New digitized Wade Hall collections

A number of new collections from the Wade Hall Collection of American Letters project have been digitized and made available online! New collections include topics such as prison, athletic training, romance, war, family, travel, and healthcare! These collections, along with many others, were digitized as part of a National Endowment for the Humanities Collections and Reference Resources Grant, entitled "P.S. Write Again Soon": Revealing 200 years of the American Mosaic through the Wade Hall Collection of American Letters. All digitized and published Wade Hall collections can be found on ExploreUK!

David Bolotin to Jayne Bolotin, 1942

David Bolotin letters, 2009ms132.0063 - The David Bolotin letters (dated 1917-1946, undated, bulk 1944-1945; 1.80 cubic feet; 4 boxes) comprise letters, sketches, and newspaper clippings that document the relationship between David Bolotin and Jayne Weil before and after their marriage as well as David's service overseas in Calcutta, India in the years leading up to World War II and during the war.

Helen Hungerford papers, 2009ms132.0102 - The Helen Hungerford papers (dated 1905-1992, bulk 1912-1920; 1.05 cubic feet; 3 boxes ) comprise letters and other papers from former male and female classmates, boyfriends, and relatives that document daily life in Washington and Rochelle, Illinois during the period just prior to, during, and after World War I.

Thomas L. Smith letters, 2009ms132.0113 - The Thomas L. Smith letters (dated 1891-1910; 1.05 cubic feet; 3 boxes) comprise letters that document Thomas Smith and wife during his military service stateside and abroad at the turn of the twentieth century.

Cole family letters, 2009ms132.0124 - The Cole family letters (dated 1881-1908, bulk 1903-1906; 1.4 cubic feet; 4 boxes) comprises letters that document the relationships of multiple generations of the Cole family in Pennsylvania.

William W. Masterson to Lizzie, 1881

William W. Masterson letters, 2009ms132.0153 - The William W. Masterson letters(dated 1877-1885, undated; 0.13 cubic feet; 5 folders) comprise letters that document the efforts of young William Masterson to become sober and turn his life around in the late nineteenth century.

John and Vera Helfrich papers, 2009ms132.0187 - The John and Vera Helfrich papers (dated 1946-1949; 0.11 cubic feet; 3 folders) comprise letters to John and Vera Helfrich that document everyday life in Ohio immediately post-World War II.

Clipping on arrest of Jesse James Price 

Jesse James Price papers, 2009ms132.0197 - The Jesse James Price papers (dated 1950-1963; 0.14 cubic feet; 8 folders) comprise letters, applications, and certificates that document the military service and prison sentence of Jesse Price in Kentucky in the 1950s and early 1960s.

Staunton, Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals clerk papers, 2009ms132.0206 - The Staunton, Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals clerk papers (dated 1870-1890; 0.35 cubic feet; 12 folders) comprises correspondence, recipts, and legal papers that document the activities of the Staunton, Virginia session of hearings for the Supreme Court of Appeals in the late nineteenth century.

Gordon family letters, 2009ms132.0207 - The Gordon family letters (dated 1889-1904; 0.7 cubic feet; 2 boxes) comprise letters that document the movement and growth of the Gordon family in Pennsylvania and Kentucky at the turn of the twentieth century. 

Epworth League secretary's book, 2009ms132.0216 - The Epworth League secretary's book (dated 1910-1911; 0.04 cubic feet; 1 folder) comprises one secretary's book that documents the religious activities and work of a local chapter of the Epworth League in the 1910s.

Page from photograph album of Pauline Bourne-Duryea as a young girl

Pauline Bourne-Duryea papers, 2009ms132.0250 - The Pauline Bourne-Duryea papers (dated 1899-1966, undated; 0.82 cubic feet; 2 document boxes, 1 flat box) comprise letters and photographs that document the social activities, trips taken, costs incurred, and daily life of Pauline Bourne-Duryea in the first half of the twentieth century.

Broadcast message from Voyles to mother after captured by German military

Vilmer Voyles World War II prisoner of war diary, 2009ms132.0267 - The Vilmer Voyles World War II prisoner of war diary (dated 1942-1988, bulk 1942-1945; 0.23 cubic feet; 5 folders) comprises loose papers that make up a diary documenting the experiences of Voyles as a prisoner of war by the German military during World War II in Northern Africa, Italy, and Germany.

