History Burgoo

KHS Collections Corner: The NAFMAB Collection Part 2

Hi again, this is Kurt Robinson, the Museum Collection and Exhibitions intern this semester. You might remember my post about the National Armed Forces Museum Advisory Board Collection and how I got my hands dirty within the many different kinds of mortars we have in the collection. Well now I’ve moved on to the bigger guns and by bigger I mean heavier, longer, and a much larger caliber. These are the kinds of guns that it takes two to four people to move because they are so heavy. These guns are aircraft cannon.

The United States was one of the first, behind Great Britain, to develop aircraft cannon during World War II. The first model the U.S. Navy developed was the U.S. M1 20mm around 1942, but this gun had its problems because it was simply made. The barrel of the weapon was about 65 inches long with a barrel adapter to lighten the recoil. The receiver and trigger mechanism was also rather simple. The receiver was opened on both the top and bottom to allow the rounds to enter from the top and the empty shells eject from the bottom. It fed with a magazine or belt. The trigger was attached to a steel wire with a metal handle, which was attached to the firing mechanism on the plane.

 

This is the M1 from about 1942.

However, that version of the aircraft cannon was very unreliable because it was inaccurate, jammed, and misfired constantly. So, the Navy came out with the M2, which was just as unreliable as the M1. Next was the M3, which was a smaller version of the two and did work better, but also had continued flaws. Finally, after World War II was over the Navy developed the M24. This version was the best of the series because it was finally able to fire continually without any problems.

The M24 was used for years after World War II and was still in use during the Vietnam War. This weapon had an electric or gas powered trigger mechanism with hoses connecting to the airplane and discharged when a button was pressed in the cockpit. It was smaller than its previous versions and the new parts, such as the electric or gas powered triggers, made it much easier to fire during combat. This gun developed very well and became one of the most widely used weapons for Navy planes. The Kentucky Historical Society has three M24s in the collections.

This is the M24 still in its packing crate, still oiled and greased, in near perfect condition. This one is from around 1960.

These weapons will be my last to work on this semester, but they were a good transition from smaller weapons like the mortars. Being able to see the change in weaponry in the mortars and aircraft cannon was very interesting and was very exciting to learn. These weapons developed so much in such a short period of time that is was interesting to learn about the amount of trial and error the designers went through, especially in the aircraft cannon.     

--Kurt Robinson, Collections Intern, Museum Collections and Exhibitions

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.

KHS Collections Corner: Creating a New Home – Re-housing the Martin F. Schmidt Collection

During a printmaking class that I attended while I was at Georgetown College, I learned that prints are best stored flat and on acid free mounts within large folios. My professor, Daniel Graham, also advised to keep prints stored in dry and dark environment. Keeping these ideal storage methods in mind will better protect the paper fibers and ensure a long survival of the print. This knowledge imparted from my professor about caring for his artwork is also a necessity for the museum collections care.

 

How the Schmidt Collection was previously housed.

The Schmidt collection represents a perfect example of a large body of print based work. This collection was originally stored by the staff in Mylar sleeves laying them flat inside acid-free folders in numerical order. The series was then organized into sets of 30 prints and placed in large folders that were then separated in groups of three or four in acid-free gallery boxes. This method did ensure that these prints were stored flat.

 

Although effective for small print collections, this housing method is not efficient for housing the 629 prints found in the Schmidt collection. One of the problems with housing this many works in folders is the shifting of the artifacts in the boxes. This jumbling additionally creates uneven extra weight that can damage the prints as well as foster unintentional disorganization. The staff felt a new type of housing would be required to better protect and organize the work.

After helping with the cataloging of this collection, I was assigned to re-house the prints. I worked with the staff and we decided that the best way to care for the works was not through folders, but through using large sheets of acid-free matte board. This matte board could easily be cut to fit the size of the boxes the pieces were already stored in and would allow for the pieces to continue lying flat. Next we would attach the encapsulated pieces to the matte board with photo corners. From simply revising this method of housing, the prints gain various benefits including better organization, reduction of stress on the prints and a sturdier support or backing.  

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

The Process

1. Make sure the print is housed in a Mylar sleeve of appropriate size. After completing a folder, organize the prints in numerical order.

 

Mylar needs cutting...

 

...Mylar cut down to correct size.

 

2. Cut the matte board sheets down to fit the size of the box.

 

Matte board after being cut down for the box.

