KYndnp

Remembering 9/11

2011-09-13T13:42:00.003-04:00

Our friends at the Rural Blog have provided a resource for 9/11 Remembrances that includes newspapers from KY, some of which were scanned from UK collections then assembled at the KY Press Association's site.

More news about Digital Newspapers

2011-09-12T13:14:00.002-04:00

More and more people are discovering the joy - and convenience - of digitized newspapers. Take, for example, professor and author Stephen Mihm's New York Times article The Biographer’s New Best Friend. Mihm's outlines biographer James McGrath Morris' search for all things Joseph Pulitzer and how, through the technology of digital newspapers, previously hidden and all-too-hard-to-find information is suddenly available and changing how stories might be told.

A shout out to our NDNP peeps at the University of California-Riverside for this great article!

Day of Digital Archives

2011-09-08T11:35:00.002-04:00

It's an exciting time to be involved with digital archives, digital curation, digital stewardship, digital preservation, digital collection development, well....digital everything! To bring the issues surrounding digital work, the folks at (I'm assuming) the University of Virginia have called for a Day of Digital Archives on October 6, 2011.

"The Day of Digital Archives is an initiative to raise awareness of digital archives among both users and managers. On this day, archivists, digital humanists, programmers, or anyone else creating, using, or managing digital archives are asked to devote some of their social media output (i.e. tweets, blog posts, youtube videos, etc.) to describing their work with digital archives. By collectively documenting what we do, we will be answering questions like: What are digital archives? Who uses them? How are they created and managed? Why are they important? This year's Day of Digital Archives will be held on October 6th and entries will be gathered at the Day of Digital Archives blog http://dayofdigitalarchives.blogspot.com."

KY-NDNP will do what we can to participate here, on facebook, and on twitter (look for #digitalArchivesDay for all tweets related to The Day).

KY-NDNP4

2011-08-01T17:25:00.003-04:00

That's right, kids, The University of Kentucky Libraries has been awarded a rare NEH fourth grant for the National Digital Newspaper Program.

Meanwhile, the program welcomes three new awardee states: Indiana, North Dakota, and West Virginia. Welcome one and all - meet you at the finish line!

Chronicling America gets a facelift!

2011-06-27T10:30:00.003-04:00

Chronicling America, home base for most of our KY-NDNP content, has recently undergone a beautiful transformation.

Let our awardee partners at the Ohio Historical Society walk you through it with their fantastic post about the new interface. Go, now!

Google drops its Newspaper Digitization

2011-05-20T12:10:00.003-04:00

In an article from Search Engine Land on May 20, 2011, Google announced that it is suspending its newspaper digitization efforts. What do you think?

2011-05-10T09:21:00.002-04:00

With traditional newspapers struggling to stay afloat, this video posted courtesy PALEO FUTURE is fascinating from a historical standpoint, to say the least. Equally fascinating is what will ultimately become of paper print in the future. What do you think tomorrow's news will it come from and how will we access it?

newspaper preservation

2011-04-18T14:37:00.005-04:00

[Participant and presenter, Vicky McCargar, used the above corrupted photo as an example of corrupted data during the Newspaper Archive Summit at the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri, Columbia ¦ LOS ANGELES TIMES FILE PHOTO]

Events of last week drove home just how tenuous newspaper preservation in the digital age really is.

There was the Newspaper Archive Summit in Columbia, Missouri. The talks centered on digital content and orphaned titles, how to preserve them, the costs, the risks, and most importantly, what's at stake if we don't. As documented in this piece from the Missourian by conference attendant, Tom Warhover, preserving digital content is a constant battle with sometimes tragic results.

Then, came the UK Libraries' Digital Library Services' presentation to the Kentucky Press Association Board of Directors. UK unveiled their latest tool for contemporary newspapers preservation called Paper Vault (Beta). Paper Vault allows for seamless upload of whole issues of print-ready PDFs. The files are then prepped for UK Libraries Trusted Digital Repository and for online access. Publishers from the larger conglomerate newspapers quickly dismissed the repository, citing contractual agreements with vendors who offer the goods behind a pay-wall. However, the smaller newspapers were equally enthusiastic about the opportunity.

Enlightening bookends to a digital week.

Making the Transition

2011-03-17T08:50:00.002-04:00

So many newspapers are folding under the weight of digital media that it's hard to stay positive some days, that is if you're in the business of newspapers or preserving the first record of history, such is the case with KY-NDNP. But here comes a glimmer of hope from our friends at The Rural Blog who reports on the success of Connecticut's Register Citizen and California's Appeal-Democrat.

For more inspiration, try 10 Newspapers that Do It Right from Editor & Publisher.

Kudos to everyone working hard to keep our history alive.

This day in History

2010-12-20T10:25:00.005-05:00

From our favorite historian, Mary Koegel, comes this exquisite niblet:

Today in KY newspaper history, in 1837, it's the birthday of everybody's favorite (alleged) atheist, Charles Chilton Moore, editor & founder of Bluegrass Blade. Ironically, he was the grandson of Barton W. Stone (co-founder of Disciples of Christ, Christian Church, & Church of Christ).

Read more about Charles Chilton Moore at the Kentuckiana Digital Library, or if you'd like something longer, John Sparks recently released Kentucky's Most Hated Man chronicling Moore's exploits.

R.I.P. David Dick

2010-07-19T11:41:00.002-04:00

(Photo by: Ron Garrison)

Kentuckian and journalist extraordinaire, David Dick, died July 16, 2010 at his home in Bourbon County, KY. he was 80. Though he was born in Cincinnati, Dick's mother moved the family to her native Kentucky home when David was only 18 months old. the rest, as they say, is history.

David Dick was a writer and journalist best known for his long-running writing and reporting with CBS News as well as his many bestselling books such as Rivers of Kentucky (2001).

Funeral services were July 19 in Paris, Kentucky.

Dick's oldest son, Sam, has followed in his father's footsteps as anchor of the local Lexington CBS affiliate WKYT, 27 Newsfirst.

A fitting tribute about David Dick can be found with our friends at The Rural Blog

Remembering Mother

2010-05-07T13:01:00.004-04:00

The long-standing tradition of Mother's Day goes longer back than perhaps many of us realize - riding a somewhat difficult road before it was established as a national holiday in the US (among other countries) by President Woodrow Wilson, in 1914.

Back in the Civil War, and during Reconstruction, Julia Ward Howe led an anti-war movement focusing on honoring mothers, even composing a "Mother's Day Proclamation" in 1872. However, the contemporary holiday is founded in a movement by West Virginia's Anna Jarvis, who continued her mother's efforts.

The first successful efforts came in 1908, through national promotion. After 4 years of success, Jarvis declared a stable "date" of the "second Sunday in May" for Mother's Day (Note: the punctuation is VERY important - possessive of the singular!). She initially intended the holiday to be commercial. But, ultimately, resented its overcommercialization - even being thrown in jail, 1948, for protesting the very day she founded!

White flowers are worn, or given, to honor mothers. Most notably carnations.
Apparently, according to these articles from the Bourbon News & Mountain Advocate, it doesn't REALLY matter; the flowers can be snowdrops, as long as they are white. (Personally, I remember giving my mother marigolds potted in detergent covers, when I was in elementary school. But what do I know?)

Of course, it didn't take long to call out for a day honoring the family patriarch!

(Sidebar: A movement had already begun in Washington at the time of this publication - Hartford Herald, 22 May 1912. However, Father's Day also saw trials & tribulations - including failed presidential recommendations & suggested "dates," before President Nixon proclaimed it a national holiday in 1972.)

Controlling the Dog Population - April Fools?

2010-04-01T10:56:00.007-04:00

Today, humane societies and shelters help control stray dog populations in American towns and cities. But, in 1904, when the World's Fair came to St. Louis, so did Filipino headhunter tribes who simply LOVED dog meat! When they came down with pneumonia (traced to the missing dietary supplement of dog) and threatened to strike, St. Louis authorities offered them all the stray dogs they could ever want. The Filipino tribesmen could also use the hides in their costume, as they "refused to dress in American conventional style." ("For Breakfast at World's Fair Colony---Igorrotes Want Dog Meat." Hartford Republican 8 April 1904, p. 3)

It MUST be true, right? After all, two Kentucky newspapers - the Breathitt County News and Hartford Republican - and surely many others, printed the story! Of course, this generous offer DID begin on April Fools Day, as cited by both articles.

Can we chalk it up to cultural differences, or was it all an elaborate April Fools prank on the readers? What do you think?

RIP "Duke of Paducah"

2010-03-10T11:00:00.006-05:00

Irvin Shrewsbury Cobb was born in 1876 Paducah. At sixteen, he took his first newspaper job as an apprentice reporter with the Paducah Evening News to help support the family, and he never looked back!

As his career progressed, Cobb became well-known as an editor, reporter, columnist, and humorist in papers all over the state and nation. He hob-nobbed with the best of them through the years: politicians, actors and actresses, writers, and so on. But he never forgot his home state and seemingly retained a sense of morality. Early on (1900), he married Laura Spencer Baker - a marriage that lasted a lifetime.

Hopkinsville Kentuckian, 17 April 1900, p 5
Cobb was a larger-than-life figure. One of his early columns, as paraphrased here in the 1900 Earlington Bee, humorously commented on "Fads of Kentucky Statesmen." It included observations on Goebel, who would be assassinated only weeks later! Cobb went on to report in Europe in World War I. He saw the potential in film, and sold several scripts to Hollywood, not to mention appearing in a few or hosting the 1935 Academy Awards! But that was only the beginning.

Politics was not far from Cobb's thoughts. He vehemently wrote about and fought for what he believed in, including African-American rights and composing anti-Prohibition press releases.

In the first half of the twentieth century, Cobb was easily one of the most recognizable (and quotable!) American celebrities directly connected to Kentucky. He died on March 10, 1944, and now rests in Paducah, quite appropriately under a tombstone reading "Back Home."

Signs of the Times - Part 1

2010-02-17T11:08:00.016-05:00

It probably goes without saying that most, if not all of us are familiar with the basic layout of a contemporary newspaper. We know what to expect on any given day from any given section or page. The same could be said 100 years ago, even though many publications were significantly shorter (perhaps only the front and back of a single sheet of paper!).

What was included differed somewhat from today's publications a little too. Local papers had local news - but it might be a bit more intimate, especially in rural areas, where everyone knew everybody's business! Ads were not necessarily as vivid, and bylines (the author's name) may or may not exist on every article.

A seemingly popular trend were unattributed columns and snippets throughout publications that delivered news and commentary in a quick shot - one or two sentences. They might include anything from:

health and weather, to current events.

Or the economy and politics

These are common threads still followed today, though thrown together in tidbits on pages 3 and 4 of the February 17, 1910 edition of the Clay City Times. In their own ways, they reflect patterns from 100 years ago. Can you tell how and why? What makes these "reports" different from reports you might see in a modern-day newspaper?

Happy Birthday, Mr. President!

2010-02-12T10:57:00.006-05:00

Today we celebrate the birth of one of Kentucky's best-known native sons, President Abraham Lincoln! Though he is sometimes more closely accredited to Illinois, he was born in 1809, near Hodgenville. The Lincolns didn't even leave the state until little "Honest Abe" was 7 years old!

He went on from the humble log cabin to achieve great things, as we all well know, but remembered his birth state connections through friendships and political contacts with such Kentuckians as Joshua Speed - a close confidante and contact during the Civil War. Soon after which, of course, he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth.

There are as many dark stories as there are bright ones regarding Lincoln's life and activities. But today, as his bicentennial birth celebration comes to a close, we merely memorialize and celebrate the man and his life, as did the Earlington Bee, in 1897, and the Winchester News, in 1909, for the centennial of his birth.

Goebel!

2010-02-03T10:22:00.009-05:00

William Goebel - Kentucky governor for but a few days, all of which spent, quite literally, on his deathbed, died today, in 1900, of an assassin's bullet. But who was the killer? This remains one of the unsolved mystery's in the Commonwealth's past.

Goebel was born to German immigrants in 1856 Pennsylvania. The family moved to Covington after his father returned from the Civil War. William went on to law school and an on-again, off-again practice with eventual US Senator John Carlisle. But he also had quite the hand in political wheelings & dealings at the end of the 19th century, including through the state Senate.

When Kentuckians were in an uproar about toll roads & turnpikes, Goebel successfully campaigned to remove tolls. He was a delegate in the 1890-91 Constitutional Convention. He advocated to further civil rights for women and African-Americans. Possibly one of his most notable measures is the Goebel election law, which gave power to a 3-member Board of Election Commissioners to appoint county election commissioners, as opposed to the previous system, which he felt had been unjust.

