History Burgoo

How Will You Observe Patriot Day?

On December 18th, 2001 President Bush signed public law No. 107-89 designating September 11th as Patriot Day, in remembrance of the tragic events that shook our nation on September 11, 2001. Citizens are asked to fly the American flag at half-staff from dawn until dusk. The bill passed the House of Representatives with a vote of 407-0 and passed the US Senate unanimously.

The outpouring of patriotism in our country following the attacks on September 11, 2001 was a strong message to the world. It reflected the strength and resolve of our country’s founders. I once heard that patriotism is the duct tape of democracy. Perhaps that is true. It brings out the best in us when we focus on the big picture and not on our differences. In between those times of tragedy and triumph, some put their patriotism on the back burner. Why can't we be patriotic every day?

The National Society Daughters of the American Revolution has chosen to commemorate this tenth anniversary of the attacks on our country by encouraging state societies and local chapters to promote events in their communities to remember the nearly 3,000 who died in the attacks and the many thousands more whose lives were changed forever by the loss of a loved one. The NSDAR has even designed a banner which may be purchased and presented to first responders and others in your community. The objectives of the NSDAR are to promote Education, Historic Preservation, and Patriotism.

The Kentucky Society Daughters of the American Revolution will join with the Kentucky Historical Society on Sunday, September 11th, at 3 o'clock in the Cralle-Day Garden at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History, 100 W. Broadway, Frankfort in observance of this Patriot Day. It is fitting that the ceremony will take place in front of the Kentucky Liberty Bell. The Liberty Bell is a symbol of that freedom which was won at places like Lexington and Yorktown, Midway and Normandy, and now is being defended as far away as Iraq and Afghanistan.  It represents a way of life so precious to us, but which others may seek to take away.

So wherever you are on Sunday, take a few minutes out of your day to remember those who were lost and those who grieve and those who bravely stepped forward to defend our country. If you can come to Frankfort, please join us. If not, find a way to show your patriotism and appreciation for the liberty we so often take for granted.

-Leslie Miller, KHS membership coordinator

 

Did you know that the original Liberty Bell was not called by that name until abolitionists adopted it as a symbol in the 1830's? And later the bell was used as a symbol by suffragists who commissioned a replica and had the clapper chained to the bell to symbolize the women's inability to have their voices heard.

The Kentucky Liberty Bell is one of 55 replicas cast in 1950 as part of a US savings bond drive. Each state, the District of Columbia, and two US territories received replicas. Most are displayed at or near the state capital. The Kentucky Liberty Bell, once on display at the Old State Capitol, can now be seen at the Kentucky Historical Society's Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History. Come by and see if it inspires you to wave your flag!

 

Inscription on the accompanying plaque:

DEDICATED TO YOU, A FREE CITIZEN IN A FREE LAND

THIS REPRODUCTION OF THE LIBERTY BELL WAS PRESENTED TO THE PEOPLE OF KENTUCKY

BY DIRECTION OF

THE HONORABLE JOHN W. SNYDER

SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY

AS THE INSPIRATIONAL SYMBOL OF THE

UNITED STATES SAVINGS BONDS INDEPENDENCE DRIVE

FROM MAY 15 TO JULY 4, 1950 IT WAS

DISPLAYED IN EVERY PART OF THIS STATE.

 

THE DIMENSIONS AND TONE ARE IDENTICAL

WITH THOSE OF THE ORIGINAL LIBERTY BELL

WHEN IT RANG OUT OUR INDEPENDENCE IN 1776.

