Published: September 28, 2009 08:34 am      

EKU Archives offers something for everyone

If walls could talk, the conversations heard here would be more interesting than any overheard at parties in Washington or Hollywood.

The Eastern Kentucky University Archives, a department of the EKU Libraries, is lined with books and file cabinets containing letters and other historical documents from politicians, sports figures, entertainers, scientists, historians and the “average” citizen. They include a personal letter from John F. Kennedy to Congressman Carl Perkins, pages from the handwritten draft of Noah Webster’s Dictionary of the American English Language, and the oldest document in the collections – a papal document written in 1319 during the reign of Pope John XXII.

“I think people are most surprised by the variety of materials available and the kinds of research you can do in the University Archives,” said Chuck Hill, EKU Archivist since 2001. “There is information on the local, regional, state, national and international levels.”

Collections range from:

• The Carl D. Perkins Papers, records of Congressman Perkins’ career as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (Kentucky, 7th District) from 1949 until his death in 1984 that contain letters from U.S. presidents Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan.

• The Mason & Hanger Historical Collection, records from the engineering and construction company with photos and diagrams from projects such as the Grand Coulee Dam and ammunition plants built during World Wars I and II and the retooling of those plants during the American War in Vietnam.

• The papers of all the past University Presidents and records from offices across the campus. The Archives maintains a records management program that is constantly receiving new material from all departments.

• The Autograph Collection, which contains signatures on calling cards, signatures that appear to have been cut from letters, programs, business cards or other documents, and other signatures that were written specifically as autographs to admirers. They date from the early 19th century to the late 20th century and center around important Kentucky public figures (politicians, authors, athletes, military leaders, etc.) or people who have some connection with the Civil War or Abraham Lincoln (Robert Todd Lincoln, Simon Cameron, Steven A. Douglas, etc.).

• The Kentucky High School Athletic Association (KHSAA) Records, with records from 1917 to 2004, including 16mm films and videotapes of KHSAA-sponsored championship athletic contests, news clippings covering the years 1930 to 1994; official photographs of some of the Boys State Basketball Tournaments, and many official publications of the KHSAA.

It’s not only the items in the collections that span generations and cultures. Individual patrons range from academic researchers to family historians to sports buffs. Recent reference requests have come from as far away as Hong Kong and Dublin, Ireland, and academic researchers have visited from Washington, D.C., and the University of California, San Diego.

“Everybody is interested in something different,” said Hill. “No one collection is a standout in terms of requests – the 90-page Webster manuscript written between 1797 and 1827 might be the most often requested one week and the next it could be a ticket stub from the 1940 World Series, and the week after that, handwritten letters from soldiers serving in France during World War I. We usually average several requests a week for something from the KHSAA Records, and receive a steady stream of requests from genealogical researchers from all over the country.”

The University Archives maintains a collection of more than 500 files of family history materials that have been assembled on many Central Kentucky families along with genealogical periodicals such as The Genealogical Helper, Kentucky Ancestors, and The Virginia Genealogist. Information is also kept on the policies and holdings of state and national genealogical repositories such as the University of Kentucky Special Collections and Archives Department, the Kentucky Library at Western Kentucky University, the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives, the Kentucky Historical Society, the Filson Club, the Library of Congress, and the National Archives.

Microfilm and microfiche holdings include items such as the Draper Manuscripts, selected federal census records, county court records from Madison County and selected counties that surround Madison from the 1780s to the 1920s, and Kentucky Death Certificates through 1950.

The mission of the EKU Archives is to collect, organize, preserve permanently, and make accessible for teaching and research purposes selected publications, manuscripts, institutional records, diaries, genealogical records, photographs, tapes, films, maps, electronic records, and memorabilia of continuing and enduring historical or legal value. Materials collected will generally document the history of EKU, its community and activities, but also includes manuscript collections that are local or regional in origin. To accomplish this mission, the University Archives is divided into three main areas:

• University Records, consisting of records mandated by state retention policies, supplemented with collections of University related ephemeral material, memorabilia, and other materials that document the history of EKU.

• Special Collections, consisting primarily of books and periodicals relating to Kentucky history and Appalachian studies. In addition the Archives houses rare and at-risk material and University and faculty publications.

• Manuscript Collections, consisting of personal papers, corporate records of local businesses, photographs, maps, broadsides and other ephemera as well as serving as the official repository for KHSAA.

Located in Crabbe Library, Room 126, the EKU Archives is open Monday through Thursday, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. (closed weekends and holidays).

For more information, call 622-1792, e-mail archives.library@eku.edu or visit www.library.eku.edu, click the Archives tab, and select EKU Archives.