History Burgoo

Transforming students’ lives through the power of history!

On April 26 and 27, roughly 1,000 students from across the Commonwealth will meet at the University of Louisville for the 51st annual Kentucky Junior Historical Society Conference and Kentucky History Day. 

During their time in the Kentucky Junior Historical Society, KJHS students conduct research individually and in groups, cultivating skills of communication, collaboration and creativity and critical thinking.

Students presenting a project to judges during the 2012 conference.

 

Working in-depth on a personally-chosen project, participants collect oral histories, restore local landmarks, create dramatic interpretations of historical events and develop websites, competing to be one of the top students who will take their project to the University of Maryland in a bid for national honors.

The culmination of a year of work may lead up to just one day, but the impact can transform a student's life.

Take Emma, for example. "This has made a huge impact on Emma’s life," writes her mother, Rebecca. As a young child, Emma had a pronounced speech impediment affecting her confidence speaking in a public setting. Through years of speech therapy and small class settings she was able to present to her classmates, but it was her involvement with Kentucky History Day that changed everything.

"Kentucky History Day gave Emma an opportunity to become an expert in her topic of choice, which in turn, made her feel like she could speak with academic authority. The issue wasn’t about public speaking anymore; it was about sharing her expertise."

To ensure that any qualifying student has the opportunity to compete on the national level, the Kentucky Historical Society subsidizes the cost of each student's trip to Washington D.C. and the University of Maryland.

Donors are the people who make this dream a reality – state funding isn't available to send one single student to National History day.

Join Rebecca, Emma and other supporters of history education on April 24^th as the KHS Foundation, in partnership with the Kentucky Nonprofit Network, participates in Kentucky Gives Day, a special 24-hour day of giving.

During this one-day event you can make a tax-deductible donation to the Kentucky Historical Society Foundation, instantly making Kentucky History Day a reality for more students like Emma!

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KJHS is administered by the Kentucky Historical Society, which is an agency of the Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet and is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. KHS is committed to helping people understand, cherish and share Kentucky's history by providing connections to the past, perspective on the present and inspiration for the future. For more about the Kentucky Historical Society and its programs, visit www.history.ky.gov.

Churchill Weavers: A Brand with Modern Style and Traditional Quality

This 1969 ad features a cape woven by Churchill Weavers.

The Churchill Weavers sold more than a product. They sold a brand. Although Churchill Weaver’s center of production was in Berea, they sold products all over the nation, including some of America’s largest cities, like New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles. They had an entire fleet of sales representatives that worked with shops, from small independently owned boutiques to large department stores. By creating a brand based on American craftsmanship, quality products, and modern styles, and selling their products using a variety of advertising technologies, the Churchill Weavers managed to create and maintain a business that lasted over eighty years.

The 1960s cape from the Churchill Weavers fabric archive.

I first learned about the Churchill Weavers during my internship with KHS in the summer of 2012. At that time, I helped catalog and photograph a small part of the massive textile collection. Even then, I knew that I wanted to learn more about the company and the collection, so I decided Churchill Weavers would be the focus of my Master’s thesis. After my internship ended, I continued to help catalog the textiles collection as a volunteer, but I also began to look into the Churchill Weavers material housed in Special Collections at KHS, which included over one hundred boxes of account records, correspondences, and advertisements.

A 1950s Churchill Weavers scarf in style 15447.

Although the Churchill Weavers firmly rooted themselves as a hand-weaving industry, they also established themselves as a modern company. They used advanced advertising technologies like three dimensional color catalogs and color film in the 1940s and 1950s to sell their products. One of their more innovative advertising methods included stereocards. On each card, a black and white photograph displays a trendy, urban woman modeling Churchill Weavers products. Beneath the photograph, transparencies show the same image in vibrant colors. By using a device like a stereocard viewer, the color transparencies would appear as brightly lit and three-dimensional scenes that highlighted the quality of the Churchill Weaver products.

On this stereocard, a woman atop a bicycle shows off her Churchill Weavers scarf tied across her shoulders.

Color image of stereocard advertisement.

My intention for my thesis is to discuss how the Churchill Weavers combined modernity and tradition to sell their products and their brand nationwide. Perhaps my favorite part of researching this topic is that I have a chance to piece together their history through the wide variety of records the company collected over the decades. I love coming across advertisements for products that I have actually had a chance to help catalog, photograph or rehouse; the experience helps me create a vivid image of history that I hope to convey in my own work.