IN STANDING BEFORE THIS SYMBOL, YOU

HAVE THE OPPORTUNITY TO DEDICATE

YOURSELF, AS DID OUR FOREFATHERS,

TO THE PRINCIPLES OF THE INDIVIDUAL

FREEDOM FOR WHICH OUR NATION STANDS

On the Byway Again

 

 
 
Crazy is a word I woke up to this morning at 5:00 A.M. Crazy as in “I must be crazy to do this” or to quote Mel Brooks in Blazing Saddles, “this just might be crazy enough to work.”  Anyway, my “crazy” challenge is to do one of my infamous road trips where I extend a conference trip into a family vacation.  Such as driving to New York City for a National Association for State Arts Agency (the other NASAA) and finishing the trip with a family drive through upstate New York and Niagara Falls. My family has taken these kind of trips with me so often that my kids think it is the only way to do a vacation.  They work for me.  There is the fun of exploring and the exquisite joy you feel of finally delivering your paper at a conference, allowing you to be mentally free to enjoy the rest of your trip. 

My self-imposed challenge this summer is to deliver a paper at the National Scenic Byways Conference in Minnesota by first driving there with my wife on National Scenic Byways and at the same time blogging about it.  It doesn’t sound too hard; I have my presentation about our driving tour More the Music: A Heritage Driving Tour of Kentucky’s Route 23 all ready (two copies of the power point stowed away in my luggage), and I have my routes pretty well mapped out to include a part of Indiana’s “Historic Pathways” out of Louisville on Highway 150 through Paoli and French Lick to finish at the George Rogers’ Clark National Historic Park in Vincennes.  From here we will cross Illinois to pick up a portion of the Great River Road along the Mississippi River from somewhere around historic Nauvoo, snaking all the way north to my final destination in Minneapolis. I am just not too sure about the writing part of the project.  I have told myself if it works I will do it and if it doesn’t I will just quit and enjoy the scenery of these National Scenic Highways. 

I have been recently inspired to write about a trip like this by reading Blue Highways: A Journey Into America by William Least Heat Moon.  In the book, the author drives an old van across the United States, going from Columbia, Missouri through Kentucky, he visits Shelbyville and Frankfort, before he continues out to South Carolina, takes a left and basically circles the whole county.  He travels only on Blue Highways, a name he coined for back roads (older maps showed main routes as red and back roads as blue). He had great adventures on his trip often springing from his interest in a strange sounding town or his efforts to live in the moment. 

In my mind National Scenic Byways are some of our best blue highways.  Their website describes it as  “a grass-roots collaborative effort established to help recognize, preserve and enhance selected roads throughout the United States.” Besides the ones that are deemed National, each state also designates other scenic byways. In Kentucky we have six National Scenic Byways and 16 state designated byways.  The National Byways include a 60-mile portion of the Great River Road, the Red River Gorge Scenic Highway, the Woodlands Trace Byway in Land between the Lakes, the Lincoln Heritage Scenic Highway, the Wilderness Road Heritage Highway, and my favorite, the Country Music Highway. 

Although I have traveled them all, The County Music Highway is my favorite because we at the Kentucky Folklife Program spent so much time and energy working with the local communities a few years back to document the traditional cultures found there and to produce our driving tour: More than Music: A Heritage Driving Tour of Kentucky’s Route 23.  This book and four cd collection, written by Judy Sizemore and narrated by Ricky Skaggs, guides you along the route with stories and oral histories based on fieldwork by young folklorists out of the graduate program at WKU. The tour is sold at venues along Highway 23 and is available through our office. 

It is also the subject of my talk at the National Scenic Byways next week.  I am hoping this trip will help me enjoy other roads as much as I have the Country Music Highway. I hope that I can share some of what I find with you as I try to blog this crazy trip.

-Bob Gates

Discovering Kentucky's Own "Mad Man"

If there are two things in this world that I love most, it would have to be history and pop culture. Seriously, ask any of my former students about how I “ruined” all of their favorite history-based films in class because I kept pointing out all the historical inaccuracies or kept stopping the movie to talk about the parallels with the film and the influences it was taking from history. I am constantly finding television shows and movies taking their influences from history, and why not? History is chock-full of great stories to tell or set in eras that are drastically different from our current way of life.

