern that is linked with discourse that began to emerge during and after the French Revolution. As the term “socialism” begins to resonate again within popular American political discourse (and as a potentially viable course of action rather than a curse for damnable offense), it is worthwhile to trace its significance within American history to better understand its aesthetic dimensions, its radical difference, and its way of devising problems and answers. In short, this thesis poses the question: what ideological structures …

Amjambo Africa! (May 2019), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In This Issue...

Cultivating Community .........Page 8

Community Dialogue...........Page 15

Stewart, Robert Lee, 1873-1963 (Sc 3415), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3415. Letters, 30 May 1956 and 15 May 1957, to Mary Ellen Richards, Franklin, Kentucky, from Lee Stewart, Morehead, Kentucky. He encloses poems and song lyrics relating to Kentucky history, and comments on the Rowan County, Kentucky centennial celebrations. He also encloses his newspaper article about a Fayette County, Kentucky judge, legislator and poet.

Cox, Hal Z., 1883-1952 (Sc 3414), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3414. Poem, “Old Kentucky,” written by Hodgenville, Kentucky native Hal Z. Cox in commemoration of the sesquicentennial of Kentucky statehood. Includes a 2011 newspaper article about Cox.

Embodied Nostalgia: Early Twentieth Century Social Dance And U.S. Musical Theatre, Phoebe Rumsey

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In this dissertation, I claim the collective emotional connections and historical explorations characteristic of musical theatre constitute a nostalgic impulse dramaturgically inherent in the form. In my intervention in the link between nostalgia and musical theatre, I look to an area underrepresented in musical theatre scholarship: social dance. Through case studies that focus specifically on how social dance in musical theatre brings forth the dancer on stage as a site of embodied history, cultural memory, and nostalgia, I ask what social dance is doing in musical theatre and how the dancing body functions as a catalyst for nostalgic thinking for …

The Sigh Of Triple Consciousness: Blacks Who Blurred The Color Line In Films From The 1930s Through The 1950s, Audrey Phillips

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis will identify an over looked subset of racial identity as seen through film narratives from the 1930’s through the 1950’s pre-Civil Rights era. The subcategory of racial identity is the necessity of passing for Black people then identified as Negro. The primary film narratives include Veiled Aristocrats (1932), Lost Boundaries (1949), Pinky (1949) and Imitation of Life (1934). These images will deploy the troupe of passing as a racialized historical image. These films depict the pain and anguish Passers endured while escaping their racial identity. Through these stories we identify, sympathize and understand the needs of Black …

North Of Ourselves: Identity And Place In Jim Wayne Miller’S Poetry, Micah Mccrotty

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Jim Wayne Miller’s poetry examines how human history and topography join to create place. His work often incorporates images of land and ecology; it deliberately questions the delineation between place and self. This thesis explores how Miller presents images of water to describe the relationship between inhabitants and their location, both with the positive image of the spring and the negative image of the flood. Additionally, this thesis examines how the Brier, Miller’s most prominent persona character, grieves his separation from home and ultimately finds healing and reunification of the self through his return to the hills. In his poetry, …

Kentucky Council Of Teachers Of English (Sc 3409), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3409. “Literary Landmarks of Kentucky,” a guidebook prepared by the Kentucky Council of Teachers of English. Organized alphabetically by county and thereafter by place name, the guide provides short entries about the literary personalities or literary works associated with that location.

Kentucky Poetry Day (Sc 3408), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3408. Information for school administrators regarding programming for Kentucky Poetry Day. Includes proclamations by the Governor, suggested activities, and historical, biographical and bibliographical data on Kentucky poets.

Two Poems: Stop Time Before; Forsaken Ones, Ánh-Hoa Thị Nguyễn

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This creative work features two poems: Stop Time Before; Forsaken Ones

Guthrie, Alfred Bertram, Jr., 1901-1991 (Sc 3395), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans of selected items (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3395. Three autobiographical sketches by author A. B. Guthrie, Jr., written in response to requests. Also includes Guthrie’s article on the historical novel, written for the Fall 1954 Montana Magazine of History, and a review of his book of collected stories The Big It, with his comments, published in the Saturday Review, 25 February 1960.

Boyd, John Allen, 1938?-2017 (Sc 3394), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3394. Poems written by John Allen Boyd, a WKU graduate, teacher, and resident of Louisville, Kentucky. One collection is bound in pamphlet form and inscribed to WKU faculty member Frances Richards; others are included, with commentary, in a graduate project entitled “Experiments in Verse and Poetry” and written for an advanced composition class at WKU.

Spottswood, Henry Mercer, Iii,B. 1940 (Mss 665), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 665. Correspondence with poet and author Jim Wayne Miller, Bowling Green, Kentucky. Chiefly letters to Spottswood which contain numerous attachments about Miller’s writing and speaking engagements. Also includes a small amount of correspondence from Miller’s wife, Mary Ellen Miller, and an unpublished book of poems by WKU students.

Noe, James Thomas Cotton, 1864-1953 (Sc 3379), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3379. Christmas cards and letters to WKU faculty member Frances Richards from Cotton Noe, first Poet Laureate of Kentucky. Each includes a poem by Noe, but in his 1950 letter he advises Richards that he will be discontinuing this forty-year-long custom. He describes his activities with a poetry guild in Los Angeles, California, and recalls their friendship. Includes Noe’s obituary from the Louisville Courier-Journal and a 1969 clipping from the same paper about Noe.

Walton, Laura S. (Sc 3378), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3378. “The Prentice Poets,” an English paper by WKU student Laura Walton with sketches of the careers of four female poets who contributed to Kentucky’s Louisville Journal under the editorship of George D. Prentice.

