History Burgoo

KHS Collections Corner: The Rude Osolnik Collection

 

Last Wednesday I pulled out many of the pieces from the Rude Osolnik collection for a researcher from the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art. Since I had the pieces out, I thought I’d photograph and share some of them with you. The collection is made up of pieces made by wood artist Rude Osolnik and some of the tools that he used to make the pieces. 

 

Here is a little more background:

Mr. Osolnik began working at Berea College in the Industrial Arts Department in 1937. He taught wood turning there for 40 years. He also served on the Southern Highland Handicraft Guild, helped found the Kentucky Guild of Artists and Craftsmen and also started the Berea Crafts Festival in 1982. 

Mr. Osolnik was well known for his artwork throughout the United States and his work has been exhibited at museums such as Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Atlanta's High Museum, the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, The Yale Museum, The Speed Museum and the Kentucky Historical Society. One of his pieces was even given to the Queen of England by the U.S. Government. For more information about the artist visit his website at rudeosolnik.com or the KHS Objects Catalog. For more photos of this collection, visit the KHS Facebook page!

 

Candlestick, 1999.69.52

The Rude Osolnik Collection at KHS includes:
15 candlesticks
1 candlestick and book set
2 bowls
1 bowl with lid
8 cups and saucers
8 dinner plates
8 salad plates
9 bread plates
1 small plate with floral carving
1 twig pot
1 table
2 wood lathes
1 workbench
2 chisels
1 gouge

 

--Deb Rose Van Horn, Registrar

KHS Top Artifacts of 2012

In 2011, KHS launched a new online artifacts database, the KHS Objects Catalog at www.history.ky.gov/objects. Since then, the number of artifacts available online has grown from 700 to over 9,000, and with easy-to-use searching, sharing and feedback features, its popularity has skyrocketed as well!

As we look back on 2012, we decided to crunch some numbers… The KHS Objects Catalog was searched 13,452 times last year (a 21% increase over 2011). Some of the top searches relate to the year’s biggest news stories, while some left us scratching our heads. Check out the full listings below!

Top 10 Searches

1. "Random Image" - a great way to discover Kentucky's historic artifacts is by clicking the "random image" button!
2. Hatfield - The History Channel's mini-series "Hatfields & McCoys" premiered in May, bringing renewed interest in the 19th century feud between Kentucky and West Virginia families.
3. Churchill Weavers - For 85 years, Churchill Weavers produced distinctive handwoven clothing and home textiles in Berea. 
4. Civil War - In the midst of the Civil War Sesquicentennial, interest in Civil War history is high. For more information and resources, see www.history.ky.gov/civilwar.
5. Images
6. Quilt
7. Sawyier - This Kentucky painter is known for his scenic watercolors of Frankfort.
8. Lincoln Watch - Spielberg and sound designer Ben Burtt solicited help from KHS to record the tickingn of Lincoln's pocket watch for the historical drama "Lincoln," starring Daniel Day-Lewis and Sally Field.
9. Paul Sawyier
10. Unnumbered-3269 - A Civil War-era flag: the 3rd Kentucky Volunteer Infantry Regimental Colors.

Top 10 Most-Viewed Artifacts

1. 2002.41.1 – Lincoln Watch
2. 1904.26.1 – Daniel Boone Rifle
3. 1990.16.1 – Apollo 17 Moon Rock
4. 2008.19.8 – Hatfield Rifle - This Model 1892 Winchester purportedly belonged to Hatfield patriarch "Devil Anse."
5. 1959.13 – Graveyard Quilt - This quilt, made by Elizabeth Roseberry Mitchell (originally from Pennsylvania, she moved to Lewis County, Ky., in 1834 with her family), is an excellent example of nineteenth century mourning customs as well as an example of the emotions that were often expressed by women through their quilts. 
6. 2011.1 – KAS Recovered Suit - The Kentucky Archeological Survey recently uncovered this suit in Madison County. It's story was featured here on History Burgoo and hotly debated on the KHS Facebook page in late October
7. 1993.61.01A – Edward Polin Jacket - Edward Polin Jr. was the first African-American Kentuckian to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps
8. 2009.17 – Piece of Memorial Coliseum Flooring - This section of pine flooring was on display at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History in early 2012 as part of the "Women in Basketball" exhibition. On April 2, 2012, UK won its eighth national championship after defeating the Kansas Jayhawks 67 to 59.
9. 2010.3 – Kentucky Derby Barbie Doll
10. 2011.112.2 – Turkey Decanter Bottle - This ceramic decanter was created by one of the foremost designers of game bird statuary especially for Wild Turkey Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey in 1978.