Take AMC channel’s hit show Mad Men, the drama set in the 1960’s about the cut-throat industry of advertising. It takes its own particular influence from that era in regards to the exuberant lifestyles some of these men lived, the dating of famous beautiful women and (of course making cigarettes cool again). Unless people actually lived in those times (and I wish I had because the 1960s were just rife with all kinds of cultural mega-hits, from the music, the political movements, and the social movements), you wouldn’t think that a show like Mad Men was really that historically sound… that is until I came across one of Kentucky’s very own “mad men” to make me reconsider.

Ask any person born after 1985 who John Y. Brown, Jr. was and they would probably stare at you blankly. Ask that same person to name what multi-million dollar restaurant chain was founded in Kentucky and they will immediately exclaim “Kentucky Fried Chicken!” Chances are that this person (unless they are extremely well-versed in Kentucky political history) will not know that these two are linked. I myself admit that I had not known who John Y. Brown, Jr. was or his contributions to the one of the most recognizable Kentucky institutions or to the state (yes I was born in 1985).

When I was assigned to audit our collections for Kentucky governors and provide item descriptions for the oral histories contained in them, this was going to mean reading transcripts of the interviews. At first thought “ugh!” came to mind. However, this all changed with the John Y. Brown collection. The transcripts of this man’s life read almost like a story arc for the Mad Men show. This man vas a virtual rock star of the business world before shocking everyone in Kentucky politics by throwing his hat into the gubernatorial race in 1979. Let’s go down the list of Brown’s “Mad Men” credentials:

 • Become a criminal lawyer and be involved in ten murder cases… check.

• Married to a former Miss America (Phyllis George)…check.

• Part owner of sports teams ,including the Boston Celtics and the Kentucky Colonels (an American Basketball Association team that existed in the commonwealth before the 1976 merger of the ABA with the NBA, which saw the Colonels become collateral damage)… You got it.

• Buying a little known restaurant franchise called Kentucky Fried Chicken for $2 million and turning it into a global , multi-million dollar chain ( and selling it for over $200 million later in life)… yup.

 • Become governor of a state… did it.

* As a side note, just reading Brown’s recollections on the dealings with Col. Sanders and his business team alone warrant an episode of Mad Men.

And this is all leading up to his run as the 51st  governor of Kentucky, which in itself was an interesting administration because of Brown’s business-like running of the government, meaning less influence on the state legislature (a tactic not seen much in Kentucky politics up until that point.)

Discovering these types of characters in a historical context is fascinating because it exemplifies influence of a time gone by that people who are fans of these period shows can relate to. It is easy to say that the stories in the movies and television are better than anything that happens in real-life, but I would be quick to suggest a trip to the historical society and dig up some stories on people of the past. You may find something far more entertaining.

Editorial Note: The John Y. Brown Collection is currently in the digitization process, so be sure to look for it in our Digital Collections in the upcoming days!

-- Tommy Grant

Images: Image 1- Governor John Y. Brown (1979-1983) of Fayette Co., Museum Collection donated by the Ky Department of the Arts, 1988.4.2

Image 2- "Sanders Court & Cafe- Corbin, KY", postcard of the famous Sanders Court & Cafe where Harland Sanders first sold his famous chicken recipe. From the Roland Morgan Kentucky Postcard Collection, Graphic5.Box3.186

California Burgoo

 
 First, I have to admit…As a native Californian, I had never heard of “burgoo” until I started digitizing some archival video footage of Kentucky Folklife Program director, Bob Gates, interviewing participants at the 2007 Kentucky Colonels Bar-B-Que event in Louisville. This is a small reminder that one full year as a resident of Kentucky still leaves me with quite a lot of regional folkways to learn about. So…where and how can I try the best burgoo? Perhaps you know the answer (leave a comment!).

 As the Kentucky Folklife Program’s summer graduate intern, I’m working at one of the epicenters of public sector folklife research and programming in the state. The 2011 summer season marks the half-way point in the completion of my Master’s degree in Folk Studies from Western Kentucky University (the same program which has excellently yielded the full-time folklorists of KFP)--a continuation of my undergraduate degree in folklore and ethnomusicology from Indiana University.

