Saving Stories

A cultural center known for chronicling Appalachian life is cleaning up and assessing its losses. Like much of its stricken region, Appalshop has been swamped by historic flooding. The water inundated downtown Whitesburg in southeastern Kentucky, causing extensive damage to the renowned repository of Appalachian history and culture. Some losses are likely permanent, after raging waters soaked or swept away some of Appalshop’s treasure trove of historic material. Dr. Doug Boyd, director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History and colleagues from the UK Libraries traveled this week to Appalshop to help save as many irreplaceable materials as possible. In this special edition of WUKY’s award winning history program Saving Stories, Doug talks about the devastation he saw and highlights the special relationship the Nunn Center has with Appalshop.

It's Pride Month and WUKY's award winning history segment Saving Stories marks the milestone with a look back at the brief but impactful run of Cafe LMNOP; a popular nightspot which was located near the UK campus. Doug Boyd with the Nunn Center for Oral History in the UK Libraries shares an interview with the club's brainchild Bradley Pickelsimer.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of the federal civil rights law known as Title IX which changed the game for women’s college athletics. Back in the spring of 2021, as part of our salute to Women's History Month, WUKY’s Award Winning History program, Saving Stories, featured an interview with Sue Feamster, the UK women’s basketball team’s first varsity coach. We're revisiting that segment with Dr. Doug Boyd from the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History in the UK Libraries.

We are heading into Juneteenth weekend – a holiday where we observe the official emancipation of African American slaves at the end of the Civil War, and in this segment of WUKY’s Award Winning History series, Saving Stories, Doug Boyd from the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History in the UK Libraries highlights an interview with long-time racial and social justice activist Jim Embry. Embry explains how the roots of his activism stretch all the way back to Juneteenth.

Memorial Day is a federal holiday where we pay tribute to the men and women in uniform who died defending our country. In this special edition of WUKY's award winning history series Saving Stories, Nunn Center director Doug Boyd tells us about their collection of powerful stories about war and remembrance. Louis Stockton Bower served as a company commander in the Army, and trained troops in the United States before he was sent to Europe. After amphibious training in England, he took part in the invasion of Normandy, where his division was almost entirely annihilated by the Germans. Bower describes his encounters with injured Americans, an enemy soldier disguised as an American, and a young German he killed in battle.

WUKY's award winning history program, Saving Stories; featuring interviews from the Nunn Center for Oral History in the UK Libraries, commemorates International Nurses' Day with a story about the Frontier Nursing Service which introduced the first nurse-midwives to the United States. Founded in Leslie County by Mary Breckinridge, the nurses of the FNS would travel by horse to some of the most inaccessible regions of Eastern Kentucky. Betty Lester, a recruit from Great Britain shares her memories of her first day in the mountains.

WUKY's award winning history program, Saving Stories; featuring interviews from the Nunn Center for Oral History in the UK Libraries, commemorates International Nurses' Day with a story about the Frontier Nursing Service which introduced the first nurse-midwives to the United States. Founded in Leslie County by Mary Breckinridge, the nurses of the FNS would travel by horse to some of the most inaccessible regions of Eastern Kentucky. Betty Lester, a recruit from Great Britain shares her memories of her first day in the mountains.

To some, Lexington businessman W.T. Young is known as the namesake of the University of Kentucky’s iconic library building, to others he’s the entrepreneur who built a peanut butter brand and sold it to P & G, and in the world of thoroughbred racing he’s the man who molded Overbrook Horse Farm into a powerhouse breeding facility. In fact, in 1996, Grindstone, a three-year old colt owned by Young, won the Kentucky Derby, beating out Cavonnier by a nose at the wire. In this Derby week edition of WUKY’s award winning history series Saving Stories, Nunn Center for Oral History director Doug Boyd shares audio of a 2001 interview with the now legendary Lexingtonian.

In this episode of WUKY's award winning history program Saving Stories, Dr. Doug Boyd, director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History in the UK Libraries introduces us to several women who have told their stories for a collaborative project with UK's Writing, Rhetoric and Digital Studies program on women in the bourbon industry.

In this Women’s History Month edition of WUKY’s award winning series Saving Stories, Nunn Center Director Dr. Doug Boyd shares audio from three recent interviews with local women who participated in the 1964 March for Civil Rights in Frankfort.