 

3. Plan out the layout on the matte board (ideally in numerical order, however this can change based on sizes of the pieces).

4. Stick on photo corners on each piece. Best to have two on each diagonal for small print and three to four on each corner for large pieces.

5. Write down catalog number on the matte board underneath each of the prints in pencil.

6. Cut out half an inch triangles on both sides of the matte board for easier handling when moving the sheets within the boxes.

An in-progress sheet.

7. Label each sheet in its box its own sheet number.

Organizing all the finished sheets in the box.

8. Update sheet number and box number for each page in the database.

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: The NAFMAB Collection

I’m Kurt Robinson, an intern in the Museum Collection and Exhibitions team this semester. I am working on a military project involving mortars, mounts, and the occasional large machine gun in the National Armed Forces Museum Advisory Board Collection. All of these artifacts are from the World War II or Vietnam era, mostly World War II. The project is divided into two parts. The first part, that I just completed, involved finding all of the parts to and cataloging mortars. A lot of them are from different countries and were collected by soldiers while on duty. These mortars were brought back to the United States and then donated, but this one collection did not come to the KHS first, it made a side trip.

The collection that has all the mortars, among other artifacts that I have not gotten to yet, were going to first be put in a museum on the mall in Washington D.C. Back in 1961 a plan was proposed to build a military history museum on the mall called the National Armed Forces Museum. As time passed the U.S. got involved in the Vietnam War and, by 1972, was unable to get funds to build the new museum. After that, all the pieces that were going to be displayed in the collection were ordered to be dispersed. So, Colonel George Chinn, of the Kentucky Military History Museum, was allowed by the board to acquire many of the pieces in that collection, now in storage at KHS.

This is the mount, .50 caliber machine gun, and two different kinds of box magazines for the gun.

  The first part of the collection is made up of mortars, but I have come across a couple of interesting pieces. One is a .50 caliber machine gun with a mount, with four legs that dig into the ground, and a stem shaped like an elbow for the gun to rest on. The gun attaches to a mount, which has four handles, two of which have a lever that can be pulled to fire the weapon, so it can be used as an anti-aircraft gun. It also has a 250 round box magazine that attaches to the mount. There was also a very complex machined mount for a German machine gun, the MG 34. It folds out in several spots, mainly the legs, and pulls up, which is the rail that the gun sets on. It can then be folded in to be carried on the back of a person; the front leg has two leather pads.

Those two pieces were the only ones that were not mortars in the first phase of cataloging this collection. The rest were all kinds of mortars from different countries like Germany, France, the Soviet Union, Italy, and the U.S. All kinds of mortars of different shapes and sizes from small 50mm knee mortars, called that by the allied troops, the standard 60mm mortar, and even larger 80mm mortars from Germany. However, one piece was very interesting by the way it’s made. It is from Italy and is called a “Brixia.” It is a 60mm and but it has a cloth seat behind it, that the gunner can sit or lay down on. But, it had a lever trigger pull that fired the gun as it closed the breach at the same time. That same lever was pushed forward to open the breach again to reload. It also has a magazine on top, which held blank rounds to fire the projectile. This was probably the most unique mortar in the collection.

   

This is the Italian “Brixia” with the lever trigger handle pushed forward and the breach open.

This collection has a lot of very interesting and very cool pieces in it. Some of the pieces will require a lot more research to find out exactly what they are. I have done about 30 pieces so far and I am just getting started!  You can check out these pieces online in the KHS Objects Catalog.

--Kurt Robinson, Collections Intern, Museum Collections and Exhibitions

 

KHS Collections Corner: How to Hang an Oversized Painting

So how would you store a painting that is almost 7 feet tall and 12 ½ feet wide? Our museum collections and exhibitions staff has been working to answer that question this week. 

In July on the KHS Facebook page we told you about the oversized painting “Morgan’s Raid on Cynthiana” by George Gray, which we brought back to KHS after it had been out on loan for over 20 years. Over the past few months the staff has been determining the best place to put this painting in storage and how to hang it. In addition to the problem of its size, this painting is very heavy due to the fact that at some point in its history, the canvas was adhered to wood.

