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

Keightley Oral History Project Launches Online

The University of Kentucky's Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History has begun providing online access to interviews with beloved UK basketball manager Bill Keightley, also known to many basketball fans as “Mr. Wildcat. We are excited to get these interviews online as the UK men’s basketball season begins, giving the public a unique opportunity to not only hear Keightley's interviews but to search transcripts of the interviews for specific memories that most interest the fan or the online user.

The Keightley project contains 20 interviews, conducted between 2005 and 2007, includes conversations about Keightley’s life experiences; experiences working with coaches and players, including recordings about coaches Adolph Rupp, Joe B. Hall, Eddie Sutton, Rick Pitino, Orlando "Tubby" Smith and Billy Gillispie; UK Athletics; changes in college athletics, equipment and style of play; and growing up in his hometown of Lawrenceburg, Ky. We will be adding more interviews as the season progresses.

Over the past few months, the Nunn Center has worked with the Kentuckiana Digital Library, to design an original interface to more intuitively present oral histories online. Our goal was to construct a better interface that enables users to search by keyword and then link to that specific moment in the audio interview. Users will be able to search through hours of interviews and find exactly the topic they wish to hear Bill Keightley discuss, and then click on that moment in the audio to hear him tell his story. I am hoping that this new interface will serve as a model for how to present oral histories online.

--Doug Boyd

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

3 final steps

With less than twenty-four hours left before election day, we offer an easy 3-step process for voting:

1. VOTE

Wilson Wyatt explains the voting process, James Edwin "Ed" Weddle photographic collection. 1997AV27_4368

Voting booth in Rowan County constructed by the WPA, Goodman-Paxton photographic collection. AV64MI_4320

2. WAIT

Keeping tabs of election results at the Kentucky Kernel, 1968, UK General photographic prints. 2001ua025_3596


Waiting for election results, 1968, UK General photographic prints, 2001ua025_2481

3. PAY UP (OR COLLECT!)

Arthur Nichols pushing a peanut with his nose after losing an election bet, 11/7/48, John C. Wyatt Lexington Herald Leader photographs. 2004AV001_1_03_1306_01

-- JC