But Goebel was no angel! Many were opposed to his methods, and believed he sought only to raise his own political power. Goebel even broke Kentucky Constitutional law when he fought an 1895 duel against John Sanford (Goebel won, killing Sanford, but was acquitted of charges). His gubernatorial election was also tainted with scandal. Although he won, accusations flew regarding corruption & stuffing of ballot boxes. The General Assembly ultimately decided Goebel had fairly won on January 30 - the same day he was shot.

As Goebel walked to the Capitol in Frankfort, an assassin shot him with a rifle (accounts claim it was likely from a window next door). He lay dying for nearly 5 days, until he passed on February 3rd. Before that, however, the GA had him sworn in as KY Governor on January 31, 1900. Sixteen men were accused of conspiracy in his murder; 5 went to trial; 3 were convicted; all maintained their innocence throughout!

To this day, no solid answer has been offered as to "Who killed Goebel?" He remains the only state governor killed while in office, even though he was technically shot before even being sworn in, and remained "Governor" on his death bed, for only a few short days.

Semi-Weekly Interior Journal. 6 February 1900. p 1.

Only the Shadow Knows...

2010-02-02T11:20:00.008-05:00

A long-standing tradition, today marks Groundhog Day! People rush to Gobbler's Knob, in Pennsylvania, to learn from Punxsutawney Phil whether or not winter will sustain another 6 weeks. He and his shadow have been forecasting the weather for Americans since 1887, in secret, and then publicly since 1966. But there's much more to this tradition than many of us realize or even consider!

With debatable origins, this yearly celebration traces its roots further back than the last 125 years or so to the European Candlemas Day (also celebrated today). A poem regarding the holiday reads "If Candlemas be fair and bright,/May Winter have another flight." Hence, the shadow knows all!

Speaking of lights, Phil is not the only forecaster! Canada has their very own famous groundhog - Wiarton Willie! Similarly, there are other groundhogs around the US that share Phil's spotlight, at least to some extent - and other animals too! Texas has Bee Cave Bob, an armadillo, to forecast their spring every February 2nd, or "Armadillo Day." Just last year, Alaskan governor Sarah Palin, declared Feb. 2 "Marmot Day;" but there were no forecasting duties assigned.

Over the years, even Kentucky has shared in Groundhog Day festivities, as you can see in these 1910 Paducah Evening Sun articles. Though not official, Captain Mason Smith adopted a groundhog, dug a burrow for him the previous October (for hibernation, of course), and brought him out to predict the weather. It paid off - the unnamed adoptee's shadow predicted Spring! And then there's the Dickson, TN club who ran around all day searching out groundhog burrows and digging them up just to offer a weather report that evening! So which method is better?

Oh, and as for this year's prediction? Nothing from Bee Cave Bob or Wiarton Billie as of yet, but Punxsutawney Phil is calling for 6 more weeks of winter. And the shadow always knows... (or at least he does 39% of the time, according to the National Climatic Data Center)

Something to Chew On

2010-02-01T10:50:00.010-05:00

Many quintessential American foods & treats have their roots, or at least some links to the state of Kentucky, whether its well-known, acknowledged, or not. This includes chewing gum, believe it or not!

Pharmacist John Colgan, born in Louisville, in 1840, went through the public school system there, and to college in Somerset, OH. He returned to Louisville and opened a drug store at the corner of 1oth & Walnut Streets. While Colgan didn't INVENT chewing gum (in fact, some form has arguably been around since Greek civilization, if not longer), he had a strong hand in developing its popularity.

Legend has it he saw children peeling the bark off trees & chewing on it, so he ordered the main ingredient for chewing gum (again, this product already existed in the US), which is from a South American tree, and improved upon the existing product by sweetening it with powdered sugar. This resulted in a sticky substance he called "Colgan's Taffy Tolu Chewing Gum." Fortunately, the ingredients & manufacturing process remained "pure" enough that they were not affected by the 1906 Pure Food & Drug Act.

He sold his drugstore, went into business with James A. McAfee, & advertised all over - including a presentation by his son, William, of Colgan's Taffy Tolu at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair. Check out these other advertising campaigns:

His version of the gum became SO successful, it was sold internationally in Canada & Australia! Thomas Adams (a huge NY manufacturer & distributer of chewing gum at the time) even took inspiration from Colgan's development when he created Tutti-Frutti, the first gum sold in vending machines!

John Colgan died today (February 1) in 1916. He is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery, in Louisville. But his legacy lives on in the modern treat many of us still love to chew on today, first made sweet by Colgan's addition of powdered sugar!

This just in...

2010-01-25T08:36:00.003-05:00

From our friends at the Rural Blog on the Kentucky Press Association's 2009 awards:

"The best small newspaper in Kentucky last year was again theTodd County Standard of Elkton, according to the results of the 2009 Excellence in Kentucky Newspapers Contest of theKentucky Press Association. The winner of the medium-circulation class for weeklies was The Springfield Sun, and the best large weekly was The Oldham Eraof LaGrange. The top multi-weekly was the Sentinel-News of Shelbyville, and the best small daily was Hopkinsville's Kentucky New Era. It and the Standard, published in an adjoining county, are independently owned; the other three are part of Landmark Community Newspapers, based in Shelbyville.

None of these were surprises. The Standard, edited and published by Ryan Craig, right, has a circulation of about 2,500 but has stories, editorials, pages and sections that look like those in a daily with circulation 10 times as large, or more. And it won the categories that we watch most closely: enterprise/analysis story (third place too), investigative story and editorial page, and second and third in ongoing/extended coverage. (Craig is shown speaking at the 2009 Society of Professional Journalists convention.) The Trimble Banner, a Landmark paper in the tiny town of Bedford, won second place in the small-weekly class, and the Adair County Community Voice, a relatively new paper started by Sharon Burton, was third.

Runner-up to the Sun, edited by Jeff Moreland, was another Landmark paper, the Spencer Magnet. Third in the medium-circulation weekly class was the McCreary County Voice, a locally owned paper competing against a more established, chain-owned weekly. In the large-weekly class, the runner-up was the Jessamine Journal of Nicholasville, a Schurz Communications paper, followed by The Lebanon Enterprise, a Landmark stalwart.

Landmark's Kentucky Standard, of Bardstown, was runner-up in the class for non-dailies published more than once a week. It was followed by The Sentinel-Echo of London, which for two years in a row has been judged the best weekly of Community Newspaper Holdings Inc.These papers regularly wrestle for the title of Kentucky's best weekly.

In the small-daily class, the New Era was followed by The Richmond Register, a CNHI paper, and The Messenger of Madisonville, published by Paxton Media LLC of Paducah. The winner among medium-circulation dailies was the Bowling Green Daily News, the state's only other independently owned daily. It was followed by The Gleaner of Henderson, a Scripps-Howard paper, and The Advocate-Messenger of Danville, Schurz's Kentucky flagship. Paxton's hometown paper, The Paducah Sun, placed second in the large-circulation class, which was won by the much larger Lexington Herald-Leader, a metropolitan paper and the state's second largest. The biggest paper,The Courier-Journal, is a KPA member but doesn't enter the contest."

RIP John G. Fee (1816-1901)

2010-01-11T09:50:00.004-05:00

Even before the Civil War, there were those who dared dream of a world where African-Americans and whites (and even men and women) might learn together in the same classroom. Reverend John Gregg Fee, the co-founder of Berea College, was one of these men.

Born in Bracken County, KY, in September 1816 to slaveholders, he dedicated his life to fighting against the institution in print & in his preaching. This attracted the attention of well-known KY emancipationist Cassius M. Clay. In the late 1850s, Clay put up the land & money for a coed, integrated mission school in Berea. Due to harrassment, this was not to be, at least prior to the Civil War. Fee did not stand still. He formed a missionary at Camp Nelson, a haven for African-American refugees during the war.

Ultimately, Fee & Clay parted ways, but Fee carried on the dream. Berea College lived on - and still lives on. Though Fee died (today, in 1901) before the 1904 Day Laws & never saw national integration of schools, his progressive school continues to survive, supporting the dreams of students from throughout Appalachia.

Berea's Citizen published an elaborate obituary for him a few days after his death. For a better view, click on the image, or go directly to the original page from January 17, 1901.

A Heartwarming Story from the Past

2009-12-23T13:44:00.009-05:00

The holiday season is one of caring, giving, and warmth of the human spirit (apparently, enough to keep away any snow today). Today, we sign off for the holidays with a story of this sort published on page 3 of the December 17, 1908 Winchester News.

(*Note: Click on the image for a larger view, or click this link to view original page in KDL)

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

Christmas Wishes

2009-12-22T15:46:00.013-05:00

Jolly Old Saint Nicholas,
Lean your ear this way;
Don't you tell a single soul,
What I'm going to say.

Christmas Eve is coming soon;
Now you dear old man,
Whisper what you'll bring to me;
Tell me if you can.

When the clock is striking twelve;
When I'm fast asleep,
Down the chimney broad and black,
With your pack you'll creep;
All the stockings you'll find
Hanging in a row;
Mine will be the shortest one,
You'll be sure to know.

Johnny wants a pair of skates.
Susie wants a sled.
Nelly wants a storybook -
One she hasn't read.
As for me, I hardly know;
So I'll go to rest.
Choose for me, dear Santa Claus,
What you think is best.

So, what do YOU want for Christmas? Santa Claus is still taking orders from all good little archivists & librarians!

Controversy in the "Blue-Grass"

2009-12-21T11:46:00.010-05:00

During a month rife with remembrances from many major world religions & cultures, a man was born who challenged them all - ironically, the grandson to another who shared in the birth of contemporary religious thought.

Yesterday (December 20), in 1837, Charles Chilton Moore was born on a small farm outside Lexington, KY. His mother was the daughter of Rev. Barton W. Stone, who helped spark the Great Revival with the Cane Ridge Revival and co-founded the Christian Church, the Disciples of Christ, & the Church of Christ only a decade or two earlier. After attending Transylvania University, and graduating from West Virginia's Bethany College in 1858, Moore was ordained into his grandfather's church by 1864. But not for long!

After a short time as a pastor in Versailles, Moore resigned his pastorate to work in a series of newspapers. Eventually he founded his own in 1884. This was the nationally-known & quite controversial Blue-grass Blade (that's right - the paper turns 125 this year!). Though sporadically published for assorted reasons (not the least of which were financial & legal), the Blade vigorously challenged contemporary religious views, particularly Christianity & the Bible. Editorial contributions championed social causes of the day, including women's suffrage & prohibition. Moore's personal contributions also argued for agnosticism and, it is sometimes argued, atheism. He is even considered by some as the "Father of American Atheism."

Moore's antagonistic writings led not only to turbulent publishing runs, but also a turbulent life. He dealt with assassination attempts & even imprisonment for the Blue-Grass Blade in 1899. More specifically, for mailing obscene materials. He only served 6 months after President William McKinley pardoned him. This time did not stop his writing. Instead, it led to an autobigraphy. Even his death on February 7, 1906 (he subdued to an illness rather than another human) did not stop the controversy he began in life! The Blade continued publication for another 4 years after his death, courtesy of publisher, James Edward Hughes.

For more on the Blue-Grass Blade, including the many of the issues in its sporadic runs, visit its browsing page & title history on KDL Newspapers: http://kdl.kyvl.org/k/kynews/blu.html

Santa Claus is Comin' to Town

2009-12-18T11:00:00.013-05:00

It goes without saying that Santa Claus, AKA Old St. Nick is a Christmas icon. But what does he look like? Does anybody REALLY know? Everybody has their personalized image embedded from childhood, whether from a storybook, TV shows, Christmas cards, songs, and so on; and it varies from culture to culture, and region to region. There even seem to be some general characteristics that bridge this iconic imagery. But has it changed over the past century? We'll let you judge by presenting St. Nicholas, depicted in Kentucky newspapers from 100 years ago. Which one, if any, is your Santa Claus?

Commercial Branding - Then & Now

2009-12-14T14:03:00.014-05:00

In previous blogs, I've integrated ads from enduring brands you may recognize, including Kodak, Coca-Cola, Arbuckle's coffee, and I.W. Harper Bourbon. These companies all had foundations tracing back to the 19th century, yet still exist in some form. Today's blog is going to focus on a few familiar brands that have lasted through the years, how they got their start, and their ever-evolving story in contemporary America.

