Programs, Presentations & More

Looking for a speaker? Our staff provides presentations on Kentucky topics (both in-house and throughout the state) for historical, civic, and literary groups. Many of these presentations include slides, displays and period costuming. In some cases, travel expenses and other fees may apply. Contact the individual for scheduling and arrangements.

Nancy Baird | Jonathan Jeffrey | Sue Lynn McDaniel | Timothy Mullin | Sandra Staebell

Nancy Baird

The Philistines are Upon Us:
Bowling Green During the Civil War
During the Civil War Bowling Green was occupied by a Confederate army for five months and Union troops for more than three years. What was it like to live with these "Philistines?" How did they view residents of south central Kentucky?

Louisville Sculptor Enid Yandell
The sculpture of Louisville native Enid Yandell (1869-1923) has been exhibited on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Her best known works include the statue of Daniel Boone in Louisville's Cherokee Park and the statue of John Thomas in Nashville's Centennial Park.
This is a slide presentation. 

Emanie Nahm: Rebel With a Cause
Her literary critics compared the 1924 novel Talk, by Emanie Nahm (1893-1981), to Sinclair Lewis' Main Street. But Bowling Green's residents believed she had portrayed them in the novel and they disliked what they saw!

Elizabeth Underwood: A "Mere" Woman
The Underwood Collection contains about 400 letters written between Joseph Underwood (1791-1876), then sitting in the U.S. Senate,and his wife Elizabeth (1816-1886), in Bowling Green with their four children. Frequently referring to herself as a "mere woman," Elizabeth's witty letters are filled with town gossip and details on every day life -- supervising the family farm, hiring farm and domestic workers, collecting his fees, paying the family's bills, educating, medicating, and disciplining the children and planing a fine new home. His letters are filled with reports about political and social life in the nation's capital and the "rascals" in congress.

Kentucky's First Physician-Governor: Luke Blackburn
His contemporaries called Dr.Luke Blackburn (1816-1887) a philantropist, a good Samaritan and a mass murderer. What was the truth about the first doctor who served as Governor of Kentucky? Was he a saint or sinner?

Additional talks

Contact nancy.baird@wku.edu or call 270-745-6263


Jonathan Jeffrey

Finger Lickin’ Good:
  The Story Of Colonel Harland Sanders
Fried chicken king Harland Sanders was a native of Indiana, but his rise to fame began in a lunchroom behind a gas station in Corbin, Kentucky. There Sanders perfected the recipe and preparation technique that led to the Kentucky Fried Chicken empire. Jeffrey tells the story behind what may be the most recognized Kentucky name and image in the world.
Lectern; screen (or large, light-colored wall) for slides; display table.

Edgar Cayce, American Clairvoyant
Few natives of Kentucky have left a legacy as peculiar or perpetual as that of Edgar Cayce. Jeffrey’s slide-illustrated talk will examine the life and significance of this Kentucky clairvoyant. Born in Christian County in 1877, Cayce began experiencing unusual visions at age 12. His famous career as a psychic produced 14,000 recorded psychic readings, a number of books, and an organization dedicated to his teachings.
Lectern; screen (or large, light-colored wall) for slides.

Duncan Hines: A Culinary Entrepreneur
In this talk, Jeffrey explores the culinary odyssey of Duncan Hines, a Kentuckian who became one of the most recognized names in advertising history. A native of Bowling Green, Hines first won fame for his travel guides and cookbooks. Eventually, his name appeared on products ranging from ice cream to charcoal grills, and it’s still on the most popular of those products – packaged cake mixes.
Lectern; screen (or large, light-colored wall) for slides; display table.

Contact jonathan.jeffrey@wku.edu or 270-745-5083.

Sue Lynn McDaniel

Annie Fellows Johnston and the Little Colonel
An 1894 visit to Pewee Valley, Kentucky inspired Indiana native Annie Fellows Johnston to write her popular children’s book The Little Colonel and its many sequels, most of them set in Pewee Valley. Displaying items from her Little Colonel collection, McDaniel invites you to visit Annie Fellows Johnston’s world.
Lectern; small table for display.

Fun Little Thing Called Love
Leap Year, Sadie Hawkins’ Day celebrations, Spinsters’ Conventions, “Old Maid Auctions” and “Backward Dances” are special events that suspend the usual American courtship “rules” for proper young ladies and gentlemen. Using comic postcards, newspaper accounts and other period sources, McDaniel explores these occasions when The Rules simply do not apply.
Lectern; small table for display.