Summers, Hollis Spurgeon, 1916-1987 (Sc 3376), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3376. Vita documenting education, teaching experience, family and publications of Hollis Summers, current to 1957; biographical narrative, written shortly after Summers joined the faculty of the English department at the University of Kentucky in 1949.

Amjambo Africa! (April 2019), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In This Issue...

Editorial: Migration ................Page 3

Senegalese Storytelling .......Page 12

Sympathetic Physics: The Keely Motor And The Laws Of Thermodynamics In Nineteenth-Century Culture, Robert Macdougall

History Publications

In Philadelphia in the 1870s, John Worrell Keely announced the invention of a fantastic new motor that could, he promised, drive locomotives, power factories, and even defy gravity without fuel or heat. The Keely Motor became the most notorious perpetual motion scheme of the nineteenth century, attracting believers and investors for nearly thirty years. This article explores the “work” the motor performed for Keely, his supporters, and his critics—not physical work, but financial, cultural, and psychological. To investors, the Keely Motor represented a dream of riches without effort. To Keely’s critics, the motor offered an opportunity to defend the legitimacy …

3rd Place Contest Entry: Aesthetic Activism: Protest Art In The Delano Grape Strike, Felicia Viano

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

This is Felicia Viano's submission for the 2019 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize, which won third place. It contains her essay on using library resources, a three-page sample of her research project on the use of art as a social movement tactic by the United Farm Workers during the Delano Grape Strike, and her works cited list.

Felicia is a senior at Chapman University, majoring in History and Peace Studies. Her faculty mentor is Dr. Robert Slayton.

1st Place Contest Entry: Countering The Current: The Function Of Cinematic Waves In Communist Vs. Capitalist Societies, Maddie Gwinn

Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize

This is Maddie Gwinn's submission for the 2019 Kevin and Tam Ross Undergraduate Research Prize, which won first place. It contains her essay on using library resources, a three-page sample of her research project on how the Czech New Wave and New Hollywood cinema are defined by their agency in preserving and prescribing cultural meaning across their societies while being bound to their economic systems, and her works cited list.

Maddie is a senior at Chapman University, majoring in Film Production. Her faculty mentor is Dr. Carmichael Peters.

Crabb, Alfred Leland, 1884-1979 (Sc 3366), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3366. Correspondence, consisting mainly of publication announcements for books by Alfred Leland Crabb, a faculty member at WKU and George Peabody College and an author of essays and historical fiction. Includes miscellaneous writing of Crabb’s as well as reviews, clippings and obituaries.

Litsey, Edwin Carlile, 1874-1970 (Sc 3362), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3362. Letter, 19 July 1950, to “Mary Virginia” from Edwin Carlile Litsey, Lebanon, Kentucky. He thanks her for a recent request for biographical data and relates information about his daughter Sarah and her family. He also reports that both of them are working on books. Includes a typescript of Sarah’s poem “The Roads,” published in Scribner’s Magazine, December 1935, and a typescript of Litsey’s poem “King Solomon of Kentucky.”

Giles, Janice Meredith (Holt), 1905-1979 (Sc 3363), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3363. Letters, 1951 and 1955, from author Janice Holt Giles, Knifley, Kentucky, containing biographical information about her and husband Henry Giles. Includes a 1956 letter declining WKU faculty member Frances Richards’ invitation to speak at WKU’s Leiper English Club due to her dental problems, and a few clippings about the Giles and their work.

Grise, George Calvin, 1918-1960 (Sc 3359), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3359. Letters and cards to WKU faculty member Frances Richards and her parents, and writings of George C. Grise. The WKU graduate, English professor at Austin Peay State University, and author thanks the Richards for gifts, including a loom, and describes his life in the country near Lewisburg, Kentucky. He sends Frances Richards notices regarding the publication of his 1956 book Life With Hezzie and a 1960 writer’s workshop at Austin Peay. Includes an essay about editing WKU’s College Heights Herald newspaper, and a published article about school discipline stories. Also includes clippings …

Clarke, Mary (Washington), 1913-1999 (Sc 3358), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3358. Letters and cards to retired WKU faculty member Frances Richards from Mary (Washington) Clarke, also a WKU faculty member. She writes of publishing her book Jesse Stuart’s Kentucky, of her work with husband Kenneth Clarke as editor of the Kentucky Folklore Record, and of other scholarly projects. Christmas letters provide details of the Clarkes’ farm near Bowling Green, Kentucky, including a sketch map of its location.

Davis, Anne Pence, 1901-1983 (Sc 3357), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3357. Letters and cards to WKU faculty member Frances Richards from author and alumna Anne Pence Davis, Wichita Falls, Texas. She writes of her enjoyment of a 1962 visit to WKU, and in 1976 recounts recent activities and asks Richards’ help in preparing a program on Kentucky poets for the Kentucky Club of Dallas. After the program, she writes to thank Richards, encloses the club invitation, and relates news about her inclusion in volume 3 of the anthology Kentucky in American Letters by Dorothy E. Townsend, and about her gardening.

Reed, Bettie Louise (Curlin), 1900-1999 (Sc 3354), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3354. Letter, postmarked 11 January 1950, of Bettie Louise Reed, Fulton, Kentucky to former classmate Anita Walker, Drakesboro, Kentucky. Reed, who published short stories in popular magazines under the pen name Curlin Reed, reports on her recent struggles with writing but reviews her career, inspirations, and use of an agent. She also gives news of her children.