American Popular Culture Commons^™

Hal Lindsey's The Late, Great Planet Earth And The Rise Of Popular Premillennialism In The 1970s, Cortney S. Basham

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

How people think about the end of the world greatly affects how they live in the present. This thesis examines how popular American thought about “the end of the world” has been greatly affected by Hal Lindsey’s 1970 popular prophecy book The Late, Great Planet Earth. LGPE sold more copies than any other non-fiction book in the 1970s and greatly aided the mainstreaming of “end-times” ideas like the Antichrist, nuclear holocaust, the Rapture, and various other concepts connected with popular end-times thought. These ideas stem from a specific strain of late-nineteenth century Biblical interpretation known as dispensational premillennialism, which …

Nelson, James S. (Fa 161), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 161. This collection contains a master’s thesis entitled “Hillbilly Music and Early Live Radio Programming In Bowling Green and Glasgow, Kentucky: Country Music as a Local Phenomenon,” written by James Nelson in January 1994 for the department of Modern Languages and Intercultural Studies at Western Kentucky University. Also included is a cassette tape of old-time music from south central Kentucky entitled “Railroad Through the Smoky Mountains,” by Jim Bowles, as well as an obituary for Jonell F. Simunick.

Eclectic Book Club (Mss 407), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 407. Minute book, yearbooks, and financial data of the Eclectic Book Club, a women's literary club in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

The Triumph Of The Passenger Ship - An Exhibition Of The Norman H. Morse Ocean Liner Collection, Osher Map Library

Osher Map Library Exhibition Catalogs

Triumph of the Passenger Ship: Highlights from the Norman H. Morse Ocean Liner Collection, 1870-2010.

May 15, 2012 to August 23, 2012

The experience of life aboard the great vessels that plied the Atlantic, from the introduction of steam to the rise of air travel, is presented through this selection of materials from the Morse Collection of ocean liner ephemera.

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

Manuscript Collection 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

Folklife Archives 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.

May, Gloria Miller (Binzel), 1929-2016 (Sc 2512), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2512. Two letters from Gloria May (Mrs. Philip S. May, Jr.), Jacksonville, Florida, to Cora Jane Spiller, Bowling Green, Kentucky, with personal news. She also relates anecdotes about the shopping habits of Pauline Tabor, a Bowling Green madam, and the luxuries she afforded her employees.

Ladies Literary Club - Bowling Green, Kentucky (Mss 393), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 393. Minutes, correspondence, programs, historical sketches, and miscellaneous material of the Ladies Literary Club of Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Johnson, James L. (Sc 365), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 365. Typescript of a speech delivered on Nathan B. Stubblefield, “Father of the Radio,” by James L. Johnson at the annual convention of the Kentucky Broadcasters Association in Louisville.

Trimble, Anne Ridings, 1909-1971 (Mss 391), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 391. Correspondence and published stories of Logan County, Kentucky, romance story writer Anne Ridings Trimble. The correspondence is between Trimble and Kentucky Library librarians Mary Leiper Moore and Elizabeth Coombs. Click on "Additional Files" below for a list of Trimble stories mentioned in the collection.

Shakers (Sc 356), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (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

Folklife Archives 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.

Fairleigh Family Papers (Sc 349), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 349. Class book, 1839-1844, of the Methodist Church, Brandenburg, Kentucky, containing membership list, 1843-44, and some notations of contributions. Also, it contains law and minutes of the Belles Lettres Society, 1849-1850, and of the Union Debating Society, October 1852. The book was kept by Thomas Fairleigh and other Fairleigh family members.

Volkerding Family Papers (Mss 385), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 385. Letters written chiefly by Herman Frederick Wilhelm Volkerding, of Louisville, Kentucky, to his wife Mary Elizabeth (Hauber) Volkerding while traveling as a salesman for the John T. Barbee distillers. Volkerding pines for home and describes the scenery, hotels, amusements and rail travel in the western United States.

Reed, Margaret (Sc 344), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 344. Letter written by Margaret Reed, Smiths Grove, Kentucky, to Mrs. Charles Porter, Bowling Green, Kentucky, declining her invitation to visit during the fair.

Taft, Ann Celine (Fa 49), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 49. Oral history interview with The Straightway Gospel Singers from Gallatin, Tennessee conducted by Ann Celine Taft for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University. Subsequent paper titled "The Straightway Gospel Singers" also included.

Autobiographical Sketch Of A Group Based Musician (Fa 48), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 48. “Autobiographical Sketch of a Group Based Musician,” a paper and interview executed for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University. Author chose to remain anonymous.

Roberts, Ethel (Sc 2499), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 2499. Letter, 18 January 1923, from 16-year-old Ethel Roberts, a student in Big Creek, Kentucky, to Helen Ferenczy, Altgeld School, Chicago, Illinois. Ethel describes Christmas and other activities at her school.

Wayne County, Kentucky Project (Fa 23), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid for Folklife Archives Project 23. Oral history interviews with various residents of Wayne County, Kentucky, conducted by Western Kentucky University folk studies students. Topics include the oil industry, folk medicine, water witching, one-room schools and banjo playing.

Patterson, F. Youree, 1869-1936 (Sc 246), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 246. Campaign letter, 25 July 1913, written by F. Youree Patterson, Bowling Green, Kentucky, concerning his candidacy for the Warren County Clerk’s office in the primary election on the dry ticket.