Norman Kohlhepp World War I diary and photograph albums, 2009ms132.0270 - The Norman Kohlhepp WWI diary and photograph albums comprise a diary and three photograph albums that document Norman Kohlhepp's service in World War I in Europe.

Kentucky Democratic Party letters, 2009ms132.0277 - The Kentucky Democratic Party letters (dated 1939-1946, undated; 0.25 cubic feet; 10 folders) comprise letters that document the efforts of the Democratic Party to have their representatives elected in Kentucky in the early 1940s.

Leon M. Fisher letters, 2009ms132.0282 - The Leon M. Fisher letters (dated 1888-1968, undated, bulk 1902-1917; 0.68 cubic feet; 2 boxes) comprise letters and papers that document the experiences of Leon Fisher and his family and friends in Vermont, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts in the early twentieth century.

Lady E. Clarkson letters, 2009ms132.0309 - The Lady E. Clarkson letters (dated 1867-1890, undated; 0.45 cubic feet; 1 box) comprises letters that document the life of Lady Clarkson while attending Stuart's Female College in Shelbyville, Kentucky and later life in Louisville in the last two decades of the nineteenth century.

Hiawatha Gray working on Al Johnson, from Gray's scrapbook

Hiawatha Gray scrapbook, 2009ms132.0328 - The Hiawatha Gray scrapbook (dated 1930-1970; 0.34 cubic feet; 1 box and 1 folder) comprises a scrapbook of newspaper clippings, phtographs, and ephemera that documents Hiawatha Gray's career as a boxing coach throughout the 20th century in Indianapolis.

Jefferson County Jail, Kentucky prisoner record book, 2009ms132.0340 - The Jefferson County Jail, Kentucky prisoner record book (dated 1922-1925; 0.3 cubic feet; 1 box) comprises one record book that documents the inmates of Jefferson County Jail in Kentucky in the mid-1920s.

St. Luke's Hospital patient case history, 1866

St. Luke's Hospital case history records, 2009ms132.0384 - The St. Luke's Hospital case history records (dated 1866-1868; 0.07 cubic feet; 1 item) comprises one record book that documents the patients seen over a six month span in 1866 and reports sent to board members on the activities of St. Luke's Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Lionel Grimes letters, 2009ms132.0402 - The Lionel Grimes letters (dated 1918-1919, undated; 0.02 cubic feet; 1 folder) comprise letters, a newspaper clipping, and two photographs that document the military training and overseas experience of Lionel Grimes during World War I.

Page from the Blackwell's travel diary

Burt and Mildred Blackwell travel diary, 2009ms132.0465 - The Burt and Mildred Blackwell travel diary (dated 1934-1967; 0.15 cubic feet; 1 box) comprises one diary that documents the trips and vacations taken by the Blackwell couple across North and South America, and Europe in the early-to-mid twentieth century.

Victor W. Winton letters, 2009ms132.0520 - The Victor W. Winton letters (dated 1911-1912; 0.03 cubic feet; 1 folder) comprises three letters to Victor and his wife from their son, Victor, while he is studying music in Leipzig, Germany in the early twentieth century.

Hollingsworth family letters, 2009ms132.0537 - The Hollingsworth family letters (dated 1887-1893, undated; 0.035 cubic feet; 1 folder) comprises letters from the Hollingsworth family to their eldest daughter, Laura Vinzant, that document pioneer settler life in Colorado and Kansas during the late nineteenth century.

Mulberry harbor photographs, 2009ms132.0617 - The Mulberry harbor photographs (dated 1944; 0.02 cubic feet; 16 photographs) comprise images that depict the construction and use of Mulberry harbors in World War II.

Paper from Philip Schneider's service in the Middle East during World War II

Philip Schneider papers, 2009ms132.0619 - The Philip Schneider papers (dated 1942-1945, undated; 0.08 cubic feet; 6 folders, 23 photographs) comprises booklets, pamphlets, letters, ration cards, and photographs that document the military service of Schneider in Iran during World War II.

UK Football Media Guides Online

The University of Kentucky Football Media Guides (1939-2013) are now available on ExploreUK!

