University of Kentucky Libraries

The Medical Center Library will begin its Fall 2024 Research Workshop Series on Aug. 22 – which means the time is right to improve your research skills!

Held on Zoom, the virtual seminars help students, faculty, and staff expand research competencies and make more efficient use of library resources. Researchers from all disciplines are welcome!

Register for workshops and find more information by visiting libguides.uky.edu/rws.

Whether you’re a life-long Lexingtonian or newly arrived to the rolling Bluegrass, there’s always something to find in the John C. Wyatt Lexington Herald-Leader (LHL) Photographs.

Made up of an estimated 2 million unique photographic negatives spanning the years 1939-2001, the LHL photographs are an unparalleled source of photographic evidence of the many historical, cultural, and industrial changes that have shaped Lexington and its surrounding region. They comprise the most extensive single collection of still photographic images documenting Lexington's 20th century history in existence.

While following the city’s daily news, Herald-Leader photographers captured countless moments in the everyday lives of its residents and created a visual record of the gradual changes to Lexington’s urban landscape. Together, these form the collection’s greatest strength. The collection is also noteworthy for its documentation of Central Kentucky’s agricultural, to***co, and horse racing industries, key national events such as World War II and Vietnam, as well as notable regional and national figures.

📸 Explore the collection here: https://lhlphotoarchive.org/

We 😻 Kentucky

You can 😻 Kentucky too! And travel to every corner of this astounding state with the Karl Raitz Kentucky Slides Collection 📸 Pack your bags and hop on the tour bus here: https://bit.ly/Raitz

After lighting the Olympic torch to open the 2000 games in Sydney, Australia, Aboriginal sprinter Cathy Freeman won gold in an incredible 400 meters race, becoming the first Aboriginal person from Australia to win an individual Olympic gold. 🏅🏅🏅

NBC Olympics sportscaster and native Lexingtonian Tom Hammond was behind the microphone that day. Tune in to the latest episode of WUKY's Saving Stories to hear his story of the dramatic call: https://bit.ly/4fo76td

Congratulations to the winners of the 2024 Earle C. Clements Innovation in Education Award! 🍎 It is our honor to recognize four exemplary Kentucky teachers:

▪️ Kendrick Bryan, LaRue County High School, Hodgenville
▪️ Sarah Chumley, Booker T. Washington Elementary School, Lexington
▪️ Whitney Criswell, Royal Spring Middle School, Georgetown
▪️ Kelly Pratt-Booth, Highlands High School, Fort Thomas

We hope you will join us in celebrating the achievements of these creative and dedicated educators at an award ceremony in the Great Hall of the Margaret I. King Library on Friday, August 9 at 4:00 pm.

Learn more about the event and this year's winners here: https://bit.ly/3WwTJiV

We love it when the Spotted Bass stop by to study! 🐟 They spend a lot of time on the fifth floor of Young Library, swimming down the QL aisle ("fishes") and through the SH section ("aquaculture," "fisheries," and "angling" (they have a rather barbed sense of humor, these bass)). 🎣 When they're around, they're our favorite school on campus! And as Kentucky's state fish, of course they all have honorary library cards. This excellent fish-eye photo was submitted by Belinda B. Bass.

It's Rare Book Wednesday! 📜

Today we're (gently) cracking open Robert Hooke's "Micrographia," first published in 1665 (and feeling a little jealous – we hope we look this good when we're 359!)

England's first scientific best-seller, the book contains spectacular copperplate prints and written observations of a wide variety of objects, plants, and insects as seen under a microscope – most famously, a fly's eye and the first use of the biological term "cell."

Our entire first edition copy is digitized and available to anyone on ExploreUK. Its magnificent fold-out plates look as good as they did coming off the press (again, a leeettle jelly).

See the whole of "Micrographia: Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses, With Observations and Inquiries Thereupon" (don't 17th century titles just make you want to sing!) here: https://bit.ly/3yd7ee2 🪰

UK Libraries album drop!