--Cassie White-Fredette, Graduate Student, University of Kentucky, Art History and Visual Studies

KHS Collections Corner: Behind the Scenes with the Churchill Weavers Fabric Archive

Intern Em Eskridge (Me!)

Scarves and stoles and throws, oh my! Hello, my name is Em Eskridge and I’m an intern working with Jennifer Spence, KHS project coordinator, to digitize the Churchill Weavers fabric archive. I’d like to share with you what’s going on behind the scenes at KHS to preserve this important textile collection. So, let’s get started!

 

Jennifer Spence with more Churchill Weavers boxes

When I first arrived at KHS in January, I was a bit overwhelmed with the task at hand. I learned very quickly that this fabric archive is no small collection. It is made up of an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 individual objects; or, more than 2,000 boxes of fabric scraps and finished products. A sample of nearly everything made by the company in their 85 year history is represented in the archive. Jennifer coordinates the cataloging, storage, and photography responsibilities of the project. Intern Devon Stivers, five dedicated volunteers and I help her with a variety of project needs.

 

Volunteer Mary Caldwell examining a wool stole

Preservation begins with knowing what is in the collection. This means that the textiles in the 2,000 plus boxes must be looked at one by one. The textiles are examined through a process called cataloging. Cataloging begins by a selecting a box and creating a database entry and object ID number for that box. We then examine each textile closely to indentify things such as weave structures, materials, coloring ways and patterns as well as date of creation and condition. All of the collected information is then entered into KHS’s collections database, PastPerfect.

The textiles in the fabric archive arrived at KHS packed in cardboard boxes. These boxes are small and acidic and therefore not appropriate for long term storage. Non-archival boxes can cause textile fibers to stain and become brittle. As the textiles are cataloged, they are also transferred, or re-housed, into permanent acid-free storage containers.

Intern Devon Stivers and volunteer Cassie White-Fredette re-housing textiles

My foremost responsibility is to help Jennifer manage the digitization efforts of this project. Digitization includes photography, photo-editing, and linking images to PastPerfect. We use equipment designed specifically for our photography needs. Most textiles are photographed on a large felt-covered slant board that we built in-house. For small objects, like swatches, we use a horizontal board with a camera mounted parallel to it. Clothing, such as capes and ruanas, are shot on mannequins so that the form of the textile is made obvious.

Once the textiles are photographed, the image files are downloaded from our digital camera and edited to ensure quality and visibility. The edited photos are then linked to the objects’ database records and entries are reviewed and proofread a final time to ensure correctness. Records equipped with images are then ready to be made available via KHS’s online Objects Catalog, www.history.ky.gov/objects.

Volunteer Emily Braun staging a ruana for photography

Working with the Churchill Weavers fabric archive is an awesome experience. Cataloging and digitization is such an important part of the preservation of any collection, and photographing gives me the opportunity to look at the pieces and truly see the details. Visit the KHS Objects Catalog and see the fabric archive for yourself!

--Em Eskridge, Churchill Weavers intern

KHS Collections Corner: The Martin F. Schmidt Collection

Working with large projects has always seemed for me a daunting task. This was especially true when I was first assigned to work with the Martin F. Schmidt Collection. What appeared most intimidating was that I would be cataloging a massive volume of printed material, from newspapers spreads to small pamphlets to large maps. 

2004.41.324, Daniel Boone. This is believed to be the earliest separate print of a figure or scene made in Kentucky.

Donated in 2004, the collection contains 629 prints and took staff and volunteers several years to fully catalog for public access. As Martin F. Schmidt describes in his book Kentucky Illustrated: The First Hundred Years, the prints depict various early views of Kentucky history from as early as the late 1780s into the late 18^th century. Schmidt collected these prints for over 50 years. When determining what prints to keep and publish he decided to select works that “felt the touch of the artist, architect, etcher, painter, engraver or lithographer before they were seen in publication” or works that predated photography as the dominate medium. Schmidt tried to make this as exhaustive a collection as possible. As a result this collection contains a wide variety of print materials depicting historical Kentucky, including public figures, decorative architecture, local business advertising, disasters, and the Civil War.  

Working with the collection was very engaging. For instance, some days, I would have the opportunity read narratives about a tornado that sweep through Louisville. Other days I would work with a small photo-styled album of prints highlighting the significant architecture around Louisville. Working with collections like this creates an incredible experience.