Who Am I?

Can you help us identify this man?

Pictured above, Claude Sullivan - holding the WVLK microphone - is interviewing this mystery man, circa 1948-1952.

A Knockout Kentuckian!

"Ali sizes up opponent with reaching left" [undated]
James Edwin Ed Weddle Photographic Collection 1948-1981
Available on KDL http://name.kdl.kyvl.org/KUKAV-1997AV27-0103

Well, a technical knockout (TKO) anyway.

Today, in 1964, famous Louisvillian Muhammad Ali became the youngest boxer to win the Heavyweight title, at 22 years of age. Then known as Cassius "Louisville Lip" Clay, he took the title from Sonny "Big Bear" Liston, after Liston refused to return from his corner for the 7th round. It was prior to this match that Ali uttered his well-known line, "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."

With rumors swarming regarding Clay's association with Malcolm X, the following day (2/26/1964), he changed his name to Cassius X, renouncing the surname of his family's former slaveholders. [Note: Cassius M. Clay was named for his father who, in turn, was named after the 19th-century Kentucky emancipationist.] Within the following year, Clay changed his name again to Muhammad Ali, in relation to his Islam conversion.

Ali had an extremely successful boxing career. Before his first title - which he held for 3 years until it was taken away when it was stripped due to his refusal of the Army draft for religious reasons - he won a gold medal in the 1960 Olympics. He later regained the Heavyweight Championship twice, holding it for almost half of the 1970s. Throughout his life he has been passionately active in Civil Rights reform, using his celebrity to champion the cause, even after his 1984 diagnosis of Parkinson's disease.

His athletic and societal achievements have afforded him numerous accolades, including the 1997 Arthur Ashe Courage Award, Kentucky Athlete of the Century (1999, Kentucky Hall of Fame), and Presidential Medal of Freedom (2005). He even lit the torch at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics! His social activism continues, as does his boxing legacy, through his daughter, Laila (she started her career in 2002).

They don't make them like they used to

We have all heard the line they just don't make them like they used to. Well it certainly applies to former University of Kentucky Men's Basketball player Vernon Hatton. During the 1956-57 season Hatton overcame considerable adversity to help UK win the Sugar Bowl Tournament. The adversity was an inflamed appendicitis, which was misdiagnosed before the final two games of the tournament. Despite feeling ill Hatton added 12 points against a troublesome Virginia Tech and 17 points against Houston in the Championship game.

Upon returning to Lexington following the tournament "the attacks began anew and an immediate operation was ordered to remove his appendix, which doctors said was acutely inflamed and in a condition that should have prevented him from seeing action for at least a week previously," reported Ken Kuhn of the Sports Publicity Office on July 2, 1957.

Hatton returned to action a month after his surgery helping prevent an embarrassing defeat at the hands of Mississippi. A reporter was so impressed with Hatton's performance that he wrote, "It may become standard procedure for Rupp players to have appendix operations in mid-season." Vernon scored 14 points in less than twelve minutes for the Cats that day.

Women's basketball tradition at UK

University of Kentucky's (then Kentucky State College) first women's basketball team, 1903. University of Kentucky general photograph collection, 2001ua025.


University of Kentucky women's basketball team with trophy, circa 1920s. Louis Edward Nollau photographic print collection, 1998ua002.

The University of Kentucky women's basketball program was established in 1902 - one year earlier than the men's basketball team. The first women's game was played on February 21, 1903. For the first few years of its existence on UK's campus, the women's basketball team mostly played interclass scrimmages, only playing one or two intercollegiate games per season. All games were carefully monitored by Florence Offutt Stout, the women's physical education director and first Dean of Women, and no spectators were allowed. Stout was a proponent of "medical gymnastics," a more gentle form of physical exercise targeted at promoting physical health and eliminating obesity, and considered competitive sports at odds with this program.

