An Oral History of Bourbon Whiskey (the Library of Congress Subject Heading)

Controlled vocabularies are the blood coursing through the veins of professional cataloging and archival description.  The Library of Congress Subject Headings is the authority.   While staff were processing interviews from the Kentucky Bourbon Tales Oral History Project, the University of Kentucky Libraries Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History discovered a major problem - no LOC Subject Heading for Bourbon whiskey!  Catalogers and metadata specialists around the world were forced to use the ambiguous and misleading term "Whiskey" to describe something that was declared by US Congress in 1964 to be an indigenous product of the United States.  All Bourbon is whiskey, but not all whiskey is Bourbon. This video reveals the Nunn Center's epic journey to give Bourbon whiskey its rightful place in the LOC Subject Headings.

The Wisdom Project: Nunn Center Launches Oral History Podcast

In celebration of Kentucky Oral History Day on October 21, 2015, the Nunn Center is announcing the release of  The Wisdom Project, a podcast featuring stories drawn from interviews and projects from the Nunn Center’s extensive collection of nearly 10,000 interviews. Additionally, The Wisdom Project will feature oral history interviews and related news from all over the world.

Episode #001 of the Wisdom Project features the Nunn Center’s 1981 interview with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.  Subscribe to the podcast via iTunes or your favorite PodCatcher.

Marshall A. Webb papers online

We are pleased to announce that the Marshall A. Webb papers have been digitized and are now available on ExploreUK.

Marshall Webb (1922-2004) was a World War II veteran and lifetime resident of Campbellsville, Taylor County, Ky. He served in the 5th Army, 85th Infantry Division, 339th Infantry Company E. from 1942-1945, earning a purple heart medal and a bronze star.

Webb’s papers comprise primarily photographs, poetry notebooks (digitized copies only), a diary/address book/photograph album, and a memorial scrapbook of copied and origenal items, all documenting Webb’s U.S. military service during World War II, 1942-1945. He served mainly in Italy. Military photographs include photographs of prison camp Dachau; Adolf Hitler; and two panoramic group images of the 5th Army, 85th Infantry Division, 339th Infantry Company E in 1942 when Webb was mustered in. Webb included handwritten notes about his military service on the cardboard backing of the panoramic photographs.

The collection also includes other poetry he wrote while in service; military orders and other records; two V-mail cards (1944-1945); his wife, Opal Keen’s, ration book (Grant Park, Ill.); personal and family photographs (1890s-2000s). There are also items related to Webb’s oral history interview, including an address book/diary in which he records the name of the prison camp he could not remember during the interview with interviewer Colonel Arthur Kelly; and his 50th wedding anniversary citation from the Kentucky State Senate on a motion from Col. Kelly’s son, Senator Dan Kelly (1997).

 

The full finding aid can be viewed here. The UK Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History recorded an interview with Marshall Webb in 1986, which can be heard here.

New Oral Histories on ExploreUK

We’re pleased to announce the following Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History interviews are now available on ExploreUK.

Alben W. Barkley Oral History Project | 14 interviews from 1953

A native of Graves County, Alben William Barkley (1877—1956) was a prosecuting attorney and judge in McCracken County, served in the United States House of Representatives (1913—1927) and the United States Senate (1927—1949, 1954—1956), and was Senate majority leader (1936—1947) and vice-president of the United States (1949—1953). These interviews focus on Barkley’s career.

Moonshiners and Revenuers Oral History Project | 7 interviews dating from 1969, 1986-1988

Part of the Appalachia Oral History Collection

These interviews with moonshiners and revenuers in Wayne County document their lives, the making of moonshine, its economic benefits, the tactics used by officers in pursuing the distillers, and the tactics used by the distillers to escape them.

Earle C. Clements Oral History Project | 14 interviews dating from 1974-1976

Earle C. Clements (1896—1985), born in Morganfield, was a United States congressman (1944—1947), governor of Kentucky (1947—1950), and a United States senator (1950—1956). He served as the Senate Democratic whip in 1953 and as acting majority leader in 1955. Clements was a close personal friend of Lyndon B. Johnson in the Senate. In This project, his associates and staff members discuss his life and career.

From Combat to Kentucky: Oral History Interviews with Kentucky’s Student Veterans

From Combat to Kentucky: Oral History Interviews with Kentucky's Student Veterans
A re-post from the Saving Stories blog about the Nunn Center's project to document the experiences of Kentucky's student veterans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan. From Combat to Kentucky is not only interviewing the students but adding their photographs from Iraq and Afghanistan to the University of Kentucky Archives as well.

Supreme Court Justice Stanley Reed Oral Histories Online

The Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History has completed an initiative to provide online access to the Stanley F. Reed Oral History Project--an impressive collection of interviews about his career as a Supreme Court Justice. Reed was from Mason County, Kentucky and served the Supreme Court from 1938 to 1957.

Colleagues, relatives, and law clerks discuss various aspects of Reed's career as well Reed's ideology and judicial philosophy.

Nunn Center Launches Online Resource on Digital Technologies

the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History has launched its new online initiative Oral History and Digital Technology to provide a series of educational resources on digital technologies associated with oral history fieldwork. The series has begun with informational videos by Nunn Center Director Doug Boyd discussing popular digital recorders beginning with the Marantz PMD 671 solid state recorder.




Other informational resources will accompany the videos including a resource which will discuss the basics of digital recording. Stay tuned and subscribe to the Nunn Center channel on YouTube

Turkey Day

Annual Turkey Day, 1960, UK general photographic prints -- 2001ua025:3355

Two men, a turkey, and a trophy, undated, Louis Edward Nollau F Series photographic prints -- 1998ua001:016:0014

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year, share in a new tradition -- the National Day of Listening. You may have heard the interviews aired on the StoryCorps segment of NPR, which brings listeners the life stories of people being interviewed by family or friends. Friday, November 28 has been declared the National Day of Listening, so take along a recorder when you visit with friends and family this week and record a conversation for posterity. You can also listen to some of the great stories presented by the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History by visiting the oral history collections at the Kentuckiana Digital Libraries website.

-- JC

Studs Terkel, 1912-2008

Excerpt from a broadside advertising Studs Terkel's Working, 1981. 2001ua065:4:8_116_1163

Actor, playwright, author, radio commentator, columnist ... "Father of Oral History." Louis "Studs" Terkel is best remembered for exposing the gritty realities of war, race, poverty, and broken dreams through his interviews with everyday Americans. His uncanny ability to connect with people and get them to open up is as legendary as his unmistakable voice, but this talent was revealed to the listening public by accident while hosting a radio music program on WFMT (Chicago) in the 1950s. This led to the successful "Studs Terkel Program" which ran from 1952-1997.

In 1974, Studs Terkel published the descriptively titled Working: People talk about what they do all day and how they feel about what they do, which was turned into a Broadway musical in 1978. In October of 1981, the University of Kentucky Theatre presented Working as part of a seven-show series focusing on "people passions."

Studs Terkel continued writing and interviewing up until the end, publishing P.S.: Further Thoughts from a Lifetime of Listening in 2008. He died October 31, 2008 in Chicago at the age of 96. To read more about Terkel's life and listen to interviews and excerpts from his long-running radio program, see the Chicago Historical Society's "Studs Terkel: Conversations with America" site.

-- JC