The Western Kentucky Folklore Archive

Abstract

The Western Kentucky Folklore Archive is basically a manuscript collection brought together by D. K. Wilgus and housed in Cherry Hall at Western Kentucky State College. The archive was established in 1953 with a small nucleus of material collected by the students in the folklore classes of Gordon Wilson. The collection has grown through student contributions, field collection by its director, and deposits such as the manuscript collection of Josiah H. Combs and the songs collected by Herbert Halpert and his students at Murray State College. Though the materials represent a wide geographical area, the archive is important primarily as one of the two significant repositories of the collected folklore of western Kentucky