We would like to acknowledge and thank the following people for their support behind the scenes in the creation of this project:
Bailey Lake, EKU Open Strategies Librarian
Kelly Smith, EKU Director of Collections and Discovery
Debbie Whalen, EKU Special Collections Librarian
Without their help, this project would not have been possible.
The header image of this website is a collage made out of letters and materials found in the John Wilson Townsend Papers. Housed in Eastern Kentucky University Libraries’ Special Collections and Archives, the Townsend Papers mostly consist of correspondence between Townsend and Kentucky literary figures, including Elizabeth Madox Roberts. These letters offer further insight into Roberts’ personality, which is invaluable since she was known to value her personal privacy. Reading these letters, one gets the sense that she took her writing career and professional identity very seriously, yet there are still hints of her sardonic wit. For instance, she describes her poor health, which often stood as an obstacle to her, as ‘whimsical’.
The collage was created to remediate these materials into a creative textual and visual medium. It consists only of the related Townsend materials, and is entirely made of images digitally cut, copied, and pasted from the original documents.
Images appearing alongside each poem are courtesy of Eastern Kentucky University Libraries’ Special Collections and Archives and the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center. Images were chosen for their aesthetic and thematic relationship to the selected poem. In choosing photos, prints, and art found within the archives, the hope is that these forgotten images and people receive new life and recognition through public enjoyment.
The rediscovery of these images placed alongside Roberts’ previously unpublished material puts these works in conversation with one another, and hopefully both represents a distinctly Kentuckian identity while highlighting the importance of archival work.
“Mt. Pleasant Church,” photograph, Oct. 1967, Richmond, KY, Richmond Daily Register Negatives, 1967-1969, image no. 2012a019-006-001, Eastern Kentucky University Libraries, Special Collections & Archives.
"Unidentified Woman," date unknown, Watts Family Papers, image no. 2017A001-0978, Eastern Kentucky University, Special Collections & Archives.
Ben Hains, “Star Chamber,” 1896, Mammoth Cave, KY, Postcard Collection, 1907-1987, image no. 0020-020-291, Eastern Kentucky University Libraries, Special Collections & Archives.
Elizabeth Madox Roberts, 1922-1932, John Wilson Townsend Papers, 1898-1965, coll. no. 2005A001, box 12, folder 2, Eastern Kentucky University Libraries, Special Collections & Archives.
Elizabeth Madox Roberts, Manuscript Poems of Elizabeth Madox Roberts, date unknown, Townsend Room Collection, 1794-1930, coll. no. 2016A047, box 2, folder 4, Eastern Kentucky University Libraries, Special Collections & Archives.
EKU Photo Collection. "Kitchen with a gas stove, and a table with chair." Eastern Ky Review, Vol. 20, no. 2, (Nov. 1926):31, image no. 0001-005-classes_home_economics-030. Eastern Kentucky University, Special Collections & Archives.
John James Audubon, “Pileated Woodpecker,” date unknown, Postcard Collection, 1907-1987, image no. 0020-020-381, Eastern Kentucky University Libraries, Special Collections & Archives.
Maude Gibson, painter, watercolor painting of trees in the fall, date unknown, Maude Gibson Collection, 1922-1964, image no. 0010-025-013, Eastern Kentucky University Libraries, Special Collections & Archives.
PA61M281: Elizabeth Madox Roberts, undated, Collection on Elizabeth Madox Roberts, University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center.
Photograph of a maple tree, date unknown, Lexington, KY, Roark Family Collection, 1879-1960, image no. 0010-064-12, Eastern Kentucky University Libraries, Special Collections & Archives.
Robert Burns Wilson, painter, watercolor painting of cows and a barn, ca. 1890, Painting Collection, image no. 0020-010-005, Eastern Kentucky University Libraries, Special Collections & Archives.