History Commons^™

Stringfellow, Jessie Eleanor, 1904-1980 (Sc 3726), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 3726. Letter, 26 December 1926, to Jessie Stringfellow, Nashville, Tennessee, from “Boots.” He recounts his efforts to locate her during a visit to town, asks about recent flooding in Nashville, and describes a pin given to his girlfriend. He writes on letterhead of the Green River Fuel Company Incorporated, Mogg, Kentucky. The reverse provides information about the company and its product, “Green River Coal.”

Oetzel, Virgil Donaphin, 1911-1998 (Sc 3725), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3725. “Virgil Oetzel: HIs Life & Times in the Kentucky Hills,” a memoir by Virgil Oetzel. The Campbell County, Kentucky native recalls his family, childhood, activities and pastimes, farm work, schooling, church, memorable local personalities, the Depression years, marriage and children, encounters with hoboes, and a deep-sea fishing trip to Florida.

Mixed Feelings: The Emotional Appeals Of Zitkala-Ša’S American Indian Stories, Kayla Joan Baur

Publications and Research

Zitkala-Ša (Lakota: Zitkála-Šá, meaning Red Bird) was among the first to write about the experiences of Native American children in the U.S. Indian boarding school program to an English-speaking audience. As a writer and political activist, Zitkala-Ša uses emotional appeals and cultural ideas she learned through her white education to expose the very boarding school institutions that taught her. In American Indian Studies (1921), Zitkala-Ša critiques the violence that the Indian boarding school system inflicts on young Native Americans. She presents these critiques through emotional appeals that take two forms: one, a more traditional sentimental appeal associated with middle-class white …

Researching & Designing Marketing Materials For Rachel Messer & Connor Dale, Isabelle Bauer

Honors Projects

Isabelle Bauer’s Honors Project, “Researching and Designing Marketing Materials for Rachel Messer and Connor Dale” is split into two components. First, the research paper titled "The American West as a Cultural Phenomenon" explores the fascination with the American West and its integration into various aspects of American culture, particularly in music, film, and art. The essay discusses the historical significance of the West and its transformation into a cultural obsession. Focusing on the resurgence of Western aesthetics in modern country music, the project’s second component involves the creation of marketing materials for country artists Rachel Messer and Connor Dale.

The …

A Comparative Analysis Of Hiv/Aids In France And The United States: Historical Context And Preventative Actions, Rebecca A. Liebsack

Honors Theses

The HIV/AIDS pandemic is the result of transmission of a zoonotic disease known as simian immunodeficiency virus. The pandemic has had profound social and economic consequences and continues to be present today. France and the United States’ response to the discovery of HIV will be compared and the impact that HIV/AIDS had on their countries and future responses. They had rather similar responses, however, the United States had a slower initial response compared to France. Both had similar takeaways such as aiming at improving prevention and utilizing tactics developed during the start of the pandemic like frequent testing and vaccines.

"Female Faithfulness Encouraged": Gendered Piety In Early American Print, Kadienne Sizemore

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Following the American Revolution, membership in Baptist churches grew exponentially and the influence of the Baptist persuasion was significant. As one of the fastest-growing Protestant denominations in early America, Baptists and their interests were often indicative of larger trends in religiosity. Conceptions of piety, including beliefs surrounding submission, faithfulness, and duty, were central to the structure of Baptist congregations and their proximate communities. This paper explores the role of gender in the discussion, presentation, and justification of Baptist notions of piety in their publications during the Early American Republic. To build on the work of historians exploring female autonomy in …

Moses Family Papers (Mss 763), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 763. Personal papers of the Moses family of Bowling Green, Kentucky, and of related Covington and Williams family members. Includes some materials relating to the Southern Queen Hotel, operated by the families to serve African American guests from 1945-1975.

Dent, Emory Gleason, 1878-1945 (Sc 3724), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3724. Clippings, telegrams of sympathy to his widow, and funeral flower list relating to the death on 19 April 1945 of Bowling Green, Kentucky druggist, businessman and public servant Emory G. Dent.