Be sure to check out the collection in the KHS Objects Catalog (www.history.ky.gov/objects). It shows an interesting perspective of the times and printing related to Kentucky’s early history.  As Georgetown College professor Dr. Klotter, once commented about this collection, the prints “At one level they enlighten us; at another entertain” (Schmidt, Kentucky Illustrated: The First Hundred Years, 2).

--Devon Stivers, Collections Intern, Museum Collections & Exhibitions

2004.41.498, “Le Tour du Monde.” An 1837 French publication printed in Paris that shows the mystery of Mammoth Cave.

2004.41.202, Currier and Ives lithograph captioned “Battle of Mill Spring, Ky. Jan. 19th, 1862. Total rout of the Rebel Army, by the Gallant Soldiers of the West, under Genls. Thomas and Schoepff."

2004.41.593, A colored Harper’s Weekly engraving from 1890 showing various pre-damaged locations around Louisville before the tornado that occurred March 27 of that year.

 

2004.41.581, Currier and Ives chromolithograph entitled “De Ole Kentucky Home”

 

Travelogue: Williamsburg (Finale)

Day 4: Last Day and Heading Home

Deb: I started the last day by going to a great session on planning an exhibit exchange program for museums in the southeast. Basically the idea is that museums can save money by putting up exhibits on an exchange and borrowing other exhibits from the same place. The borrower would have to pay for the shipping but little else. It is a great idea to save some money with the limited budgets museums have these days. After that Jennifer and I went to a session on doing condition reports for objects in museums. I found that we are doing a lot of things right here but I picked up some tips on making our condition reports easier to read.

Jennifer: Another session I went to on the morning of the last day was titled, Volunteers: Maximizing Your Greatest Resource. My purpose in attending this session was to learn more about how to manage volunteers. I have seven volunteers that work with me on the Churchill Weavers Collection, they do a fantastic job, but I am very keen to learn more about best practices in managing people and projects. The session presenters offered useful information on how to recruit new volunteers and ways to show appreciation for the ones that are already with us.

Deb & Jennifer: At lunchtime, Deb put her board member hat back on for the SERA business luncheon. This was the opportunity for the SERA board to tell all of our members what has been happening in the 

last year and where we see the organization going. There was a call to remind everyone to renew their membership at the beginning of the year. For $10 the membership is a bargain and provides members with discounts on publications, the opportunity to get travel scholarships for conferences, and get information about collections management work in the region (for more, see www.seregistrars.org). 

After lunch, we and other SERA members got to go on a special behind the scenes tour of the DeWitt   Wallace Collections and Conservation building. Even though Deb had been there the day before, it was a great opportunity for all of us to see behind the scenes. We went into different areas this time and had a painting conservator and a furniture conservator talk to us about their work.  Then we got to see the furniture storage area.  The storage was amazing and gave us lots of good ideas to put into place back here at KHS.

All good things must come to an end, and at the end of day 4 we headed back to the airport to head home. Unfortunately, due to a sick co-pilot we made it to Atlanta but missed our flight to Louisville!  The one good thing about Atlanta is that Deb’s parents live there and they were nice enough to pick us up at the airport and put us up for the night.  Needless to say it was nice to see them even if it meant we didn’t get home that night. 

The next morning we hopped on a flight to Louisville and our trip was over. It was a lot of fun and gave us a lot of great information to take back and use here at KHS.  We can’t wait until next year when SEMC is in Savannah, Georgia!

-- Deb Rose Van Horn, KHS registrar, and Jennifer Donovan Spence, Churchill Weavers project assistant

Travelogue: Williamsburg (Part 2)

Day 3: Sessions, Sessions, Sessions

Deb: The third day was really an educational experience for me. It started out with the general session which was on the future of African American interpretation in museums. At the annual business lunch I got to see fellow Kentuckian and former KHS employee Mike Hudson become the new President of SEMC. After lunch, I went to a great off site session at the DeWitt Wallace Collections and Conservation building that was taught by an objects conservator.   Tina Gessler, the conservator, had an hour to try and teach a room full of people how to identify, care for, clean and preserve metal objects in their collections. I’m happy to say that I brought a lot of new information back to KHS to supplement the things we are already doing. This is one session I will use all the time.

Later, I went to hear Jennifer present on the Churchill Weavers Collection in a session called Stairway to Heaven: Approaches to Managing Large Collection Projects. Jennifer did a great job and a lot of people were introduced to one of KHS’s largest collections.

Jennifer: After the general session, I went on to explore the historic Duke of Gloucester Street on my own. My first stop was at the home of the town weaver. There I received an education on the ingredients used to dye cloth. Did you know that in the 18^th century, red cloth was the most expensive color of cloth to buy? Do you what was, and still is, used to create red coloring? B-U-G-S, BUGS!

