Read more about how a media company, photographers from the city’s preeminent newspaper and a former publisher’s family worked with the university to find a home for The Barry Bingham Jr. Courier-Journal Photographic Collection in the .����

Along with the historic preservation of the photo archives, the issue shares how students are getting out of class to participate��in internships, service and other engaged learning experiences, and highlights how a College of ����ֱ�� and Human Development staff member is providing hope through horses with his latest endeavor.����

And now – thanks to the generosity of the newspaper, its parent company and a former publisher’s daughters – much of that significant past will be preserved at UofL Libraries, where people can enjoy those views as a resource in the future.

The downtown paper and Gannett Co. Inc. donated millions of prints and negatives to form the Barry Bingham Jr. Courier-Journal Photographic Collection, nearly doubling the holdings of UofL Libraries’ Photographic Archives. A monetary donation from Emily and Mary Bingham honoring their father’s devotion to photojournalism will expand Ekstrom Library’s cold-storage capacity to house the collection safely (on the site of a former photo darkroom) and will help endow a specialized position to support it.Processing the collection within about 3,000 boxes will require time, staff and more fundraising to organize and describe the images before they can be made available to the public in the next few years.

“We’re really excited about it but there’s a lot of work involved in making it available to the public, and we want to do it right. It is massive,” said Carrie Daniels, Archives and Special Collections director.

Bingham (1933-2006) was third in his family to be publisher of its newspapers, The Courier-Journal and Louisville Times, from 1971 to 1986, before they were sold to Gannett. Two photography-related Pulitzer Prizes, in 1976 for feature photography and in 1980 for international reporting, were awarded to the Courier Journal during his time at the helm.

The extensive collection extends before and beyond his tenure, with pieces from the 1930s through the late 1990s and 2000s, when the industry switched over to digital photography. As such, it spans wartime, civil rights demonstrations, presidential visits, natural disasters, the Kentucky Derby over time and behind-the-scenes views of celebrities and ordinary folks, including some never-published photos.

“Basically, all of the changes happening within our country were captured in these photographs,” Daniels said. “It’s a wonderful collection.”

Since the collection is still being prepared for public viewing, UofL Magazine asked Elizabeth Reilly, Photographic Archives curator for Archives and Special Collections, to share some of her picks from the archives to give readers a peek at what will eventually be available. The following images illustrate the impact of photojournalism and the richness of the collection.

It was a festive first in March 1980 as Courier Journal photographer Jim Mendenhall captured an image of UofL fans climbing on the roof of the team’s bus after the school won its first NCAA basketball championship. “It represents just how much University of Louisville content is in the collection – all sorts of newsworthy events and, of course, our sports teams – highlights and lowlights and everything in between. That’s obviously important to us at the university,” Reilly said.

The reason the collection begins in the 1930s is that the 1937 flood damaged most of the Courier Journal’s photographic collection up to that point. The George Bailey photo of a rescue boat operation at the Hoblitzell home during the flood shows the scale of the disaster and recovery efforts, Reilly said. “What is so significant is that the flood was one of the major events in Louisville, certainly the major natural disaster for many Louisvillians up until the tornado of 1974.”

Larry Spitzer’s May 27, 1968, photo shows National Guard troops patrolling west Louisville during the Parkland neighborhood civil rights uprising and will add to documentation and resources about Black history. “This is a really significant image because it documents the social upheaval happening here in Louisville in the 1960s and 1968 in particular,” Reilly said. “We’ve had researchers looking for images of this happening in Louisville, but we never had them. It’s definitely material that researchers will be interested in.” Such newspaper photos help archives collect and expand the stories of more underrepresented communities, she said.

A September 1975 photo by Melissa Farlow shows anti-busing demonstrators snarling Valley Station traffic by parking their cars across Dixie Highway and forcing police to reroute motorists. The Courier Journal won a Pulitzer Prize for feature photography in 1976 for its coverage of Louisville school desegregation and citizen protests over it. “It’s a great way to look back on the history of the city and struggles it went through and where we’ve come since then and what have we learned since then,” Reilly said. “It shows the emotion of the protests and events surrounding busing.”

“This illustrates how Barry Bingham Jr. sort of allowed the photographers to really explore more local-interest stories and really dig deep in and spend time to tell wonderful stories,” Reilly said. “Bingham really was a proponent of in-depth photography and photographic essays.” Photographer Pam Spaulding in 1982 caught Judy McGarvey with sons David and Morgan during the family’s trip to the veterinarian with their dog. Spaulding set out to document a family adjusting to first-time parenthood; those regularly published newspaper views of the McGarveys continued with her chronicling the family for more than 40 years.”