What will be the top searches of 2013? We can't wait to find out!

New beginnings for the Kentucky Folklife Program Archive

As many of you know the Kentucky Folklife Program (KFP) has been a part of and located in the Kentucky Historical Society—for over two decades.  The KFP’s main mission has been to identify, document, conserve, and present the Commonwealth’s diverse living traditions, generally referred to as folklife.  Over a year ago I was hired as the Project Archivist to process and catalog the 20 years of KFP collections so they would be more accessible to researchers.  For the last 12 months I have gone through over 90+ boxes of documentation including: surveys, reports, field notes, interview logs, photographs, audio, and video materials all pertaining to the diverse cultural traditions of our great Commonwealth of Kentucky.  I have discovered some amazing research materials including collections relating to many aspects of Kentucky life: Ethnic diversity, food ways, musical traditions, craftsmanship, occupational folklore and much more.  I’ve had a blast!

KFP collection boxed and ready to move.

In 2011, it was decided to transition the Kentucky Folklife Program from the Kentucky Historical Society to Western Kentucky University (WKU), leading to plans for the KFP archives to follow through a transfer to the Manuscripts and Folklife Archives in the Kentucky Museum at WKU.  WKU is a leading research institution in the study and practice of Folklore.  This move is a healthy transition for not only the KFP but also the archival collections.  Integrating the KFP archives into the already existing folklife collections held in the Manuscripts and Folklife Archive at WKU will make the Kentucky Museum home to the most extensive and dynamic archival collections of culture and folklife in the state of Kentucky.  I am pleased to announce that at end of October the collection has been successfully transferred to the campus of WKU.  The archives are in good hands. 

Collection at WKU!!

The partnership between the Kentucky Historical Society and the staff at Western Kentucky University has been a crucial part in the success of this major move.  Some key staff members that assisted us with the move were the new KFP Director, Brent Björkman, and his graduate assistant, Lilli Tichinin; Manuscripts and Folklife Archives Coordinator, Jonathan Jeffery along with co-workers, staff and students; and Department Head of Folk Studies and Anthropology, Dr. Michael Ann Williams.  Not only were all of these folks willing to help the KHS staff during the move, but they were enthusiastic about the new transition.  By consolidating the KFP program and archives at WKU, WKU folk studies students have immediate access to real world applications to the field through direct access to the KFP, and very accessible entry to a new wealth of materials for researchers.

This project has not only given me the opportunity to manage a collection and help hone my professional skills, but it has opened my eyes to the great culture and traditions that are being created and preserved in the state of Kentucky.  This has been an amazing project and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to work on it.  I owe a lot of thanks to one of the main creators of the collections, former director of the KFP, and recent recipient of the American Folklore Society’s Benjamin A. Botkin Prize for his achievements in public folklore, Folklorist Bob Gates.  Thank you Bob for all of your hard work, and for promoting Kentucky's rich culture and traditions for the last two decades.  

-Project Archivist, Heather Stone

Fun finds from the Folklife Archive

        Greeting from the Folklife Archive!  I am over half-way done processing the Kentucky Folklife Program Collection and along the way I have found several cool projects Folklorist, Bob Gates, and his crew have worked on.  Two media projects that I found super cool are Live From the Old State Capitol Stage CD and More than Music: A Heritage Driving Tour of Kentucky’s Route 23.  

        Since 1997, the Kentucky Folklife Festival has celebrated Kentucky’s rich cultural heritage.  From 1997-2007 hundreds of folk artists from all over the Commonwealth have shared their diverse traditions with festival visitors.  In 2001, Live from the Old Capitol Stage: Selections from the Kentucky Folklife Festival, Volume 1 CD was produced by Doug Boyd and Brent Bjorkman.  The musical selections in this sampler come from festival performances recorded between 1998 and 2000 on the Old Capitol Stage and showcase the depth and extent of musical talent in the great state of Kentucky.    Recently Folklorist Mark Brown gave me several additional copies of the CD, but these were special, they were all autographed! 