 Building on experiences working in folklife studies and programming at Indiana’s state folklife agency, Traditional Arts Indiana, and with the Smithsonian Institution’s Folkways Recordings, and the annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival, I’m now very glad to be here at the Kentucky Historical Society, diving into the rich heritage of Kentucky's folk and traditional arts as a seasonal member of the Folklife team.

 Over the summer, I’m helping with a few different projects. A couple days out of the week I organize materials from KFP’s archives. On my first day of work I was organizing release forms from our “More than Music” project—a heritage driving tour of Kentucky’s Route 23, the Country Music Highway—and I stumbled upon the signatures of Loretta Lynn, Patty Loveless and other important Kentucky performers involved in the project. I admit I let out a squeal. (Contact us to purchase your copy of the driving tour, 502-564-1792, attn: Bob Gates)  

I’m also helping with our upcoming traveling exhibit, “The Makings of A Master,” commemorating the 20^th anniversary of KFP’s Folk Arts Apprenticeship program. From editorial assistance for the upcoming exhibit, to deconstructing, moving and reconstructing our current traveling exhibit on Kentucky luthiers, it’s been a baptism-by-fire into the joys and mishaps that come with curating and managing a dynamic folklife exhibit. This hands-on experience is particularly timely for me as I’m independently curating a small exhibit at WKU on Freeman Kitchens—a Warren Co., Ky. record collector who founded the official fan club of the America’s beloved Carter Family, producing an important legacy of early music journalism and grassroots documentation of 20th century country music culture in and around Kentucky. The exhibit opens August 27, 2011 at the Kentucky Museum & Library at WKU.

 
Beyond the horizon of these projects, I’ll be going out into the field, for KFP, to document and report on the arts and folk traditions of the western portion of the state in support of a future Kentucky Folklife Festival program on Western Kentucky. I'm thrilled at the responsibilities that have and will be sent my way during my internship with the Kentucky Folklife Program, as I'm swiftly gaining important insight about the everyday life of a public sector folklorist--from grant-writing, to project coordination, to curatorial duties, to the application of disciplinary theory, to archival processes, to fieldwork--it's safe to say I've got a thorough head start on my "Public Sector Folklore" course this fall.

 Amidst all this engaging work, I still find time to take this portrait of our Director, Bob Gates "fitting in" on a work trip to Berea.

 

-Jenn Jameson
Kentucky Folklife Program Intern

Photo Credits:

Image 1: Warren May, dulcimer maker, teaching Jenn to play the dulcimer in Berea. Photo by Bob Gates.
Image 2: Installing the Made to be Played exhibit at the Behringer-Crawford Museum.
Image 3: Bob Gates, Folklife Program Director, enjoys Berea's attractions.

Where Have all the Governors Gone?

 

Some of you might have heard that we are in the process of re-conceptualizing the Toyota Hall of Governors off of Commonwealth Hall in our building. If you have visited recently – say, last week when we reopened to the walk-in public after our 1st seasonal closing – then you would have noticed the walls are bare in that hall. Where have all of our governor’s portraits gone? We took them down to get ready for the redesign. They are currently in museum storage, some are being photographed and all are being checked over and just generally rested. The walls are currently being cleaned and prepped and the room itself looks VERY large and empty.

What now? The exhibits staff, with input from various advisors, is currently finishing up the exhibit script – yep, think of it like a play, all of the characters have lines – and finalizing images to include with the text and also, which oral history clips to help illustrate who these governors were and what their time in office meant for the state. A few big questions floating around is what does it mean to be a governor in Kentucky? How has that role changed over the last 200+ years? How does a governor get elected? How do they accomplish things once in office? How do party politics play into this whole process  and what are the individual legacies of specific governors? Every question that is discussed brings up 10 more to be answered. As with every exhibit, the information gathered way exceeds the space available to share. For every governor, we are looking at about 50 words to sum all of these questions up. Pretty big challenge, how would you do it?