We started by finding a place in storage with enough wall space to accommodate the painting. Then David and Jake made custom cleats out of wood that match the hanging mechanism on the back of the painting. They installed the cleats on the storage walls while one of our interns, Beth S., and I held the painting upright. Due to the size and weight of the piece it is hanging fairly low but we still had to lift it onto these cleats.

We raised the painting up to install it by bringing over a forklift that we sometimes use in the storage area. We lifted the painting by hand just enough to get it on to the forklift and then the lift raised it up to the right height to hang on the cleats. Two staff members we assigned to balance the painting while it was on the lift.

After the painting was installed, we had to address the problem of creating a custom dust cover for such a large piece. Beth S. and I cut two large pieces of Tyvek® to be sewn together. Then Beth C. and I sewed the pieces together using the sewing machine.

Once this was completed Beth C., Beth S. and I took it to storage and attached it to the wall using Velcro strips so that it could be easily removed.

The last step was to put a photo and number on the outside of the cover so that the piece could be easily identified by anyone looking for it in storage.

The project took two days to complete but the results are well worth it! To learn more about this painting visit the KHS Objects Catalog at www.history.ky.gov/objects.

--Deb Rose Van Horn, Registrar

The KHS Collections Corner is a new series on History Burgoo about the collections work going on behind-the-scenes at the Kentucky Historical Society. Join us to learn a little more about the work that our collections staff does to preserve items from Kentucky’s history. We'll cover the storage of artifacts, exhibit preparation and installations, information about loans and donations, and more.

Behind the Scenes: What happens after an exhibit ends?

 

Beth S. moves artifacts from the gallery to the workrooms.

Did you ever wonder what happens when the exhibit ends?  Well I’m going to take you on a behind-the-scenes look at the close of the exhibit “Civil War: My Brother, My Enemy” that closed here at KHS last week. First of all, the planning begins before we ever step foot in the gallery. The staff meets to come up with a work plan, we gather supplies that will be needed and we get all of the collections work spaces and storage areas that need to be used ready to go. We also clear off any available carts to help us move objects and plan a path for the artifacts and cases. That way we know exactly what is going where. Because this exhibit was a traveling exhibit from the Frazier History Museum, this process also included pulling out all of the packing crates and boxes that the exhibit came in.

 

David, of KHS's exhibit design and fabrication team, working in the gallery.

The staff divided up into two teams including the gallery team and the packing team. The gallery team included out fabrication staff (David and Jake) and two of our curators (Bill and Julie), the director of museum collections and exhibition (Trevor) and one of our volunteers (Jeff S.) and the packing team included me, the registrar, our collections management assistant (Beth C.), a curator (Sara), and two interns (Devon and Beth S.). The gallery team worked on pulling all of the artifacts out of the cases, taking cases and settings apart, and getting panels, graphics, and mounts ready for shipping. The artifacts then traveled down the hall to the workroom and conservation lab where the packing team was ready to receive them. Each panel had to be individually wrapped with bubble wrap to protect them during the shipping process. The KHS cases all had to be wrapped and moved out of the gallery in to storage.

 

Trevor and Bill taking artifacts out of the cases.

The packing team split up the tasks into two sub-teams with Sara and Devon checking the condition of every item to make sure that there was no new damage. This involves examining each item to make sure there are no new chips, scratches or cracks and making notes on any damage they see. The staff did a condition report of every item before the exhibit opened, so Sara and Devon compared each of the reports with what they were seeing. Meanwhile, Deb and the two Beths worked on packing and crating each item. Each item had to be checked off on a packing list and individually wrapped to make sure that everything was there and that no damage during shipping. The process took a little over two days but the team is finally done and the exhibit is ready to ship out to the Frazier next week!

That's me, closing up a crate to be shipped back to the Frazier History Museum.

This exhibit also featured 12 items from the KHS collections, including things like a leg shackle, military uniforms and antebellum dresses. In addition to packing up the items on loan from the Frazier History Museum, the staff had to check the condition of these items and get them ready to go to storage. All of these items have been cataloged and are available for the public to see on the KHS Objects Catalog at www.history.ky.gov/objects.

-Deb Rose Van Horn, KHS registrar

Intern delves deeper into Davis Political Collection

Earlier this fall, I wrote a post about the Drexell R. Davis Political Collection focused on two of the campaign posters from that impressive group of political memorabilia (for some background, read my earlier post here). As my internship in the Museum Collections and Exhibitions department continues, I gain more and more insight into American political parties, candidates, elections and the souvenirs associated with them. I’d like to share a few more objects from the Davis Collection now.