In 1909, the women's basketball team complained via a petition to the faculty senate stating that Stout did not support the development of the sport and asked that the athletic association take over the management of the team. This started a power struggle which stretched over almost two decades between Stout, women students in favor of the sport, and the athletic association. In 1924, bolstered by the support of Sarah Blanding -- the new Dean of Women -- Stout finally convinced the University Senate and UK President Frank McVey that basketball was "too strenuous for girls." McVey cited this "strenuousity" and the claim that road trips for the team were prohibitively expensive due to "the necessity of proper chaperonage" as reasons for banning women's basketball. This was in spite of the fact that the 1923-1924 women's team had won the Southern Intercollegiate Championship after an undefeated 10-0 season. All women's intercollegiate varsity sports were discontinued on November 13, 1924. Ironically, the 1924-1925 season marked the first season of men's basketball play in Alumni Gym and a rise of popularity in the game on campus.

In the next decades, women's basketball continued to be played in physical education classes, and later as an intramural sport, but organizing campus dances became the primary focus of the Women's Athletic Association. It was not until 1974 that women's basketball was reinstated as a varsity sport, with Sue Feamster serving as the first coach of a varsity team in fifty years.

Gregory Kent Stanley has written a fuller account of the early years of women's basketball and the campus politics affecting it in his book Before Big Blue. UK Athletics offers a historic timeline of women's basketball achievements on its website under "History and records."

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

Golf in the Bluegrass

Kentucky golf fans had plenty of reasons to celebrate the American Ryder Cup win over Europe Sunday – not only was the event held in Louisville on the Valhalla Course, but Kentuckians Kenny Perry and J.B. Holmes were on hand to contribute to the win. Golf may not be the first thing that comes to mind about Kentucky, but the state does have a long history of enjoying the sport. As immigrants from Ireland, England and Scotland made Kentucky their home, they brought their love of the Scottish game with them. Middlesboro Country Club (below) is the oldest continuously played course in the U.S. and the second oldest course in the nation. 200 year old oaks and the Cumberland Gap serve as a natural backdrop.

During the 1930s and 1940s, the FDR-created WPA (Works Progress Administration) created golf courses all over the state including McCracken County, Jefferson County, Harlan County, Pike County and Kenton County. Many of these are documented in the Goodman Paxton photograph collection (see Noble Park Golf Course dedication in McCracken Co., 1940, below).

The UK men’s varsity golf team began in 1935 and the women’s varsity team followed 40 years later in 1975, although both maintained “minor sports” teams before achieving varsity status. The golf team's home course is the University Club of Kentucky off of Leestown Rd. in Lexington. (Men's varsity golf team, 1939, below)

To see more photographs of golf in Kentucky, search “golf” in the images database of KDL.

-- JC

Stoll Field Historical Marker Dedication

Imagine for a moment that it is the 1880s. The original President’s home stood near the east end of White Hall classroom building. There were only three campus structures, 318 students, and 17 faculty. To supplement President Patterson’s $2000.00 salary he was allotted pasturage for his cows. In between the slope of the President’s house and what was then Winslow Street was the land where Patterson kept those cows. By 1892, students began scheduling football games with neighboring colleges. In 1893, Kentucky beat Tennessee 56-0, beginning a long-standing rivalry. The lure of football soon overtook Lexington and a spectator sport had begun. So it was on this spot, where the cows were eventually evicted, where wooden stands were erected, and the first football fans cheered.

From 1908-1915 every football season was a winning one. In 1916, Stoll Field was officially dedicated in honor of Richard C. Stoll.

By 1918, World War One had changed campus culture and the University acted quickly to become a combined military post and academic institution. Stoll Field took on a new persona during this time and held army barracks for the soldiers.

During the 1924 football season, McLean Stadium was built around Stoll Field. Though modified, the stadium was used for football games through the 1972 season after which they were moved to Commonwealth Stadium. There are many places on campus where our history is apparent, but this spot inspires images in my mind and the sounds once associated with this place. As university archivist, it is my obligation to preserve the collective memory of UK. With that said, for this moment, imagine a house-lined street bordered by a field of cows, the early cheers of football fans, soldiers’ yells, the resonance of a stadium crowd, and the contemporary sounds of the marching band. Lasting longer than these words, I hope that this marker will serve as a reminder and symbol of this important piece of campus landscape and culture.

Text modified from the Historical Marker Dedication speech by Deirdre Scaggs - images from the University Archives

WUKY radio story
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wuky/news.newsmain?action=article&ARTICLE_ID=1357523