The collection is chock-full of views of horses at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in many, many Mays, but Reilly liked this Larry Spitzer photo of a fire at another local racetrack, Miles Park, published May 18, 1964. “This still shows the horse industry and racing industry important to Kentucky and documents a really dramatic event that happened. I feel like this is a special photo that stands out among the regular Derby photos,” she said.

Her work’s purpose is twofold: it supports the organization’s mission to address disparities in access to health foods for traditionally excluded and marginalized populations; and it helps Salah fulfill the requirements she needs to graduate.

Salah’s work with the Food Literacy Project illustrates how the university supports the whole student through transformative, purpose-driven and engaged learning. UofL’s strategic plan emphasizes the need for robust engaged learning experiences to make the university a great place to learn for its students and a great place to connect to community and industry partners.

Engaged learning is nothing new at UofL, where many programs include engaged learning requirements in their curricula. The University Career Center serves nine of the university’s 12 colleges/schools, representing almost 16,000 undergraduate and graduate students in more than 50 academic units. The College of Business, J.B. Speed School of Engineering and Brandeis School of Law all have career centers serving their students specifically.

But the abundance of engaged learning opportunities available across campus, while a good problem to have, presented an opportunity to create a centralized solution to better serve students.

This fall, UofL opened the Center for Engaged Learning (CEL), designed as a first stop for students who want to enhance their learning experience beyond the classroom. The CEL comprises two offices, the Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity and the Office of Experiential Learning. These offices partner with the Career Centers, Office of Community Engagement, Office of Study Abroad and International Travel, academic programs and several other units to connect students with engaged learning activities.

Paul DeMarco, interim director of the Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity, served on strategic plan subcommittees focused on the need to engage every undergraduate student in meaningful experiential learning opportunities. Streamlining resources and processes to improve the student experience and their career prospects after graduation became a top priority of the groups.

“These are opportunities for students to apply what they learn in class to real-world problems,” DeMarco said.

DISCOVERING A PASSION

Madison Cicha, an environmental science major, completed a 10-week Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP) directed by the CEL and the Office of Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity. The SROP provides students with a structured and immersive research experience with a faculty member, as well as weekly professional development seminars. For her research, Cicha worked with the Green Heart Louisville Project and the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute to measure how trees and other vegetation provide a sound buffer along heavily trafficked roadways in Louisville.

“It was a great opportunity to do this caliber of research, especially as an undergraduate student,” Cicha said. “The people I met at the Envirome Institute were great to work with, and I think that experience and those new relationships will set me up for my future goals.”

The mentoring she received from Ray Yeager, assistant professor in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences and a contributor to Green Heart, provided her with much needed guidance on research that she would not have been able to learn on her own.

“Research opportunities are crucial for students to gain much needed skill sets outside of the classroom,” Yeager said. “Such experiential learning provides a transition to working independently, problem solving, personalized feedback and tailored opportunities that are invaluable for career preparation.”

Engaged learning does not stop with course requirements. According to Erica Gabbard, director of the Office of Experiential Learning, the CEL also helps students enrolled in programs without engaged learning opportunities find ways to apply their studies to professional experiences.

Sasha Gorchanyuk, a senior communication major with a minor in film studies, discovered her passion for and talent in working with corporate partnerships through her internship with the Louisville Bats Minor League Baseball team. Gorchanyuk knew she wanted experience in sports and was eager to learn about elements of the industry that were not familiar to her. Her internship allowed her to take on different roles in the front office including corporate partnerships, ticket sales, in-game entertainment and promotional activities.

Gorchanyuk, who will graduate in May 2023, places immense value in the engaged learning experience.

“I would advise students to say ‘yes’ to any internship opportunities,” she said. “I’ve completed internships ever since my sophomore year, and they have influenced who I am today and informed me on what I want to do after graduation.”

CONNECTING WITH THE COMMUNITY

The CEL is not just a resource for students. Community and industry partners often ask UofL for guidance on the best types of students (majors, talents, etc.) for their internship positions and how to create a meaningful engaged learning experience for both the student and the business.

The benefits of quality partnerships are seen through UofL alumni, such as Oliver Kratholm ’22. During the spring 2022 semester, Kratholm enrolled in a community internship course, which provided him with the opportunity to work with Seven Counties Services, a mental and behavioral health, substance abuse treatment and intellectual and developmental disabilities service.

He found firsthand exposure to the clinical setting was rewarding and enlightening.

