Recently Digitized University Archives Resources Now on ExploreUK

A wealth of UK-related materials has been digitized and added to ExploreUK! 

Learn more about one of the leaders of desegregating UK in the Wade Hall papers (dated 1876-1998, undated; 4.1 cubic feet; 9 boxes) comprise the research collected and writings by Bellarmine University professor Wade Hall about civil rights leader Lyman T. Johnson. Photographs, slides, and other visual materials related to Lyman T. Johnson were digitized.

Ms. Angela Davis with Lyman T. Johnson at home of John H. Johnson, Louisville, circa 1980

UK daily news, events, and more are captured in the The Kentucky Kernel. The 1971-2008 issues were recently digitized and added to the 1915-1920 issues already online. Don't forget the Kernel's two preceding titles: The State College Cadet and The Idea.

The Terrence Fox University of Kentucky student protest film comprises two digital copies of what was probably an 8mm amateur, silent, color film of a protest by University of Kentucky students on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, May 5-7, 1970. Mechanical engineering doctoral student and later president of the Help Prevent Campus Violence/Student Coalition group Terrence "Terry" Fox filmed the protest. In addition to scenes of students gathering and marching at various campus, downtown Lexington, and Transylvania University locations with local and Kentucky state police and National Guard present (May 5-7), there are also scenes of the Tuesday night (May 5) fire and fire fighters at the Euclid Avenue Building/Air Force ROTC Building as well as scenes of the National Guard using tear gas on student protesters gathered around the UK Student Center on Thursday (May 7).

Still from the Terrence Fox UK student protest film

The University of Kentucky campus maps and guidebooks collection shows what campus looked like over time. It's incredible to see how the university changes and improves each and every year!

·        University of Kentucky College of Nursing publications include 21 publications from the past two decades that discuss changes in practice and new developments in research.

Calvert McCann photographs

The wonderful collection of Calvert McCann photographs has been digitized and are now available on ExploreUK.

Above: Dunbar High School student, Deloris McDowel, at a lunch counter sit-in at the Lexington F.W. Woolworth’s lunch counter

The Calvert McCann photographs (dated 1961-1964; 3.7 cubic feet; 7 boxes) consist of 20 black and white photographic prints depicting the Civil Rights Movement in Lexington and Frankfort, Kentucky. The photographs show sit-ins at lunch counters, demonstrations in downtown lexington, Louis Armstrong refusing to cross a picket line at the Phoenix Hotel, and the March on Frankfort led by Martin Luther King, Jr, Ralphy Abernathy, Wyatt Tee Walker, and Jackie Robinson.

Above: March on Frankfort led by (from left) Martin Luther King, Jr.; Ralph Abernathy; Wyatt Tee Walker; and Jackie Robinson
 
Calvert McCann (1942-2014) was a teenager when he began participating in marches and demonstrations as part of the civil rights movement in Lexington in the 1960s. While a part time employee at Michael’s Photography Store in downtown Lexington, McCann began to document these experiences on a Pentax 35mm camera that he carried everywhere. He photographed demonstrations in downtown Lexington, sit-ins at lunch counters, protests at the Phoenix Hotel, and the March on Frankfort led by Martin Luther King, Jr. Much of the footage he took remained undeveloped until the early 2000s when McCann gave the film to Gerald Smith. Smith used the images in his book Black America Series: Lexington, Kentucky.

Above: Henry Jones and his younger brother leading a demonstration on Lexington’s Main Street, circa 1960s

Alexandra Soteriou Photographs Collection Now on ExploreUK

Below is a small sampling of the wonderful images from the Alexandra Soteriou photographs, 1968 (2013av029). The collection comprises a scrapbook and photo negatives that document everyday life in Lexington, Kentucky, from April to June 1968, following the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert Kennedy. Some photographs also appear to be taken in Cincinnati, Ohio. The scrapbook additionally contains quotes and poems accompanying the photographs. Many of the negatives and scrapbook pages detail African-American life on Kenton Street in Lexington. Some negatives show crowds in front of Buell Armory on the University of Kentucky's campus. All pictures and negatives in the collection are attributed to Alexandra Soteriou.

Alexandra Soteriou was editor of the Kentuckian, the University of Kentucky yearbook, for 1969-1970. This yearbook was published without approval from the Director of Student Publications. Soteriou graduated from UK in 1971 with a Bachelors of Arts in Arts and Sciences.