When thinking about the emblems and mascots of political parties images of flags, donkeys, elephants, Uncle Sam, stars and stripes, etc. come to mind immediately. But during the election of 1888 a new emblem joined these traditional symbols: a red bandana. The story of the red bandana is attached to the vice presidential candidate in that election, Allen Thurman. Thurman was running with incumbent President Grover Cleveland against Republicans Benjamin Harrison and Levi P. Morton (who would win the election). Thurman was often seen in public with a red handkerchief or bandana in his coat pocket, frequently taking the bandana out to mop his brow during interviews or debates.

In her book, “The American Bandanna: Culture on Cloth from George Washington to Elvis,” author Hillary Weiss writes that, “one night at a Democratic rally, vice-presidential nominee Allen Thurman pulled a red bandana from his pocket, complaining it would have been cheaper without the import tariff. He was dubbed ‘Old Pockethandkercheif,’ ... and the bandanna itself became the Democrats’ 1888 symbol of consumer rights.” One result of this event was that red campaign bandanas began to crop up everywhere alongside traditional posters, buttons, and other souvenirs. Not only was image of a red 
bandana made into a political symbol of consumer rights - much like eagles and flags were used to symbolize patriotism on other campaign souvenirs - the symbol was made real by printing political messages and images onto actual cotton or silk handkerchiefs.

Handkerchief, 1986.88.28

This bandana from the KHS Collection (1986.88.28) is one of these campaign handkerchiefs. The cream colored flags at the corners of this piece have black text which spells out some of the Democrats’ platform: “Tariff Reform” and “Low Taxes.” Allen Thurman is in the oval frame on the right and in his breast pocket is the famous red bandana.

Another, similar handkerchief in our collection shows Thurman and his red bandana more clearly (1939.822). I thought these objects were particularly interesting because they are, essentially, a symbol within a symbol; Thurman’s red bandana symbolizing economic reform printed onto a real handkerchief for supporters to wave at rallies and other events.

Handkerchif, 1939.822

According to an article from the New York Times published in June of 1912, the bandana was also used by Thurman as a covert signal between him and his close friend, Senator Edmunds of Vermont, during his time as a United States Senator from Ohio. The article says that “if the proceedings became dull, Thurman would draw his bandana from his pocket and flourish it without ostentation. At the signal Senator Edmunds would surrender the chair to a substitute, and the two estimable statesmen would seek rest and reasonable refreshment in company.” This article illustrates that Thurman’s habit of wearing a red bandana was well established before the election in 1888.

Be sure to check out the KHS Objects Catalog online at www.history.ky.gov/objects to browse through more of KHS’s political objects, and keep checking this blog for more updates on the Drexell R. Davis Collection!

--Beth Sylak, collections intern, museum collections and exhibitions team

 

 

Drexell Davis Political Collection

As a collections intern with the Kentucky Historical Society, I have the privilege of being involved in the preservation of Kentucky’s material heritage. Right now I am working with the Drexell Davis Political Collection, a group of over 2,000 objects of political memorabilia that Mr. Davis collected and later donated to KHS over a period of twenty years. A politician himself, Drexell Davis had a passion for the souvenirs, posters, broadsides and buttons related to political campaigns. These everyday objects tell the story of Kentucky and the United State’s political pasts and are invaluable pieces of our cultural history.

As we as a nation gear up to hit the ballot box, we at KHS thought it might be neat to take a look back at a few of the past political elections using some of the posters from the Davis Collection.

This political poster is from the presidential election of 1920. This election pitted Republican candidates Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge (seen in this campaign poster from 1920) against Democratic candidates James M. Cox and his running mate Franklin D. Roosevelt. Warren Harding would become the 29^th President of the United States as a result of the 1920 Election and upon his death in 1923 Calvin Coolidge would become our 30^th.

The 1920 Presidential Election was occurring in a turbulent time of American history. The economic boom from WWI had collapsed. The year 1919 was blighted by strikes and by large-scale race riots in Chicago and other large cities. Major dissatisfaction with former President Woodrow Wilson’s policies and the question of whether or not the United States would join the League of Nations became critical to the election.

