The Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral Historyhttp://www.uky.edu/libraries/nunncenter at the University of Kentucky

University of Kentucky

The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...

 actively collects oral history interviews concentrating on 20th and 21st century Kentucky history, and maintains a collection of over 8,000 interviews made up of over 100 projects. The Center's emphasis has been on political, Appalachian, agricultural, athletic and veterans' history. The Nunn Center for oral history is part of the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections division.

Nunn Center History

The oral history program at the University of Kentucky Libraries was begun in 1973 by Charles Atcher. The program was directed by Terry Birdwhistell, Ed.D. from 1974 until 2005, followed by Jeffrey Suchanek. Since 2008, the Center has been directed by Doug Boyd

Douglas A. Boyd

Douglas A. Boyd is an oral historian, folklorist and author and currently directs the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky. He graduated from Denison University with a B.A. in History and graduated from Indiana University with an M.A. and Ph.D. in Folklore...

, Ph.D.]. The Center is named after former Kentucky Governor Louie B. Nunn

Louie B. Nunn

Louie Broady Nunn was the 52nd governor of Kentucky. Elected in 1967, he was the first Republican elected to that office since Simeon Willis in 1943 and the last to hold it until the election of Ernie Fletcher in 2003....

. Major projects have included the Family Farm Project, the Colonel Arthur L. Kelly Veterans Oral History Project, oral history projects on University of Kentucky

University of Kentucky

The University of Kentucky, also known as UK, is a public co-educational university and is one of the state's two land-grant universities, located in Lexington, Kentucky...

 history, African American history in Kentucky, Kentucky writers, Kentucky's medical history, the history of professional baseball, as well as more recent project featuring the Horse Industry in Kentucky, as well as on the Kentucky General Assembly.

The Collection

The Nunn Center contains over 8,000 interviews featuring a variety of individuals and projects. Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History has aggressively undertaken efforts to digitize its collection and in 2008 launched the OHMS online interface that synchronizes searchable text to audio and video. This system, designed by Nunn Center director Doug Boyd (in partnership with Digital Library Services at UK) allows users to link from their search results tom the coeprresponding moments in the interview. link. OHMS was featured in an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education in July 2011.

In October, 2011, the Nunn Center launched SPOKE, the online catalog containing records for each interview and project.http://www.kentuckyoralhistory.org

FEATURED PROJECTS

• Alben Barkley
• Black Church in Kentucky
• Blacks in Kentucky
• Blacks in Lexington
• Anne Braden Oral History Project
• Edward T. Breathitt
• Buffalo Trace Distillery
• A.B. "Happy" Chandler
• Christian Appalachian Project
• Earle C. Clements
  Earle C. Clements
  Earle Chester Clements was a politician from the US state of Kentucky. He represented the state in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate and was its 47th Governor, serving from 1947 to 1950...
  
  
• Bert T. Combs
• John Sherman Cooper
• Country Doctors and Nurses
• Harry Caudill
• Horse Industry in Kentucky
• Family and Gender in the Coal Community
• Wendell H. Ford
  Wendell H. Ford
  Wendell Hampton Ford is a retired politician from the U.S. state of Kentucky. He served for twenty-four years in the U.S. Senate and was the 53rd Governor of Kentucky. He was the first person to be successively elected lieutenant governor, governor, and U.S. senator in Kentucky history...
  
  
• Frontier Nursing Service
  Frontier Nursing Service
  The Frontier Nursing Service provides healthcare services to rural, underserved populations and educates nurse-midwives.The Service maintains six rural healthcare clinics in eastern Kentucky, the Mary Breckinridge Hospital, the Mary Breckinridge Home Health Agency, the Frontier School of Midwifery...
  
  
• History of Broadcasting in Kentucky
• History of Education in Kentucky
• History of Medicine in Fayette County, Kentucky
• Walter D. Huddleston
• Immigrants in Coal Communities
• Interscholastic Athletics in Kentucky
• Col. Arthur L. Kelly American Veterans Project
• Veterans of World War Two
• Veterans of the Korean War
• Veterans of the Vietnam War
• From Combat to Kentucky: Student Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars http://www.c2ky.org
• Kentucky Coal Operators
• Kentucky Conservationists
• Kentucky Family Farm
• African American Farmers
• Family Farm Project
• Tobacco Production Technology and Policy
• Kentucky Folk Art
• Kentucky Legislature http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/b/bib/bib-idx?c=legohkuk&cc=legohkuk;page=simple
• Kentucky Writers
• Thruston B. Morton
• John Jacob Niles
  John Jacob Niles
  John Jacob Niles was an American composer, singer, and collector of traditional ballads. Called the "Dean of American Balladeers", Niles was an important influence on the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s, with Joan Baez, Burl Ives, and Peter, Paul and Mary, among others,...
  
  
• Louie B. Nunn
  Louie B. Nunn
  Louie Broady Nunn was the 52nd governor of Kentucky. Elected in 1967, he was the first Republican elected to that office since Simeon Willis in 1943 and the last to hold it until the election of Ernie Fletcher in 2003....
  
  
• Peace Corps
  Peace Corps
  The Peace Corps is an American volunteer program run by the United States Government, as well as a government agency of the same name. The mission of the Peace Corps includes three goals: providing technical assistance, helping people outside the United States to understand US culture, and helping...
  
  
• John Ed Pearce
• Politics in Lexington, Kentucky
• Edward F. Prichard
• Race Relations in Owensboro-Daviess County, Kentucky, 1930-1970
• Stanley F. Reed
• Roving Pickets in the Coal Fields
• Cora Wilson Stewart
• University of Kentucky Medical Center http://www.mc.uky.edu/medicine50/oralhistories.html
• Urban Appalachian Women in Cincinnati, Ohio
• Fred M. Vinson
  Fred M. Vinson
  Frederick Moore Vinson served the United States in all three branches of government and was the most prominent member of the Vinson political family. In the legislative branch, he was an elected member of the United States House of Representatives from Louisa, Kentucky, for twelve years...
  
  
• War on Poverty
  War on Poverty
  The War on Poverty is the unofficial name for legislation first introduced by United States President Lyndon B. Johnson during his State of the Union address on January 8, 1964. This legislation was proposed by Johnson in response to a national poverty rate of around nineteen percent...
  
  
• Robert Penn Warren
  Robert Penn Warren
  Robert Penn Warren was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the influential literary journal The Southern Review with Cleanth Brooks in 1935...
  
  
• Robert Penn Warren Civil Rights Project http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/b/bib/bib-idx?c=oralhistbib;cc=oralhistbib;page=simple
• Lawrence W. Wetherby
• Charles T. Wethington Alumni/Faculty Project

External links

• Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History
• Nunn Center Blog "Saving Stories"
• From Combat to Kentucky Oral History Project: Interviews with Student Veterans
• University of Kentucky Libraries
• Curiosities and Wonders: News and interesting items from the University of Kentucky Archives and the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History
• Nunn Center Twitter Feed
• Nunn Center's online catalog www.kentuckyoralhistory.org