Later that afternoon, as Deb mentioned, I participated in a talk about how to manage large collections projects. I presented with Rebecca Rose, registrar at the Virginia Historical Society, and Bethany Austin, registrar at the Hampton History Museum. This year was the first time I presented a session at SEMC, so I was a little nervous, but very excited to talk about, and promote, KHS’ Churchill Weavers Collection. I received good feedback and several museum professionals expressed interest in adopting our cataloging practices for their collections related projects. 

Deb & Jennifer: Deb began her evening by having dinner at the King’s Arms Tavern on Duke of Gloucester Street. Later that night, the two of us met up for a special event at the Capitol building. The entertainment was great and included period dancing, music, and a very funny puppet show. Later Deb was invited with a group of other conference attendees (Jennifer tagged along) to see one of the private residences in Williamsburg. Some of the Colonial Williamsburg employees live in these houses and they are not open to the public. The current resident told us some very funny stories about people walking into the private residences because they thought the houses were part of the exhibits.

Up next: Day 4, the last day of the conference!

Are These YOUR Kentucky Ancestors: Christian County?

As many of you have heard, KHS recently acquired letters that made a few headlines. The reason the Watson-Robinson letters garnered such attention was due to the fact that most of the authors were from the African American community before the Civil War. While scholars and historians will spend years dissecting the cultural implications of such letters, our feature today will try to dissect some of the family implications. For those of you from Christian County Kentucky, this is a treasure trove of family connections and insight. However, I would also like to give a brief all-call to those who have family members in Fayette County, McCracken County and several other states, such as Mississippi, Louisiana, Illinois and Texas.

For a little context, most of these letters are addressed to either Reuben Faulkner or Violet Ware in Hopkinsville Kentucky. However, the tricky thing to note about these letters is the shifting of surnames. Naming traditions in any culture can change over time. We are all familiar with surname truncation or complete respelling to accommodate ones surroundings. Surnames can also change due life events such as adoption, marriage or divorce. In this case, we are still investigating why we have encountered so many different surnames in what appear to be the same authors and recipients.

Here are a couple of examples:

One central author of the letters from Mississippi City, Mississippi to Rueben and Violet is a woman that identifies herself as Isabel, Isabella or Ibby. Within about a decade, she uses the following surnames: Watson, Tegarden & Slaughter. One would suspect that these are three different women since it was common in the 19^th century to honor friends and family by repeating given names across the generations. However, these three Isabels talk of the same people and refer to one other individual as their son. Even their surroundings and daily activities seem to match. It is possible that Isabel married or divorced during this time, but she makes no mention of such a life and name changing event. As we keep tabs on the individuals in each letter, the jury is still out on Isabel, but we are strongly leaning toward all women being one and the same.

In another instance, Reubin Falkner/Faulkner, has been addressed as Reubin Robinson depending on who was writing to him. Later, Violet’s surname also seems to change based on which farm she is living on – her address includes the “in care of” label with a farm overseer or owner that has a matching surname. With this group of letters, we have identified individuals who were owners, acquaintances, slaves and free African Americans during a time when freedom was not an easy thing to acquire. In some cases, the surname could be a reflection of current ownership.

With given name repetition across the generations, we also have the frequent challenge of new little family members being born which increases the number of Nancys or Kittys that we have to keep track of! These letters demonstrate a common problem in genealogy: getting the generations and the individuals straight - Which is why we are taking our time with the letters and unraveling each individual with their specific indentifying facts to help us document their true identity. It is not an easy task, but each time we find one of these individuals in a census or will, or other such document with corresponding details, you can usually hear a whoop and a holler coming from the Library!

If the group of letters is not specifically between actual family members, we at least know that many are between friends and make mention of other Kentucky friends from the Hopkinsville/Christian County area. This is why we want Christian County, McCracken County, Fayette County and Mississippi visitors to take a very slow read of these letters. The pictures they paint are not just about daily life and conditions, but more importantly, they provide a clearer picture of community. Many of the individuals mentioned are fellow Church-goers, which gives one sense of community, but many times, an individual mentioned is a neighbor. Isabel frequently sends her regards to a man named Henry Steele. She reminds him that he must think of her often because he is sleeping under her old roof! Isabel also sends love in each letter to Easter Bryant. We don’t know much about this woman as Isabel doesn’t describe her or her family, but we recently found an “Easter Bryan” in the 1870 Christian County Census that lists her as 76 years old with a possible relative, also mentioned in the letters, that is 102 years old! Plus, in the house right next door is the name of a man that Isabel mentions many times and to whom she also sends her love: Shadrach Phelps.

