Research Guides: HON 308W/312W/320W Learning in Place: Research Guide: Books

Introduction

Books and other published materials can be primary or secondary sources, depending on the topic. Typically, published materials (books, magazine and journal articles, and newspaper articles) are considered primary if they are written at the time about a particular event.

Sometimes, published primary sources are accounts by participants; but in most cases, they are written by journalists or other observers.
Please note that there is a difference between material written at the time of an event as a kind of report (a primary source) and material written much later as historical analysis (a secondary source).
Published materials can also contain reprinted primary sources, such as speeches, letters, or government documents.
When looking at secondary sources, see what sources they are citing. Citation tracing or tracking may be a great way to find primary sources on a particular topic.

EKU History: Example Publications

These are some of the published materials covering the history of EKU and the Model Laboratory Schools.

The Eastern Progress
Eastern's student newspaper. Coverage includes 1922-2005, 2009-2013. A card index covering 1922-2000 is available. Please stop by to view the index in person.
Three Decades of Progress: Eastern Kentucky State Teachers College, 1906-1936
A history of the first three decades of Eastern Kentucky State Teachers College, written by the faculty. Includes information on early buildings, subjects, and people. Published in 1936.
Five Decades of Progress: Eastern Kentucky State College 1906-1957
A history of the first five decades of Eastern Kentucky State College, written by the faculty. Includes information on early buildings, subjects, and people. Published in 1957.
Looking Back by Richard A. Edwards (1972)
This title includes the following nine essays: Lincoln's Background and the Berry Family; Pioneer Catholics in Kentucky; Columbus Shepherd in Trimble County; The Founding and Beginning of the K.H.S.A.A.; Miss Maude Gibson and the Normal School; Eastern's Library, First Quarter Century; History of the Model Training School; History of Eastern Progress and Milestone; and Looking Back Seventy Years.
A History of Eastern Kentucky University: The School of Opportunity by William E. Ellis (2005)
Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) in Richmond, Kentucky, celebrated its centennial in 2006. EKU has had a colorful history, from the political quandaries surrounding the inception of its predecessor institutions to its financial difficulties during the Depression to its maturing as a leading regional university. Reflecting on the social, economic, and cultural changes in the region over the last century, William E. Ellis follows each university president's administration in the context of the times. Interviews of alumni, faculty, staff, and political figures add to the story.

Kentucky Education: Searching for Publications

To get started with finding sources on education and Kentucky, check out the results under the following two searches:

Library search for: education kentucky
- Search bar is at library.eku.edu. Results as of September 20, 2021: 536,038
Special Collections search for: education kentucky
- Search bar is at archives.eku.edu under the "Special Collections" tab. Only shows items that are located in EKU Special Collections & Archives. Results as of September 20, 2021: 347

To narrow down the search, try adding terms, such as autobiographies, biographies, diaries, history, finance, public, rural, higher, appalachia, adult, women, african american, or special. Or try adding Limiters, such as Publication Date, Formats, and Library Location. The Government Documents location, for example, is a great source of primary materials.

Kentucky Education: Example Publications

The titles below are examples of published primary and secondary sources related to education and Kentucky. Some of the more recent titles are available as eBooks.

Kentucky School Journal
Publication of the Kentucky Education Association. Covering 1925-1972.
Kentucky Rural School Standards (1923)
Suggestions and regulations for standardizing small rural schools. Prepared under the direction of George Colvin, superintendent of public instruction.
The Thread That Runs So True by Jesse Stuart (1949)
An autobiographical look at his experience as a school teacher in the hills of Kentucky. With eloquence and wit, Stuart traces his twenty-year career in education, which began, when he was only seventeen years old, with teaching grades one through eight in a one-room schoolhouse. Before long Stuart was on a path that made him principal and finally superintendent of city and county schools.
Advancing Education in Kentucky: Challenges, Processes, Outcomes, 1956,1957,1958,1959
A review of the administration of Dr. Robert R. Martin, Superintendent of Public Instruction during the years 1956-60. Includes speeches and reports regarding the implementation of the Foundation Program Law. Published in 1959.
Rosenwald Schools in Kentucky, 1917-1932 by Alicestyne Turley-Adams (1997)
An introduction and documentation of the Rosenwald Schools in Kentucky. The Rosenwald fund and other philanthropists founded these schools in an effort to provide quality public education to the African American community. Prepared for the Kentucky Heritage Council and the Kentucky African American Heritage Commission.
Fifty Years of Segregation: Black Higher Education in Kentucky, 1904-1954 by John A. Hardin (1997)
John Hardin reveals how the history of segregated higher education in Kentucky was shaped by the state's inherent, though subtle, racism. Civil racism indirectly defined the mission of black higher education through scarce fiscal appropriations from state government. It also promoted a dated nineteenth-century emphasis on agricultural and vocational education for African Americans well into the 1920s. Racial prejudice also played a role in the complex leadership struggles within the ranks of black higher education.
Cora Wilson Stewart and Kentucky's Moonlight Schools: Fighting for Literacy in America by Yvonne Honeycutt Baldwin (2006)
Cora Wilson Stewart (1875-1958) was an elementary school teacher and county school superintendent in eastern Kentucky who, in the fall of 1911, decided to open the classrooms in her district to adult pupils. Convinced that education could eliminate the poverty that plagued the region, she founded the Moonlight School movement, ultimately designed to combat illiteracy. The movement's motto, "Each one teach one," characterized education as the responsibility of every literate citizen. Stewart's Moonlight Schools caught on quickly, and when the state legislature created the Kentucky Illiteracy Commission in 1914, they were operating throughout Kentucky as well as in other states. Cora Wilson Stewart and Kentucky's Moonlight Schools examines these institutions and analyzes Stewart's role in shaping education at both the state and national level.
A History of Education in Kentucky by William E. Ellis (2011)
William E. Ellis illuminates the successes and failures of public and private education in the commonwealth since its settlement. Ellis demonstrates how political leaders in the nineteenth century created a culture that devalued public education and refused to adequately fund it. He also analyzes efforts by teachers and policy makers to enact vital reforms and establish adequate, equal education, and discusses ongoing battles related to religious instruction, integration, and the Kentucky Education Reform Act (KERA).
Tales from Kentucky One-Room School Teachers by William Lynwood Montell (2011)
This book provides descriptive accounts of what the one-room school era was like for teachers, students, and the wider community, encompassing school infrastructure, school events both typical and unusual, teacher-student relationships, and other factors relative to the culture of an educational system that began in pioneer times and ended during the 1950s to the 1970s, primarily in the 1960s.