Object Record
Images
Metadata
Object Name |
Cane |
Catalog Number |
2005.45.11 |
Maker |
Clark, Dr. Thomas D. |
Date |
ca. 1990 |
Material(s) |
Wood/Cane/Rubber; |
Dimensions |
H-35.25 W-1 D-6.75 inches |
Description |
This is one of Dr. Thomas D. Clark's canes. It has a hand-carved wooden handle and a shaft made from cane. There is a black rubber stopper on the foot of the cane. An iron nail was used to affix the handle to the cane. The is a hole drilled through the top of the handle and one drilled through the cane's shaft. |
Notes |
Dr. Thomas D. Clark was born in Louisville, Mississippi on July 14, 1903. The son of a cotton farmer and a teacher, Clark originally quit school after the seventh grade. He worked at a series of jobs including on a farm, at a saw mill, and as a deck hand on a river dredge boat. After this brief break, Clark returned to school and graduated from the Choctaw County Agricultural School in Weir, Mississippi. Clark continued his education at the University of Mississippi where he graduated with his A.B. in 1928. Clark then came to the University of Kentucky where he earned a master's degree. Then he went to Duke University where he received his doctorate. It was at Duke that Dr. Clark met Martha Elizabeth Turner whom he married in 1933. The Clarks had two children Bennett, who is a lawyer in Lexington, and Elizabeth. Dr. Clark began his teaching career while working on his doctorate. During this period Clark worked as a professor at Memphis State and the University of Tennessee. In 1931, UK president Frank McVey offered Dr. Clark a job teaching history half-time and building up the school library the other half. Dr. Clark spent 37 years teaching at UK and for 23 of those years he served as the history department chairman. Dr. Clark is also known for his many contributions to the state's history. He became known as the father of the state archives when in 1936 he rushed to Frankfort to stop a truck from hauling away a load of state records that had been sold to a scrap paper dealer. In 1990, at age 87, Dr. Clark was named Kentucky's Historian Laureate for Life. Dr. Clark was instrumental in the drive to build the Kentucky Historical Society's History Center which opened in 1999. On July 9, 2005 the building was renamed the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History in his honor. He was also instrumental in the creation of the Lexington History Museum which opened in 2003. Dr. Thomas D. Clark died on June 28, 2005 a few weeks shy of his 102nd birthday. His is survived by his second wife, Loretta Gilliam Brock Clark, his children Bennett Clark and Elizabeth Clark Stone, and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren. |
Collection |
Thomas D. Clark Collection |
People |
Clark, Thomas Dionysius, 1903-2005 |
Subjects |
Canes Walking sticks |
Physical Holder |
Kentucky Historical Society - KHS |