Signatures on the CDs include the famous instrument maker and bluegrass artist Homer Ledford; the originator of Newgrass, Sam Bush; Zoe Speaks (Carla Gover and Mitch Barrett); Jean Ritchie; and several from the great Northern Kentucky Brotherhood Singers: Luther Scruggs, Eric Riley and Greg Page.  Other artists featured on the CD include: Rob McNurlin and the Beatnik Cowboys; The Rigsby Boys; Eddie Pennington; Dale Ann Bradley and Coon Creek; Cari Norris, Roger Cooper and the Might Gospel Harmonizers to name a few.

 

Live from the Old State Capitol Stage: Selections from the Kentucky Folklife Festival Volume 1

        The second media project that really impressed me is the More than music: A Heritage Driving Tour of Kentucky’s Route 23. Country music owes a great deal of its heritage to the stretch of US Route 23 in Eastern Kentucky.  Officially-named “Country Music Highway,” travels through the hometown of more country music stars than any other road! Dwight Yoakam, Loretta Lynn, Ricky Skaggs and many more legends trace their roots to Route 23.  After the designation of Route 23 as the "Country Music Highway" in 1997, the Kentucky Arts Council and the Kentucky Folklife Program selected the Route 23 Corridor for a pilot project.  Eight Kentucky counties participated in the project which explored the potential for cultural/heritage tourism development from a regional perspective.  During the summer of 1998, four folklorists were assigned to the region to conduct cultural resource surveys and to learn more about the culture behind the Country Music Highway. The eight counties that were studied included Boyd, Carter, Elliott, Floyd, Johnson, Lawrence, Letcher, and Pike. 

More than a Music: A Heritage Driving Tour of Kentucky's Route 23

        The tour is based on more than 60 interviews conduected by Judy Sizemore and Casey Billings as well as information gained through the research of the folklife surveys.  Interviewees who appear on the CD include Loretta Lynn, Ralph Stanley, Patty Loveless, and Crystal Gayle.  In addition to the well-known country music artists, the listener will hear stories from local residents and artists including Minnie Adkins and members of David Appalachian Craft.  There are interviews with regional authors like Ken Slone and Linda Scott DeRosier, as well as workers of traditional jobs such as coal mining and railroad working.  The goal of the project was to help the visitor experience the rich culture of the area by not only providing them with this entertaining and educational information, but encouraging them to spend time in the region exploring many of the historic and cultural sites. 

The packaged project includes 3 audio CDs of the actual tour, narrated by Ricky Skaggs, one audio compilation of musicians referenced from the driving tour, and one guide book, complete with photos, maps, and additional contextual information. The Tour was released at the 2005 Kentucky Folklife Festival.  Artists featured on the driving tour: Dwight Yoakum, Lee Sexton, Zoe Speaks, Rebecca Lynn Howard, Ricky Skaggs and Keith Whitley, Loretta Lynn, Crystal Gayle, Roger Cooper, Rob McNurlin, Gary Stewart, Stanley Brothers, The Judds, Indian Bottom Old Regular Baptists and Carla Gover. 
        The project was note-worthy because it came out of a visionary meeting including a wide representation of local residents. The resulting survey was considered innovative at the time because of the strong input of the Highway 23 Cultural network. The network went on to become incorporated and 8 new arts councils were developed.  So if you are looking for an adventure and want a see Eastern Kentucky from a different perspective I encourage you to buy a copy of More than Music: A Heritage Driving Tour of Kentucky’s Route 23. Written by Judy Sizemore and Narrated by Ricky Sckaggs for $24.99, contact Mark Brown at mark.brown@ky.gov for more information. 

Buy your copy today for $24.99!!

        While these are only two out of over a hundred projects I have discovered in the Kentucky Folklife Program Collection, I have learned so much about the Commonwealth while processing. The collection has shaped my experience of living in Kentucky and has allowed me to learn about things I may have never known about.  While the Kentucky Folklife Program Collection is still in its first stage of processing, there are some amazing resources within this collection!

