In 1890, seventeen-year-old Jonnie McFarland of Bristow, Kentucky shared a hobby in common with many other young women: she kept an autograph book, a collection of signatures of girlfriends, siblings, visitors and beaux. [...]
Porter Bros. manual (image courtesy of Filson Historical Society)
Allen County native Eugene A. Porter (1841-1922) was a farmer and entrepreneur who, together with his three brothers, developed the “corn cob crusher,” a machine that processed corn into livestock feed. [...]
Gilbert Marshall Mulligan's Civil War correspondence
The Johns and Moore families of Trigg County and the Mulligan and Brown families of Allen County, Kentucky have left a historical record of more than 400 letters that is now available to researchers at the Kentucky [...]
Many Hilltoppers know the story of the Van Meter Hall ghost. It is said to be that of a workman who met his death during the building’s construction in 1910-11. Perched on the [...]
Born in 1897 at Borah’s Ferry in Butler County, Lena Grey Annis taught school for 44 years in Kentucky, West Virginia and Arizona. After her death in 1996, two of her nieces found a treasure trove of family history among her [...]
The Kentucky Library & Museum has contributed a photo of author Alice Hegan Rice to an upcoming exhibit at Louisville’s Speed Museum relating to its founder, Hattie Bishop Speed.
A lifelong resident of Louisville, Alice Hegan Rice (1870-1942) published many popular novels and stories, [...]
Dr. Joe E. Sarnowski, Chair of the Department of English at San Diego Christian College in El Cajon, California, has just published his book, The Literary Achievement of the American Poet Robert Penn Warren: His Life-Long Struggles with Morality,' [...]
Gail Raley (right), Judy Perkins (left, with her granddaughter) and Jonathan Jeffrey, Kentucky Library & Museum Manuscripts Coordinator, holding Miller day book
William Makel Miller (1806-1886) was one of the founders [...]
The Civil War came to Bowling Green in mid-September, 1861, with the arrival of General Simon Bolivar Buckner and about 1,300 Confederate soldiers. They were soon joined by more than 20,000 troops who set up camp in and around the town. [...]
In the 19th century, equity court (sometimes called chancery court) was the forum where Kentuckians sought justice for wrongs that could not adequately be remedied in a court of law. For example, where a court of law [...]
Retired WKU chemistry professor Don Slocum recently discovered several pieces of paper in a clump behind the siding he pulled off his back porch during a renovation of his Chestnut Street home. He assembled the torn and stained pieces and sent [...]
The Manuscripts & Archives section of the Kentucky Library & Museum has recently added this fascinating letter to our collection. On May 19, 1833, Philadelphia merchant Joseph Trimble Baldwin, traveling through Kentucky on his way to Nashville, penned a letter to his young wife [...]
Irene Malone (Moss) Sumpter (1902-1996), a Warren County, Kentucky native and WKU graduate, was an author, genealogist and local historian. She was a member of the Samuel Davies chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution, Colonial Dames of America for the State [...]
Researchers interested in the history of local government can access original minutes of the Bowling Green City Council at the Kentucky Library & Museum. The minutes document meetings of the Board of Councilmen from 1948-1967, the Board of Aldermen from 1955-1967, [...]
Early in the twentieth century, William R. Reynolds, Jr. (1878-1955), Cave City’s photographer, produced a series of photographs documenting life in this small southcentral Kentucky town. His work, carefully reproduced from glass plate negatives, has been [...]
At the time he retired in 1954 after more than 46 years at WKU, history professor Arndt Mathis Stickles (1872-1968) held the record as the longest serving professor at an accredited institution of higher learning. His publications included Elements of Government: Political Institutions, [...]
Tempie Jane (Bell) Witten (1901-1985), a native of Grayson County, Kentucky, taught elementary and high school for more than 40 years. This manuscript collection of more than 1,500 items includes genealogical research on the Bell, McCrady, Skaggs, Salsman, Witten and other families; [...]
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