Notice on the poster of Warren and Coolidge that a small slogan has been printed between the wings of the eagle. It reads “America Always First” in gold letters. This return to an isolationist viewpoint was a reaction against Wilson’s policies and proved to be important to Harding’s win. Other images on the poster such as the eagle, flags and red and blue border drive home the patriotic message. This message is more subtle than some earlier political posters, such as the one below, which actually lists its party’s objectives right on the poster.

This campaign poster is from the 1888 Presidential Election. I learned while cataloging this piece that the officially recognized, national symbol of the Democratic Party is actually the rooster, not the donkey. The two roosters on Uncle Sam’s outstretched arms in this poster represent the party of the candidates Grover Cleveland and A. G. Thurman. Under a small printed image of Thomas Jefferson (off to the left of the poster in a circular frame) are the issues of the day and how the Cleveland – Thurman team planned to face them. The banner beneath this list declares “What We Stand By,” and includes things like “war taxes must cease” and “labor protection.”

Cleveland and Thurman lost the election of 1888 by a slim margin to Republicans Benjamin Harrison and Levi P. Morton. However, Cleveland and Thurman won the popular vote, making Cleveland the only President to win three Presidential elections in term of popular votes. His loss in 1888 was because of a loss in the Electoral College. A similar result was seen in the 2000 Presidential Election between Republican candidate George W. Bush and Democrat Al Gore. Gore received 543,895 more popular votes than Bush but only 266 of the electoral votes versus Bush’s 271 (270 electoral votes are needed for a candidate to win the presidency).

I’m certain that as I work through the collection there will be more posters and memorabilia to share, so check back for updates! In the meantime, many of the objects from the Davis Collection have been cataloged and are available for viewing in our online collections database. Check it out at www.history.ky.gov/objects!

--Beth Sylak, collections intern, KHS museum collections and exhibitions team

Summer intern delves into KHS special collections

My summer internship here at the Kentucky Historical Society has taught me a great deal. I have both improved and vastly increased my skills and also had the chance to work on some spectacular collections. Currently, I'm working towards a Master of Library and Information Science. The degree is necessary in order to find a job in a library or archive, but I knew that I needed to garner practical experience to set myself apart. The internship here at KHS appealed to me because of the variety of experiences offered in it. While here in Frankfort, I have been able to participate in every aspect of the wide spectrum of skills necessary for librarians and archivists. I was able to process, catalog, store, and digitize many different materials. I have learned about many of the programs and processes used by librarians and archivists to preserve, store, and provide access to records.

My work was split between two aspects of the KHS Special Collections and Library -- oral history and manuscripts -- and I thought I would mention two of the collections, one from each aspect, that really impressed me.

The collections of the Kentucky Oral History Commission at KHS is by far the largest I have seen, and I feel lucky to have briefly been a part of it. One collection that I had a hand in processing and cataloging was "Living with Difference: Oral Histories of Life and Disability in Kentucky." The project is a joint effort between KHS, acting as the repository, and Eastern Kentucky University, where students and faculty perform the interviews. Since I was mostly dealing with cataloging and digitizing the collection, I didn't have too much time to delve deeply into its contents. But in the small exposure I had, I found that the interviews were done with a wide variety of individuals dealing with issues that society has deemed as disabilities. As I listened to and skimmed transcripts of some of the interviews, I found the attitudes that many "disabled" individuals had toward their "disability" quite interesting. All of them acknowledged their condition, but many didn't consider it a disability nor did they feel that it impeded their life. The surprising thing was that the people interviewed had disabilities ranging from depression and arthritis to paraplegia and multiple sclerosis. The collection is quite impressive in its content and its aims to offer a voice to members of society suffering from disabilities. And this is just one of many collections held at KHS that offer insight into the culture and history of the commonwealth.

As for the manuscript collections, I was able to process and catalog a large amount of material from the Civil War era. One of the items that I found most interesting was a small notebook used to record the locations of graves of Kentucky Confederate dead throughout the South. It is called the "Atlanta Association for the Reinterment of the Kentucky Confederate Dead record book" (long name, I know). Notes were kept by Charlie Herbst on the individuals and their units, the location of the graves, and the efforts made to reinter some of the fallen soldiers. The notebook is a valuable resource in genealogy and Civil War history, and I think it will also interest the mildly curious. 

---Tyson Thorpe is pursing a Master of Library and Information Science (MLIS) at San Jose State Univeristy in San Jose, California.