Collection is open to researchers by appointment.
Gift, 2000.
Collection is arranged alphabetically by format. The Wade Hall Collection of American Letters has been processed into discrete collections based on provenance.
Love Cecil Calbert (1901-1986) was born in Louisville, Kentucky to William Calbert (1869-1939) and Hester Calbert (1873-1957). He attended either the Kentucky State Normal School for Colored Persons (now Kentucky State University) or the Lincoln Institute. He taught and was the principal at Alachua County, Florida Vocational School for approximately one year, and then taught in the Agriculture Department at Maddoxtown High School in Lexington, Kentucky – both African American schools. In 1925, he married Colela M. Jackson (1901-1990), and shortly after that, Calbert switched professions to a full-time mail carrier for the Louisville Post Office, retiring in 1965.
American Letters collector Wade Hall (1934-2015) was a native of Union Springs, Alabama. Starting in 1962, he lived in Louisville, where he taught English and chaired the English and Humanities/Arts programs at Kentucky Southern College and Bellarmine University. He also taught at the University of Illinois and the University of Florida. He held degrees from Troy State University (B.S.), the University of Alabama (M.A.), and the University of Illinois (Ph.D.). He served for two years in the U.S. Army in the mid-fifties. Dr. Hall was the author of books, monographs, articles, plays, and reviews relating to Kentucky, Alabama, and Southern history and literature. His most recent books include
2009ms132.0173: [identification of item], Wade Hall Collection of American Letters: Love C. Calbert papers, 1923-1965, University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.
The Love C. Calbert papers (dated 1923-1965; 0.13 cubic feet; 8 folders) comprise letters, school reports, and programs and certificates that document the personal and professional life of Love Calbert in Kentucky and Florida in the mid-twentieth century. The letters are mainly from Calbert's friends, Whitney M. Young and George A. Johnson, both educators like Calbert. Young's letters mostly concerning fundraising and the opportunity to visit each other when available. Johnson's letters discuss his position as principal at Howard High School in Wilmington, Delaware; purchasing cars and property, the construction of a state of the art high school for African Americans, and measures he took to protect him and his family from the Ku Klux Klan operating in the area. There are a few letters from Calbert to his then-girlfriend, Colela Jackson, that discuss her finishing up her studies and what tests she would have to take to become a domestic science teacher. Also in the collection are progress reports for the two schools Calbert worked at, Alachua County Vocational School and Maddoxtown High School; the commencement program for the first commencement of the Louisville Municipal College for Negroes, and a retirement citation from the Unites States Postal Service.
The Love C. Calbert papers are part of the Wade Hall Collection of American letters, which includes correspondence and diaries from all over North America covering the time period of the Civil to Korean Wars. The materials were collected by Wade Hall and document everyday men and women.
The physical rights to the materials in this collection are held by the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.