As for my part, I have been working (along side our wonderful intern, Marcy Werner) on sorting through our oral history collections to attempt to find interviews that help illustrate (concisely) the points being made in the script. So, out of a 3 hour interview, I am looking for 30 second clips. Or, in the case of Governor Combs – out of something like 8 hours of video interview from the raw footage of a documentary, we are

2002OH02.1d - Bert Combs

looking for a 30 second clip. I have to say, both Marcy and I feel like we have had a crash course in the complexities of Kentucky politics. We have listened to legislators, special interest groups, state workers (the list goes on) all of which have opinions and experiences with these governors. For me, at least, it has really made these powerful folks (not just men, remember Martha Layne Collins! ) more real and definitely more human.

So, when you come to KHS for a visit, maybe even on Boone Day when the exhibit will first open, check out the text, examine the images of documents, artifacts and people and listen to the oral history clips. Then think about what else you might like to know about these individuals or their terms in office. Come up to the library and check out our books, check out our manuscript collections and definitely listen to more than 30 seconds of our oral histories. It is definitely worth your time.

 

--Sarah Milligan

Images, top left, KHS collection. 1904.2. Governor Thomas Metcalfe (1828-32) of Nicholas County. (I have to admit, one of my favorite portraits down there, completely for the hair-SM) above left, KHS collection. 1975.17. Governor Bert T. Combs (1959-63) of Clay County. above right, KHS collection. 1988.4.3. Governor Martha Layne (Hall) Collins (1983-87) of Shelby and Woodford Counties.

Winter Months - Won't Stop Oral History Outreach

(Library staff processing and rehousing the Alexander Family Papers - AKA the Woodburn Farm Collection)

In anticipation of our public reopening on Saturday (March 12th, yep – this one), we have been diligently finishing up microfilm inventory (600 records in Mercer county), cataloging records and re-housing collections in order to make the library ready for use by patrons again.

All of the fluttering around the library to complete the season has made me think about what I have accomplished in the oral history office over the winter months. Not to even get into the paper pushing, but between January and February I travelled to 11 sites outside of Frankfort – practically one trip a week. I delivered digital workstations and equipment to be used for oral history digitization (EKU and Lindsey Wilson College), I visited with groups of teachers, visited a few college classes (Transylvania and Georgetown), participated in a high school program for Black History Month with the KHS Museum Theatre Dept. (1,100 Woodford County students, yikes!), moderated an OH archival evaluation (WKU), did some actual interviews and most recently spoke with an arts group looking to document their home county through oral history (Mt. Sterling).  While I haven’t been that far Southeast or West this season (mostly because of the unpredictability of the weather and planning trips that far – in advance and distance), I have been lucky enough to get out and around.

One of these visits has been recently renewed in my mind this week, so I thought I would share. My visit (turning into an annual one) to the Transylvania University Community Engagement Through the Arts class was unique in the fact that I spent as much time learning from the students there than trying to convey the knowledge I was asked to present. I am continually impressed by the nature of this class – not only is the purpose to get the college students interacting with the North Limestone community, the campus’ neighbor (and not one where students were traditionally encouraged to wander in), but to actively engage with the residents in that community, whether through storytelling, community crafting or just participating in neighborhood events. (this would be through the arts part). The students are really setting the class direction based on the framework set by the professors, Kurt Gohde and Kremena Todorova, a model that astounds me every time I experience it. I really enjoy watching the class move as a small swarm walking down North Limestone Ave from the manicured lawns of Transy to the back of whatever space they are meeting in this week (restaurants, furniture stores, graphic design studios etc…) In the spirit of self reflection – and part of the grading system, I am sure - the students all write a series of “This I Believe” essays, based on the resurged radio series on NPR and they are encouraged to reflect on what it is they believe and how that may or may not shift as the semester wears on.

This adventure has popped back up in my mind since I was recently contacted by the class to write my own “This I Believe” essay to add to the annual Community Engagements class publication of essays and projects - they continue to "engage". This year, I talked with (not so much at) the class about sense-of-place, tangible and intangible culture and meeting a community through listening to what people who live there value or dismiss. I really had to think about the question for myself long and hard….since I DO believe in this class, I would like to share.