Whether you’re barbecuing in the backyard, cruising through town with the windows down, or soaking up the sun at the lake, no summer is complete without its jam. 🎧

UK Libraries is here to help you in your quest for the perfect accompaniment to every summer scene by spotlighting electronic resources, collections, and library spaces where the tunes are perpetually playing. Check them out here: https://bit.ly/3WmcoxC

11. The One With the Broad Sweep

One of the most powerful of the Nunn Center’s collections, the Black People in Lexington Oral History Project is remarkable for its panoramic view of a city and a community in dramatic, decades-long transformation – through depression, war, and the long fight for civil rights. The project’s 232 interviews, conducted largely in the late 1970s and 80s, capture the stories and perspectives of Black Lexingtonians from all walks of life, grounding long-term history in the small-grained details of people, places, and events. The project highlights local leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, members of the Board of Education and the NAACP, and politicians like Harry Sykes, the city’s first Black councilperson. But the project also sets these broad social changes against the backdrop of deeply personal portraits of daily life: Elenora Smith recalls her neighborhood around Illinois Street; Taft Oldham, who worked for 32 years in the contracting business, reminisces about the houses he built; Harriet Haskins shares her experiences teaching at segregated and integrated schools; and Mary Muir discusses working conditions at the Lexington Laundry, where she was employed for 47 years. It is the strength of oral history to capture both the broad sweep and the minute movements of time – and we’re honored to preserve these stories for all Kentuckians.

🎙️ Take a listen here: https://bit.ly/4eZitYb

Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History

Did you know Wildcats have x-ray vision? 🩻 It’s true! Not only that, but they can rotate, pan, and zoom into every element of human, erm, Wildcat anatomy and click on any and every structure in the body to learn what it does, from the liver to the L1 medial branch of the posterior ramus of the left spinal nerve. Wow! Plus, they can use this exceptional ability to see hundreds of models of diseases, treatments, and operations, all through our new BioDigital Human resource. 🩺🫀⚕️

This special Wildcat superpower can be a little tricky to find. First, visit https://libguides.uky.edu/biodigital. Click on “Links” in the blue bar at the top of the page, then open BioDigital Human. And voila! Just make sure you wear that radiation bib thing. 🥼🥽

12. The One With Real Rock & Roll

Excuse us for being a little sweaty – we just got done melting off faces and smashing our guitars with maximum riotous power down in the basement. The cops came and everything! If you think that’s hardcore, just wait until you hear the Chasing Sound Oral History Project. In these 78 interviews, some of the most prominent and creative audio engineers and musicians of the 20th century describe the meteor-like impact of rock and roll on the recording industry. Stay up late splicing magnetic tape with razor blades, remastering classic tracks, and getting the reverb just right. Speaking of which – the project includes two interviews with one of the most innovative of the rock and roll pioneers, Les Paul, the inventor of the solid-body electric guitar and the all-important overdub. Conducted by Susan Schmidt Horning in the late 1990s, these interviews form the basis of her book, Chasing Sound: Technology, Culture, and the Art of Studio Recording from Edison to the LP, in which she argues that the recording studio stands at the center of 20th century musical culture. We’ll be turning this one all the way up to 11.

🎙Take a listen: https://bit.ly/3WaAUBO

Declare your Independence 🎇📜 from Space & Time!!! 🌌🌝

Every day we add more unique items like these to our digital collections, freely available to anyone around the world with an Internet connection. Find them all at exploreuk.uky.edu.

These photographs of the Cafe LMNOP float from the 1985 Lexington Fourth of July Parade were taken by Manjushri V. Bhapkar.

Cafe LMNOP was established on Main Street in downtown Lexington in the mid-1980s by Bradley Picklesimer. The home of a thriving LGBTQ and underground music scene, the bar hosted drag shows and new wave and punk bands until it closed in the early 1990s. Picklesimer's first bar, Club au Go Go, opened on Wi******er Road in 1980.

📸 Find more photos of the Parade and the Cafe in the Manjushri V. Bhapkar Photographs Collection here: https://bit.ly/3VIfgmU

It's sunny out there! Don't forget to wear your hat 🌞👒

Happy Pride Month!

