History Burgoo

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. 

Are These YOUR Kentucky Ancestors? – New Blog Series Coming Soon!

If you’ve followed any of our recent posts about the winter season activities in the library, I’m sure you’ve noticed that we are not only covering ground fast, but are encountering some wonderful gems along the way! So, you might also wonder; "What is all this processing for? Don’t you already know what is in the library?" Of course we do, but as technology changed over the years, things were not always processed in a manner that made it easy for our catalog system to find items once we took things online - which means you, our patron, could not find them either without quite a bit of digging through paper finding aids, or spotty catalog search results! Tweaking our collection descriptions will allow the catalog to find more items related to your research and/or Family History!

 Ok, enough with the boring details – but what does all that MEAN?! The long and short of it is: we are re-discovering some amazing details about our collection that shed new light on Kentucky families. Many of you come to our research library with one purpose in mind – finding your family’s Kentucky history. As you conduct your research, I’m sure you’re familiar with the microfilm room, the vertical files and the published indexes/histories. When most of those records were printed or photographed for microfilm/publication, they were all gathered into one place – usually from local Court House collections – and filmed to create as complete a representation of that county’s history as was possible at the time. However, as we have all learned the hard way, those records can have all sorts of problems with them: Counties didn’t record some events in the early years, some counties had devastating fires that destroyed decades worth of records, and sometimes the quality of the paper/writing has deteriorated to a point of illegibility.

 This is where supplemental information can greatly enhance your research or fill in missing pieces! Your ancestors may have left a paper trail that extends beyond the scope of formal record keeping, in the form of photos, letters, personal transactions, organizational memberships, family Bibles or even store ledgers! Don’t forget, our ancestors were social beings just like us and were involved in groups, businesses and other social activities that produced letters and records. The key to finding these types of records for your research is by expanding your search to include special collections/archival records, which is mostly made up of “primary sources” and rare publications. These items, unless re-published at a later date, will not be found in the regular stacks of our library, nor even in the microfilm room. They can only be found by searching our online catalog and then requesting the items at our reference desk. Our staff will be more than happy to retrieve these unique pieces of history for you to explore here in the library.

 As we process more things this winter, we are bound to find more links to your Kentucky families, which can then be found by you as you explore our Collections Catalog. Remember, it is free for anyone to use from home – at any time of the year! We also have the Digital Collections and Objects Catalogs available that hold images of some of these unique items. After you have explored these three free catalogs for items relating to your family or research subject, keep checking back! We are busy adding more content to these catalogs and continue to enjoy these months of new discoveries as we open a new folder or box and meet someone new from Kentucky’s past!  

 As I wrap up this post, I would like to introduce you to a new blog series that can be found here regularly: Are These YOUR Kentucky Ancestors? Each Kentucky County has its own unique records, resources and original documents/photos that help to enrich its overall story. A few times each month, we will feature a new original source, publication, document, or photo from a different County that specifically mentions Kentucky families by name. Along with the wonderful re-discoveries from around our state, we hope to provide some background on the item presented or some tips on how to use this in your research. If any of the featured items add to your Kentucky Family’s story, let us know! Don’t forget! If you see something you want to explore in person, come visit our library when it is open to the public each 2^nd Saturday of the month, or during regular season hours when they resume on March 13^th! Stay tuned, you won’t want to miss what we find!

--Cheri Daniels

Winter Season Weeks 2 and 3

Well, we had a few holidays so we merged our accomplishments into one blog.  Hope you don't mind.  We have been cataloging like madhatters.  Our microfilm cataloging crew has knocked out 13 counties without knocking out or down each other. Carroll county gave us fits, but check it out online.  We are proud as peacocks!

Carroll County in the Online Catalog

 

Our maunscripts cataloging crew (same group as our microfilming crew) has cataloged over 250 collections.  Among our favorites are the Virginia Louise Hart Memory Book and a recipe book from 1858.  The Memory Book (SC 679) documents the senior year of high school for a young female graduate from Paducah High School, class of 1921.  We have all taken to chanting the senior year cheer:

Hail! Sleet! Thunder! Rain!

Get out of the way of the gravy train!

Hoot! Hoot! Seniors!

The book is full of calling cards, newspaper clippings, play programs and photos, but one page that sticks out as the most colorful showcases scraps of fabric cut from dresses worn by Virginia during her senior year.

 

Another page which earns an award for the most unique and possibly the most romantic highlights the tokens of affection given to Virginia by her male classmates in the form of Wrigley's Juicy Fruit gum wrappers.

