Special Collections & Archives   Tags: special collections & archives  

From the Berea College Selma to Montgomery Oral History Collection
(Berea College Archives, RG 14.06)

Jane Matney Powell, one of the several Berea students who participated in the Selma to Montgomery March, remembers Dr. King’s words in Montgomery.

“I think the one thing that you always got with Dr. King was the sense that we are here together because we have a purpose. You cannot let others distract you from your focus and this is a battle we have to fight, and have to win.  We have to do it in a non-violent way and for your children’s children to have any opportunity in this country, we have got to do this now.”

The Berea College Women’s Basketball Oral History Project, both audio and transcripts, are now available online.

The collection includes twenty interviews recorded by Tom Chase in 2008, with former players, coaches, and others who were involved in varsity (intercollegiate) women’s basketball during the sport’s first three decades at Berea College (early 1960s to 2008).

Questions were designed to illuminate the whole person, not merely the athlete. Former players were asked about their home communities, hopes and expectations as students, campus labor assignments, and what they studied. They were also asked to reminisce about their teachers, coaches, classmates, and teammates and to reflect on what benefits they have derived from their experiences as Berea College students and athletes.

The Berea College Women’s Basketball Oral History Project can be browsed in Berea Digital.

For more information on other oral history collections available, please visit the Berea College Oral History page.

24 Aug 2012
(by Harry Rice)

Shannon H. Wilson, long time Berea College Archivist and most recently Head of the Department of Special Collections & Archives will leave Berea in August 2012 to follow his clergy person wife who has accepted a call to Calvary Episcopal Church in Tarboro, North Carolina.

Shannon began working in the Kentucky archives community in 1984 at the KDLA, before coming to Berea in 1985 as Project Archivist on the Settlement Institutions of Appalachia Project, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 1986, Shannon became College Archivist at Berea, a position he held until 2006 when he became Head of the Department. Shannon has served on the KCA Board (1988-1992), the Lincoln Bicentennial Commission College and University Subcommittee, the Kentucky Craft Education and History Association, and as Archivist for the Appalachian Studies Association. He has been a faithful servant within the KY Episcopal community, including work as archivist and consultant with the Episcopal Dioceses of Lexington and Christ Church Cathedral, also leading the Episcopal student group on Berea’s campus.

As colleagues and friends we hope you will join us in thanking Shannon for all his contributions and in wishing him much joy and success in his new adventures!

Aug 2012
(by JMB/HR)

Southeastern Kentucky Vietnam Combat Veterans Oral History Collection added to the Southern Appalachian Archives (SAA 156)

This collection consists of audio recorded interviews with 22 southeastern Kentucky military veterans who served in combat during the Vietnam War. Generally the interviews focus on the personal, social, and emotional aspects of wartime military service instead of technical accounts of battles, logistics, and military operations. Subjects include personal military experience (being drafted or enlisting), education (military training, life lessons), food, communication, humor, friendships, travel, relationships, medical treatment, veterans’ activities, and effects of military service on later life. The interviews were recorded between May and September 2011 by Jerry L. Clark. Jerry Clark is a Vietnam combat veteran who grew up in Whitley County, Kentucky. After military service he completed bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees and worked as a clinical social worker for the United States Department of Veterans Affairs.

25 May 2012
(From Harry Rice)

SC&A Celebrates Preservation Week, 22-28 April 2012

Hutchins Library's Special Collections and Archives is preserving many hours of traditional music, college events and oral history. Done over many years, these recordings were made on now obsolete audio and video tape for which play back equipment is no longer available. The various formats (as pictured) are being digitized and stored first on external hard drives and eventually on servers in the Computer Center. DVD view copies are available in Special Collection and many of the recordings will soon be available online via Library Guides and Berea Digital.

Former Sound Archives Fellow Mary Ruth Isaacs awarded a KY Oral History Commission Project Grant

“Hidden Treasure: Rediscovering the Scrivener-Moore Coal Mines in Jackson County, Ky.,” project director Dr. Mary Ruth Isaacs, Williamsburg, Whitley County and Jackson County.

This project seeks to provide information on an area of Kentucky that few researchers or historians have explored. Interviews will be solicited from individuals who lived in the Scrivener-Moore Coal Mining community in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s. Individuals will be asked to discuss their opportunities for job creation and advancement, ways of life, work and living conditions and traditions. Information from these interviews will be published in books and journal articles, and presented to the citizens of Kentucky and students at the University of the Cumberlands.

19 March 2012
(from John H. Bondurant)

Head of Special Collections on His Knees for Patron Needs

On Wednesday, 25 January 2012 Head of Special Collection & Archives at Berea College Shannon H. Wilson was spotted kneeling on the floor while answering a phone call from a patron.  At the very same moment, Mr. Wilson was also on duty in the Reading Room where several researchers needing additional boxes of manuscripts and audio files were awaiting his return, his cell phone was also ringing, as well as his office phone down the hall. 

When asked for comment regarding the incident, Mr. Wilson replied, "It is all in a day's work here in Special Collections & Archives.  We are a very busy and well-utilized repository.  All of us work hard to keep up with the phone calls, messages, emails, research requests, and in-house researchers as quickly and cheerfully as possible."   

Berea student Amy Morgan, who was serving reception desk duty at the time, witnessed the series of events.  "I don't think people on this campus realize all that we do here in Special Collections.  Shannon and Harry and Jaime work so hard; we have many visitors coming here for research.  And the student workers get to do some really neat projects.  Right now I am creating perservation housing for Curio books." 

Additional student workers and researchers in the area agreed that this sort of thing happens regularly, but no other witnesses came forward for comment.

26 January 2012
(by JMB)