~Project Archivist Heather Stone

Exploring Kentucky’s Craft Industry

In 2009 and 2011, the Kentucky Oral History Commission, administered by the Kentucky Historical Society awarded funding to support oral history documentation of specific aspects of the craft industry in eastern Kentucky. Amanda Fickey, the project's director highlights below this project and her Ph.D research. The interviews for this collection are housed at the University of Kentucky Nunn Center for Oral History and will abe available to the public in 2015.  - SM

 

Since the mid-twentieth century, Central Appalachia’s regional economy has suffered due to decreases in extractive industries. As jobs have been lost, many individuals have turned to alternative economic practices, such as small-scale agriculture and craft production, to make ends. Such practices however, are not new. Woodland agricultural methods prevalent among Native American tribes and early European  settlers were comprised of numerous economic activities. Though such activities may have lessened with the rise of industrialization and wage-labor throughout the region, small-scale craft and agricultural production continues to be important economic practices that allow people to make a living and remain in their homeplace.

My dissertation research, titled “Redefining development: Exploring alternative economic practices in Appalachia,” seeks to better understand the economic decisions that craft producers make in their everyday lives and the diverse practices that exist within the context of Eastern Kentucky’s craft industry. For example, some craft producers strive to own an individual studio, while others explore cooperative production and distribution methods. Craft organizations are diverse as well, relying on wage-labor, barter, and volunteerism.

Exploring both capitalist and non-capitalist practices allows us to broaden the sorts of economic activities might be recognized as development worthy. This project also seeks to better understand the work biographies of both craft producers and arts-related organizational leaders through oral history. With funding provided by the Kentucky Oral History Commission (Phase I Grant, 2009; Phase II Grant, 2011) I have conducted interviews with craft producers, arts-related organizational leaders, and state representatives associated with the Kentucky Craft Marketing Program. The study includes interviews from throughout the region of Eastern Kentucky as well as materials gathered from individuals at regionally and state-based arts organizations. Interviews are triangulated with archival and historical research.

This project is part of my much larger research agenda which seeks to find a new path forward for the Appalachian region. Having grown up the daughter of a coal miner in Letcher County, I have experienced, first hand, the difficulties of growing up in the mountains. My work, teaching, and service are dedicated to reimagining what is possible for the future of the region and redefining the ‘good life’. This requires exploring new development possibilities (including capitalist and non-capitalist practices) and reevaluating old growth-based economic development strategies.

I am personally interested in the use of language by policy makers and development practitioners to render economic development practices technical and devoid of contextual specificity. In 2011, my paper: “Rendering Regional Development Technical: An Examination of ‘Appalachia: A Report by the President’s Appalachian Regional Commission, 1964,’” received the Carl A. Ross Paper Award from the Appalachian Studies Association. Throughout this paper, I argue that policy documents produced by the Appalachian Regional Commission have often limited economic imaginings through the perpetuation of regional stereotypes and short-term, decontextualized strategies. In all of my research pertaining to development and anti-development, I seek to counter such approaches and aid in the creation of long-term strategies that address broader structural issues.

Furthermore, I think that to offer new economic strategies in the region we have to take into consideration political economy and ecology. For example, despite state and regional-based efforts to provide financial support for craft production, arts and development organizations must also take into account ecological concerns. Raw materials that crafters use (such as hardwoods) often face ecological threats which are rarely if ever recognized by arts-related organizations. In an effort to explore both economic and ecological concerns, I partnered with Dr. Lynne Rieske-Kinney, Department of Entomology at the University of Kentucky, to create an on-line database – specifically for craft producers – with images and information pertaining to ecological threats facing the Central Appalachian region.

Much work remains to be done. Further analysis of the craft industry must take place and new economic development practices, beyond resource extraction, are yet to be fully explored. In a region plagued with a history of resource extraction, which has resulted in diseases such as Black Lung and a significant increase in the number of infants born with birth defects near mountaintop removal sites(1), the search for new development strategies is both critical and urgent.

--- Amanda Fickey

 Author Amanda Fickey is a PhD Candidate in the department of geography at the University of Kentucky. Amanda has authored papers in the Journal of Appalachian Studies, PRISM: A Journal of Regional Development, Geography Compass, and disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory. She is also the author of a new foreword in the paperback edition of The Handcraft Revival in Southern Appalachia, 1930-1990, available now from the University of Tennessee Press. To learn more about Amanda and her work, please visit her website: http://amandafickey.wordpress.com.

References

1. Ahern, M., M. Hendryx, J. Conley, E. Fedorko, A. Ducatman, and K. Zulling. 2011. “The association between mountaintop removal mining and birth defects among live births in central Appalachia, 1996-2006.” Environmental Research 111(6): 838-846.

Images

1. Photographer: Amanda Fickey. Event: Kentucky Craft Market, 2012, Lexington, Kentucky. Artist/Organization: Bountiful Baskets by Jan.