Remember The Fillmore: The Lingering History Of Urban Renewal In Black San Francisco, Christina Jackson, Nikki Jones

Africana Studies Faculty Publications

In the summer of 2008, I moved to San Francisco, California. I lived in the city for three months. As a researcher, my objective was to learn more about Mayor Gavin Newsome’s African-American Out-Migration Task Force. The Task Force convened in 2007 and met eight times from August to December. In 2009, the Mayor's office released a final report on the Redevelopment Agency's website that summarized the history of blacks in the city and outlined several recommendations for reversing their flight. The final report found that the political, economic, and social conditions of African-Americans are disproportionately more dire than any …

Hillbillies, Rednecks, Crackers And White Trash, Anthony Harkins

History Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

"Spectacular Opacities": The Hyers Sisters' Performances Of Respectability And Resistance, Jocelyn Buckner

Theatre Faculty Articles and Research

This essay analyzes the Hyers Sisters, a Reconstruction-era African American sister act, and their radical efforts to transcend social limits of gender, class, and race in their early concert careers and three major productions, Out of Bondage and Peculiar Sam, or The Underground Railroad, two slavery-to-freedom epics, and Urlina, the African Princess, the first known African American play set in Africa. At a time when serious, realistic roles and romantic plotlines featuring black actors were nearly nonexistent due to the country’s appetite for stereotypical caricatures, the Hyers Sisters used gender passing to perform opposite one another as heterosexual lovers in …

Introduction To E. D. E. N. Southworth: Recovering A Nineteenth-Century Popular Novelist, Melissa J. Homestead, Pamela T. Washington

Department of English: Faculty Publications

In early 1901, Willa Cather visited Prospect Cottage in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C., the longtime home of the recently deceased novelist Emma Dorothy Eliza Nevirte (E. D. E. N.) Southworth. Born in Washington, D.C., in 1819 to southern parents (her father from Virginia, her mother from Maryland), Southworth lived in Washington with her family until she married Frederick Hamilton Southworth and moved with him to Wisconsin in 1841. When he deserted her and their two children,' she returned to Washington and taught school to support herself, running to writing to supplement her income from teaching. Within a few …

A Chronological Bibliography Of E. D. E. N. Southworth's Works Privileging Periodical Publication, Melissa J. Homestead, Vicki L. Martin

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Previous attempts at a comprehensive bibliography of E. D. E. N. Southworth's fiction have organized her works alphabetically by book title or chronologically by book publication date. Serialization information--if included at all--is subordinated to book entries or listed separately. These bibliographic conventions better suit authors who published fewer novels than Southworth did and/or did \ not routinely serialize their works. As a result, earlier bibliographies have caused confusion about the size and chronology of Southworth's body of work. Adding to the confusion, her book publisher T. B. Peterson arbitrarily broke many of her novels that appeared in serial form under …

Murrow And Friendly’S Small World: Television Conversation At The Crossroads, Kathleen Collins

Publications and Research

Small World

(1958–60), an Edward R. Murrow and Fred W. Friendly television production, brought together political and entertainment figures from around the world, boasting technological innovation and a high level of public affairs discourse. The author discusses critical reception, producers’ ideals, cultural and historical context, and relation-ships to evolving notions of public service broadcasting.

Mexican-Americans In Los Angeles: Strengthening Their Ethnic Identity Through Chivas Usa, Stephanie Goldberger

CMC Senior Theses

A large Mexican-American population already exists in Los Angeles and, with each generation, it continues to rise. This Mexican-American community has maintained its connection to its heritage by playing and watching soccer, Mexico’s top watched sport. In this thesis, I analyze how Major League Soccer's Chivas USA serves as an outlet through which many Mexicans in Los Angeles have developed their ethnic identities. Since the early twentieth century, Mexicans in Los Angeles have created separate residential communities and sports organizations to strengthen their connections with one another.

To appeal to Mexican-Americans, Chivas USA has branded itself closely to its sister …

Art+Politics, Shannon Egan, Jenna L. Birkenshock, Hillary B. Goodall, Tessa M. Sheridan, Josiah B. Adlon, Megan E. Hilands, Emily A. Francisco, Molly E. Reynolds, Shelby P. Glass, Colleen L. Parrish, Francesca S. Debiaso

Schmucker Art Catalogs

For the exhibition Art + Politics, students worked closely with the holdings of Gettysburg College's Special Collections and College Archives to curate an exhibition in Schmucker Art Gallery that engages with issues of public policy, activism, war, propaganda, and other critical socio-political themes. Each of the students worked diligently to contextualize the objects historically, politically, and art-historically. The art and artifacts presented in this exhibition reveal how various political events and social issues have been interpreted through various visual and printed materials, including posters, pins, illustrations, song sheets, as well as a Chinese shoe for bound feet. The students' …

The Grand Tour And Development Of Tourism: 1600-1900, Osher Map Library

Osher Map Library Exhibition Catalogs

The Grand Tour and Development of Tourism, 1600 to 1900.

October 4, 2011 to April 28, 2012

The 400th anniversary of Thomas Coryat’s "Crudities" (1611), the first tourist memoir, is celebrated by this history, to 1918, of the European tourism industry and the development of guidebooks and maps.

Curated by Yolanda Theunissen, USM.

Mercer, Fannie (Guy), 1855-1940 - Collector (Sc 176), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Manuscript Collection Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) Manuscripts Small Collection 176. Printed invitation, 15 June 1932, to Miss Sarah Leat for a July 4th ball at B. Vance's Hotel, Bowling Green, Kentucky, and newspaper clipping, 1929, concerning the invitation. Also holographic copy of lyrics of "Old Folks at Home."