In the mean time, you should see what the class is doing, you can visit their own blog – check out their photos of projects, read their essays, visit their sites – get inspired or at least maybe get some ideas for how this might work for something in your own community.

So, it is a bit self-gratifying to get to visit these sort of places – I tend to get as much out of it as my institution or the place I am visiting (or maybe more, who knows), especially on a non-existant travel budget. Anyone interested on details of any of my other outreach adventures? Let me know...

 

--Sarah Milligan

 

images: above right: photo from Greg Hardison, Sarah Milligan at the Woodford County High School

above left: Community Engagement Class, photo from Community Engagement blog

Trivia for the Week - Who is the Current State Historian?

Image: w1987ph08.Franklin.509. Old State Capitol, Frankfort, Ky., circular stairway, before restoration. ca. 1920

A recent reference request received in the office of the director of the Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) asked for information on Kentucky’s state historians. There have been three state historians, Dr. Hambleton Tapp, Dr. Thomas D. Clark, and Dr. James C. Klotter. All three are or were, Ph.D. prepared historians and all shared a special interest in and research background in Kentucky history.

Dr. Tapp had a long and varied professional background, highlights of which included teaching history at Louisville’s Male High School, filling the superintendent’s position for the Eminence school system, and being the director of health and physical education for the Kentucky Department of Education. Tapp was also the founder, developer and director of the Kentucky Life Museum, which became Waveland State Shrine, outside of Lexington. The museum was started in the late 1950s after the state of Kentucky took over the Waveland property. Dr. Tapp later served as executive assistant to the president of UK and as an assistant professor of history. When he retired from the university in 1971, he was named assistant director and editor of the Kentucky Historical Society. Tapp served as the first state historian under Governors Julian Carroll (1975-1979) and John Y. Brown, Jr. (1979-1983). In addition to his editorial duties at KHS, Dr. Tapp also wrote or co-authored four books and numerous scholarly articles. 

Dr. Thomas D. Clark is the one and only Historian Laureate for Life – a title created by the Kentucky General Assembly in 1990. Dr. Clark, born in Louisville, Mississippi in 1903, also led a varied and distinguished career. He began his teaching career at Memphis State University but soon moved to the University of Kentucky in 1931. Clark would spend a career at the UK, stepping down as chairman of the history department in 1965 and retiring in 1968. But retirement did not suit his character and Dr. Clark would go on to teach at the Indiana University until 1973 and after retiring from IU, he went on to teach at Eastern Kentucky University, the University of Wisconsin as a visiting professor and at Winthrop College in South Carolina  as an adjunct professor. His writing is extensive with over sixty books and one hundred scholarly articles to his credit, many dealing with Kentucky, its history and people. Dr. Clark’s tenure as Historian Laureate for Life lasted until his death at the age of 101 in 2005.

Dr. James C. Klotter was named state historian in 1980, and is the second person (together with Dr. Tapp) to hold the title. After earning his Ph.D. from the UK in 1976, Klotter continued working at the Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) as editor and historian for twenty-five years and also served briefly as an instructor at UK. Eventually, Dr. Klotter rose in position at the KHS to become its director and guide it into its new home at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History. Today, he is a professor of history at Georgetown College in Georgetown, KY and is the author of nearly twenty books and numerous articles, many dealing with Kentucky history and personalities. 

The title of Kentucky Historian is bestowed by the Kentucky Historical Society Board

 

--Jim Kastner

 

images - top right, Centre College Biography Page, Hambleton Tapp, 1922

above left, KHS Collection. 1995ph2.41AAFRA14.1. Historians Dr. Thomas Clark and Dr. Henry Cheaney chat during a ceremony at the capitol rotunda, ca. 1980s.

above right, Georgetown College, James Klotter

Horse Cave - At it Again!

