When I first got the phone call that I had been accepted as an intern at the Kentucky Historical Society, I was thrilled. I knew that working at a historical society was something that I had always wanted to experience, starting from my days as a history major at Western Kentucky University. I would spend countless hours in the library stacks and special collections areas (and not because as a history undergrad you spend more time writing papers than an English major did) but because I would get so caught up in the thrill of discovery while conducting research on a given historical topic.
As a high school history teacher, I attempted to instill that same thrill of discovery through research into my students by telling them to use resources other than Google and to open their eyes to a world of knowledge they probably didn’t know existed (I mean lets face it, as a seventeen year old, the only way you are going to become interested about a bunch of dead guys is if they sparkle in the sunlight and have an occasional scuffle with werewolves who never seem to have a shirt on). But there would be that occasional student who would come up to me and say “ I actually really enjoyed going to the local history society and finding out some neat stuff”, my faith in the next generation is still in tact.
When I decided to pursue my master’s degree in Library and Information Science at the University of Kentucky, I knew archiving was the area of concentration that would be a perfect fit for me, given the close relationship that history and archives share. As an archivist, I would be a steward of historical artifacts that someone, someday, would see and feel that same rush of curiosity that I had felt in the library stacks as an undergrad. The internship at KHS would offer some much needed hands-on experience in archiving practices and, as I would discover upon my first day at KHS, that there is much more to working in a historical society than I had perceived. The theme of discovery continues.
On any given day I am working at the historical society, I am learning something new about the state of Kentucky. If it is a day I am working in the Oral History Collection, I am more than likely auditing and digitizing tapes of interviews or writing descriptions of collections that haven’t been cataloged yet. The most recent of which is the oral histories of some of our more prolific governors of the 20th century. I can’t tell you the amount of intrigue one can accumulate while watching an interview with Bert T. Combs over his battle with educational reform in this state or reading through a transcript of John Y. Brown and his dealings with the famous “Colonel” of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame (a subject that will the focus of my next blog entry). And these are only a fraction of interesting artifacts to be found.
Genealogy is a huge interest of patrons who come to the society. When I am not in the lab digitizing, you can probably find me in the microfilm room, manning the reference desk and helping patrons find all sorts of records about ancestors that inhabited this state, spanning from marriage certificates from the late 1700s or court records of the 19th century. There are even rare books that patrons can access that date back to the 1800s, a pretty awesome thing to behold if you are a history geek, such as myself. If you are a visual person, KHS has got you covered, with thousands of photogrpahs in our collection of many different topics. A personal favorite of mine are photogrpahs of Kentucky servicemen going off to fight WWII in the 1940's( seen below). I could go on and on about the vast amount of historical information that can be found at the historical society, but then it wouldn’t be any fun in discovering it for yourself!
Interning at the Kentucky Historical Society will no doubt be a tremendous impact on my future professional career. The things I have learned here will be things I take with me forever, a sentiment I hope that any who read this article will share and come down to KHS and just look around. You never know what you may discover while you’re here.
- - Tommy Grant
Images:
Top Right- Bert T. Combs, portrait painting ca. 1970, KHS Collection 1975.17
Middle Left- Colonel Harland David Sanders, wikipedia.org
Bottom: James E. Bell in navu uniform. World War II vintage. He served in the South Pacific through most of the war as a pharmacist's mate on several ships ca. 1940s, KHS collection JPW.1990ph2.2JEFW3
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