County Of Warren Public Judiciary Corporation - Warren County, Kentucky (Sc 3722), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3722. Articles of incorporation and minutes of one meeting of the County of Warren Public Judiciary Corporation, a non-profit corporation acting as agent for Warren County, Kentucky, in the planning and development of new judicial and correctional facilities. Includes a letter to a Louisville, Kentucky architectural firm inviting a proposal for the project.

Petition - State Street, Bowling Green, Kentucky (Sc 3723), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3723. Petition signed by property owners and residents in the vicinity of the 100 block of State Street, Bowling Green, Kentucky, opposing the proposed rezoning of land at 130-134 State Street from a light industrial to a heavy industrial district for use as an auto body and repair shop.

Royal Knights - Bowling Green, Kentucky (Sc 3721), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3721. Minute book of the Royal Knights, a men’s auxiliary club for the State Street Baptist Church, Bowling Green, Kentucky.

George Washington Carver Club - Bowling Green, Kentucky (Sc 3720), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3720. Miscellaneous material relating to the George Washington Carver Club, Bowling Green, Kentucky, founded by Ashula P. Williams and her daughter Dolores (Williams) Moses to serve local children. Includes children’s activity plans; meeting agendas and budgets; and workshop invitations.

Ladies Art Club - Bowling Green, Kentucky (Mss 762), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Collection 762. Minute books of the Ladies Art Club, an African-American women’s club in Bowling Green, Kentucky, whose objectives included social and charitable activities and annual exhibits of sewing work.

Lost River Cave Oral History Project (Fa 1414), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Folklife Archives Project 1414. Recorded interviews with 16 informants regarding their memories of the nightclub operated at Bowling Green, Kentucky’s Lost River Cave.

Short-Term Success: The 1988 Reagan-Gorbachev Summit, Samantha Foster

Senior Honors Theses

The 1988 summit in Moscow was the fourth, and final, summit meeting between U.S. President, Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary, Mikhail Gorbachev. The principal issues addressed during the summit included human rights and arms control. This event was the first time that President Reagan visited the Soviet Union and thus took time to explore Moscow by visiting a monastery, Red Square, Arbat Street, and students at Moscow State University. The summit would be considered a success after its close, as the INF Treaty was ratified and further progress in the area of human rights in Soviet Union had been …

Winstead, Sara C. (Fa 1413), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 1413. “The Shaker Chair,” a paper written by Sara Winstead for a WKU folk studies class.

Simmons, Mary Jean (Fa 1412), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

FA Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 1412. “Shaker Music as a Genre of Folk Music,” a paper written by Jean Simmons for a WKU folk studies class.

Historical Alabamiana: Finding Aid, Bethany Latham

Finding Aids

This collection is comprised of items related to the State of Alabama. The items are in a variety of formats, including pamphlets, brochures, clippings, postcards, correspondence, magazines, and more. These items run the gamut as far as their content and have been organized roughly by category. The items originated with the Library’s vertical file, which was culled and the majority of items discarded in 2020. Items related to Alabama and items deemed of significant historical interest were retained and added to the Library’s Special Collections. The vertical file’s original contents date back to JSU’s time as a Normal School; it …

Minton Family Papers (Mss 761), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Collection 761. Primarily personal correspondence of John Dean Minton, a Trigg County, Kentucky native who served as fifth president of Western Kentucky University, his father John Ernest Minton and brother Layton Wilson Minton.

3rd Place Contest Entry: From Film Sets To Front Lines And Back Again: Reinventing Star Image In Post-World War Ii Hollywood, Livia Belen Lozoya

Eric M. Scandrett Graduate Library Research Prize

This is Livia Lozoya's submission for the 2024 Eric M. Scandrett Graduate Research Prize, which won third place. It contains their essay on using library resources, their bibliography, and a summary of their research project on established movie stars who voluntarily left their lives of luxury to serve in World War II and returned to a changed postwar film industry, specifically James Stewart, Robert Montgomery, Marlene Dietrich, and Myrna Loy.