 
Marti Booth and Joanna Hay in front of the introduction sign for the new cell phone tour in Horse Cave, photo courtesy Marti Booth

If you check in with this blog periodically, you may remember an early posting about all of the cool things happening in Horse Cave, KY over the last year. It seems like I am continuing to be drawn or associated with events in this small town. Last Sunday I was fortunate enough to be invited to attend the opening event of a cell phone walking tour (www.horsecavestories.com) in this community. I have known the 2 individuals who were contracted by Hart County Tourism to develop and implement this tourism tool, Judy Sizemore and Joanna Hay, for a few years now and love being invited to experience whatever projects they have on their plate (they are always interesting, and always wonderful). Judy and Joanna both are Kentucky Community Scholars – which has continued on with their relationship with the Kentucky Folklife Program – and in this sense were utilizing these trained skills by conducting oral history interviews in the community in order to use them to tell the story of Horse Cave in this new tour. Over the last year, Horse Cave Development Corporation (thank you Ken Russell) received a National Endowment for the Arts grant for Judy and Joanna to create the tour. Go Ladies! I was also introduced to Marti Booth, who is providing the graphics for the project, looks great Marti - great to meet you! 

My role was to invite the donation of  the new interviews to the Kentucky Historical Society (and chase down release forms), since we already have a related collection recently deposited, African American Heritage in Southern Hart County – which focused primarily on this population in and around Horse Cave. I was absolutely impressed by the organization and excitement behind this project as well as the community support the day of the opening – between 30-40 people! It was wonderful to see the newly elected Horse Cave Mayor, Randall Curry, introduce the project and show the city’s support. Folklife director, Bob Gates and family was there to welcome the tour, support recent Horse Cave Community Scholars and document the event - great to see you Bob! The local bakery provided Delicious (yes, capital “D”) cookies and even though there was snow on the sidewalks, people took the 10-stop, 4 block walking tour.


This is a project that has been brewing for about a year and it is just Phase I, I understand Phase II starts in the next few months to add more stops to the cell phone tour dealing with the unique ecosystem of the community to go along with the unique culture already represented. Right now you can go find out who makes square donuts, what is and who started the Repertory Theatre, and what about that cave the community is built on?

So, PLEASE check out their online presence for this project. Get ideas for what you might be able to do in your own community, look and see what you find valuable – physically or culturally – and think about that all important term “sense-of-place” that folklorists and other social observers like to throw around. What would you show someone who was visiting your town? What do you have left to learn yourself about your community? Check out all of the logos and credits on the website for this project – there was a lot of buy in and support for a project like this! Don’t be afraid to think large and get started!

(look who's coming to town!)

-- Sarah Milligan

Photos Courtesy of Marti Booth - top right, community gathering for tour opening. above left, Sandra (Hart Co. Tourism and tour development team member) and Marti test out the QR function (look it up). above right, Sarah and Joanna listen in to one of the cell phone stops (#10). directly above, Kentucky Reportory Theatre

First Day of Seasonal Public Closing...Mark I on the Wall

 - view from my office window this morning. Great weather to start data entry! (hey, I mean that!)

So, it is the first day of our seasonal closing. (Yes, we are still working here at KHS. The seasonal closing doesn't mean the organization is shut down or that we are turning off any lights.) To be honest, the staff here at KHS has been working towards this day in anticipation for weeks now, so it is a bit surprising to wake up this morning to find us actually here - those of us not snowed out, that is. I know we have been talking in this blog about what we plan on doing and how we are setting goals to make sure we accomplish those plans as we are sacrificing continual public hours for 3 months.

To give you some insight into the minds of the worker bees, I can tell you we are disappointed to not be able to keep the doors open for everyone to come in and see us for these winter months. We enjoy our interaction with the public and truly want to offer access to our collections and continue on with those educationally encouraging moments with youth of various ages. That is the bitter part of the closing, the sweet part is that we can now devote some serious time to making those collections accessible in the future.