Food offers probably the most recognizable brands in our lives, whether we realize it or not. It may simply be a jingle stuck in our head or a canister sitting on our shelves, we know it when we see (or hear) it! It's often incredible to think how long these simple staples in our lives have been around. Taking a walk down the cereal aisle can easily be a walk through history! Grape-Nuts, for example, came out of the home of breakfast cereals: Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1897. C.W. Post (ironically, a patient of Dr. Kellogg's, but a later competitor) was inspired to develop his first breakfast cereal after visiting Dr. Kellogg. Though not as popular as it used to be, and it has traded hands through the years, it still retains it's advertising campaign as a health food, full of nutrients, as per this 1906 ad.

Of course, back then (in the alleged "good ol' days"), not everything was pre-made & pre-packaged. These conveniences were still in their infancy! People still baked, cooked, and grew their own food (or at least some people did). Fortunately, this tradition has not died out. Hence, neither has some items that facilitate these activities. The 1907 Royal Baking Powder ad above features not only what made them famous (not the lighthouse! Their formula, silly!), but also recognition of the recent Pure Food & Drug Law that regulated manufactured food & medicine in the US. Though competition was great for this company, which traced back to 1873 (a little further if you count the pre-investor years), Royal Baking Powder survived because they followed a unique formula in a European tradition - one that excluded aluminum (purportedly linked to diseases, such as Alzheimer's). Today, Kraft Foods owns the product & the brand.

Self-sufficiency was perhaps more prominent at the turn of the century than today, but it nevertheless endures, at least to some extent. Whether a professional farmer or a hobbyist gardner, the seeds come from somewhere; and "somewhere" may include the store or a mail order catalog. Perhaps one of the better-known mail-order seed companies was founded originally as W. Atlee Burpee & Co. in 1878 Philadelphia, PA, as it is called in this 1908 ad. Later, it changed to the contemporary name of "Burpee's" (there are also ads under this name in the KY-NDNP database). The company experienced many other changes after David Burpee, founder W. Atlee's son, took over after his father's death in 1915. He focused more on flowers. Over the years, the company changed hands many times, but the family still generally stayed involved - until 1993. Jonathan Burpee, W. Atlee's grandson, was the last family member to work for the company, as he was fired by owner George Ball. Nevertheless, the recognizable name remains!

Along the "do-it-yourself" trend, sewing has always been a basic skill. Although, in some places & cases today, it seems restricted to Home Economics class, whereas it was nearly essential to some social classes (though mainly marketed to women) in the Victorian era. However, somebody had to invent those convenient & lightweight patterns. Occasionally, they might be made from (or come on) seed or potato sacks, but these were heavy duty, and only available for one general size. According to legend, one night in 1863, after creating a pattern and sewing an outfit for her son, Ellen Butterick went to her husband, Massachusetts tailor Ebenezer Butterick, and commented on how much easier it would be if she had multiple sizes for a pattern. Inspired, he revolutionized clothes-making for housewives everywhere with graded sizes in a single pattern! Even moreso, he realized stiff cardboard made for difficult shipping. Hence, the familiar tissue paper patterns were born! Butterick patterns specialized in mens & boys clothing, expanding to womens in 1866. The name and method became synonomous with clothing patterns then, as per this 1903 ad, & still is today!

As you probably noticed, Butterick's ad also advertises a "Home and Fashion Magazine." This was one method of advertising patterns, as well as providing them. In fact, McCall's Magazine - considered of the "7 sisters" (the main women's magazines of the time) - began as a vehicle strictly for patterns in 1873 under the name The Queen, and continued, under various names, for many years filling about 20% of its pages with patterns. You can see one of its alternate names, and its "claim to fame" in the 1909 ad above. Scottish immigrant James McCall began the brand in 1870, the magazine in 1873, and left it to his widow upon his 1884 death. The editor she hired brought in articles on housekeeping. It wasn't until a later editor came on board in 1893, that the magazine expanded topics even further, and took on the name McCall's (though initially a lengthier title, it was ultimately abbreviated to the familiar "brand" sometime after 1897). Though it changed many editorial & ownerhsip hands, in 2000, celebrity & talk show host Rosie O'Donnell bought the magazine. She changed the title to Rosie, only to end the publication of this long-running publication in 2005.

Okay, so, technically, I ended with a brand that no longer exists. Seriously, though, tell me any of you have NOT heard of McCall's? Okay then... This is, by the way, no means an exhaustive or comprehensive list. I have a few other examples of enduring brands that I've run across in our database, but, for the sake of length, maybe there'll be a Part II!

What brands do you know of that have a foundation "way back when, in the good ol' days?" Wanna know what the ads looked like? How the brands have changed? How they started? Let me know! Help me build a Part II of "Commerical Branding - Then & Now!"

"Take a picture! It'll last longer!"

2009-12-04T10:54:00.015-05:00

Of course, back when photography first began with the daguerreotype in 1839, people had to sit still for long periods of time. Plus, it was an expensive process, generally reserved for studios & professionals to conduct. IF you could afford a photo, you wanted IT to last; but you probably didn't forget the memory of waiting for it to process in the camera (ever wonder why people look so miserable in "old-time" photos? Ha ha. Just Kidding!)

Skip Ahead a few decades to the 1880s-1890s & George Eastman, up in Rochester, NY (my hometown; well, the closest big city to where I grew up, anyway). He developed the enduring brand "Eastman Kodak" (generally known simply as "Kodak"), as well as quicker & more accessible methods of photography. Amateur photography EXPLODED in popularity & Kodak became THE name in photo-taking.

Early on in amateur photography, cameras mounted on tripods were still the norm. Though, some cameras were also advertised as "bicycle cameras" (combining another popular hobby of the Victorian era - bicycling), where cameras were mounted on bicycles - no, really. The typical style was still a general "black box." Kodak's popular & rare No. 2 Falcon camera (as shown in this 1899 Earli ngton Bee ad) is such a camera. First introduced in 1897, this snapshot camera allowed for 12-18 photos, including a name change to No. 2 Flexo.

By 1900, Eastman further followed up on their tagline "You press the button - we do the rest" by introducing the Brownie (shown in this 1906 Springfield Sun ad). This camera was the first low-priced, hand-held, point-and-shoot camera. Held at approximately waist-height, the photographer needed to merely aim, then flick a switch! It was so easy, the claim was a schoolchild could use it! Of course, the low price (some models were available for as low as $1) made it accessible to the so-called "Average Joe."

While people grabbed onto the new and accessible, the "old" did not entirely disappear. To some extent, two extremely popular photographic entities not only survived the advent of amateur photography, but continue in existence today: the professional photographer and 3-D viewers/imagery.

Everybody loves taking their own photos to capture the moment (as much then as now, with the scads of digital photos taking up your hard drive space), but there is nothing quite like the professional who can pose your family "just so" or cover those special events for you when you would rather enjoy the moment rather than worry about catching the candid photo. Though there is nothing mentioned about covering events, H.G. Mattern is such a "reliable photographer" with a gallery in Frankfort - or at least he was, according to his regularly appearing 1907 ads.

Finally, the 3-D imaging. Back in Victorian times, it was NOTHING like what we know today: sitting in a movie theater with glasses, or even watching a blu-ray disc on our HD screens (Hi-Def! HA! As if TVs even existed! Movie theatres were still in their infancy!). No, entertainment of this kind was found in the stereoscope (shown below in this 1906 Mt. Vernon ad). Existing since the 1860s, it was a popular parlor item that involved placing a stereo card (which showed two very similar images) behind the viewer and moving it back & forth until your eyes focused - the image was singular & 3-D!!! The cards often came in collections, and featured tourist destinations or well-known figures, and included stories on the backs. Sound familiar? Yup, later on, in 1939, the same idea was minimized into the View-Master, and used those paper discs that rolled around when you clicked the side, often featuring favorite characters or telling stories. I had a couple of these growing up - and they are still around today! Speaking from personal experience, stereoscopes are just as much fun!

So, while you enjoy the holiday season with friends and family, remember and cherish the ease you have in keeping those memories, thanks to the developments of the past 100 years or so. With all those gigabytes of memory on that tiny SD card in your digital camera, or the camera that comes with your iPhone, don't be afraid to take a picture to keep those memories! It'll last longer!

A Thanksgiving Meal - Print It!

2009-11-25T11:18:00.016-05:00

You can find pretty much everything you need for your Thanksgiving meal by browsing your local newspaper! I can prove it - look!

Most staple items for cooking your meal might come from the general store, but you can also find those luxury foods, such as fruits for pies, there too!

Ah, yes! The turkey! It wouldn't be Thanksgiving without a turkey, now would it? It doesn't quite matter how you attain this for your meal.

Whether you go "old-fashioned," and get one on your own...

Or buy it from a store (roaster not included; or turkey not included - depends which store you're going to!).

It should still end up on your table and, ultimately, in everyone's stomachs! Delicious!

You'll be needing something to wash down the glorious feast. Again, there are options, which are, once again, traditional staples. Some guests might prefer something warm (& I, personally, never had a pie that didn't taste great with coffee!); others might desire something cold (though I don't know how many "sweltering" Thanksgiving days Kentucky has seen, who doesn't love Coca-Cola, especially mixed with bourbon whisky!)

Finally, when you've stuffed yourself to the gills and start to feel that "food coma" coming on, perhaps with a bit of discomfort), as I know we all have, especially after Thanksgiving, there's a solution for that too!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Tobacco "Habits" Through History, Part II

2009-11-19T14:02:00.016-05:00

As promised, here is the second part of the "Great American Smokeout" celebration; newspaper clippings about societal perspectives on the health effects of tobacco use in Victorian KY! And, as mentioned in "Part I," you can find exceedingly more newspaper clippings about tobacco farming, economic impacts, and other societal impacts by searching KDL newspapers with the keyword "tobacco" (and/or with other associated keywords).

In "Part II," we're covering the same ideas as in "Part I," just the more creative expressions.

Beginning backwards, so to speak, there's always some sort of "folk remedy" or "cure" for ailments, illnesses, and addictions - some more "reliable" than others, perhaps. In the case of this one (published in February 22, 1907 Hickman Courier), one must wonder if the author was even serious at all! I had to read it more than once before I realized this "one dose;" this "laying on of the hands" to resolve cigarette smoking in "one dose" was not "new" at all, but simply a good ol' traditional whooping!

Of course, other solutions are perhaps a bit more serious and, in many cases for the purposes of either persuasion or profit. In a time when cigars and cigarettes were replacing pipes in popularity, this clipping from the November 13, 1907 Springfield Sun ensures that, though seemingly difficult, packing and smoking a pipe is, indeed, an "art form." It even walks the read through the many steps and aspects, specifically arguing against "the minor delights of cigar and cigarette smoking." Quite obviously, the Prince Albert crimp cut tobacco ad (from the June 8, 1916 News-Leader) seeks profit for the company. Another convenience, manufactured and packaged tobacco allowed easier packing of pipes or rolling of cigarettes, rather cutting plug tobacco or from a "twist." It also allowed (if from white burley tobacco) the addition of sweeteners or flavoring.

Still others, whether "experts" or not, sought to express themselves in verse. This included concerns of the Women's Christian Temperance Union, perhaps seeking social purity ("Nicotine." Earlington Bee. 26 May 1902, p. 7); an anonymous poet presenting the "joys" of tobacco use, while sternly warning against the health hazards alike ("To a Twist of the 'Weed.'" Springfield Sun. 26 January 1910, p. 2); and a reprint of N.A. Jennings's take on Kentuckian stereotypical identity - a common literary perspective of the time ("Geographic Morality." Frankfort Weekly News and Roundabout. 25 July 1908, p. 4).

So whether you're a smoker, reformed, or never touched tobacco in your life, this is just a slight taste of Kentucky's tobacco history (at least different societal POVs, via newspaper clippings) to inhale during the Great American Smokeout!

Tobacco "Habits" Through History, Part I

2009-11-19T11:12:00.016-05:00

Today, as every year, the American Cancer Society hosts a nationwide "Great American Smokeout." The idea is to encourage smokers to quit, if only for the day. Take note, I am not promoting smoking, non-smoking, or anything like that. That being said, I find this to be a wonderful opportunity to examine Kentucky's strong historical ties to tobacco - it's fed our economy (and still does, to an extent), and fostered and influenced a great deal of social and cultural growth, whether we realize it or not.

See as how there are so many angles and newspaper clippings to examine, I am going to post 2 blog entries today (aren't you a lucky bunch!). And, in honor of the "Great American Smokeout," I am going to generally focus on health and social perspectives, rather than the economic side (although, I promise, if you go to KDL newspapers and search "tobacco," you will find more newspaper clippings and excerpts regarding economic impact, farming traditions, unions, and so on, than you probably ever wanted to know!). Here, in part I, we're going to look at the more straightforward expressions from KY newspapers.