So, as we put this community puzzle together, we begin to see religious relationships, neighborly relationships and even logistical relationships. Again, this is a really great example of why we advise genealogy researchers to slow down and take the time to study the community their ancestors came from. It serves as a great way to break through some brick walls, plus you can paint a more complete picture of your ancestors and the lives they led – including the important people and relationships they built around them.  

Some of the surnames repeated frequently in these letters include: Anderson, Barker, Bell, Black, Bryant, Buckner, Carter, Cross, Crump, Davis, Ewing, Faulkner, Garnett, Glass, Grey, Hanks, Harger, Hubbard, Kendall, Kimbrew, King, Lasham, McGaughan, Mack, Murrell, Phelps, Robertson, Robinson, Rowland, Slaughter, Steele, Taylor, Tegarden, Ware, Watson, Weir, Wild

 For more information, and to read through ALL of these letters at your leisure, please visit our free Digital Collections Catalog and search for Watson-Robinson: http://www.kyhistory.com/cdm/search/searchterm/SC%201261/mode/exact

Don’t forget, many of the families listed in these letters may have moved around temporarily or relocated to other areas of the country, but most are still writing back to their native Christian County. So come on Christian Countians – Are These YOUR Kentucky Ancestors?

 --Cheri Daniels, Senior Librarian/Reference Specialist

Goodbye KHS, hello bike commute!

Today is my last day at KHS. I was hired in September 2011 as project archivist to manage development of an online database and resource guide to Kentucky oral histories called Pass the Word. Funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities and supported by the Kentucky Historical Society Foundation, the website will provide a centralized portal that allows people to search across the collections of all participating institutions and find out where to get access to interviews and collections they’re looking for. A search for “family farms,” for example, might point you to KHS, WKU and EKU. The website includes handy links that take you directly to contact information for the folks who maintain the collections at their institutions.

The Kentucky Oral History Commission, formalized as a state agency in 1980, has funded many thousands of the interviews found in repositories across the state. In preparation for reaching out to potential participants in the website, I surveyed the archives of the Kentucky Oral History Commission and identified over 450 oral history projects created by almost 80 institutions and individuals who have received grants from the commission.

Not only did my job appeal to the archivist in me, it also appealed to the extrovert in me. I was able to connect with colleagues across departments at KHS, at state government and throughout the state. I worked with the KHS design studio to create a graphic for the title of the site. I worked with the Commonwealth Office of Technology to hammer out technical requirements and capabilities. The director of the museum staff gave me tips on writing a request for proposal. I gathered an advisory board of librarians, archivists and others responsible for caring for the state’s oral histories and consulted with them along the way.

I also got to work on the reference desk in the library, an aspect of being a archivist that I really enjoy. Despite the occasional reference frenzy, I enjoy helping people find information about their family history and talking to them about their search. You never know who you might meet, too. One day I had the pleasure of talking to a scientist who it turned out is responsible for engineering the inner lining of cans of SPAM! He was traveling through Kentucky from another state looking for one of his ancestors.

During my time here at KHS I’ve also been able to develop skills and connect with Kentucky’s history. I co-presented a workshop on using oral history in the classroom. I learned how to write a request for proposal. I helped out during National History Day. I attended talks presented by research fellows. I attended a lecture on John Jacob Niles. I ate lunch in the staff kitchen with the historians and listened to stories about the Frankfort ghosts and Civil War submarines. Not only has the intellectual engagement appealed to me, but who doesn’t love a good ghost story?

We have just completed development of Pass the Word and expect to launch sometime in August. Not only will you find collections information there, but also the latest news about what’s going on in oral history in Kentucky and across the nation. I encourage you to keep an eye out for the announcement of the official the Pass the Word launch.

I am leaving this grant-funded position (and a sixty-minute commute) for a permanent position in an archival repository just six minutes from my house. I am excited to leave the driving behind, but I’ll be leaving friends behind, too. I’d like to take this opportunity to publicly thank all of the KHS staff for welcoming me and sharing their expertise. It’s been an interesting and educational experience.

 

--Heather Fox

ScanFest is coming to the Library!

Earlier this year, the KHS Library purchased a Bookeye 4 overhead scanner.  Since you may be wondering what that is, I’m going to rely on the old “a picture is worth a thousand words” adage.