Just Bummin’: Courtship in 1890s Kentucky
One 1890s etiquette manual declared the days prior to women’s engagements as "the period of greatest freedom they will ever know." Lattie Robertson of Bowling Green described her daily activities in diaries of 1889 and 1890: sewing, reading, napping, loafing, courtin' and "just bummin’." McDaniel presents Kentucky courtship customs based on Lattie's diaries, dance cards, photographs, contemporary postcards, scrapbooks and newspaper accounts.
Lectern.

Miss Fannie the Flirt
Born in 1870, Fannie Morton Bryan grew up in Russellville and graduated from Logan Female College. At age eighteen she began to keep a diary. Drawing on that diary as well as contemporary magazines, newspapers, and etiquette manuals, McDaniel explores Fannie’s world of adolescents who pass the time in courtship and flirting.
Lectern.

Learn more about Sue Lynn McDaniel

Contact sue.lynn.mcdaniel@wku.edu or 270-745-3246

Timothy Mullin

Tea Time
Follow the story of the introduction of tea to the western world, and find out the closely kept secret that surrounded tea production. From the dark triangle of the opium trade to the British Opium wars, huge fortunes were made in the tea trade. Once taken to Europe or America, tea was the most valuable possession most people had and it was locked away, often in elegant tea chests. Learn the customs and lifestyle that grew up around the social aspects of drinking tea in polite society.
A tea tasting might accompany this talk.

How Does Your Garden Grow?
From ancient times, the pleasure garden was the purview of the rich, but that began to change with the rise of the middle class in the early 1800s. Learn how the aristocratic English Naturalistic Style of the mid-18th century becomes the standard for every aspiring Victorian suburb. Discover when exotic shrubs like Forsythia were introduced into our gardens, or when perennial beds become the rage. Does your front lawn still reflect the tastes of Capability Brown 200 years later?

Tying the Knot
Wedding ceremonies and customs have changed greatly over the last 200 years, and wedding dresses from America’s past would hardly be recognized today. Learn how our ancestors celebrated tying the knot in years gone by.....where the event was held.....who attended.....and who got invited to the reception. And then, there was the honeymoon....another event our modern culture would hardly recognize.

With All My Heart: the History of Valentines
The chaste and celibate St. Valentine would roll in his grave at the events carried on in his name. From the time of the Restoration court of Charles II, Valentines Day has been celebrated in bawdy fashion, rejected as tasteless, or thought of as a day for children. Find out how our ancestors observed Valentine’s Day before the advent of commercially made cards...and learn about the cottage industry started by Ester Howland that grew into a major business that was transformed into Hallmark.

Contact timothy.mullin@wku.edu or 270-745-6258

Sandra Staebell

Whoop, Hoop, Hurrah:
Victorian Clothing and the Dress Reform Movement
This slide program explores the types of clothing and undergarments that Victorian women wore. It discusses the often harmful effects such clothing had on women and reviews efforts by some physicians and dress reformers to change what women wore.
Lectern; screen (or light colored wall) for slides.

Fabric Footnotes: Kentucky Women and Their Quilts
A slide presentation that incorporates material taken from oral histories and interviews, this program examines some of the reasons why Kentucky women have made quilts. For some, quiltmaking is purely functional while for others it provides a creative or emotional outlet. The talk also explores what will be considered the traditional quilt of tomorrow.
Lectern; screen (or light colored wall) for slides.

Carrie Taylor:
Bowling Green Dressmaker and Entrepreneur
Learn about Carrie Burnam Taylor, a Bowling Green resident who lived in a time when women had limited options but still managed to build a successful dressmaking business that built a reputation among women living throughout the American South.
Lectern; screen (or light colored wall) for slides.

Bill "Whitey" Sanders: World View
For more than 34 years, Bill Sanders has used editorial cartoons to critique the conduct of America's elected representatives as well as offer general commentary on American society. A 1955 graduate of Western Kentucky State College, the cartoonist worked at Pacific Stars and Stripes, Greensboro Daily News, Kansas City Star and Milwaukee Journal. This slide program features a selection of cartoons that cover a wide range of social, economic and foreign policy issues and were drawn during six presidential administrations.
Lectern; screen (or light colored wall) for slides.

Contact sandy.staebell@wku.edu or 270-745-6260