Cigarettes grew popular partially due to their convenience, and the flavorings used with the tobacco; they generally replaced chewing tobacco by World War I. However, they also came with negatives, such as coughing "fits" and other ailments (the 1904 American Baptist below mentions "insanity!"). People recognized a potential fatal connection with smoking, and cigarettes adopted the nickname "coffin straws" (called "coffin scraws" in this 1900 Adair County News clipping).

Much like contemporary times, people still debated the PRECISE effects of tobacco use. This ranged anywhere from what exactly was it that made tobacco harmful (this 1906 Breckenridge News clipping claims it's the tar rather than nicotine), to how to cut down on harmful effects (as per studies from German "experts," according to this 1904 Bourbon News article).

Throughout the years, one thing that seems to never change is hearing about harmful health effects of one vice or another from "the experts." They may change their mind later, or studies may uncover a different "unknown factor," but this is what we should beware of now! Sometimes, people heed these warnings as they come, but sometimes, as this elaborated book advertisement from the 1904 Bourbon News suggests, you just need to follow your gut - AKA Mother Nature's "Whack" (though it seems to almost reference "expert advice" a bit - my own personal opinion!). Of course, in any case, even back in 1903, there existed products, like "NO-TO-BAQ" to help you quit your habit, if you so chose.

Coming this afternoon: Part II, more "creative" expressions regarding health & social perspectives toward tobacco...

Happy Birthday, Henry Hardin Cherry!

2009-11-16T10:27:00.006-05:00

Without Henry Hardin Cherry, Kentucky would quite possibly be without one of its quickest growing, most well-known universities today - Western Kentucky University, in Bowling Green. WKU has fostered a number of talents, from 1950s musical group the Hilltoppers to filmmaker John Carpenter; sports mascot Big Red to contemporary rap group Nappy Roots. Of course, there is a long tradition of education, as well, beginning more than 25 years before Cherry took his role as president in 1906, but he arguably began the process of establishing and molding WKU into the college we know today.

Henry Hardin Cherry was born to Warren County farmers, on November 16, 1864. He actually received little to no formal education until entering Bowling Green's Southern Normal School (what WKU was essentially known as then, established in 1875) in January 1886. Six years later, he and his brother, Thomas Crittenden Cherry bought the school, while he was faculty there, in an attempt to save it. By 1899, enrollment exploded, thanks to Henry, and he bought out his brother's share, developing it into the Southern Normal School and Bowling Green Business University.

The REAL turning point came seven years down the road, in 1906. Cherry played an integral role in state legislation to establish normal (teaching) schools in Eastern and Western parts of the state. Along with others, success came with two schools - one in Richmond and one in Bowling Green. This was noted throughout the state, as was his naming as president of Bowling Green's school in June of that year. The specifics of the site bids are laid out in these clippings from page 4 of the May 10, 1906 Hopkinsville Kentuckian:

There were apparently a few issues with providing deeds for the proposed land in Bowling Green. Nevertheless, Cherry fought for the school. Classes began in the private school in January 1907, and the name - "Southern Normal School" - changed to Western Kentucky State Normal School (Hartford Herald, 1 August 1906, p. 1). By 1911, it moved to its current location (on top of a hill, overlooking Bowling Green; hence the school sports team - "Hilltoppers"), bought from another college in 1909. It has absorbed assorted lands, and even another college throughout the years. These are all memorialized through buildings on, and colleges within the university (e.g. Potter, Ogden).

Cherry, himself, is remembered in WKU's landmark building - Cherry Hall, which has the campus belltower. The building was completed in 1937, and dedicated in November of that year, a few months after Cherry died - the only thing that ended his more than 30-year tenure as president. He had seen the college through its first bachelors and masters degrees (1924; 1931) numerous name changes (though it would not be known as WKU until 1966) and various social challenges, including women's suffrage (of which he proved himself a considerable ally) and the Great Depression.

Probably most importantly, Cherry championed the success of the students, encouraging them to become all that they could. He even endowed WKU with a motto it still uses and holds true to, to this day: "The Spirit Makes the Master."

Kentucky "Pioneers," In Memoriam

2009-11-09T09:45:00.017-05:00

Over the span of 50 years, on this day, Kentucky lost 3 of its pioneers; its founders; its visionaries - in every sense of the word. Today, we remember Dr. Thomas Walker (1715-1794), Robert Patterson (1753-1827), and Rev. Barton Warren Stone (1772-1844).

Dr.Thomas Walker (1715-1794)
Dr. Thomas Walker was a Virginia physician, living next door to Thomas Jefferson's father (for awhile, he was even Jefferson's guardian!). But he will likely be best remembered as a member of the Loyal Land Company, and leading the first organized English expedition into KY. This trek took place in 1750, and although it did not quite make it into the Bluegrass Region (he turned back after climbing a tree & only seeing more rough terrain ahead, even though he was only a couple days away), it resulted in a journal that assisted in future expeditions, as well as the alleged first house in KY (near Barbourville). It also resulted in the naming of the "Cumberland Gap" (in Southeast KY), for the Duke of Cumberland at the time. Walker did not technically name the Gap, but the River below it; throughout time, the surrounding features adopted the name "Cumberland" to match the River.

Later, in 1779-80, Walker surveyed the boundary between KY & TN, which was called "Walker's Line." Surveying techniques at the time meant there were a number of deviations, which assorted people accounted for & fixed over the next 100 years or so, but his basic boundary (at least to the Jackson Purchase region) is still the basis for the KY/TN border. Dr. Thomas Walker died on November 9, 1794. Years later, he was remembered as "Prof. Robertson" periodically wrote to the 1910 Berea Citizen, recording his travels "In Old Ferginny" (as he called it). This excerpt describes a bit of Walker's history, as "Prof. Robertson" recalls it in his August 4, 1901 column. (*Note: This is ONLY an excerpt! And also not in the original format! I have reformatted the columns for easier viewing. Please refer to the hyperlink above for the original newspaper format)

Robert Patterson (1753-1827)
Robert Patterson was another Pioneer & KY founder, as well as visionary, through his efforts in TRULY building the Commonwealth. He came to the state in 1775 with 6 other men and helped build what eventually became Georgetown. Then, he moved on to Harrodsburg and, a year later, returned to Fort Pitt (PA) to attain ammo to defend Bryan's Station during a siege! Three years later (1779), he headed the 25-man team that built the first blockhouse, which became the basis for Lexington. Aside from laying out Lexington, Patterson was elected a city trustee for 7 terms from 1781-1791, then every year between 1796 to 1806. He also participated in the 3rd KY Constitutional Convention, and ultimately became a state representative for Fayette County in the KY General Assembly, serving for 8 years. Aside from his political career, he served alongside George Rogers Clark, John Bowman, & Benjamin Logan in various battles, campaigns & skirmishes against domestic and foreign threats - most notably British & Native American - ultimately rising to the rank of Colonel. He died on November 9, 1827. According to this 1901 announcement in the Bourbon News, his log cabin was eventually moved (and presumably preserved) to Ohio.

Rev. Barton Warren Stone (1772-1844)
Barton Warren Stone was born in Maryland in 1772, and received his first pastorates in Kentucky & Tennessee during the beginnings of what would become the Great Revival. He helped organize the first significant camp-meeting at Cane Ridge, KY, which lasted nearly a week. It attracted thousands of people from all over to listen to sermons, and debate theological & social issues. Some people became so moved they began "speaking in tongues" or experienced "holy jerks."

In 1803, Stone left the KY Presbytery and over the next 21 years, traveled through Kentucky & Tennessee advocating for Christian unity. In 1824, he met Alexander Campbell, who supported a similar movement. Within 8 years, with the help of John Smith, they co-founded 3 new Christian denominations - the Disciples of Christ, the Christian Church, and the Church of Christ. Rev.

Barton Warren Stone died on November 9, 1844, but his religious legacy lived on in many ways, perhaps most controversially through his grandson Charles Chilton Moore, who published the KY religious newspaper the Bluegrass Blade, out of Lexington (most of its short run is available in digital copies are available on KDL). Moore's controversial views & publications involved him in many debates, much like his grandfather, though they also landed Moore in jail. Nevertheless, both Moore & Stone are at the very least nationally known KY trailblazers. This 1902 "Letter to the Editor" from the Bluegrass Blade shows the level of respect attained by Rev. Barton Warren Stone, as a New Yorker opts to name their child in his honor.

Paul Sawyier, in memoriam

2009-11-05T10:09:00.007-05:00

Today we remember the passing of one of Kentucky's greatest artists - Paul Sawyier.

Born into a family of amateur artists (though his sister became a professional painter, as well) in 1865, the Sawyier family moved to Frankfort (where his parents had been raised) when Paul was 5 years old. His father immediately employed Elizabeth Hutchins - an artist from Cincinnati - to provide private art lessons to his children.

Paul continued his art education under another famous Kentucky artist - Thomas S. Noble - at the Cincinnati Art Academy, from 1884-85. In the following 2 years, his crayon portraits were his lifeline. He briefly returned to Frankfort to work at a hemp mill, at his father's request, but left by 1887 to return to his artistic pursuits. Between 1887 and 1888, he created river scenes and landscapes around the capital, as well as his well-known Old Covered Bridge series - 6 copperplate etchings of a Frankfort bridge that closed soonafter.

Over the next few years, he moved between NYC & KY, studying with various artists, including another KY painter Frank Duveneck. He truly began focusing on landscapes and river views in various media (particularly watercolor - probably his favorite and best-known works) in 1891. Finally, in 1908, he simply bought a houseboat, and traveled the Kentucky River, making a living with his passion for 5 years before moving to Brooklyn (though his seeming restless spirit kept him moving around NY state). He died November 5, 1917, and was initially buried in Fleischmann, NY; in June 1923, his remains were moved to the Frankfort Cemetery.

His beloved paintings were possibly best-known in Kentucky, and are still popular today in prints. Though his paintings & etchings are rarely signed or dated, and he kept no diary, many of his more popular prints - and his style - are UNDENIABLY Paul Sawyier. Paul Sawyier originals are quite valuable, and rare, today. Although, as you can see below, in this November 3, 1909 ad from the Richmond Climax, some of his works also appeared in what today might be called an "interior decorating" store of sorts.

*Note: C.F. Brower & Co. was more closely related to furniture. However, in this (and other ads), Sawyier and other artists are listed under the "Art Department." I could find very little about "Brower's," but would love to know more, if anyone has further information regarding this particular store!

A story for the season

2009-11-04T11:26:00.022-05:00

Seeing as how this is the start of not only the season of cold weather (despite all of which we already seen!), and the season of sharing, giving, and the best of humankind, it seems only appropriate to offer something that covers all this and more! Something that reminds us of both physical and spiritual warmth, as well as offering hope for potential of human existence.

Isaac Wolfe Bernheim was born today, in 1848, in Schmieheim, Germany. At 19, he immigrated to the US with $4 in his pocket, hoping to make a life for himself in NYC. When that company when bankrupt, he worked as a peddler in PA, but was forced to stop after his horse died. He settled in Paducah, where he found work as a bookkeeper for a wholesale liquor company. He soon earned enough to pay his brother, Bernard's way to America. Soonafter (1872), with a silent partner, they founded their own distillery - Bernard Brothers and Company. Seven years later, they acquired the trademarked "I W Harper" - a bourbon whisky.

I W Harper became very well-known and popular. It earned a number of domestic and national awards, including a gold medal at the 1903 Chicago World's Fair. It was one of the few brands allowed to continue as a medicinal bourbon. The name - "I W Harper" was never fully explained until shortly before I.W. Bernheim's death, in a 1944 letter. While the I W is self-explanatory, he writes that "Harper" came from a man named Harper who had a horse in the Kentucky Derby. Three years (1882) after the intro of their trademark bourbon, the Bernheim Brothers moved, expanding their distilleries to Louisville. This is a 1901 ad for their Louisville Distillery, from the Kentucky Irish American:

Though the bourbon business proved profitable, the brothers invested in other ventures, such as mining & real estate. They likely lived quite comfortably for their time, but they also invested back into their Kentucky communities. One such example began in 1882 Paducah, after a terrible winter flood left many poor and needy. The Bernheim brothers started a yearly tradition (outlined in this article from page 1 of the December 20, 1909 Paducah Evening Sun) of indiscriminately donating coal to the poor and needy in the city.

