A Day in the Life of a UK Student: April and May 1911
LEXINGTON, Ky. (May 1, 2015) — In celebration of the University of Kentucky sesquicentennial, UK Special Collections Research Center is releasing the diary entries of former student Virginia Clay McClure. The diary chronicles the day-to-day activities of McClure's junior and senior years at the State University of Kentucky (now UK) from 1910-1912. McClure's 66-68th undated diary entries chronicle a "wedding" between friends, time spent doing various crafts and arts, a "Co-Ed" feast, an invitation to "The Marvedas" and time spent at a lecture by U.S. Rep. Boyd Winchester. The entries are believed to fall in late April and early May, 1911.
Undated entry 1
Some of the ribbon from the “wedding.” Grace was the groom and Marion the bride. Ethel made a good minister. The Parlors were decorated very prettily and so was the dance hall, when we afterward had a “Co-Ed.” Had some trouble to get a suit, but “Johnny” helped me out. Had lots of fun, but had to stop dancing too soon.
Friday night Lillian “caught on” to a joke! Lillian and I had lots of fun, behind locked doors, getting ready for our feast. Bernice taught Jessie Mit how to weave baskets in the mean time, and tried tatting. “Necessity is the mother of invention” so Lillian and I invented a new way to do pen and ink sketches, as is portrayed on the next page. We all went to town in the afternoon, but didn’t do much.
Inserted with McClure's first undated diary entry is a poem related to the "Co-Ed" feast.
Undated entry 2
We all eat in the middle of the floor, and “behaved well” as everybody was tired.
McClure inserted next to her second undated entry is a large ink sketch and menu for the Co-Ed feast chronicled above.
Undated entry 3
In McClure's third undated entry she inserts several mementos from her experiences. The first item inserted is a newspaper clipping that reads, “Miss Katherine Barbee delightfully entertained for Mrs. Humphrey’s Sunday school class at her beautiful country home Friday night. Misses Edith Stivers, Edna Sothard, Jessie Milton Jones, and Virginia McClure of Patterson Hall were among the guests.
Had a good time, but oh the mud!
The next item inserted with the undated entry is an invitation to “The Marvedas” held by the Young Ladies’ Club of Central Christian Church.
Edna wrote our R.S.V.P. Went to “Taps” in the chapel, because of the rain. Pretty decorations for the dance.
McClure then inserts a small crocheted flower.
My first rose!
The last item inserted with the third undated entry is a fragile newspaper article detailing a lengthy lecture of Hon. Boyd Winchester, a U.S. Rep. from Kentucky.
Bernice, Edith, and I sat for oh! How many hours!
More on Virginia Clay McClure
Virginia Clay McClure, a native of Mt. Sterling, Kentucky, graduated in 1912 with an AB degree and received her master’s degree in 1928 from UK. After receiving her AB, she taught for a year at Middlesboro, Kentucky, another year at Paducah, Kentucky, and seven years in Cynthiana, Kentucky. After this, she returned to Lexington, where she taught for nine and a half years in the Fayette County schools. At this point, she took two and a half years off of work to complete her doctorate.
The first woman to receive a Ph.D. from UK, McClure said that her department chairman did not “want a woman to get a doctor’s degree.” In spite of those words, McClure received her doctoral degree in American history in 1934.
Her dissertation was “The Settlement of the Kentucky Appalachian Region,” about which “nothing had been done before.” McClure did significant original research for the dissertation and made several trips to Eastern Kentucky with Katherine Pettit, who had taught in settlement schools, including Pine Mountain School, which she helped to establish.
McClure planned to teach at the college level but after finishing her dissertation in the midst of the depression, colleges were laying off faculty rather than hiring them. She then joined the Fayette County School system, then Lexington City Schools, and taught United States history and government at Henry Clay High School from 1934-1959. A position that she found quite rewarding.
The UK alumna and educator was very active in the community. McClure was a member of Central Christian Church and Kappa Delta Pi Honorary, Kentucky and National Retired Teachers associations, Salvation Army Auxiliary, Cardinal Hill Hospital Auxiliary and numerous historical societies. She was also a charter member of the Lexington Rose Society, twice serving as president, and was a member of the American Rose Society.
McClure passed away in 1980 at 91 years of age.
The Virginia Clay McClure papers are housed at the Special Collections Research Center and include a diary/scrapbook, a photograph album and other assorted photographs related to McClure's time as an undergraduate at State University, Lexington, Kentucky from 1910-1912. The scrapbook includes clippings, small artifacts, programs and invitations, but the bulk of the material is McClure's many personal writings. The photograph album and loose photographs also document this time period and include photographs of her UK classmates (many of whom are identified and also mentioned in her scrapbook); class trips and events (such as Arbor Day); and women playing basketball among other casual snapshots.
This story on UK's history is presented by UK Special Collections Research Center. UK Special Collections is home to UK Libraries' collection of rare books, Kentuckiana, the Archives, the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, the King Library Press, the Wendell H. Ford Public Policy Research Center, the Bert T. Combs Appalachian collection and the digital library, ExploreUK. The mission of the center is to locate and preserve materials documenting the social, cultural, economic and political history of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Diary transcriptions completed by senior Taylor Adams, Special Collections Learning Lab intern and history major from Ashland, Kentucky.
MEDIA CONTACT: Whitney Hale, 859-257-8716; whitney.hale@uky.edu