 

 

We are thinking of taking on Virginia's senior class motto as our Seasonal mission statement:

"We build the ladder in which we climb."

 

Another item that had us drooling was the Elmore family recipe book (SC 808).  Besides recipes for several pies and cakes, this slim little volume had a recipe for a wine laud.  We don't know what a laud is used for but the three ingredients melted together are sugar, butter and wine.  Perhaps someone can try this out at their New Year's Eve party and tell us how it turns out!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the staff of the Special Collections and Library. 

Winter Season Week 1

The Special Collections and Library team started off the Winter Season with a party for the Governor, complete with cookies and punch.  Well, really, the Governor was having the Inauguration reception here at the Thomas D. Clark Center for History and the SC&L staff watched from the windows above Commonwealth Hall.  We did not have too many researchers on Tuesday, mostly lots of folks taking the opportunity to look around.  They got to see the SC&L team hard at work cataloging manuscripts.

So what did we accomplish in our first week?  Well let me tell you!  We cataloged 183 small manuscript collections, 20 large manuscript collections and 17 oversize collections.  One of my favorite discoveries was a trio of hotel registers from around central Kentucky covering the time period of the Goebel assassination. Apparently, the investigators collected these registers in the hopes that they would show the activities of the assassins.  On a side note, how many people remember actually signing into a hotel register?

Another highlight was SC 574 the George Delph account ledger, which has marginally interesting account information on a dry goods enterprise in Nicholas County.  It was later used, however, as a scrapbook by an unknown collector who decorated its pages with cut out images of fashion plates, political cartoons and product labels.  You can look forward to digital images appearing in the Digital Collection soon.

We also got together late Friday afternoon with our colleagues at the Kentucky Department of LIbrary and Archives to show them what we would be doing this Winter Season.  Since they will be answering lots of questions about our activities, we thought we would invite them in for a tour.

Not to be outdone, our Oral History staff met with 10 young women as part of the Staging Voices program with the Kentucky Commission on Women.  These high school students are learning how to create a theater piece using oral history as the raw material for their inspiration.  They will be doing 6 or 7 interviews with women who have served as advocates for women or who have effected change in the lives of other women. The students came in on Saturday to learn how to use the equipment and to do a practice interview with Sheila Mason Burton, who inarguably has done much for women in Kentucky.

Well, it is time to get to work.  Stay tuned for our next update on Tuesday December 27!  Merry Christmas everyone!

Come visit the KHS Library for Thursday night programs!

In September, we started some new Thursday night programs to go along with our “Getting to Know the Library” session which is offered the first Thursday of each month at 5:30.  Now that October is here, we wanted to remind everyone of these opportunities to learn more about the library and research materials that are available.  Registration is not required for any of these programs, so you’re welcome to just show up at the Library at 5:30 on Thursdays.

 

Here’s the rundown on our programs:

•  1^st Thursday of each month, 5:30-6:30 – “Getting to Know the Library”

A Library staff member will lead interested patrons on a tour of the Martin F. Schmidt Research Library and answer questions about the resources we have available.

•  2^nd Thursday of each month, 5:30-6:30 – Fold3 Users Group

Interested in learning more about using Fold3 (which was formerly known as Footnote)?  Or are you a frequent user of Fold3 that can share your experiences and knowledge with others?  Beginners, experts, and everyone in between are welcome!

•  3^rd Thursday of each month, 5:30-6:30 – Ancestry and Heritage Quest Users Group

We’ve all heard of Ancestry.com, but what’s the best way to use it?  How do you navigate the thousands of databases they have available?  When do you have to leave the computer and go to the original records?  And what exactly is Heritage Quest?  How can it help with genealogy research?  Both of these sites can be valuable to both beginning and advanced researchers, so come to our Users Group to learn more about using these resources or offer your advice to others!

•  4^th Thursday of each month, 5:30-6:30 – RootsMagic Users Group

Do you use the genealogy software RootsMagic to organize your family tree?  Come to the library to meet fellow RootsMagic users, discuss features of the program and strategies for making the most of this software.

(Use a different genealogy software program?  Contact us at KHSRefdesk@ky.gov about forming additional user groups!)

 

We look forward to seeing you on Thursday nights in the Library!

 

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!

Learning "Thorough Research" from Elizabeth Shown Mills

Last Saturday I got to represent KHS at the annual seminar of the Kentucky Genealogical Society.  I was extremely excited because the speaker this year was Elizabeth Shown Mills, who is known as a leader in the field of genealogy.

