Archives & Special Collections

Ready to leave your stamp on history? UofL Archives & Special Collections (ASC) is celebrating Welcome Week 2026 by handing out five unique postcards with images from our collections. Stop by our table in the first-floor lobby of Ekstrom Library to grab one of them (while supplies last), a sticker, and explore showcards from our past exhibits.

Tabling times:
* Friday (8/14) - 2:30-4 PM
* Monday (8/17) - 9:30-11:30 AM
* Tuesday (8/18) - 10:30 AM to 12:30 PM

Image description: This post contains five images, each a collage that includes vintage showcards for exhibits created by ASC and a promotional sticker and postcard.

As the fall semester approaches, we’re reflecting on summer moments with these “Summertime America” photos from the Standard Oil (New Jersey) Photograph Collection! While photos in the Standard Oil collection are typically organized by region, this grouping was intended to capture classic summer moments from all across the country. Check out more from SONJ on our digital collections page!

Note: These images are cropped due to Instagram aspect ratio limitations. Visit us in person to see full images and more details about them.

Image details:
1. Pennsylvania turnpike, 1955, photo by Carroll Seghers, item SONJ_80965_m23 in the Standard Oil (New Jersey) Collection, Archives & Special Collections, University of Louisville.
2. Refreshment stand on U.S. Highway 29 near Charlottesville, VA, photo by Carroll Seghers, item SONJ_80957_m23 in the Standard Oil (New Jersey) Collection
3. James River near Charlottesville, VA, 1955, photo by Carroll Seghers, item SONJ_80957_m17 in the Standard Oil (New Jersey) Collection
4. Jacksonville, Fl, 1955, photo by Carroll Seghers, item SONJ_80942 in the Standard Oil (New Jersey) Collection
5. Near Bridgetown, New York, 1955, photo by Carroll Seghers, item SONJ_80940_m37 in the Standard Oil (New Jersey) Collection
6. Southern US, 1955, photo by Carroll Seghers, item SONJ_80973_m30 in the Standard Oil (New Jersey) Collection

We’re just gonna leave this here….

Found in our digital collections – the sometimes silly side of Louisville history. We may have had the “planking” fad in 2011, but in mid to late 1920s there was “pole sitting,” where people would sit or stand on top of a pole for extended periods of time as a test of endurance. The fad mostly died out after the beginning of the Great Depression.

This image shows Jimmy "Barberwreck" Jones standing on top of flagpole to promote a local baseball player on June 24, 1928. Handwritten on the bottom of a related mounted print, a note reads: "Francis Xavier Schuler - St. Matthews Civic Leader and Hudson, Essex Auto Dealer. Located at Shelbyville Rd & Chenoweth Ln. Led 500 St. Matthews rooters to Parkway Field to honor Clarence 'Wiggles' Nach and a St. Matthews boy who played for Louisville Colonels. Colonels led by Bill Meyer (Mgr.) Beat Toledo twice. Managed by Casey Stengel. The flag pole standee was Jimmy Jones who remained aloft 57 hours & 40 min. on a scheduled 75 hr. stand. The year was 1928."

Image details:
Item Number ULPA P_02890 in the R. G. Potter Collection, University of Louisville Archives & Special Collections

Happy ! Today we’re featuring two fine prints currently on display in the Julius Friedman Gallery by photographer (and former Louisvillian) Sarah Lyon.
Women-as-objects and marvelous tourist destinations have long featured prominently in mass-market yearly calendars. But with these photographs, Lyon takes a different approach to calendar content. By traveling around the country to photograph female mechanics, Lyon provides representation of empowered women who feel comfortable doing work they have largely been excluded from. In turn, these women feel safer traveling alone, a privilege that is still not guaranteed. This series illustrates how redefining a worthy travel destination — in Lyon’s case, anywhere there is a female mechanic — can help us build better travel conditions for everyone.

Visit us in the lower level of Ekstrom library to see these prints, along with other travel photographs, in our exhibit “Chasing the Shot: Travel Photography Off the Beaten Path!”
Image details:

1. Sarah Lyon, “Kerry Sano,” 2007, Fine Print Collection, Archives & Special Collections, University of Louisville
2. Sarah Lyon, “Katie Putman,” 2007, Fine Print Collection, Archives & Special Collections, University of Louisville

⚠️ We will be closed Thursday, July 16th for a staff retreat! Our normal hours, 10am-5pm M-F, will resume on Friday, July 17th.

Image details: Item number ULPA_1998_011_440, Furnace Family Album Collection, Archives & Special Collections, University of Louisville.

Fourth of July scenes – 100 years ago! These photographs, taken in 1926 by Caufield & Shook Studio, are from a 4th of July celebration at Rose Island Amusement Park just across the river in Charlestown, Indiana. Rose Island was opened in 1923 by David Rose. In its heyday it included a wooden roller coaster, a Ferris wheel, a dance hall/skating rink, and caged wolves and monkeys for entertaining patrons. An appealing feature of visiting the park was that it wasn’t accessible by car. Visitors could either access the park via steamboat (including the Idlewild, now called the Belle of Louisville), via a swinging footbridge over Fourteen Mile Creek, or by a Ferry from the Kentucky shore.

Although the park didn’t survive the flood of 1937, its remains can still be visited today in Charlestown State Park.

Image details:
Item numbers CS_073913 through CS_073920 in the Caufield & Shook Collection, Archives & Special Collections, University of Louisville.