2. Photographer: Amanda Fickey. Event: Kentucky Craft Market, 2012, Lexington, Kentucky. Artist/Organization: The Weavery

3. Photographer: Amanda Fickey. Event: Kentucky Craft Market, 2012, Lexington, Kentucky. Artist/Organization: http://www.jamisonbrumm.com/home.

 

 

Archiving the Kentucky Folklife Program Archive

What is Folklife???

                     

            If you have been to the Kentucky Folklife Festival held here in Frankfort, every  September for the last decade you may know a thing or two about the Kentucky Folklife Program.  The mission of the program is to identify, document, present and conserve the Commonwealth’s diverse cultural traditions, generally referred to as folklife.   The Kentucky Folklife Program acts to facilitate lifelong cultural education and maximize learning and research opportunities for Kentuckians through workshops, grants and traveling exhibits.  Over the last two decades, a team of Folklorists here at KHS have documented the traditions, culture and heritage of the great state of Kentucky.  I was recently hired under a National Historic Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) grant as the Project Archivist to process the Kentucky Folklife Program Collection.  My job is to help organize the programs records and documentation that they have produced.

                    My first task when I took on this project was to inventory the collection, to see what types of materials and how many materials I would be processing.  Since I began the project this past November I have gone through over 200 cubic feet of materials.  Roughly 3 months of inventorying this extensive collection.  The collection is made up of a wide array of materials including but not limiting: paper records, electronic records, photographs, floppy disks, mini DVs, cassette tapes, VHS, CDs and more!  These materials are the documentation that has been produced since the Kentucky Folklife Program began in 1989 in Berea, KY.  Everything from administrative records such as grant applications for the Apprenticeship program and Community Scholars program to actual field notes which can comprise of notes, photographs, slides, negatives, sound recordings and video (with decades of changing formats).  Although this is a challenging project, I am very excited to learn more about the Bluegrass state and some of the culture and traditions that are treasured here. 

                Many people may think of  bluegrass music and tobacco farming when it comes to the Folklife of Kentucky; however, the Kentucky Folklife Program has researched and surveyed a wide spectrum of folks and cultural ways that can describe Kentucky.  Within the collection I have found records on bluegrass and tobacco farming, but I have also found documentation on BBQ, Burgoo, Kentucky Derby Hats, Mammoth Cave, Basket making, and Story telling.  Even documentation of immigrant communities that have settled here in Kentucky over the years including: German, Chinese, Latino, Indian and Bosnian.  The Folklorists have traveled to close to 50 counties (still counting) across the state of Kentucky to document how Kentuckians live.  Even some big names such as Eddie Pennington, Ricky Skaggs, Sam Bush, and Folklorist Mike Seeger, have appeared throughout the collection.

            Now that I have a better grasp of the quantity of materials that makes up the collection the next step is to begin piecing the puzzle together.  My job is to gather and organize all of the materials based on projects and if you can believe it I have discovered close to 200 projects so far. It has been estimated that there could be close to 400 total projects that the Kentucky Folklife Program has actually been a part of.  As I begin to piece together the large number of projects the Folklife Department has produced/participated in, my other goal is to evaluate the archival materials.  Part of my job is to create an Assessment Tool to be used to evaluate the archival materials and to note what will still need to be done for the future.  Since the collection contains a wide variety of materials I had to gather from multiple assessment tools that other archival repositories use and create one that would work for this collection specifically.  After doing research on methods of assessment and discovering a plethora of documents, I was able to create an evaluation form for the collection by merging several other repository's forms together.  The evaluation form will contain the project name, quantity of materials within each project, a check list for types of materials as well as several pages to evaluate storage conditions and material conditions.  For every project that the Kentucky Folklife Program has created or participated in, it will have its own evaluation form.   These forms will be helpful for the future archivists who will work with the collection and to assist them with looking more closely into preservation needs of the collection as a whole.   In the end I am trying to preserve the hard work that has been done to document the people and cultural ways of Kentuckians, in hopes that researchers can use the materials in the future. 

