A Day in the Life of a UK Student: Nov. 23, 1911

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LEXINGTON, Ky. (Nov. 23, 2015)  In celebration of the University of Kentucky sesquicentennialUK 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 134th diary entry from Nov. 23, 1911, talks about attending a parade, the football game against Central (a Richmond, Kentucky, college that later merged into Centre College in Danville, Kentucky) and attending a performance at Lexington Opera House of the operetta, "The Chocolate Soldier," by composer Oscar Straus based on George Bernard Shaw's 1894 play, "Arms and the Man."

November 23, 1911. Go to the first and second hour classes, and then watch the Parade start, the Seniors, of course, in the lead. Have no Logic, but go to Physiology and come away in the rain! Oh, that it should rain on this day of all days! But no matter, everybody went and there were just many umbrellas! Mary and I kept our engagement and stood on the first seat. Shall we ever forget it! Many old football men were here for the game. Dick Barbie, Priest Kemper, and several others. Oh the mud — the boys just had to plow around. But "Doc" Rhodes always skipped toward the right goal. Harrison blocked a kick the prettiest! Jake Gaiser, Johnson, Tom Earle, Less Guyn — in fact every one of the eleven played a grand game. That field goal that Less Guyn kicked! We all went wild with joy. When Central played "Hail, hail", Roy Porter yelled back, "We've cut out all such things as that! We don't sing that anymore." 8 to 5 isn't a big score, but it counts the right way! Well! Well! Well! So this is Central? Oh joy!

In celebration of the game, Addie and I go with a crowd to the show. Though we sat on the "top row" and suffered as to the knees, our experience of two years ago wasn’t repeated. It was bum! Bum jokes, bum chorus, bum all the way through. Lieutenant Bumerli was truly named!

Inserted next to her Nov. 23, 1911, diary entry McClure included a listing for the operetta "The Chocolate Soldier" and her ticket stub for a balcony seat at the Lexington Opera House.

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, Kentuckian, 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