 

Basically the Bookeye has the ability to create digital images of our collections by using an overhead camera.  We love this machine, because we can now take digital images of our collections that would be damaged using a traditional flatbed scanner.  Many thanks to the Kentucky Historical Society Foundation and the Kentucky Genealogical Society for providing funding to purchase the Bookeye.

So what is ScanFest?  On two Saturdays in October (Oct . 1 and Oct. 29) we are letting patrons bring in their fragile books (family bibles, diaries, scrapbooks, etc.), along with a USB (flash/thumb) drive and we will provide digital images of their materials -- for free!!

Customers can sign up for 20 minutes sessions by contacting the Library Reference Desk at KHSRefdesk@ky.gov.  To ensure the highest quality scans, there will be a 5 page scan limit per session, but you can sign up for more than one session.  Customers can choose  scan resolutions and formats (JPEG, PDF, TIFF).  Digital images will be in color, and black & white photocopies will also be available for 25 cents each.

Okay, a wrap-up:

• ScanFest will be held on Sat. Oct. 1 and Sat. Oct. 29, from 10 am - 5 pm
• Registration is required for a guaranteed time slot.  Walk-ins will be accommodated as time allows.
• Scanning sessions are limited to 20 minutes & 5 pages of material.  Patrons can sign up for multiple sessions.
• Don’t forget a USB drive!  (We recommend at least 4 GB to make sure that all files will fit on the drive)
• Recommended materials for scanning are fragile and tightly bound books such as family Bibles and scrapbooks.  Manuscripts and photographs are not recommended.

Email us at KHSRefdesk@ky.gov with any questions and to reserve your spot!

Exploring the KJHS Archives (conclusion)

While exploring the KJHS archives I have come across every sort of document, photograph, and artifact but there is one last untapped resource I had yet to explore: oral history.

During the last few weeks of my internship, I had the pleasure of interviewing a past KJHS member, Sarah “Suzie” (Orrahood) Hall who, in 1971, was the second female president of KYHA (Kentucky Young Historians Association - it wasn’t known as the Kentucky Junior Historical Society until 1976). Sarah was very active during high school in her Owensboro KYHA chapter, organizing projects to clean up local cemeteries and entering projects into the essay contest at the state convention.

Campaigning for state office was always one of Sarah’s favorite activities in KYHA. She campaigned very hard in high school to be elected state historian, then state secretary, until finally she became state president in 1971 in the twelfth grade.  Sarah’s campaign slogan was “A quitter never wins, and a winner never quits.” Becoming president was one of Sarah’s fondest memories, and one of her greatest achievements.

After leaving KYHA, Sarah continued to be active in the organization by mentoring women that also wanted to become state president. Sarah continued her interest in the past by majoring in history at Western Kentucky University and eventually practicing law. Sarah said that she became a lawyer because the campaigning in KYHA inspired her to pursue that profession. In the 90’s Sarah would return to the Kentucky Historical Society to provide legal council.

I asked Sarah why she thought it is important for today’s students to participate in KJHS. Her answer helped to put me to put history into a better perspective. “History is cyclical,” and “only with an understanding of global events in history can children understand what is going on in the nation.” Sarah is a substitute history teacher in Lexington and she is worried that current students might not be able to connect the past events of history with the present.

Sarah is currently organizing a walking tour of an African-American cemetery in Lexington and an outreach program for young African-American school children to visit historic sites. Programs such as this give children a chance to view history in their community.

Interviews help to prove that history isn’t simply just an event—it’s an ongoing process involving the entire community. While interviewing Sarah I remembered a book I read in graduate school called Presence of the Past by Roy Rosenweig. In the book, Rosenweig explains that there are two types of history; History (national and global events that effect us all, that are recorded) and history (events that shape all of our lives, though on a much more local or mundane aspect of life, that aren’t necessarily recorded). For me the connection came when I realized that everything we do is history. The events, documents and organizations that we create as a society may not make the history books, but they are just as important because they shape the lives of future generations of people in our community. Organizations such as KJHS and the Kentucky Historical Society, though created years ago, still continue to influence members of the community through their actions.  

In the case with Sarah Hall, her passion for history still influences the community today. It is this passion that will continue to serve the community, and also inspire other children to pursue their interest in history.

--Derrick Ranostaj

 

Images:

1.) KYHS chapter outside building in Hodgenville, ca. 1963.

2.) 1974 Harrodsburg High School Yearbook of KYHS chapter.