Here is our last batch of Pride Month book recommendations, with stories featuring Hispanic/Hispanic heritage characters! Have you read any of these?

13. The One Where We Went Meta

Microphone, microphone, on the wall – how do you conduct an oral history interview after all? We’re so glad you asked, because we’ve just dusted off the tapes for the magnificently meta Interviewing the Interviewers Oral History Project. This introspective collection covers 40 years of insights into the styles, functions, and long-term research capabilities of oral history – and features many of the interviewers whose projects have landed on this list. Positively mind-bending! Tune in to hear the late Terry Birdwhistell, the Founding Director of the Nunn Center, talk about the most memorable of his nearly 1,000 interviews – a 1981 interview with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. While you’re in the mood, stop by to see all the ways the Nunn Center can help you on your path to achieving great oral historian heights, from interview training and recording equipment to state of the art studio space. And yes, whenever it’s time for the 50 year retrospective of the Nunn Top 50 countdown, we will gladly sit in front of the magic mic. Oh the tales we’ll tell!

🎙Take a listen: https://bit.ly/4bqcHvz

Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History

Last week, the Special Collections Research Center hosted 15 students from the Markey Cancer Center’s Appalachian Career Training in Oncology (ACTION) Program. Using archival materials from our Frontier Nursing Service collections – including delivery logs, historic documents, and photographs – students learned about the history of healthcare disparities in Appalachia and the importance of expanding medical care through individual and organizational effort.

The visiting students also wrote postcards to current students of Frontier Nursing University thanking them for the work they do as medical providers in Appalachian communities.

Learn more about UK Libraries' Frontier Nursing Service oral history and archival collections at bit.ly/FrontierNursing

Happy Pride Month! ❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜

Check out our latest Pride Month book recommendations. Have you read either of these? What did you think?

A Bible belonging to Catharine Cooke Hopson of Paris, Kentucky, includes a list of 17 enslaved people who were emancipated in 1865 following the ratification of the 13th Amendment. They include 10 adults, Willis, George, Charles, Samuel, Walter, Polly, Isabel, Lemon, Mary Charles, and Mary Moreton, and seven children, Wilson, F***y, Rebecca, John, Johnson, Adam, and Issac.

This Juneteenth, we memorialize the abolition of slavery in the United States by celebrating all struggles for equity, equality, and freedom. We also turn to face one of the most painful parts of our national history. As the repository of the history and culture of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, UK Libraries holds collections that are stained with violence and brutality, just as they are brightened by the courage, hope, and strength that bend our moral arc toward justice.

To learn about the incredible primary source documents and materials that shed light on the lived experiences and histories of enslaved people in Kentucky, visit our Researching African American Slavery in Kentucky Guide here: https://bit.ly/3Xvb1Oq

14. The One Where Kentucky Became Home

From just over 1,000 individuals in 1990, the number of Africa-born immigrants living in Kentucky is now over 24,000 – including one of the largest populations of Congolese refugees in the country in Lexington, where Swahili is the third-most spoken language. The African Immigrants in the Bluegrass Oral History Project collects the stories of 45 of these immigrants, drawn from all walks of life: a former ambassador from Gambia, a Rwandan ESL instructor, a refugee from Liberia who studied nursing at Berea College, and even beloved Lexington restauranteur Mamadou “Sav” Savane, who immigrated from Guinea in the early 1990s. Each interview shares the immense challenges faced by immigrants – from language barriers and loneliness to racism and American ignorance of Africa – along with positive experiences of education, opportunity, and community. Conducted from 2013-17 by former Peace Corps volunteers Jack and Angene Wilson, the interviews in this collection were used as the basis for Voices of African Immigrants in Kentucky, written by Francis Musoni, Iddah Otieno, and the Wilsons and published by University Press of Kentucky in 2020.

