History Commons^™

Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 26: Confessions Of A 'Wallace Enthusiast', Charles H. Smith

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

The author’s longstanding interest in the life and thought of Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) is profiled in three ways, through: (1) a brief factual review of its history (2) a discussion of some problems with the way Wallace has been treated over the years, and (3) a consideration of the author’s personal experience with the paranormal, and how this has made him, if not always a full believer, more patient with divergent explanations of the type Wallace was famous for.

Alfred Russel Wallace Notes 21: Wallace & The Doorway To The Universe, Charles H. Smith

Faculty/Staff Personal Papers

An important yet largely unrecognized theme in the thought of Alfred Russel Wallace (1823−1913) was his insistence that all dependably-reported phenomena, even those of aberrant nature, were worthy of a respectful kind of attention: that is, a kind which did not automatically banish difficult subjects to the realm of myth or superstition. In this work, Wallace’s philosophy in this direction is documented, and linked to the world of post-Age-of-Enlightenment revisionism.

La Llorona, Picante Pero Sabroso: The Mexican Horror Legend As A Story Of Survival And A Reclamation Of The Monster, Camille Maria Acosta

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

For centuries, the relationship between Mexico and its infatuation with scary stories has been profoundly complex, but why? Perhaps it is the easiest way to communicate a Mexican culture, although proud and resilient, riddled with haunting narratives. For myself personally, the Mexican horror narrative La Llorona has served as a lens for conversation and communication that is unique and important.

In this thesis, I explore how Mexicans and Mexican Americans alike use the legend of La Llorona as a unique form of communication through personifying what truly haunts us. From using the narrative as a tool for entertainment, cautionary tales, …

Lesieur, John Bryan "Jack," B. 1986 (Mss 707), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and selected scanned files (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Collection 707. Documentation for an archaeological study, conducted by John Bryan LeSieur, of Kyrock, a planned industrial community in Edmonson County, Kentucky. Includes interviews, photographs, and an interpretive narrative.

Williams, Michael Ann (Fa 459), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and interview transcriptions for Folklife Archives Project 459. Interviews related to Sarah Gertrude Knott and the National Folk Festival conducted by Michael Ann Williams and Hillary Glatt as part of a joint project for the Kentucky Oral History Commission and Western Kentucky University. The audio interviews did not come with this collection. Interview transcriptions may be accessed by clicking on the "Download" button to the right and then clicking on the hyperlinks in the finding aid.

Sledge, William Leonard, B. 1948 - Collector (Sc 3514), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for SC 3514. Script and photographs from two womanless wedding shows held in the Alvaton School gymnasium in Alvaton, Warren County, Kentucky in the 1960s. The images are stored in the WKU Photo Archives.

Ua37/44 Faculty Personal Papers Gordon Wilson, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Personal papers of Gordon Wilson.

Ferrell, Ann Katherine, B. 1972 (Fa 1381), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1381. Interview conducted on 11 December 2019 by Ann Ferrell with Michael Ann Williams, who discusses her education and academic career as a folklorist and vernacular architecture historian. From 1987-2018, Williams was a faculty member in the Department of Folk Studies and Anthropology at Western Kentucky University.

Holland, Danny (Fa 1331), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1331. Information related to “Second Monday,” court day in Scottsville, Kentucky, collected by Danny Holland for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University. Holland gives a brief introduction to his research methods followed by information collected from Second Monday participants. He includes name of informant, age, and place of residence.

Odum, Daisy Dean, 1877-1969 (Sc 3426), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3426. Letter to WKU faculty member Frances Richards from Daisy Odum. She recounts a ghost story from DeKalb County, Tennessee, involving her nephew and the reaction of his horse to the sight of a spectral figure.

Wilgus, Donald Knight, 1918-1989 (Sc 3401), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3401. Letter, 25 July 1960, to friends from Donald Knight Wilgus and family, Los Angeles, California, describing their activities and travel since moving to California, including Wilgus’s work at the University of California, Los Angeles. Includes a review of Wilgus’s book, Anglo-American Folksong Scholarship Since 1898, and the premier issue (1963) of Hootenanny: The National Folk Singing Magazine, with an article about Wilgus and UCLA’s folk music studies program.

Ua37/30/4 Faculty Personal Papers Lowell Harrison, Sam Bruer, Bess Mchone, Wku Archives

WKU Archives Collection Inventories

Personal papers created by and about Lowell Harrison.

Cox, Hilda-Gay (Fa 1239), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1239. Student folk studies project titled “Sequent Occupance of the Main Business District of Hodgenville, Kentucky,” which includes a list of illustrations with brief descriptions of residents and buildings in the main business district of Hodgenville, LaRue County, Kentucky. List entries may include a brief description of building, resident, location, donor, and photo.

Heritage, Tradition, And Craft In Quiltmaking (Fa 1131), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1131. Collection contains Interviews, photographs, and informant data sheets relating to Sandy Staebell's project with quiltmakers in Allen County and Monroe County, Kentucky and Macon County, Tennessee for the 2017-2018 Osby Lee Hire and Lillian K. Garrison Hire Memorial Lecture Series.

Carroll, Julianne And Emily Hudson (Fa 1219), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project FA 1219. National Register of Historic Places nomination form to register the Cedar Ridge Historic District in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Completed by Julianne Carroll and Emily Hudson, the application includes history, classification, maps, photographs, and other documentation regarding the 43 single and multi-family structures in the neighborhood, the earliest dating from 1920.