I.W. Bernheim also financed, donated & commissioned a great deal of statuary to, and in honor of Kentucky. Many of his donations can still be seen today, including the Abraham Lincoln bust in Frankfort's Old Capitol dome (1910), the Abraham Lincoln that still stands in front of the Louisville Free Public Library (1922), and the only 2 sculptures representing Kentucky (Henry Clay & Ephraim McDowell) in the U.S. Capitol's Statuary Hall. He & Bernard also donated the Thomas Jefferson statue that stands in front of the Jefferson County courthouse. Commissioned in 1899, it was not unveiled until November 1901, due to assorted mishaps. Read these excerpts (respectively: 5/12/1900 KY Irish American, 6/8/1900 Bourbon News, 6/26/1900 Mt. Sterling Advocate, & 11/12/1901 Hopkinsville Kentuckian) below to learn about its rocky journey from Germany to Kentucky.

Probably one of the greatest gifts I.W. Bernheim left to Kentucky was not bought until after Bernard died in 1925, and did not truly fall into place until after Isaac died in 1945 - the Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest in Bullitt County. In 1928, he bought 14,000 acres of worn-out farmland, stripped for mining ore. A year later, he established it as an arboretum & research forest, over time creating lakes on the land & working with the Frederick Law Olmstead Firm to lay out a proper landscape & essentially "restore" it. Finally, in 1950 - 5 years after Isaac died - Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest opened to the public. Ultimately, he and his wife were buried there, exhumed from their initial resting places at Cave Hill Cemetery. Their graves are marked by George Bernard Grey's memorial sculpture "Let There Be Light."

And so it was, in this cold season, yet time of warmth in the human spirit - a German immigrant was born, came to America, and lived the American dream. He gave us something to warm ourselves on cold winter nights, but also gave us an inspirational story of the human spirit - sharing & spreading his wealth & legacy with the earth & with others.

Happy Birthday (again), Daniel Boone!

2009-11-02T10:21:00.008-05:00

Today is Daniel Boone's 2nd birthday! Why does this frontiersman and one of Kentucky's greatest legends have two birthdays, might you ask? Well, that's what I'm here to tell you!

In 1734, Boone was actually born on October 22nd. When he was 18 years old (it's okay, you don't have to do the math - that would be in 1752!), what would become the Eastern US - but was still a British Colony - finally adopted the Gregorian Calendar. This threw off the "Old Style" by 11 days, now making his birthday on November 2nd.

Nevertheless, Boone continued to celebrate his birthday in October throughout his life. Many history books honor this, while some take on the Gregorian date, and still others note both dates or just the year. Part of Boone's Kentucky legacy - Fort Boonesboro, one of the first permanent settlements in the Commonwealth - celebrates the way Boone would have wanted it - in October; a full weekend of "living history" with re-enactors & fun for the whole family. For our purposes, though, I'm offering you a little flavor of both!

*Newspaper clippings: "Boone's Birthday" Bourbon News 5 October 1909, p8.

"Unveiling of Boone's Monument" Berea Citizen 10 October 1907, p. 1.

"Ancient" Victorian Fortune-Telling Rituals

2009-10-28T15:12:00.004-04:00

Today is a little about letting the past speak for itself & a little about me being lazy (LOL). I'm going to let you read this article for yourself (you can get a closer look by clicking on the image or the hyperlink provided below).

Very simply, this writer from the Paducah Evening Sun has provided us with a brief (and somewhat relatively accurate, depending on perspective - but that's what history is all about, now isn't it?) history of Halloween. But the REAL fun comes in the second half of the article, with "ancient" fortune-telling rituals (of course, as true today as it was then, they generally involve love & luck) using candles, nuts, seeds, and mirrors.

Enjoy!

*Note: This is NOT the original layout of this column. To view this article in its original form. See page 7 of the October 26, 1905 edition of the Paducah Evening Sun.

Spirits & Superstitions in Kentucky

2009-10-27T10:34:00.012-04:00

Fear and paranoia make people people do strange things, especially when it has to do with the unknown and "things that go bump in the night." From when we were children, we learned to beware what was unusual and what could not be explained. We learned the superstitions of our ancestors through traditions passed down through family.

One such Deputy Coroner took this advice into practice on Friday, November 13, 1908, when he traveling to Williamson to examine a miner, killed at work. He declared it an accident. His trip home - on a fare of 13 cents - took him all night (a trip that should have been much quicker) whence the power went out. He declared THIS triple combination of incidents "Triple Hoodoo," owing it to the fateful date and the fateful fare. Read the report below from the front page of the November 20, 1908 Hartford Republican.

Despite what our ancestors and tradition tells us, nature might offer a perfectly logical explanation. Two years earlier, a Mr. & Mrs. Isaac Welborn, of Munfordsville, were plagued with strange nightly noises. For all the searching, seeking, and rationalizing, they could find nothing to explain the sounds. The wife insisted their house was haunted! When they could take no more, Mr. Welborn finally removed a stone from their hearth to discover a nest of 42 rattlesnakes living beneath - "haunting" their house! Read their story, reported on the front page of February 16, 1906 Hartford Republican. Nearby Glasgow Junction experienced spooky goings-ons the next year, with a "mysterious rain" coming from a clear sky, and localized under a single tree. The "haunted tree" attracted quite a crowd, including a passing farmer. After listening to the story and looking at the tree, he provided the simple & not quite-so-exciting answer: bugs. Little insects infested this tree, puncturing the limbs, allowing the sap to fall like rain. Hopkinsville Kentuckian, 5 November 1907, p. 4.

Ultimately, whether inexplicable or perfectly natural & logical, sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do! Sometimes, you must face your fears & combat the spirit world head on! Such is the suggestion of this clipping from an unknown author, who talks about getting rid of "old-time ghosts" using a popular style of the time - "local color," which uses an interpretive (and often stereotypical) language. In a brief, amusing story, the narrator describes how the ghosts dragged around heavy chains at night. Finally, deciding this must not only be quite a labor on the ghosts, but had also "gone out o' fashion," the narrator gives the ghosts tin rattles instead. Problem solved! Hickman Courier, 15 February 1907, p. 3.

How do you deal with your superstitions & "things that go bump in the night?" What did your mother/father/grandparents/etc. warn you about & do you carry it on? Do you even realize it? How so?

The Grisly Murder of Poor Pearl Bryan

2009-10-23T09:35:00.019-04:00

{A haunting suggestion by Kathryn Lybarger}

Betrayed by your beloved! A tragic way to go! Wouldn't you want to stick around & share your misery with the world? Pearl Bryan apparently did.

Pearl Bryan came from a wealthy farming family in Greencastle, Indiana, and was dating the son of a local Methodist minister, in 1896. Unbeknownst to her friends and family, her boyfriend, William Wood, had "seduced" her and she was pregnant. He convinced Pearl to get a secret abortion, to be performed by his friend, Scott Jackson and his roommate, Alonzo Walling. These young men were current students at the Ohio College of Dental Surgery in Cincinnati. Surely, they must have the appropriate medical skills! So, on February 1, a 5-month pregnant Pearl left her parents with a lie, and met up with Jackson and Walling in Cincinnati.

Jackson used assorted chemicals, including cocaine, to see to his task - all of which failed. The men carried on, trying dental tools to complete their duty; and failing again. This botched abortion left Pearl afraid and bleeding profusely. Walling, Jackson, and even Wood saw no other option than to "cover the evidence" of what was, at the time, not only one, but two sinful & shameful acts (an unwed pregnancy & an abortion) - they decided to murder Pearl Bryan!

Traveling to Fort Thomas, KY, they cut off her head in what would later be described as a "clean slice" with a dental instrument. Arranging the scene to make it appear as a rape of a prostitute, they abandoned her body behind what is now the YMCA. Her head was never found, though many people tried throughout the years, and there are any number of theories throughout the years as to what happened to it, from being abandoned in a nearby thicket to tossed in the river, and even thrown in the river. People were still "finding" Pearl's poor head over a decade after her murder! Check out these clippings below, from the 1900 Hopkinsville Kentuckian, February 1907 Paducah Sun, & March 1907 Mt. Sterling Advocate, for just a few examples:

Ultimately, Pearl was identified by her shoes - since her head was nowhere to be found. An autopsy revealed the chemicals in her system. Soon after her murder, her killers were arrested and brought to trial by that Spring. Jackson & Walling were found guilty of murder. The trial garnered so much attention, a Barclay & Co. published a book detailing Pearl's tragic death & the ongoing trial by the end of 1896 titled: Mysterious Murder of Pearl Bryan, or, The Headless Horror (digitally available in KDL books). They attempted an appeal, then escape. However, due to the national attention and the outrage felt by townspeople, KY Governor William O. Bradley brought more security to their cells (which foiled their escape attempt). About 13 months after Pearl Bryan's murder, Jackson & Walling were hanged; again, Gov. Bradley made sure to bring extra security.

But this is only the beginning of the story - at least what can be proven in the physical realm that humans can conceivably see & know, without a doubt. Some say, on the gallows, Walling - believing himself an innocent man - cursed everyone involved in the case. And though the newspapers do not directly support this "evil eye" curse, there is a strange coincidence that a large number of people involved in the case of Pearl Bryan's murder, and those who brought her killers to justice mysteriously and/or tragically died within 15 years of her death; else they were brought a string of bad luck. Reporters had a habit of bringing up her name when someone related to the case came ill, whether it mattered or not. This included such people as prominent as the judge (died of a "hemorrhage of the lungs" in 1903) to as overlooked as the African-American who carried her remains (fatally injured in a 1902 accident) to obscure figures, such as C.E. Walling - her murderer's brother - was noted as related to the case, when the Berea Citizen reported him as dying in 1910!

Of course, Pearl Bryan herself has supposedly caused some mischief (though it's not directly accredited to her in this August 10, 1904 Richmond Climax clipping from page 1, it's implied)

And she still allegedly does today, most notably in Bobby Mackey's Music World - a night club & former slaughterhouse in Wilder, KY, with its own sordid history embedded in the building, involving satanic rituals & occultists. One of these legends involves a ritual that placed a curse on the disembodied head of Pearl Bryan before it was tossed down a well in the basement of the building, which is why she haunts the place.

I'm not sure they ever ACTUALLY found poor Pearl's head. Perhaps we will never know, as one story alleges Walling & Jackson kept silent because they feared "the wrath of Satan" (other stories place them as Satanists, as well). Supposedly, when people visit her grave, they leave her pennies, so she can have a head at Resurrection.

What do you think happened to Pearl Bryan's head? Do you think there is a curse on those involved with her murder & the case - even those that brought her justice? What & where do you believe she haunts, if she still does? Do YOU believe?

Happy 199th Bday, C.M. Clay!

2009-10-19T10:43:00.017-04:00

*Note: I have not linked directly to many of the digitized newspaper pages from which these clippings appear, though their citations are available. Many are repeated news items within their respective time periods. Similarly, C.M. Clay himself was a popular news item during his life. For a closer view of these clippings, simply click on them with your mouse.

On this day, 199 years ago (1810), one of Kentucky's most notable figures - emancipationist Cassius M. Clay was born into a family of other historical figures including Brutus Clay, Green Clay (his father), and his second cousin Henry Clay. But, we are here to talk about C.M. Clay's life today.

After graduating from Transylvania University, Clay attended Yale, where he heard abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison speak, and his passion for antislavery began. In 1845, he even began publishing an antislavery newspaper out of Lexington, called the True American. Knowing his paper would face dissension, he reinforced his office door, armed himself with weapons (including a cannon!), and even installed an alternate escape route! His suspicions were correct and, shortly after, the city-folk (including Henry Clay's son) petitioned to have him thrown out of town. The paper moved to Cincinnati, where friends and family continued it while he left to fight in the Mexican-American War, earning the rank of General.

In his political life, Clay served 3 terms in the KY General Assembly. When the Civil War began, he turned down Lincoln's nomination for ambassador to Spain, opting instead to serve as ambassador to Russia. His time in this role proved key to American history, as Clay was influential in purchase negotiations of Alaska.

Throughout this time, Clay never lost his belief in emancipation. After returning from the Mexican-American War (but before leaving for Russia), he assisted Rev. John G. Fee in establishing Berea College by donating 10 acres of land, and encouraging the foundation of a church-based school. Although the school did not truly take off until after the Civil War, Berea would prove to be revolutionary as an racially coeducational institution. Over differences of opinion in how the school should be ran, Fee & Clay parted ways - Clay to Russia, and Fee to run the school (after briefly fleeing Madison County due to threats during the Civil War).

