Memorializing Kentuckians at War- OVPR Curate Program

The "Memorializing Kentuckians at War" web exhibit and digital humanities project is a project of the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center (SCRC). The website uses an Omeka.net site to enable searching and browsing the transcribed names and counties of residence of Kentucky war dead (from World War I through military conflicts ending in 2015) and the names, counties, and biographies of University of Kentucky war dead (from World War II and the Korean War). The names and biographical data were transcribed by SCRC employees from sources including the original memorial panels (or tablets) on display from 1950-2024 in the University of Kentucky Memorial Coliseum, from the panels of names in the University of Kentucky Memorial Hall, and from 1947 and 1954 "Gold Star" memorial issues of the Kentucky Alumnus magazine. CURATE funds supported the work of UK undergraduate student Matthew Mitchem, who transcribed the World War I names and the Gold Star biographies, created metadata from the biographies, imported all the spreadsheets of data, and developed the website and its functionality. University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto has often spoken about the importance of remembering Kentuckians who served and died in military conflicts in the 20th century. The "Memorializing Kentuckians at War" web exhibit and digital humanities project is one of the most important steps to continue this memorialization in the 21st century. More about the project can be read at https://kentuckyveterans.nunncenter.net/aboutproject and in the article, "The Task of Archiving" in the summer 2025 Kentucky Alumni magazine (page 27). For summer 2025, Mitchem was awarded a UK College of Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research Award to continue research on the Kentuckian war dead from World War I and to continue updating the website.