"People must know the past to understand the present and face the future."—Nellie McClung  

--Archivist Heather Stone

p.s. The Kentucky Folklife Program will be hosting the next Community Scholar Training Session at the Center for African American Heritage in Louisville, KY, March 12-April 23, 2012.  If you or anyone you know are interested please see flyer:   Download Community Scholars_Louisville.  For more information you can contact Amanda Hardeman--(502) 564-1792 ext. 4555 or amanda.hardeman@ky.gov.  The program welcomes anyone to apply, regardless of age or cultural background.  The more diversity the better!

*Video and photographs were provided by the Kentucky Historical Society. 

Behind the scenes at the opening of "The Makings of a Master: Kentucky Folk Art Apprenticeships"

        I’ve had some interesting assignments in the two and a half years I’ve been a volunteer at the Kentucky Historical Society. One of the most enjoyable was spending an evening with Bobby Osborne and the Rocky Top X-Press.

        Since I’m a bluegrass music fan it wasn’t a hard decision when the call came for volunteers to help with the September 15th opening of ”The Makings of a Master: Kentucky Folk Art Apprenticeships” exhibition and the concert to mark the Bill Monroe centennial.

     Bob Gates, director of the Kentucky Folklife Program, surprised me with the assignment of looking after the musicians -- showing them where the food and soft drinks were and making sure they could get in and out of the locked doors to their tour bus.

     What a nice group of guys!

     When I informed Bobby Osborne about the cold sweet tea in the “green room” (the education rooms off the main lobby), he told me how he had gone off tea while fighting as a Marine in Korea. He said he had gotten too many cups of lukewarm tea when what he really wanted was something cold. 

     Bobby passed on the food and tea, but other members of the band dug into the fried chicken box suppers.

     While waiting with the band members until time to go onstage, I spotted a small electronic device clipped to the neck of Joe Miller’s guitar. Miller explained that the digital readout allowed him to tune his guitar, even when the rest of the band was playing. Bobby Osborne Jr. also had one on his five-string bass.

     It was a great concert! One of the highlights was the appearance with Osborne and the X-Press by Cory May, a young musician from Kentucky.

     I had a chance to talk to Cory early in the evening. It’s easy to tell he’s very passionate about his music. His talent and long hours of practice were evident when he played both guitar and mandolin and sang with Osborne and his band.

     "The Makings of a Master: Kentucky Folk Art Apprenticeships" will be open at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History through December 10 and will then tour the state through 2014.

     The next concert in the Folklife series will be at 7 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 20, and feature the Reel World String Band, Carla Gover and Jeri Katherine Howell. The exhibition and concert are free with admission to the Kentucky Historical Society.

     I’m looking forward to it!

-Jim Gill, KHS volunteer since 2009. Jim also blogs at Searchin' for Kinfolk.

All photos by the Kentucky Folklife Program.

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

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.

Are you having ham, roast beef or turkey this Easter?

Well, it is that time of year again when the KHS staff find themselves looking at the atomic bunny picture in the Digital Collections and giggling.  This year we decided to look for other amusing images in the "DC" and came across the one below.  It made us wonder what culinary masterpieces will be gracing tables this weekend at homes across the state?

 

Does your family have Easter dinner traditions?  Ham and asparagus?  Fiddlefern salad?  Lamb with mint sauce?

 

And then there is the weather.  Seriously, hail, floods, tornadoes and more, and that was just last night!  Spring is supposed to be changeable but still!  Everyone has a memory of their favorite Easter hat or dress or suit.  As staff gathered at the reference desk today we were sharing memories of Easter outfits. 

 

I remember that my mother always bought my dress to be a size too big, so I could wear long underwear if the temperature was under 30 degrees.  And how about the year the Easter Egg hunt that got cancelled because we could not find ANY Easter candy due to the 6 inches of snow on the ground. 

 

Well, before you know it, it will be summer and we will be complaining about the heat and the drought.   In the meantime, family gatherings provide the perfect opportunity to get the family to tell stories about their favorite holiday memories and traditions. 

 --Louise Jones

Images:

Fred Trosch, butcher in the Willard Rouse Jillson Photo Collection, 1987PH08

Family gathering at dinner time, Frankfort, Ky. From the Community Memories: A Glimpse of African American Life in Frankfort, Ky., 1995PH02, contributed by Clara E. Hogan.

Children in Easter outfits. From the Ohio River Portrait Project, 1990PH02, contributed by John Strattan.

Easter Egg hunt for children and faculty at Paducah Community College., date ca. 1970.  From the Ohio River Portrait Project, 1990PH02, contributed by John E.L. Robertson.