Later, in 1904, other "differences of opinion" further squashed the dreams of the revolutionary Berea with the Day Laws, prohibiting racially integrated education. Though Berea College fought it up through the US Supreme Court, including multiple fines for violations, it held until 1950. View the KY newspaper clippings below from 1904-1905 to see the progression of the situation:

As passionate as Clay was in his political & public life - leaving an undoubtedly strong legacy - it also deeply infiltrated his personal life. C.M. Clay married Mary Jane Warfield in 1833, the daughter of another notable KY figure, horseman Dr. Elisha Warfield. They had 10 children, raised on their Madison County estate, White Hall. However, a busy public life full of ambassadorships, lecturing, advocacy, and campaigning kept him away from the family. In 1878, they divorced.

At the time, existing laws meant essentially all property belonged to Cassius; Mary Jane was left with nothing - he even charged her for back rent from the time she kept house raising his children there! She moved the children to an apartment in Lexington. This devastating divorce had quite an impact on Clay's daughters, particularly two that you my recognize - Mary Barr and Laura. The sisters went on to fight for women's rights - Laura went on to form the Kentucky Equal Rights Association (KERA) in 1888, with Josephine K. Henry, and lobbied with the passion of her father. She became well-known on the national stage, along with her cousin, Madeline McDowell Breckinridge, the great-grandaughter of Henry Clay (but that's another story). Both were present to see the 19th amendment signed by the Kentucky governor, in 1920. Ironically, Laura's father, Cassius, supportive of emancipation was opposed to Prohibition & Women's suffrage. Check out these clippings below - from early 1891 editions of the Bluegrass Blade to see the respect Josephine K. Henry gives Laura Clay for KERA, & Laura's views on women's property rights:

Though these are some of the more enduring pieces of C.M. Clay's legacy, there are other, lesser-known stories. For example, his affinity for dueling (outlawed by the 3rd KY Constitution in 1850), or knife-fighting, in particular. More specifically, his favorite weapon was the bowie knife; he even published a pamphlet on it! His provocative nature continued into his elderly years, and seems to be what brought him "news-worthy" attention in the gossip columns (that and his quick divorce from his second wife, who was quite a bit younger than him. Perhaps these personality traits, which attracted controversy, is what gained him the nickname the "Lion of White Hall." Below are two clippings - one citing his involvement in a fight, when he was 91 years old!!! and the other referencing his nature and nickname, even after death, as he left 6 wills! (His property and estate were ultimately auctioned off, bringing quite a respectable price).

With any number of legacies to choose from, Cassius M. Clay was respectfully remembered for his achievements and contributions when he died on July 22, 1903. Read his elaborate bio, and view a sketch of him and his estate, White Hall, in this Berea Citizen obituary, published July 30, 1903.

Much of C.M. Clay's legacy, stemming from his life, including Berea College & Laura Clay's contributions to women's movement, occurred after his death. Do you think he would have approved of these achievements? Why or why not? Do you think Clay would have approved of his legacy - the one history books typically see; without the provocative & controversy; no knife-fighting or messy divorce? What do you think of the way Clay lived his life?

Crafting a Commonwealth - Kentucky Freemasons

2009-10-16T10:53:00.008-04:00

Freemasonry is generally viewed as a "secret society" involved in conspiracies and, sometimes controversy that formed this country. As one of the oldest fraternal organizations in the world, they actually trace their roots to Medieval Europe and the artisans who made their living from the craft of stonemasonry. Though they do not seek out members, those who attempt to join face high moral and ethical standards, often symbolized by the stonemasons' tools. And although many prominent members of American society were allegedly Freemasons, religion and politics are forbidden in lodge discussion.

Kentucky has its own ties to Freemasonry, going back to the Grand Lodge of Virginia, established in 1778. At this time, Lexington's lodge was numbered 25. However, the masons of Kentucky ultimately broke away, successfully establishing their own Grand Lodge on October 16, 1800; Lexington's lodge was renumbered "1," with many of the original members joining. The Grand Lodge of Kentucky oversaw all Kentucky Freemasons, with William Murray as the first Grand Master.

Many prominent Kentucky politicians and historical figures were freemasons, including Henry Clay. Not only was Clay Grand Master from 1820-21, but he was buried with the organization's symbolic apron on his casket. A number of notable Civil War officers and soldiers, from both sides, were freemasons. But, according with Masonic code, the official fraternal stance took neither side.

Meetings took place on a regular basis, in the Grand Hall, bouncing back and forth between Lexington and Louisville, due to fires and construction. These meetings included a larger convention every year, and smaller "visits" between fraternal officials throughout the year. The meetings included grand meals, for the time. Check out the "menu" below from the Oct. 5, 1900 edition of the Bourbon News. Surprisingly, despite the alleged lack of politics, Kentucky Freemasons showed an apparent support for Prohibition, long before it took a national effect - 12 years, in fact! They may not have been public about it, but at least within their lodges they forbid anyone "engaged in the liquor business," according to this clipping from the Oct. 18, 1907 edition of the Mt. Vernon Signal.

As far as conspiracies & controversy are concerned, Kentucky Freemasons faced an Anti-Masonic movement in the 1820s and 1830s, which severely impacted their membership. Nevertheless, they successfully maintained the Masonic University for nearly 70 years, and sponsored a home for widows & orphans in Louisville, as well as the Old Masons' Home in Shelbyville. They still thrive and contribute to society to this day.

Do you think you could be a Freemason? Maybe even hold a leadership position? Help contribute to society, as well as your fraternal organization? Find out what Kentucky Freemasons were like, and what they were doing on their 101st anniversary from this October 16, 1901 report in the Paducah Sun. Then, find out what made the "Ideal Master" among freemasons, according to the Grandmaster of Utah, in this October 16, 1901 clipping from the Adair County News.

How Do You Draw the Lines?

2009-10-15T09:55:00.008-04:00

As a Commonwealth, Kentucky has continually struggled to establish its geographic boundaries with foreign and domestic entities alike. This began before its birth in 1792, when the original Kentuckians argued with Virginia and the US for statehood. Once established, physical battles, political treaties, and even conspiracies ensued between the US and foreign countries, including Spain and France, to attain and maintain the Kentucky lands and rivers surrounding the state. Of course, the always underlying domestic disputes continued before, during, and after the dust settled with foreign entities.

Again, before Kentucky's official birth as a state, land companies fought over the state, as the Transylvania Company - with Daniel Boone's (who's birthday is this weekend) assistance - illegally bought much of the contemporary commonwealth from the Cherokee. Virginia happily took this land. The Jackson Purchase, conducted by Isaac Shelby and Andrew Jackson on October 19, 1818, completed the rest of the state we know and love today. However, during the Civil War, our status as a border state and the debate of control over the rivers surrounding us caused constant turmoil - to the point of martial law in Kentucky!

However, consistently ongoing is where to draw the lines between our Commonwealth and the surrounding states of Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana. Issues over this have gone all the way to the US Supreme Court, and included bridge-building companies, land ownership, hunting licenses, and, recently, even a rock! Perhaps it has something to do with the inadequate surveying techniques of our forefathers, such as Dr. Thomas Walker, using natural landmarks and other land lots. While he marked the TN-KY border in 1779, it did not include the Jackson Purchase (for obvious reasons). Even once concluded with the 1819 Munsell Line, there were continuous disputes - one man even argued for his KY farm (and won!), so an otherwise relatively straight line has a noticeably discretionary "bump" south into TN. Or so the story goes.

Perhaps it has something to do with the erosion of these natural landmarks. We are after all surrounded by rivers, significantly demarcating KY boundaries. Ownership of an island in the Mississippi between Missouri and KY still causes problems! But the larger problem is where to draw the line in an ever-moving, ever-eroding river? For some reason, pretty much every time someone has brought up this problem to a court, it was during the October sessions. In 1792, it was determined the low-water mark on the northern bank of the Ohio River was the border of Kentucky. After erosion, this mark essentially moved, so the question arose: is it that original low-water mark, or does Kentucky have a floating boundary, so to speak? Such is the ongoing debate with Indiana - or was until 1978.

On October 15, 1978, the Supreme Court decided the original low-water mark (e.g. the 1792 one, which also determines the border with Ohio) was the KY-IN border; a final decision over almost 2 centuries of assorted court cases and disputes between the states. They also determined that the two states should decide "amicably" how to mark it on their own.

To read a better description of the original, 1792 low-water mark of the Ohio River, which determines the KY-IN border in this announcement from the October 9, 1912 edition of the Hartford Herald. It also discusses one of the many court cases brought up about where the boundary lies - in this case, in-state vs. out-of-state duck hunting on the Ohio: which license do you need?

I think this low-water mark, and erosion is the reason you don't see the sign welcoming you to Kentucky until you are a good ways over a bridge. Maybe it's even why the sign occasionally disappears, and shows back up; perhaps in a different place, further back to account for our "floating" boundary. What do you think? Any theories/ideas/opinions about where KY's boundary should be?

The REAL Waverly Hills

2009-10-13T10:48:00.008-04:00

It's October, and everyone knows what that means - time for the ghosts, goblins, and spooky things hiding in the darkness to come out and haunt us! In Kentucky, one of the the allegedly most haunted (at the very least, probably one of the most popular and well-known) sites is Waverly Hills Sanitarium, in Louisville.

Originally purchased and used as a home in 1883, it was converted to a hospital in 1910, during one of many tuberculosis (TB) epidemics. Waverly (also spelled Waverley throughout the years) Hills was merely one of many TB sanitariums throughout the commonwealth. Dedicated on October 12, 1910, it initially housed about 140 patients. However, due to the epidemic, this number quickly rose, and admitted patients overflowed the capacity - even staying in tents! Within 15 years, the building we know as Waverly Hills today was constructed, opening in October 1926.

TB treatments varied from folk remedies, such as cold/fresh air (one such short-lived TB "clinic" focused on this treatment resided in Mammoth Cave!) and sunshine, to medical therapies including surgery to remove ribs or parts of the lung! These treatments did not always work, and eventually antibiotics came along, at which point, Waverly Hills closed (1962). It eventually reopened as an insane asylum; only to close again, 2 decades later (1981), due to accusations of patient abuse.

Though the sanitarium went through various failed plans for use & recuperation, it stood abandoned until 2001, when the son of a former orderly bought it and began offering historical tours and ghost walks, with all proceeds going towards restoration of the property.

To date, Waverly Hills has taken approximately 63,000 lives. Many from tuberculosis, but supposedly some from contemporary satanic rituals.... Who REALLY knows how many of these lost lives still haunt the sanitarium today? Do YOU believe?

Check out the newspaper clippings below to find out more about what the REAL Waverly Hills Sanitarium was like - from its October 12, 1910 dedication (as described in the Nov. 24, 1910 Paducah Evening Sun) to a Conference of Charaties tour, two months later (from December 15, 1910 Berea Citizen); and, finally, read Edward Spelman's obituary from the May 16, 1914 edition of the Kentucky Irish-American - one of the lives lost to TB, early on, at Waverly Hills. I wonder if Mr. Spelman is still "floating" around....

Have you ever visited Waverly Hills Sanitarium? Ever experienced anything supernatural? Seen any ghosts or spooky things? Perhaps spotted Mr. Spelman? Share your ghost stories with us!

"Take me IN to the Ball Game" - 1906

2009-10-12T10:09:00.006-04:00

With baseball season in full swing, so to speak, and the World Series looming, lingering (and for you non-baseball fans - ready to preempt all primetime programming!), we thought we'd get in on the action! Although Kentucky does not have a Major League Baseball team, we do have very strong links to the professional side of the sport.

Probably the best known name in the business is the "Louisville Slugger" - the bat created by the son of a woodworker in 1884, when he escaped from the shop for an afternoon to watch the local baseball team, the Louisville Eclipse. John "Bud" Hillerich secured the bat's name & role in history when he patented the name after taking over the family business in 1894. The Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory still stands in downtown Louisville, demarcated by the giant bat leaning against the building - unbreakable!

Of course, another undeniably, and relatively well-known strong tie is former Governor Albert "Happy" Chandler (1898-1991). Chandler was the Major League Baseball Commissioner for seven years, beginning in 1945. He supported African-American leagues; his reign as commissioner even included the historic contract approval of Jackie Robinson, making him the first professional African-American baseball player (1947)!

Though the list goes on of MLB connections (professional and otherwise), we'll celebrate Kentucky's baseball history with a simple Victorian game of Indoor Baseball from 1906, played with marbles and spools, as described in the November 1, 1906 edition of the Berea Citizen.

