KOHC Awards Oral History Grants

Administered by the Kentucky Historical Society, the Kentucky Oral History Commission grant program offers funding, equipment, and training grants to assist amateur or professional oral historians with oral history research projects on topics of particular significance to Kentucky. These grants encourage statewide participation in the collection and preservation of historically valuable interviews.

The Kentucky Oral History Commission met recently and awarded the following grants:

Transcription Grants:

#616: Painting a Legacy

"Painting a Legacy" is an oral history project, supported by KOHC's grant 546, capturing Louisville's midcentury Black art scene. The interviews document two historically overlooked art collectives, the Gallery Enterprises and the Louisville Art Workshop. The project expands the current narrative on Louisville modem art, and African American art history in the region, by recentering the influence and influences of the artists affiliated with these collectives including international stars: Sam Gilliam, Bob Thompson, and Kenneth Young. The UofL is the repository because most participants are alumni, and their perspectives complicate and complement the histories preserved in that collection.

#625: Kentucky Understories: Woods and Waters of the Commonwealth: Blanton Forest Oral History Project

The Kentucky Understories, Woods and Waters of the Commonwealth: Blanton Forest Oral History Project is a collection of interviews about Blanton Forest, an old-growth forest on Pine Mountain in Harlan County, conducted by former University of Kentucky history graduate student Emma Kiser. In the 1990s, state-employed ecologist Marc Evans identified Blanton Forest as an old-growth forest, which prompted a successful statewide campaign supported by local residents to protect the old-growth forest for future generations. This collection includes 4 interviews from scientists and local residents who share their knowledge, experiences, and the values they place on Blanton Forest.

Project Grants:

#617: Sister of Loretto Agnes Ann Schum Oral History Project

Kentucky storytellers Leah Raidt (they/she) and Meg Whelan (she/her) are working in collaboration with 90-year-old Sister of Loretto Agnes Ann Schum to record the story of her life through a series of 10 oral history interviews. Born in 1935, Sister Agnes Ann's story is one of a justice-oriented, sharp-minded woman who lived a life of extraordinary throughout the 20th century, firmly planted in Kentucky. To our knowledge, this is the first intergenerational oral history project which aims to document in-depth the experiences of one Kentucky woman religious through conversation with young queer Kentuckians.

#620: Ashland Estate Oral History Project

As a member of the local community and as a Black Diasporan descendant of enslaved peoples, I am interested in exploring the lives of enslaved Africans, African Americans and their descendants that were owned by Henry Clay and his family within the entirety of the Ashland plantation landscape which consists of over 600 acres of land. ). This oral history project is meant to highlight the stories of local individuals that either live on or have a continuous relationship with Ashland Estate in some way (i.e. financial, recreational, educational, occupational, etc.), and Black Diasporan descendant communities that share a familial and/or local cultural relationship with their enslaved ancestors of the Ashland plantation landscape.

Since its founding in 1976, the KOHC has awarded over $1 million to more than 600 individuals, colleges, universities, and community organizations. This funding has resulted in the collection of over 35,000 interviews stored in repositories across the state. Additionally, nearly 10,000 interviews have been secured within the KHS Collection, making it one of the largest collections of its kind in the United States.

For more information about KOHC, and the grants available, click here.