If I could use only two words to sum up Ms. Mills’ presentation, those words would be “thorough research.”  So often people think of genealogy as a family chart, listing birth, marriage, and death dates, and linking one generation to the next.  Ms. Mills was quick to point out that “genealogy is not the gathering of names – it is the study of people, people who led lives beyond their birth, marriage and death.”  Since our ancestors lives consisted of more than just birth, marriage, and death, we need to look at other records, maybe records we don’t often think of as being “genealogical records,” in order to piece together the events of their lives.

Also, just as you and I live in connection with other people (friends, co-workers, neighbors, and family), so did our ancestors.  Mills suggests familiarizing yourself with neighbors (looking at 15-20 households listed before and after your ancestors in the census), family members (who may also be neighbors), and fellow church-members.  She calls these relationships a person’s “FAN club” (Friends, Acquaintances, Neighbors).

Going back to the “thorough research” idea, one of the things Ms. Mills emphasized is the use of original records.  Several of the cases studies she used in her presentation started with people only looking at abstracts and indexes and never going to the original record.  Okay, we all know that handwriting is a pain to read, especially when it’s on microfilm, but there is no way to be certain that you have all the possible information unless you have seen the record yourself.  Even if the record contains information that you may consider “extraneous,” make note of that information because you never know when it may become useful.  Perhaps that extraneous information will connect to the next record you find!

I’ll admit, as I listened to Ms. Mills, I couldn’t help thinking, “This sounds exhausting!!”  (Maybe that’s where the phrase “exhaustive research” comes from.)  However, her case studies proved again and again that if you research thoroughly, if you go to the original records and pull out every bit of information you can find, the answers can be found.  They may not be in black and white on a single record the way we would like, but you can make inferences and connections and discover ways through and around the “brick walls” in your genealogy.

Thanks to the Kentucky Genealogical Society for bringing Ms. Mills to Frankfort and putting on a great seminar!

-Jennifer Howard

PS...If you attended the seminar, please use the comments section below to add your thoughts on Ms. Mills’ presentation and what you found most useful.

 

Images:

1) Elizabeth Shown Mills

2) Portion of the will of J. Nelson of Madison County, Kentucky. Full document and transcript available on the KHS Digital Collections.

 

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

"Signs" of the Time

 

When you think of the Civil War what comes to mind? If it's slavery, Abe Lincoln, and the colors blue and grey, you’re in the ballpark.  If you can name a few states that pledge allegiance to either the Confederacy or the Union, recognize the name “Gettysburg”, or understand the term “Emancipation Proclamation”, you’ve done your homework.  If you can finish the sentence “Fourscore and seven years ago”, pick Stonewall Jackson out of a line up, and name the constitutional amendments that resulted from that four-year tussle, well consider yourself a pro.  I was hovering somewhere around pro status when I learned my pet project during my time here would consist of the Civil War.  Ah, but the caveat: My pet project during my time here would consist of the Civil War in Kentucky…

…And all my professional knowledge about the Civil War came to a screeching halt.

Not that I mind—I love learning history—but seriously: we’re talking about Kentucky.  Other than ironically being the birthplace of Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, what history could there be?  So I did what curious minds do best when they have a question: research. But instead of hitting the books, I found a plethora of knowledge in the unusual place of historical markers scattered around Kentucky (you know, those bronze signs you see in random places of the state as you drive by).  Fortunately, I got to save my gas, because KHS did me a great service by cataloging all of the markers and making them available on their website: http://migration.kentucky.gov/kyhs/hmdb/MarkerSearch.aspx?mode=All. (Thank you!)

My three word summary of that process:  So. Much. History.  (Does that make me a super pro, now?)

I couldn’t begin to sit here and tell you all I’ve learned from just reading those signs—but I can riddle you this--find the answers to these questions by clicking on the links and finding the markers:

• What does Kentucky’s Civil War story have to do with Carson City, Nevada? (They're Historic Markers 79 and 1335 in the Marker Number Search engine)
• When you Google ‘Famous American Family Feuds’, why does a Kentucky clan pop up? (Type "McCoy-Hatfield" in the Keyword Search engine)
• Why does Campbellsville make such a big deal out of the Fourth of July? (Marker 605)
• He was doing what with that chain? (Marker 528)
• Who was Kentucky’s Confederate governor(s)? (Marker 610)
• What often neglected battle was of the most importance in the Civil War campaign? (Marker 553)
• So who, exactly, is “Sue”? (Keyword search "Sue Mundy")
• To what lengths did the CSA (and USA!) go to in order to discourage their opponents? (Keyword search "Civil War, Courthouses")
• Where did the legislative go? (Marker 522)
• And lastly: Was Kentucky to be the new (West) Virginia? (Marker 74)

There’s an incredible story about Kentucky’s involvement in the Civil War (and other Kentuckian topics!) just waiting for you to explore. Just waiting for you on that sign you go past while walking your dog.  So the next time you’re on the go in Kentucky, and you have a few minutes to spare, take one and pull over to read a historical marker sign—you’ll be surprised (as I was) with what you find!