Zurowski, Susan K. And Lynn Coulter David, B. 1941 (Fa 1218), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project FA 1218. Student folk studies project titled: ““The Hick’s House: A Warren County, Kentucky Central Passage Log House” which includes documentation of a log building with modern white clapboard siding in the Hadley area of Warren County, Kentucky. Documentation includes descriptions and illustrations of traditional log building practices, photos, and historical research of the property along with information about later additions and renovations. Photos include the house and outbuildings.

Reynolds, V. Lynn (Fa 1217), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project FA 1217. National Register of Historic Places nomination form to expand the boundaries of the College Hill National Register District in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Completed by V. Lynn Reynolds in 1994, the application includes history, classification, maps, photographs, and other documentation regarding the 33 structures in the initial College Hill National Register District established in 1979; 115 structures were added in 1994 and one more in 1996. A survey inventory updated in July 2003 is also included along with Kentucky Historic Resources Individual Survey forms from 2006. Small color photos are not of …

Trafton, Paula Burt (Fa 1214), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project FA 1214. National Register of Historic Places nomination form for Taylor Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Completed by Paula Burt Trafton, the application includes history, classification, maps, photographs, and other documentation regarding the church.

Warren, Kaye (Fa 1150), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1150. Student folk studies project titled “From Slavery to Freedom for the Negro Race in Logan County [Kentucky]” which includes survey sheets with a brief description of African American life in Logan County, Kentucky. Sheets may include interviews, written records, photographs, informant’s name, age, and address.

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

MSS Finding Aids

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."

Community Heritage Day - Bowling Green, Kentucky (Fa 1130), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1130. Collection contains flyers and digital photographs taken at the Community Heritage Day event held on 4 November 2017 at the Kentucky Building in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The event—sponsored by the Kentucky Folklife Program, WKU Library Special Collections, the Kentucky Museum, and a National Endowment for the Humanities Common Heritage grant—invited the general public to bring in items that were “significant to your family or our community story.” Materials were digitized, uploaded onto flash drives, and given to participants for personal, long-term accessibility. Note that Item 29 and Item 30 are duplicate images.

Conaster, Victoria (Fa 377), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 377. Interview with Joe H. Page conducted by Victoria Conaster on 3 April 1993. Page, a resident of Lewisburg, discusses his childhood memories of growing up on a tenant farm. Topics covered include tobacco harvests and sales, pest control, traditional farm lore, home remedies and religious life.

Gillan, Robert Lee, 1916-2009 (Sc 3183), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3183. Letter, 7 August 2006, of Robert Lee Gillan, Thorntown, Indiana, to Martha Harrison. He refers to his interest in genealogy and relates anecdotes about “Aunt Nancy,” an African American woman and caregiver to local families in Barren County, Kentucky. He includes particulars of some of her household advice, folk medicinal treatments and beliefs. He notes that she is buried in Lyons (Lyon) Cemetery.

Brooks, Heather-Kristen (Fa 374), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and full-text scan of paper (Click on “Additional Files” below) for Folklife Archives Project 374. Student oral history project titled “The Effects of Logan County School Consolidations on the Students of Lewisburg and the Community” in which Heather-Kristen Brooks conducts research on the centralization of five county schools in 1983. Brooks’ two informants touch on issues of race, extracurricular activities, athletics, and behavioral norms. Collection contains one paper, two indexes and transcripts, and two cassette tapes.

Forggett, Essie (Fa 1104), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1104. Student paper titled “Slavery in Green County” in which Essie Forggett details the history of the settlement of Green County and its eventual dependence upon slave labor. Forggett also includes stories of slave auctions, punishments, attempted escapes, and religious practices of slaves throughout the region. Paper is based on information collected by Forggett from county clerk records and in-person interviews with slave descendants.

New Matriarchs: Louisville, Kentucky Ii (Fa 1001), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Digital audio interviews, transcripts of the same, photographs and digital photo files, and corollary material related to a project conducted by Laura Fleming Ospital titled "New Matriarchs: Louisville II" in 2014-2015. It details the lives of women from Guatemala, Kazakhstan, Mexico,and Uzbekistan. The digital interviews are stored in the WKU Sound Archives and the digital images are stored in The WKU Photo Archives.

Mcgown, Joe (Fa 991), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 991. Project titled: “"Funeral Customs" compiled by Joe McGown for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University. Includes individual survey sheets listing a single funeral custom, the informant, date, and location. A large number of photographs, documenting tombstones, are included in the collection. The location of the tombstones is not included, but most of the survey work was done in Warren County, Kentucky.

Molesky, Constance H. And Gayle Wilson (Fa 858), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 858. This collection includes a paper discussing the Shakers and the craftsmanship found in their furniture designs of the region and period. Concentrates on the Shaker community at South Union, but includes general information about Shakers and specific specimens from Pleasant Hill. Black and white photos of furniture are included in the collection. This project was conducted by Constance H. Molesky and Gayle Wilson for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University.

Fish, Dianne (Fa 859), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 859. Paper: “A Collection of Breckinridge County Folklore.” This project was conducted by Dianne Fish for a folk studies class at Western Kentucky University.

Chapman, John (Fa 816), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 816. This collection “Mining and The Company Store,” describes essential phases of mining coal and the companies miners worked for in the Pennyroyal Region of Kentucky. The narrative is in an interview format and illustrated with photos; a small portion of the narrative features information about company stores. This information was collected by Western KentuckyUniversity student John Chapman, for credit in a folklore class.