Marking a historic benchmark that only comes once a generation, “The Finest Place We Know: A Centennial History of Murray State University” recounts the University’s progression throughout the century with a wide range of perspectives.

“The Finest Place We Know” was published on Oct. 18. However, its 2019 inception began with authors President Bob Jackson, Archives and Museum Director Jeff McLaughlin and Library Specialist Sarah Owens. 

McLaughlin is no stranger to authoring historical books. In 2019, he authored, “JFK and de Gaulle: How America and France Failed in Vietnam, 1961–1963.” 

McLaughlin said he was happy to focus on something that isn’t war or death.

“Now that we’ve gotten through this pandemic, I don’t know if for the second half of my career I want to write books about war, death and depressing things, so this was a nice transitional project,” McLaughlin said. 

McLaughlin focused on research and writing and worked toward finding a sweet spot between focusing on Murray State’s history and having a large visual backbone, which involved digging through Pogue Library’s archive of photos.

“Rummaging through hundreds and hundreds of boxes over a period of several months was an often frustrating process because sometimes you would find a great photo, but then after it got scanned, the resolution wasn’t clear enough to be suitable for publication,” McLaughlin said.

The authors’ stories focused on the history of those who came to Murray State—not presidents or administration but the people who created the college culture at Murray State. 

“We wanted to highlight regular people, and we wanted to capture the culture and traditions,” McLaughlin said. “And I think we wanted to have as popular [of an] appeal as possible. It’s not a high-minded history that only looks at super high-ranking people.”

The last book that focused on telling Murray State’s history was “Fifty Years of Progress: A History of Murray State University.”

The authors used this book as a benchmark and relied on it for some of the content in the centennial book. 

Similar to the 50 year anniversary book, McLaughlin is expecting “The Finest Place We Know” to be a go-to source for Murray State’s history for years to come.

While McLaughlin focused on research and writing, Owens focused on searching through the archive for the photos to help tell the written stories. 

Owens has had her work published before in academic journals, but this was her first time working on a book.

“This was sort of a bucket list item I didn’t see coming down the pike, if you will,” Owens said. “Exciting doesn’t really cover it for me…I remember standing here, and it hitting me once I saw the cover of it and just being overwhelmed with emotion.”

Being in charge of photography, Owens sifted through images chronologically and scanned images from the earliest years of Murray State. 

Looking through the pictures, Owens found an interest in the progression of both clothing style and transportation over the years.

“I really found myself looking at some of the older pictures of the female students and their styles and their hair,” Owens said. “Some of the vehicles…like the older buses that they would take out to, like, away games were so interesting because of how differently they were made back then.”

Owens was thankful to be a part of this unexpected opportunity.

“You don’t expect to start working here and just all of a sudden be part of a project commemorating a centennial,” Owens said. “There’s really something profound and incredibly meaningful to be a part of a project like this.”

Owens was not alone in locating photos. She had the help of graduate archeology student Lacy Risner. 

Risner said McLaughlin offered her the role on the book’s creation, and since she already had worked at Pogue Library and Wrather Museum, she thought she’d be able to help locate photos for the book. 

“I truly enjoyed exploring the Pogue and Wrather archives,” Risner said. “I feel like I know so much more about Murray State than I ever would have without this job. Working on this project with Jeff and Sarah helped me connect with Murray State on a deeper, more personal level.”

With the book already on shelves, Risner said it’s a reminder to herself that anyone can help make big things happen.

Along with McLaughlin and Owens, Jackson played a role in authoring the book.

“It is an honor to co-author our centennial history with colleagues Dr. Jeff McLaughlin and Sarah Marie Owens,” Jackson said. “We are very pleased with the final version of the book and how our alumni and friends are responding.” 

Jackson was responsible for some of the writing, and McLaughlin describes him as part of a living history from the University, as he has been a part of Murray State for nearly 40 years. 

After nearly three years of writing and editing, Jackson said he was proud of the hard work put forth for this book.

 “It is very exciting to see a lot of hard work by the Centennial Book Committee, the University Press of Kentucky and others come to fruition,” Jackson said.

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