Oral History Commission awards $55,700 in grants

For oral history projects

FRANKFORT, Ky. (July 8, 2016) — The Kentucky Oral History Commission (KOHC) today announced $55,700 in fiscal year 2015-2016 grants to support oral history projects. Grants support both new projects and the transcription and indexing of existing oral history interviews, and are intended to encourage statewide collection, preservation and making accessible historically valuable interviews.

New oral history project grant recipients are:

• Capital City Museum Oral History Project: $1,750 to capture the memories and experience of living community members as they related to the political and economic development of Frankfort in the 20th century.
• Kentucky Springs: Narratives on Localized Water Knowledge, Community and Stewardship: $2,129.37 to collect oral histories about roadside springs in Kentucky. These natural resources are surviving remnants of the public commons and often mark very early human settlements.
• Louisville Underground Music Archive Project Oral Histories: $1,800 to document the history of Louisville’s rock/indie/punk/hardcore music scene from the late 1970s through the current era.
• Louisville’s Public Art: Creators, Collaborators and Consumers: $3,150 to record stories and recollections about the creation and history of Louisville’s public art collection.
• Oral Histories of the Kentucky River at Frankfort: $2,900 to document the changing relationship between Kentucky’s capital city and the Kentucky River.
• The African American Experience in Segregated Hopkinsville: $3,584.75 to capture the African-American experience in the years before desegregation and during the years in which racial barriers were being challenged and broken down in Hopkinsville’s public life.
• The Kentucky Chili Bun Trail: $3,040 to document the lives of Eastern Kentucky through the lens of the chili bun, a working-class food with ties to the Great Depression, pool halls, the intricate railroad system, and the coal mining industry of the 20th century.
• The Musical Legacy of South Central Kentucky: $3,073 to document the experiences of men and women who have been involved in the musical scene of South Central Kentucky.
• Voices of the Forgotten War: Northern Kentuckians in the Korean Conflict Oral History Project: $1,280 to collect the personal narratives of Northern Kentucky military veterans who served during the Korean War era (1950-1953).
• Stinking Creek Stories Oral History Project: $5,000 to gain insights into the experiences of residents of Stinking Creek in Knox County, related to changing agriculture practices and the impact of the Lend-A-Hand Center, a small nonprofit organization on the creek.
• Appalachian Horse Oral History Project: $3,228.75 to document the Rocky Mountain horse’s origin in Eastern Kentucky and its roles on the farm, as transportation and for recreation.
• Centre Goes to War: World War II Experiences of the Centre College Community: $5,000 to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II and the 200th anniversary of Centre College by conducting oral history interviews with people who worked or studied at Centre and also served during World War II.

Projects that received transcription/indexing grants are:

• A Harlan County Legacy: $3,600 to improve and develop the public access and use of the SKCTC Oral History collection.
• Being Loretto amid the Needs of the Late 20th Century: $2,650 to collect and transcribe individual oral histories to capture the stories of Loretto members doing peace and justice work in the last half century.
• Kentucky Craft History and Education Association Indexing Grant: $2,340 to index the Craft Luminary Project, 78 hours of recorded video interviews with craft artists, craft organization representatives and craft conservationists, who have had an impact of craft development in the state.
• Kentucky County Judge Project: $2,580 to index a collection of oral history interviews of Kentucky County Judges which spans the state and focuses on the judicial referendum of 1975.
• Small Towns Indexing Project: Burgin, Junction City, Ravenna, and Silver Grove: $1,707 to index 66 interviews that cover such significant historical themes and topics as the Great Depression; World War II; military service; education trends and practices; religious life; and local governments, businesses and industries.
• The Bosnia Project: $1,590 for work on a collections of interviews the Kentucky Folklife Program conducted from September 2015 to February 2016 which document the Bosnian-American community of Bowling Green. Approximately 10 percent of Bowling Green’s population is Bosnian-American.
• Lincoln County Oral History Transcription: $1,920 to transcribe the oral history collection of the Lincoln County Public Library.
• Folklorist-in-the-Park at Mammoth Cave National Park Transcription: $3,378 to transcribe 32 interviews from an ethnographic survey of the Mammoth Cave National Park region in south-central Kentucky.

More information on grant recipients, including project directors and repositories that will hold the materials, is at history.ky.gov/grant-recipients.