“Being able to shadow professionals as they work with a variety of clients with different mental health concerns really sparked my interest for pursuing further education and a career in the field,” Kratholm said.

At the conclusion of the internship, he continued with Seven Counties. He is also doing work with a research lab at UofL and plans to eventually return to school to pursue a doctorate in clinical psychology.

The paint in the new CEL is still drying, but Gabbard and DeMarco are excited about the university’s new resource. The CEL is assembling an advisory board comprised of local community organizations, economic development representatives, industry partners and nonprofits which will help strengthen connections between the university and the community. Other goals include looking for opportunities to help faculty incorporate engaged learning in their coursework and finding other ways for UofL students to get more out of class by getting out of the classroom.

“UofL wants engaged learning to be more than a box to check on the road to graduation,” Gabbard said. “For our students, now is the time to test the waters, try new things and expand their skill set so they can confidently enter the workforce in the vocation they choose.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: Julie Heflin and Brad Knoop from the Office of Communications and Marketing as well as Stuart Esrock (retired) from the communication department and the University Career Center contributed to this article.

Wright, a student success coach with the College of ����ֱ�� and Human Development (CEHD), and his wife, Debbie, established Cope’s Hope Equine Assisted Services last year. The therapy organization aids children and families throughout the Louisville area.

Their inspiration came from the Wrights’ children, Ella and Elsie.

“Ella was adopted from Ukraine when she was 17 months old, and she had been diagnosed with cerebral palsy,” Wright said. “We didn’t know if she would be able to walk, so we immediately started looking into alternative therapies for her and stumbled upon equine assisted therapy, also called hippotherapy. We embraced it. She started when she was three, and she is now 19 years old.”

When the Wright family’s second daughter, Elsie, was diagnosed with Angelman syndrome, a rare neurogenetic disorder that is often misdiagnosed as autism or cerebral palsy, the benefits of horses as a therapeutic modality were already clear.

Wright, who has been a UofL employee for nearly 30 years, contemplated opening his own equine assisted services operation following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, when he could no longer take his daughters to their weekly lessons.

“We purchased my uncle’s farm, and from there things started to naturally fall into place,” Wright said. “We had been doing this for a long time – we had been involved in Special Olympics and other therapeutic organizations – so I decided to become a licensed counselor.”

Wright completed the necessary coursework through the CEHD’s Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program. He went on to receive his certification as an equine specialist in mental health and learning from the Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship International (PATH).

Cope’s Hope was born shortly thereafter. Its name is derived from Wright’s grandfather, Arthur Coaplen ’49, a UofL law graduate. In addition to equine assisted services such as psychotherapy and therapeutic riding, the farm offers a place of peace and healing as a respite home for parents and families of children with disabilities.

“We’ve just had a flurry of people wrap themselves around this project and this vision,” Wright said. “To be able to offer even a small percentage of people the opportunity to work with horses, whether it be for mental health or for therapeutic services, is so rewarding.”

Cope’s Hope has received its own certification as a member of the PATH organization, allowing the organization to operate formally as an equine assisted services center.

The Wright family hopes to expand its services and recently hired a part-time certified therapeutic riding instructor in training, who lives on-site.

“If I wasn’t an employee of the University of Louisville, I wouldn’t be doing what I am doing now,” Wright said. “My work in counseling and my work as a student success coach overlap every day, and they both ultimately allow me to help people – to realize where they are, where they can be and how they can make their lives better.”

The football team’s 24-10 win over Pittsburgh Oct. 22 punctuated a week of festivities and a day full of alumni involvement. Halftime honorees included Alumna of the Year Lucy Lee Helm ’79, ’82 and 18 other Alumni Awards winners, who celebrated their honors earlier in the week during a dinner that attracted more than 300 people.

Cards cheered the crowning of the newest Homecoming queen and king, Jordan Murrah and Emmanuel Markin.

In a blast from the past, the Cardinal Marching Band welcomed back some former members with an appearance of Alumni Marching Band performers for the first time in 15 years. The Ladybirds alumni members also had a third-quarter performance.

More than 200 Black alumni returned to campus for events including a Black Alumni Summit reunion and a special tailgate before the Saturday football game.

Golden Alumni Reunion members enjoyed their celebration, which included a campus tour of how things have changed since 1972 – led by historian and longtime employee Tom Owen.

Greek students battled it out in the annual step show hosted by UofL’s National Panhellenic Council for its fraternities and sororities.

Earlier in the week, alumni and others from all 50 states showed their school spirit when 2,132 donors contributed $3.2 million in UofL’s annual day of giving, Raise Some L.