Livia is a student in the Masters of Arts in Film and Media Studies program at Chapman University. Their faculty mentor is Dr. Emily Carman. Her thesis, available here, …

Bicycling During The 1890s: The Unlikely Means Of Women’S Social Reform, Rachel Lewchanin

History Student Projects

The paper focuses on the women’s bicycling movement in the US during the 1890s. More specifically, it argues that bicycling and the movement that developed behind it was used by upper and upper-middle class white women to create social changes that furthered their independence from certain societal expectations.

Legislating Morality In The Gilded Age And Progressive Era: Moral Panic And The “White Slave” Case That Changed America, Nancy C. Unger

History

This article is based on the presidential address presented to the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era at the meeting of the Organization of American Historians in Los Angeles in 2023. Its focus is Maury Diggs and Drew Caminetti, two white men from Sacramento, California, charged with violating the Mann Act (known as the White Slave Trafficking Act) in 1913. The Gilded Age and Progressive Era obsession with white slavery, a phenomenon that has particular resonance in today’s climate, reveals the power of moral panics. Examining the steps, and missteps, that various legal, social, and political …

Edmonson County, Kentucky - Records (Mss 760), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scans of selected items (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Manuscripts Collection 760. Primarily nineteenth-century records of Edmonson County, Kentucky, particularly the county court. Includes the county court order book beginning in 1825, the year of the county’s creation, militia lists, deed lists, and fee books. Also includes genealogical and historical data on the Houchin family.

Pride Week Event Schedule, 2024, Office Of Diversity And Inclusion

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

2024 Pride Week Schedule running from March 25 to March 30, 2024.

Observance Of Religious Holidays: Ramadan, John C. Volin, Robert Q. Dana

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Observance of Religious Holidays/Events: The University of Maine recognizes that when students are observing significant religious holidays, some may be unable to attend classes or labs, study, take tests, or work on other assignments.

Franco Gathering, 2024 : Rassemblement, 2024, University Of Maine Franco-American Programs

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Every year, Franco American Programs organizes a “rassemblement” or gathering of Franco American artists, writers, and creatives. This annual event aims to create a culturally supportive space in which members of the Franco-American creative community can share their work.

J. Sterling Morton: The Founder Of Arbor Day's Political Career And Legacy, Luke Partsch

Honors Theses

J. Sterling Morton was one of the founding statesmen of Nebraska. He played a large role in the Democratic Party throughout his life, being appointed Secretary of the Nebraska Territory, running as the Democratic nominee for Governor four times, and serving as Secretary of Agriculture in Grover Cleveland’s cabinet. A newspaper editor, Morton had a public role in shaping political discourse. He advocated for conservation and founded Arbor Day, a tree planting holiday that continues to this day. His legacy has come under criticism in recent years due to racist comments and political platforms, especially in his younger years. Through …

Narratives Of Reproductive Control In The American Eugenics Movement, Cassandra M. Provost

Honors Theses

In this paper, I will explore the eugenics movement as a pseudo-scientific political, social, and legal phenomenon which had a devastating historical impact on America’s most vulnerable women, as well as briefly discuss its residual effects on contemporary reproductive rights conversations, through the lens of literature. Using an interdisciplinary discourse and narrative analysis approach, I identify two distinct themes within the explored narratives: (1) the importance of a government’s attempt to override a person’s autonomy by destroying the person’s ability to reproduce, and (2) the impropriety of actions based on a negative attitude toward disabled or undesirable persons. In my …

Bowling Green Area Microcomputer User Group, Inc. - Bowling Green, Kentucky (Sc 3719), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3719. Constitution and bylaws of the Bowling Green Area Microcomputer User Group, Inc., Bowling Green, Kentucky, as amended from 1990 to 2012. Includes a brochure for this non-profit computer help organization.

Eastwood Baptist Church - Bowling Green, Kentucky (Sc 3718), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 3718. Records of Eastwood Baptist Church, Bowling Green, Kentucky, 1963-1966: reports of Treasurer, Sunday School, and Trustees; Visitation and Building Planning Committee reports; and church rolls.