Tuesday, June 5, 2012


Digital Library Services and Special Collections Announce New Digitized Collections:

Sarah Dorpinghaus, Digital Projects Manager in Digital Library Services, announced three new digitized collections:

The Spencer family collection, 1878-1981 (87M16) has been partially digitized and is now available via ExploreUK:  http://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/xt71rn30375r/guide


The Spencer Family Collection contains diplomas, certificates, printed materials and photographs of the family and descendants of Kentuckian Benjamin F. Spencer.

Spencer family patriarch, Benjamin F. Spencer was born a slave in Kentucky in 1854. He was taught to read along with his owner's son. After emancipation, Spencer became what is believed to be the first African American to be granted a teaching certificate in what had been a slave state. After teaching for six years, Spencer left teaching and opened a boot shop
in Frankfort, Kentucky. This enterprise was maintained by Spencer family descendants into the 20th century. The Spencer family has continued the tradition of academic pursuits established by Benjamin Spencer.

The Otis Prather UK Varsity Handbook student diary (2012ua007) is now available via ExploreUK and the Kentucky Digital Library:  http://eris.uky.edu/catalog/xt7gb56d2s0d/guide  This collection is only available electronically.

Otis Prather was a freshman at the University of Kentucky during the 1924-1925 academic year.  His diary includes handwritten daily entries detailing Prather's activities, classes, movies he saw, the weather, and places he visited as a freshman student at UK. Prather's K-Book also includes a hand-written class schedule and pasted-in photographs and clippings.

The K-Book, sponsored by the YMCA and YWCA, was distributed to new UK students to help them become acquainted with school life and the campus. A small, pocket-sized bound book, it contained the academic calendar, university history information, freshman rules, school traditions, athletic schedules, school songs, and information about student clubs and government. In the 1924-1925 edition, the last 67 pages of the K-Book included one blank line per day for students to use as a diary, specifically as a prompt to "write mother about it."

The University of Kentucky general photographic prints collection is now available on ExploreUK and the Kentucky Digital Library (Beta): http://exploreuk.uky.edu/catalog/xt75736m0s6q/guide

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