The Bloody Battle - Perryville

2009-10-08T13:24:00.004-04:00

In 1862, Union and Confederate forces met just outside Perryville when both were looking for water, after Union bombs interrupted an attempted inauguration of the Confederate governor at Frankfort, forcing them to flee the city a few days earlier. They raged all day in the bloodiest Civil War battle to take place in Kentucky (3638 soldiers dead, 1189 of which are unknown) - ultimately a turning point for the state. The Confederates retreated through the Cumberland Gap, and did not return, with the exception of raiders and guerrillas.

Forty years later, Kentuckians erected a monument outside Danville to commemorate those Confederate soldiers killed at the Battle of Perryville.

Page 5, Paducah Sun, 9 October 1902

Berea Brunch - 1909

2009-10-07T11:05:00.010-04:00

In this day and age, it seems the prices at the grocery store never seem to stop rising! Wouldn't it be great if we lived 100 years ago? Costs of food were lower (a bushel of corn for 80 cents? Oh my!) and you could everything you wanted at the local market, if you didn't grow it or raise it yourself. Then again, you could even buy stock animals - you had to butcher them yourself a great deal of the time; but, hey, what a way to budget! The "Best lambs," straight out of Louisville, for $6.50! Who can beat that? Just check out this ad from the October 7, 1909 edition of the Berea Citizen, and compare it to your local grocery store circular! -------------->

And what to do if you need time to rest while cooking for your adoring husband (even while the women's movement was at its height, upper and middle-class females still held the role of housewife in many ads)? Use the Fireless Cooker and make "Mother's Oats," as the ad on the left describes!

To view this page - Page 4, of the October 7, 1909 edition of the Berea Citizen - in its entirety, on the Kentuckiana Digital Library (KDL) - just click on this link: http://bit.ly/1r4Lsm

Many items from The Rural Blog

2009-09-21T13:49:00.002-04:00

Our friends at the Rural Blog had much to report this week concerning newspapers and the people who make them happen.

Longtime agricultural journalist Bernard Brenner died Sept. 17 of lung cancer. He was 87. Brenner was the longtime farm editor for United Press International, when it was a major wire service, and was president of the Newspaper Farm Editors of America, now the North American Agricultural Journalists, in 1975.

Horace Carter of Tabor City, N.C., publisher of the first weekly newspaper to win a Pulitzer Prize died September 16 after suffering a heart attack. He was 88. The Pulitzer went to the Tabor City Tribune, now the Tabor-Loris Tribune, and The News Reporter in Whiteville, for a "four-year crusade against the Ku Klux Klan that saw 254 Klansmen convicted and 62 sent to the penitentiary or fined," the Fayetteville Observer said in a staff report.

And finally, this:

Rural newspaper publishers are helping the U.S. Postal Service lobby for a bill that would give it some financial relief but continuing to oppose its efforts to win congressional authority to end Saturday mail delivery.

For more on these and other fascinating stories, see The Rural Blog

more newspapers moving online

2009-07-26T12:17:00.003-04:00

Ann Arbor and Tucson among them. Read more.

Movie Making

2009-06-19T10:30:00.002-04:00

We've just returned from a highly successful trip with our NDNP Partners in Washington, DC. There, we premiered (sounds fancy, doesn't it?) our latest video that details the University of Kentucky's background with newspapers and our in-house microfilm-to-digital methodology as part of NDNP.

The video was wildly successful - more than we could have hoped for. We've put it on YouTube if you're interested in seeing it (and we hope you are) plus, NEH and LC will be linking to it from their sites soon. For now.....enjoy it here

KY-NDNP Website

2009-05-11T11:43:00.004-04:00

The KY-NDNP website has gotten a much needed facelift. In addition to the usual "about us" stuff, we've included a "tech talk" page and FAQ.

an innovative idea

2009-05-05T08:34:00.002-04:00

The Silverton Standard & The Miner (Silverton, CO), a small weekly with a circulation of 1,000, was about to die. That is, until the owner donated it to the local Historical Society.

This novel idea, if successful, could be the saving grace for many a small town paper, so reports The Denver Post. The Society is seeking $10,000 in grants to maintain the newspaper.

proud colleagues

2009-04-23T14:32:00.002-04:00

The Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues is receiving this year's Media Award from the East Kentucky Leadership Foundation tonight in Hazard, Ky. "The Institute serves as a public policy center to help rural journalists grasp the local impact of broader issues, find sources, and develop new story approaches," reports Marie Luby of WYMT-TV in Hazard.

The Institute is being recognized for its role helping rural journalists tackle tough stories and keeping rural communities informed. "It's a lot more difficult to be a good, ethical, hard-nosed journalist in a small town than it is a big city because you never know when someone's going to come in, walk right in to your office, no receptionist or security guard, and start banging on your desk about something you wrote," IRJCI Director Al Cross told Luby.

The Institute was founded by the University of Kentucky in 2001 and staffed in 2004 with the hiring of Cross, thanks to a grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. Its initial focus was on Appalachia, and though it quickly became a national program, the region and the state are its homes. The university has adopted the program, which is raising money for an endowment to expand its work.

questionable

2009-04-21T16:09:00.007-04:00

The last post seems to have gotten some heated debate started. Though good debate can be a healthy practice, and we usually live for it, it certainly wasn't the intention of the post to cause hurt feelings. What was also not intentional was to imply that NDNP alone has its finger on the pulse of good preservation or access. Clearly, that's how we were interpreted and, for that, our apologizes.

At it's most fundamental level NDNP has a single directive; to digitize and maintain in perpetuity the nation's public domain historic newspapers. It is not subject to private sector stewardship...There are no sell-offs or acquisitions, no name changes, and no outside funding sources. So, there's little extraneous influence to muddy the waters aside from global developments within the digitization community - which is welcomed and appreciated, most especially by NDNP. A perfect incubator for digital preservation of historic newspapers? Not by a long shot, but there are fewer things to run the train off track.

Mr. Huggins makes a valid point. There is indeed strength in continuity and collaboration. Perhaps, one day when standards and guidelines have been solidified, all digitization participants will make Mr. Huggin's wish a reality. Until that time, the great thing to come from all this is that people are actually reading this blog! So, we'll keep this forum going and hope Mr. Huggins and Mr/Mrs Anonymous will keep reading and posting. You are welcome to say what you think either as yourself or incognito. We welcome both. Just be nice.

Google.....again

2009-04-20T11:25:00.005-04:00

In its continuing endeavour to digitize the world - or buy what's already been digitized as it were - Google has apparently removed some much needed and much used resources by way of PaperofRecord.com. As reported by the American Historical Association, Google bought the content of the website only to remove that content it found aesthetically inferior or out of copyright. After complaints, Google allowed PaperofRecord.com to resurface but only through academic institutions that subscribe to it. In other words, what you got for free before, you now have to go to a location where they're paying for it. "Hegemony" screams some opponents, while R.J. Huggins, founder and CEO of PaperofRecord.com, feels that Google is the only entity that can handle such an enormous task, financially speaking.

Thank Goodness for the vision of NEH and the Library of Congress to institute digital preservation standards and best practices for the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). We can only hope and pray Google is willing to digitize, maintain, and preserve its papers as properly as NDNP awardees. We're not perfect, no no, but we do have a clue about our long-term service to our constituents i.e. every American or those interested in America from any discipline.

Leading by example - that's one of the best things that libraries and archives can do.

AP and lawsuits

2009-04-08T11:08:00.002-04:00

In February of this year, the Associated Press (AP) found itself being sued by street artist Shepard Fairey. AP was in negotiations with Fairey over the use of an AP photo that was transformed into the Obama image we've come to identify with his presidential campaign of hope. AP, having employed the photographer who's shot was the inspiration for the poster, believes they are owed credit and compensation because of copyright laws.

Now, AP has decided they're going to take on Google and other web aggregators for distributing news without compensation to AP and their member newspapers. Searches turn up newspaper articles that are online, then pair them with ads for which the aggregators are paid These ad monies do not go to the originators of said search hits but only to the aggregator.

Europe has already filed suit against Google, blocking them from distributing articles from certain newspapers. (it's unclear if they're blocked from harvesting ) Trouble is, users don't care about the finances - all they want is the information. Google leads them to X newspaper where they find the story that meets their need. What happens if they don't find what they're looking for? Does that suggest the user will troll the Internet until they find the newspaper's website? Does that mean the user will turn to the more traditional avenues of information searching - gasp- a library? What's a reasonable solution that nets the newspapers credit and money without biting the hand that feeds the user i.e. web aggregators?

another one bites the dust

2009-03-17T07:14:00.004-04:00

Just weeks after the 150 year old Colorado mainstay Rocky Mountain News died, the 149 year old Seattle Post-Intelligencer has also folded its paper pages for the last time. It has refocused to provide web only content.

So, again I ask two questions:

1. How do we, as preservation officers of printed history, harvest and preserve web-only content and

2. How do we continue to preserve small, rural newspapers that don't have web content when microfilm services are becoming dinosaurs?

I invite you to comment no matter your position. I'm interested in what you think.

The Dissolution of Newspapers

2009-03-08T14:10:00.003-04:00

The Rocky Mountain News has closed (see link for outstanding photo coverage). Many more major newspapers around the country are dying - bleeding to death financially. It's not that people aren't reading the news, it's just they aren't reading it from paper anymore. The internet has changed everything, including how we get our news. This change in media has far reaching implications for those of us charged with preserving "newspapers".

First, there's saving the paper copies. We already know that we can't save the paper itself - too full of acid and not enough storage space. We generally preserve the content of the paper copies with microfilm. But microfilming operations are dying as fast as the newspaper publishers. Many no longer see the need for it, what with digital being the popular media. Forget that "digital preservation" is in it's infancy. We're just as likely to lose digital data because of some silly power outage as we are likely to have rain in spring.

Then there's what to do with newspapers that are all digital. Few people have the time or expertise to figure out how to harvest and save in perpetuity this digital content because, well, digital preservation is in its infancy.

What about those papers, rural papers for instance, that fall through the cracks - they're not going under and they don't have digital content. Without microfilming directives, who's saving that content?

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on this last pontification. I don't care what your position is; for or against, low-level or high-level staff, researcher, archivist, historian, or newspaper enthusiast. I just want to know what you think.

In Living Color

2009-02-23T08:58:00.005-05:00

We've digitized most of The True American from our microfilm holdings but, recently, we were given a great gift from the Lexington Public Library. They, LPL, hold 13 original issues and were kind enough let us scan them all. With these full color issues, our run of The True American is now a short 10 issues shy of a full run.

(First issue, June 3, 1845)

What's more, The True American will be the first full color newspaper available in the Kentuckiana Digital Library. The excitement continues!

True American

2009-02-06T13:09:00.004-05:00

I'm so jazzed about this title that I can't contain myself anymore.

(pictured above: Volume 1, No. 2, scanned from master negative microfilm)

The True American [sn84024557] was Cassius Marcellus Clay's "Emancipation" newspaper, though the masthead makes it sound much broader than that:

"Devoted to Universal Liberty; gradual Emancipation in Kentucky; Literature; Agriculture; the Elevation of Labor, Morally and Politically; Commercial Intelligence, &c. &c."

Printed in Lexington and Cincinatti (though it always carried the Lexington dateline) from June 3, 1845 - September 21, 1846, The True American was published by William L. Neale with Cassius M. Clay as editor. But, make no mistake, Clay was leading the way.

Clay had heard William Lloyd Garrison, founder of The American Anti-Slavery Society, speak several times while attending Yale University to become a lawyer. Garrison inspired him to do something about the "evils" of slavery, which eventually lead to the press. It put him in a somewhat precarious position, however, as his parents were large slave owning people in Madison County, KY. And, even though the issue had been proposed many times, the majority of the state had rejected abolition because they could never come to terms with compensation for the slave owners or colonization of the slaves. Needless to say, abolition was a hot topic in Kentucky.

According to Herndon J. Evans in "The Newspaper Press In Kentucky"; "Number 3, North Mill Street, was the site of the office, where Lexington was treated to its first newspaper plant armed with two brass cannons, iron barred windows, and an arsenal of Mexican lances and pikes. A trapdoor in the roof provided an escape route in case the editor and his helper found they could not hold the fort in an attack. In the basement, Clay had rigged up an "infernal machine" with a powder keg that he could set off from the outside to blow up the building and whoever was in it should the attackers succeed in taking over the plant."

While The True American falls well outside the current NDNP date range, it is a vitally important paper to the State of Kentucky and will be accessible through the Kentuckiana Digital Library soon. The University of Kentucky Libraries' Special Collections has 45 original issues of some 69 total. They were filmed, presumably in the 1980's, at an admirable reduction ratio with even lighting in the 1A position; together they make excellent digital images.

Stay tuned!