🎙Take a listen! https://bit.ly/45lDeZT

Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History

New old maps alert! 🗺️😹📍

We have just digitized a slew of Sanborn maps from 1928, including maps of Louisville and cities and towns across Carter, Hardin, Harlan, Jefferson, Perry, Rowan, and Woodford Counties. These maps provide incredible snapshots of the built environment from almost a century ago.

The amazing Gwen Curtis Map Collection has Sanborn maps from over 250 places across Kentucky -- along with over 250,000 other maps and aerial photos. Browse our digitized maps on ExploreUK, or visit our Maps Research Guide to ~find your way~ through the collection! bit.ly/UKYmaps

15. The One With the Outrageous Life

An iconic Lexingtonian – charismatic, larger-than-life, and the living embodiment of the authentic creative act – Henry Faulkner was an artist, poet, and bohemian known for his wildly colorful landscapes, surrealist scenes, and a bourbon-drinking pet goat named Alice. In 1982, while gathering material for his book, The Outrageous Life of Henry Faulkner, author Charles House conducted the six interviews that now make up the Henry Faulkner Oral History Project – including an interview with 90-year-old Sweet Evening Breeze, one of Lexington’s first notable drag queens. The collection – along with House’s notes and papers for the book, held at the Special Collections Research Center – tells the story of the animated, eccentric, and complicated artist who stood as one of the pioneers and pillars of the mid-century Kentucky LGBTQ scene. In 2014, the Faulkner Morgan Archive was created to honor his legacy and preserve and share Kentucky’s LGBTQ history and culture.

🎙Take a listen!
https://bit.ly/3xinIkF

Happy Pride Month! ❤️ 🧡 💛 💚 💙 💜

Celebrate with us by checking out some of our Pride Month book recommendations! This week, we are featuring books that have been adapted into movies or TV shows!

Stay on the lookout for more book recommendations throughout the month.

Learn with Pride 📖
Teach with Pride 🍎
Research with Pride 🔬
Build community with Pride 😻

UK Libraries is celebrating Pride Month by highlighting oral history collections, databases, and journals that support teaching, research, and learning across the vast fields of gender and sexuality studies. We're also sharing our LGBTQ* Resource Guide with information and services to help Central Kentuckians build strong and dynamic communities, healthy and confident individuals, and informed and affirming allies.

Find our resources here: https://bit.ly/45d7Igv

As we approach the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landing, we're highlighting a 1994 interview with Garrard County native Jesse Beazley in our latest Saving Stories podcast episode. Beazley was among the first wave of soldiers that fought their way onto Omaha Beach that fateful day in 1944.

At 5:30 pm on Thursday, June 6, the Kentucky Theatre will host a free event commemorating the anniversary, featuring the Nunn Center, Kentucky Educational Television, the Lexington Public Library, Lexington History Museum, and visitors from Lexington's sister city, Deauville, France, which is located near the Normandy beaches where American forces landed.

🎙️ Hear the harrowing and heroic episode, and learn more about the event here: https://bit.ly/4c5HjmO

16. The One Where Coming Home Was a Battle

For many veterans, the end of military service is the beginning of another difficult battle: transitioning back into civilian life. The American Veterans: From Combat to Kentucky, Student Veteran Oral History Project traces the journeys of men and women who served in the long wars in Afghanistan and Iraq – across all military branches and in occupations as varied as infantry, medicine, and human resources – as they pursue higher education in Kentucky following their service. These 42 interviews, conducted in the early 2010s, tell deeply personal and often harrowing stories of life before, during, and especially after the war, as student veterans navigate the unique challenges of readjustment. Students in Theatre Professor Herman D. Ferrell’s “Staging History” course used these stories to produce a play entitled Civilian that was featured at the New York International Fringe Festival in 2011.

🎙️ Take a listen! bit.ly/3WY9Er6

Our last two recommendations for AAPI Heritage Month 📚
🌟 The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida, by Shehan Karunatilaka
🌟 The Joy Luck Club, by Amy Tan

Some more Asian American Pacific Islander month recommendations from your favorite interns ☀️

📚American Born Chinese, by Gene Luen Yang
📚Kaikeyi, by Vaishnavi Patel