This doesn’t mean that we have lost or misplaced any collections, I know we keep talking about “finding” things, but what we are really saying is that we are going to do a more detailed inventory. All of those records from 50 years ago that say “flag” or “journal” or “image of man on horse,” we are going to go through and detail a flag of what, a journal by whom and what was that guy doing on a horse anyway?  We are also planning on getting more of these collections – at a more detailed level – in our catalog, where you can search for them from home. OR in our digital catalog, where you can view them from home.

(IMAGE, right: The special collections and library staff are working on cataloging microfilm for all of the counties. You can tell what we have done as of today.)

Unfortunately, because of budget cuts in the last few years – as I am sure you are tired of hearing about – we don’t have the staff to effectively do both--keep the doors open year round AND created detailed level of online access for our collections. To strike a balance between the two, here we are – doors closed to walk-ins for a few months. BUT, for groups of 10 or more, including researchers, school groups, etc… we will open up for you with some advanced notice. We are also open the second Saturday for January and February, so plan your trips around that. We would love to show you what we have been doing while we were away.

(Image, left-- Behind the scenes, the museum collections and exhibition team is keeping track of their progress on this wall-size chart. You can see the points already accomplished.)

My goals are developing projects and writing lots of grant applications, as well as catching up on our recent oral history collections donations in our record keeping software, PastPerfect, as well as beginning my new skill of cataloging oral history collections into our catalog. I want you to know what the 10,000 items we have in our oral history archive are – other than awesome, that is. I don’t want a repeat of what a student doing research in our library told me a few months ago, which was “the only reason I knew this oral history collection was here was because someone told me about it.”

I can’t wait for the day when that isn’t an issue. Thanks to the tough decision to adopt seasonal hours for 3 years, hopefully that will be a non-issue by 2014.

Of course, we will be updating you on our “findings” as we move on with the inventory/cataloging process. Keep checking back in and don’t be afraid to let us know what you think…seriously.

Sarah Milligan

Turkey and Tradition

 

Looking outside recently, the fact that autumn is here has hit me like a ton of bricks.  Even if all the stores are already putting out Christmas merchandise, I’m just now gearing up for Thanksgiving!  This of course got me to thinking about what my family would do this year, and the traditions that make up my holiday, as odd as they are. 

Supposedly, according to one of folklore’s big wigs, Roger Abrahams, the importance of Thanksgiving is the turkey meal and the accoutrements.  In this case, it’s quantity that matters.  Now, I can remember families talking about their turkey dinners, and goodness knows I’ve seen countless movies where the meal is sacrosanct.  By all that makes that family, there will be a turkey on that table Thanksgiving day, and they will sit down as a family, even if Aunt Marge has to drag Uncle Bill away from the game so that the family can have one meal together.  I’m pretty certain that everyone has a story like this, or at least can relate to it.

But what about those of us with non-traditional traditions?  Does it mean that our Thanksgivings are somehow less because we don’t have a turkey, big family gathering, or even celebrate on Thanksgiving?  As a folklorist and a non-traditional celebrant, I’d have to answer with a resounding NO!  It wasn’t until I was an adult that we even routinely celebrated Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving Day, as my army father was often deployed during this time when I was a child.  Those occasions when he was home for the holiday, we often ate at the Army post’s mess hall (believe it or not, they have a particularly good spread at Thanksgiving).  I have to say, I enjoyed those occasions far more than the one time I was forced into going to my grandparent’s house and eating brussels sprouts.  I recently read an article on Slate about someone else who had unique Thanksgiving traditions, mainly eating dinner at her parents’ second home, the local country club. The holiday is based on the theme of thankfulness for a bountiful autumn harvest and not just pilgrims, so I really don’t think the turkey is that important beyond a symbol.

What makes our traditions important is that we can’t imagine our world without them, be it always having jellied cranberries on Thanksgiving, or eating with other soldiers and their families at a mess hall.  So, what are some Thanksgiving traditions that you can’t live without?

Enjoy your turkey, tofurkey or curry next Thursday,

-Alisha Martin

Image from the Kentucky Historical Society: http://205.204.134.47:2005/u?/ORP,2774, Thanksgiving dinner at Bernard Phillip's home, 1978