Chronicling America update

2008-12-15T09:39:00.002-05:00

On Friday, December 12, Chronicling America was updated to show all 37 of Kentucky's Phase One titles. They are....

Adair County news

American Baptist

The Bee

Blue-grass Blade

Bourbon News

Breathitt County news

Breckenridge news

Central Record (Lancaster)

The Citizen (Berea)

Clay City Times

Frankfort Roundabout

Frankfort Weekly News and Roundabout

Hartford Herald

Hartford Republican

Hazel Green Herald

Hickman Courier

Hopkinsville Kentuckian

Interior Journal

Kentucky Irish American

Kentucky Reporter

Kentucky Vindicator

Liberty (La Center)

Mountain Advocate (Barbourville)

Mt. Sterling Advocate

Mount Vernon Signal

Ohio Valley Worker

Owingsville Outlook

Paducah Evening Sun

Paducah Sun

Paducah Sun (Weekly edition)

Paducah Weekly Sun

Record (Greenville)

Richmond Climax

Semi-weekly Interior Journal

Sunday Chat

Winchester News

the middle of the end?

2008-12-12T18:47:00.003-05:00

Today it was reported that one of the largest newspapers, Detroit Free Press and partner Detroit News, are considering scaling back their home delivery service to three days only; Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. A formal announcement is expected by Tuesday. This sort of down-sizing is not necessarily unusual for smaller publications but Detroit's is perhaps the largest scale-down to date. Stay tuned. Undoubtedly there will be more to follow.

Crittenden Record-Press

2008-12-11T14:11:00.006-05:00

While evaluating a microfilm reel from 1909 of the Crittenden Record-Press, the following snippet caught our eye:

"Preachers and newspaper editors and correspondents are not the only fools in the world. Did you ever think of that? There are others! And sometimes they talk out on the street. I overheard two of them the other day talking about Masons and Dixons line. Both of them had 'Bug House' qualities that made them eligible for membership in the Gimlet Club..."

The two "Bug House" fools didn't pique our curiosity as much as the Gimlet Club. It was a comic strip by Charles H. Wellington. You can see examples of the Gimlet Club at Barnacle Press. Barnacle briefly describes Gimlet Club members this way; "Membership is by invitation only, reserved for those special bores and blowhards one might see practicing their craft on unsuspecting folks about town."

Kentucky loses top publisher

2008-11-21T22:39:00.001-05:00

From our friends at The Rural Blog comes this: "Thomas E. Gish, who set an inspirational standard for courage in rural journalism, died today (November 21, 2008) amid the Appalachian Mountains he struggled to protect as publisher of The Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg, Ky. He was 82. His wife, Pat, survives, and his son, Ben, is editor of the paper."

one more

2008-11-03T09:30:00.002-05:00

This blog post from a prof/attorney who specializes in copyright law and the Internet.

From Lawrence Lessig's 'about me' page: "Lawrence Lessig is a Professor of Law at Stanford Law School and founder of the school's Center for Internet and Society...For much of his career, Professor Lessig focused on law and technology, especially as it affects copyright...Professor Lessig teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law, contracts, and the law of cyberspace."

...and this

2008-10-29T18:44:00.002-04:00

...from Chris O'Brien at the Mercury News in California. If you're into Brewster Kahle and the Open Content Alliance, you'll want to read this.

there's more in the news today

2008-10-29T12:08:00.003-04:00

more about Google's settlement and future digitization from the New York Times

now what are they up to?

2008-10-28T13:07:00.006-04:00

Just announced was Google's new deal with publishers and authors for in-copyright and/or out-of-print books. This from the Association of American Publishers and this from Google Central. I like Google as much as the next person but I'm starting to feel like they're Microsoft.

Is there a competitor?

At this year's annual NDNP gathering, we talked a lot about the shrinking number of vendors who can meet (or are willing to meet) the NDNP spec. That narrowing margin is making some of us uncomfortable, and understandably so - whatever vendor is left standing can basically call the shots (not that they would but history suggests this could happen). Drawing on my limited knowledge of market lingo, competition is the market's brand of a check and balance system. Without that, who's looking after the consumer?

The first thing that popped into my mind about this new deal was: Knowing that everyone wants digital access means libraries will pay for some goods twice. That could solve a lot of problems, certainly, but it also means someone besides the library is storing what we've paid for and... oh wait, this is starting to sound like journals! There are libraries with obsolete formats that nothing can read anymore because of this behavior...how nice for everyone. Need I go on?

If Google has no competitor for book digitization, then who is going to compete with them on the more tenacious formats like newspapers or A/V? There's NDNP, sure, but at only 100,000 pages in two years from each of us, we can't compete with the volume Google can afford to produce. Forget quality and preservation for now, users want access and they're not going to consider the preservation and quality and, of course, they think Google is all that and a bag of Doritos! They couldn't possible botch this.

Plus, with this new agreement is born the book equivalent of the ASCAP and BMI of music royalty overseers. The Books Rights Registry, they're calling it. So, now I'm thinking: Where does this stop?

Maybe it's not as much a monopoly as it seems. If you can make me feel better about Gargantuan Google, I'm listening!

....Oh, I'll have more to say about Google and newspapers later- thanks to all your comments, keep 'em coming (I promise they'll post much faster from now on).

google and newspapers

2008-10-20T13:57:00.006-04:00

Recently, when Google announced it was getting into the newspaper digitization business, many of us digitizing newspapers already took note. And who wouldn't? It's Google: they do a lot of great things and they've got a lot of money to do more. They've tried their hand at books so it's only natural that newspapers should follow. Their announcement wasn't unexpected.

(Google sample newspaper page)

Nevertheless, it gave us pause to consider the impact(s) this might have on our own digitization efforts in several key areas:

the long-term preservation of the digital data....quality imaging not withstanding (see below)
for those of us funded by grants - our livelihoods
and, most importantly, title selections

I can't imagine Google would have financial worries for maintaining the enormous amount of data these newspapers generate. Even if they save their master files in a compressed format like JPG, JP2 or, God forbid some lesser format, they're still faced with loads of material to save in perpetuity. Choosing the right format and thinking in forever terms are but two issues involved with digital preservation, all of which are beyond the scope of this posting.

As to our livelihoods - between Google and the current economic collapse/crisis, it feels kind of silly to even talk about. Let's just be thankful to have a jobs and leave it at that for now.

But title selection is a different animal altogether. If you're an NDNP awardee, as we are here at the University of Kentucky, then you're bound by the NEH rules. Of particular importance here is the fact that we cannot digitize titles that have been digitized by another entity, whether it's a commercial entity or someone like Google who may make them freely available.

Some argue that there's plenty to go around, and that's a reasonable enough argument. There are millions, if not billions, of historic newspaper pages waiting to be digitized. So, yes, there's plenty to do in that respect. But what happens to "collections"? What happens to their preservation? And who is responsible for those two things?

Picture this: what would you think if you, as a researcher - professional or layperson - landed upon a website that had tons of newspaper pages only to find that just a few newspaper titles are available? Would you feel cheated? Would you feel like you've wasted your time because, now, you have to keep looking for what you need? Or would you feel satisfied?

Take Chronicling America or our own Kentuckiana Digital Library...How strange would it be to look at Kentucky's newspapers at the end of NDNP's 20 year cycle to find we have every historic Kentucky newspaper except Louisa's Big Sandy News or the Kentucky Reporter, for instance? Wouldn't it seem odd for the University of Kentucky - the state's flagship University and Kentucky's sole NDNP content provider - to have everything except those two titles? Would you feel cheated? Would you feel like you've wasted your time because, now, you have to keep looking for what you need? Or would you feel satisfied?

And what would we say, as an arbitor for the state's historic collections and digital preservation, to those newspapers who may have opted to have their titles digitized by Google or some other outfit instead of UK when their stuff comes up missing, corrupt, distorted, or otherwise unusable? "Since you didn't let us preserve the material it's just lost. Sorry about your luck, Mr. Publisher."

In fact, it's not the publisher who stands to lose, but all of us - Kentuckian, American, Global citizens alike. Newspapers are a shared history and should be free to everyone. Further, it seems childish to want anything but the best preservation standards applied to every single page, no matter what your role may be. After all, who are we making this stuff for if not our children, or our children's children? Is it simply to glorify ourselves or is it really because this stuff matters?

I'd like to think it's the latter.

Rural Journalism and...

2008-09-29T10:28:00.003-04:00

...National Newspaper Week....the two important points to mention today.

First, the National Newspaper Week is October 5-11 so, technically, it's next week ,but I thought it was timely to mention since I've had a recent interest in the University of Kentucky's Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues.

It was from the Institute's site that I learned about next week's honor. Just a snippet of their content on the subject: For most newspapers, National Newspaper Week has been a ho-hum activity, often if not usually ignored. Now, with the future of newspapers in doubt, the annual observance may never have been more relevant. The theme this year is somewhat narrow, but still important: the need for paid publication of legal notices in print, as opposed to free and online...We encourage newspapers to fly the flag for public notice, but also to remind readers of the societal value of a local newspaper, something the writers of the Bill of Rights had in mind when they wrote the First Amendment.

More on the Institute for Rural Journalism to come. Stay tuned!

commonwealth defined

2008-09-23T13:17:00.003-04:00

Kentucky is one of four American states designated as a commonwealth; Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Massachusetts being the other three.

What does that mean exactly?

The English noun commonwealth dates from the fifteenth century. The original phrase "common wealth" or "the common weal" comes from the old meaning of "wealth" which is "well-being". The term literally meant "common well-being". ...cite

In the terminology of the United States insular areas, a Commonwealth is a type of organized but unincorporated dependent territory. ...cite

A form of government, named for the concept that everything that is not owned by specific individuals or groups is owned collectively by everyone in the governmental unit, as opposed to a state, where the state itself owns such things; Approximately, a republic ...cite

Paducah Sun

2008-09-22T10:49:00.005-04:00

Paducah’s oldest continuously published daily newspaper, The Paducah Sun began in 1877. After more than 130 years, The Paducah Sun continues to print from its McCracken County home at the confluence of the Ohio and Tennessee Rivers. The Paxton family is still at the helm, having owned the paper since the beginning. Today, The Paxton Media Group owns 32 daily and 7 weekly newspapers in 10 states plus one TV station (NBC affiliate, WPSD – connoting Paducah Sun-Democrat).

titles

2008-09-21T17:59:00.001-04:00

Kentucky newspapers available in Chronicling America and the Kentuckiana Digital Library:

Adair County News
American Baptist
Bee (Earlington)
Blue Grass Blade
Bourbon News
Breathitt County News
Breckenridge News
Central Record
Citizen (Berea)
Clay City Times
Frankfort Weekly News & Roundabout
Hartford Herald
Hartford Republican
Hazel Green Herald
Hickman Courier
Hopkinsville Kentuckian
Interior Journal
It
Kentucky Irish American
Kentucky Reporter
Kentucky Vindicator
Liberty (LaCenter)
Mount Vernon Signal
Mountain Advocate
Mt. Sterling Advocate
Ohio Valley Worker
Owingsville Outlook
Paducah Sun
Paducah Sun Weekly Edition
Paducah Weekly Sun
Paducah Evening Sun
The Sunday Chat
Record (Greenville)
Richmond Climax
Semi-Weekly Interior Journal
Winchester News

Newspapers exclusive to Kentuckiana Digital Library

Afro-American Mission-Herald
News-Leader
Omnibus
Springfield Sun

Titles Earmarked for NDNP Phases II and III digitization:

Big Sandy News
Courier-Journal
Crittenden Press
Daily Public Ledger
Evening Bulletin
Frankfort Roundabout
Herald Ledger
Logan County News
Middlesboro Record
Middlesborough News
Spout Spring Times
Weekly Roundabout

Kentucky Council on Archives

2008-09-16T21:43:00.001-04:00

There's a short piece in the fall newsletter for KCA about Kentucky's historic newspapers. On either end of the piece were articles about blogs and wikis being used by a variety of statewide archives in really thought-provoking ways. It's good to see this sort of movement afoot in the profession.

Incidentally, KY-NDNP now has a facebook group page. If you're on facebook please feel free to join us - it's a global group open to everyone.

did you know?

2008-09-15T21:37:00.001-04:00

Kentucky has 120 counties. The most of any state except Texas with a whopping 254. Yet Kentucky is roughly only 1/6th the size of Texas; 40,409 square miles to 268,820 sq. mi. respectively. Somebody better at math than me could figure out the county size ratio difference....<hint hint>

the first post

2008-09-14T16:18:00.002-04:00

Welcome to the Kentucky edition of NDNP.