 

--Kortnie Allen, Super pro

 Images:

Battle of Mill Spring, Ky., January 19, 1862.  Total routof the Rebel Army, by the gallant soldiers of the West under Generals Thomasand Schoepff. Martin F. Schmidt Collection of Kentucky Views, 2004.41.  2004.41.202

 

What YOU Can Discover at the Kentucky Historical Society

 

When I first got the phone call that I had been accepted as an intern at the Kentucky Historical Society, I was thrilled.  I knew that working at a historical society was something that I had always wanted to experience, starting from my days as a history major at Western Kentucky University. I would spend countless hours in the library stacks and special collections areas (and not because as a history undergrad you spend more time writing papers than an English major did) but because I would get so caught up in the thrill of discovery while conducting research on a given historical topic.

As a high school history teacher, I attempted to instill that same thrill of discovery through research into my students by telling them to use resources other than Google and to open their eyes to a world of knowledge they probably didn’t know existed (I mean lets face it, as a seventeen year old, the only way you are going to become interested about a bunch of dead guys is if they sparkle in the sunlight and have an occasional scuffle with werewolves who never seem to have a shirt on). But there would be that occasional student who would come up to me and say “ I actually really enjoyed going to the local history society and finding out some neat stuff”, my faith in the next generation is still in tact.

When I decided to pursue my master’s degree in Library and Information Science at the University of Kentucky, I knew archiving was the area of concentration that would be a perfect fit for me, given the close relationship that history and archives share.  As an archivist, I would be a steward of historical artifacts that someone, someday, would see and feel that same rush of curiosity that I had felt in the library stacks as an undergrad.  The internship at KHS would offer some much needed hands-on experience in archiving practices and, as I would discover upon my first day at KHS, that there is much more to working in a historical society than I had perceived.  The theme of discovery continues.

On any given day I am working at the historical society, I am learning something new about the state of Kentucky.  If it is a day I am working in the Oral History Collection, I am more than likely auditing and  digitizing tapes of interviews or writing descriptions of collections that haven’t been cataloged yet. The most recent of which is the oral histories of some of our more prolific governors of the 20th century. I  can’t tell you the amount of intrigue one can accumulate while watching an interview with Bert T.  Combs over his battle with educational reform in this state or reading through a transcript of John Y. Brown and his dealings with the famous “Colonel” of Kentucky Fried Chicken fame (a subject that will the focus of my next blog entry).  And these are only a fraction of interesting artifacts to be found. 

Genealogy is a huge interest of patrons who come to the society.  When I am not in the lab digitizing, you can probably find me in the microfilm room, manning the reference desk and helping patrons find all sorts of records about ancestors that inhabited this state, spanning from marriage certificates from the late 1700s or court records of the 19th century.  There are even rare books that patrons can access that date back to the 1800s, a pretty awesome thing to behold if you are a history geek, such as myself. If you are a visual person, KHS has got you covered, with thousands of photogrpahs in our collection of many different topics. A personal favorite of mine are photogrpahs of Kentucky servicemen going off to fight WWII in the 1940's( seen below).  I could go on and on about the vast amount of historical information that can be found at the historical society, but then it wouldn’t be any fun in discovering it for yourself!

 

Interning at the Kentucky Historical Society will no doubt be a tremendous impact on my future professional career.  The things I have learned here will be things I take with me forever, a sentiment I hope that any who read this article will share and come down to KHS and just look around.  You never know what you may discover while you’re here.

- - Tommy Grant

Images:

Top Right- Bert T. Combs, portrait painting ca. 1970, KHS Collection 1975.17

Middle Left- Colonel Harland David Sanders, wikipedia.org

Bottom: James E. Bell in navu uniform. World War II vintage. He served in the South Pacific through most of the war as a pharmacist's mate on several ships ca. 1940s, KHS collection JPW.1990ph2.2JEFW3