Bowling Green, Ky. - The “Recommended by Duncan Hines” exhibit is only one of many changes that is planned for the Kentucky Library and Museum over the next four years.

In the coming months, an additional 10,000 square feet of museum space will be opened to the public.  In order to achieve this, a secure, remote storage facility is being created for the bulk of the collections. 

The first new gallery spaces opened will be devoted to the museum’s outstanding collection of quilts and decorative arts.  Furniture which descended through the family of Benjamin Franklin will be on display, the art collection of Perry Snell will come out of storage and be seen for the first time in corporate memory, Kentucky–made furniture and silver and glass collections will all have an opportunity to be seen in the decorative arts gallery space.

Currently, a staff member or volunteer must be available to operate the elevator and chair lift, which sometimes makes it difficult for everyone to have full access to the building.  Soon both the elevator and chair lift will be modified and will become self-operated, making the Kentucky Building easily accessible to everyone.

The Orientation Room will be transformed into the Western Room, a carpeted space with wood wainscoting, tiered seating, built-in display cabinets, and high tech audio/visual displays. It will be a space where prospective students and their families can be introduced to WKU.

These are only a few changes that are coming to The Kentucky Library and Museum over the next four years. 

HISTORY OF THE KENTUCKY BUILDING

Since first conceived in the early 1920s, the Kentucky Building’s purpose has been to educate others about the history of Kentucky, its people and culture. 
The Kentucky Building, which houses The Kentucky Library and Museum, had a modest beginning.  It started with Gabrielle Robertson, a faculty member who taught Kentucky history.  She had a difficult time finding resources for her students and began to collect books and other materials and place them in a special room in the library.  Assisting her were Frances Richards, who taught Kentucky literature, and librarian Florence Ragland.

At the same time, President Henry Hardin Cherry, first seeking support from the General Assembly and later through private contributions, envisioned The Kentucky Building.  For WKU students, The Kentucky Building would be a center for the study and teaching of Kentucky history, geography, literature, people and culture.  For the public, it would serve as a permanent repository for documents and artifacts that might otherwise be lost, “an ideal environment for the promulgation of the story of Kentucky’s life.”

In 1928, President Cherry asked Western’s architect, Brinton B. Davis, to begin work on plans for the 40,000-square-foot, Colonial Revival style structure that would include reception areas, classrooms, museum galleries and library reading rooms.  Three years later, in 1931, construction began, but money quickly ran out due to the Great Depression.

The Kentucky Building finally opened in the fall of 1939.  The collections continued to grow, and by the 1970s, additional space was needed.  A new wing, opened in 1980, greatly expanded the Kentucky Library and Museum to a 75,000 square foot building, offering information about the Civil War, World War II, Kentucky authors, Mammoth Cave, early university life, Kentucky ancestors, folklore, South Union Shakers, and politics.

The extensive collection includes diaries, quilts, music, clothing, maps, letters, oral histories, furniture, toys, political memorabilia, scrapbooks, decorative and fine arts as well as an 1815 log house. 

More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.

For more information, contact Timothy Mullin, Library Special Collections Department Head, at (270) 745-6261, or Cindy Troutman, Marketing Coordinator, University Libraries, at (270) 745-4502.

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