Baseball in Kentucky including the National League's First Scandal, African American Baseball and A.B. "Happy" Chandler. Pass the Word Challenge #3: Chance to win oral history related prizes including a digital recorder! Continue reading

Explore Pass the Word to find the answer to the challenge and submit your responses to be entered in a drawing to oral history related prizes. Continue reading

Over the next 12 weeks, follow Pass the Word blog posts that will look at a variety of collections or topics that can be found through using the search tool. Each blog will offer a challenge to help you explore Pass the Word. Each challenge that you respond with a correct answer, your name will be entered into a drawing for a chance to win a professional quality digital recorder. Submit your answer through the About section on Pass the Word. Continue reading

This Saturday, June 8th, our Second Saturday Family History Workshop will be expanded and will take on a slightly different feel; We will be learning about growing our family history, literally! Not only will the standard morning sessions include topics about heirloom/heritage gardening, but in the afternoon from 2-4 we will be having our first Heirloom Garden Party and plant exhange! Join us for this day-long celebration of the gardening and seed saving traditions passed down across the generations! **Events are free, but registration is required for the morning events. Session 1: Following the Flowers: Bringing Color to Your Family... Continue reading

Happy Father's Day! Check out the new collections available this month at the Kentucky Historical Society’s Martin F. Schmidt Library! Kentucky Civil Defense Family and Home Survival Kit, SC 1328 Packet sent to Kentuckians from the Office of Civil Defense, ca. 1960. Envelope contains six pamphlets with instructions on how to build a bomb shelter, survive a nuclear attack, fight fires, sanitation, home protection, and a handbook for emergencies. Instructions for an air raid are featured on the back of the envelope. This envelope was received by Ralph Knoebber. After receiving the packet, he began to alter his basement following... Continue reading

The Kentucky Historical Society staff are mourning the loss this week of Dr. Anne S. Butler. Dr. Butler connected with KHS in so many ways, a list may be all but impossible to compile. Past Governing Board member, ardent advocate for Kentucky history, educator, enthusiastic researcher, mentor, life-long learner, and, of course, everyone's best friend. But we will remember her best as someone who prized engagement in community, whether that community was a physical place or a group of people with a shared mission. Continue reading

One way to do that would be to find out as much as possible about them! Come to the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History this Saturday for a two part workshop on researching the women in your family. The Event: Second Saturday Family History Program The Date: May 11, 2013 The Speaker: Pamela Lyons Brinegar, CG The first session starts at 10:30 am. The second session starts at 12:30 pm. Lunch reservations for a simple box lunch will be taken until 12 noon on Friday May 10, 2013. Session 1: Where O Where Can They Be? Female ancestors,... Continue reading

Finish of the 1923 Kentucky Derby Check out the new collections available this month at the Kentucky Historical Society’s Martin F. Schmidt Library! Ancestors of Richard Gretna Cobbs: family tree, FF1.220 Surnames include: Cobbs, Coleman, Bedford, Bedinger, Keene, Clay, Edwards, Povall, Flippen, Ligon, Green, Gordon, Rice, Overstreet, Jeter, Bell, Rice, Gwatkin, Calloway. Places include: Denton, TX; Green County, MO; Bourbon County, KY; Shepherdstown, WV; Blue Licks, KY; Cumberland County, VA; Bristol Parish, VA; Lancaster County, VA; Harrison County, KY; Bedford County, VA; Scotland; Caroline County, VA. Pedigree chart for the Cobbs and Coleman Families from 1730-1941. Notes in the upper... Continue reading

Hi again, this is Kurt Robinson, the Museum Collection and Exhibitions intern this semester. You might remember my post about the National Armed Forces Museum Advisory Board Collection and how I got my hands dirty within the many different kinds of mortars we have in the collection. Well now I’ve moved on to the bigger guns and by bigger I mean heavier, longer, and a much larger caliber. These are the kinds of guns that it takes two to four people to move because they are so heavy. These guns are aircraft cannon. Continue reading

Every once in a while we come across an object that needs a unique storage mount to help fully support it and prevent it from deteriorating due to its storage conditions. Recently, I had the opportunity to make a storage mount for a trunk cover for a Louis Vuitton steamer trunk. Some of you may be familiar with the piece after reading Beth’s blog about the trunk earlier this week. Continue reading

I recently cataloged one of my favorite artifacts at KHS: a Louis Vuitton steamer trunk from the late 1890s or early 1900s. Louis Vuitton is a name synonymous with high fashion and luxury. Open a fashion magazine and you will likely find a Louis Vuitton advertisement with models sporting the design house’s latest collection. Occasionally, you will come across an ad highlighting what the name “Louis Vuitton” was originally known for: luggage. Continue reading

Join Rebecca, Emma and other supporters of history education on April 24th as the KHS Foundation, in partnership with the Kentucky Nonprofit Network, participates in Kentucky Gives Day, a special 24-hour day of giving. Continue reading

During a printmaking class that I attended while I was at Georgetown College, I learned that prints are best stored flat and on acid free mounts within large folios. My professor, Daniel Graham, also advised to keep prints stored in dry and dark environment. Keeping these ideal storage methods in mind will better protect the paper fibers and ensure a long survival of the print. This knowledge imparted from my professor about caring for his artwork is also a necessity for the museum collections care. Continue reading

The Churchill Weavers sold more than a product. They sold a brand. Although Churchill Weaver’s center of production was in Berea, they sold products all over the nation, including some of America’s largest cities, like New York, Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles. They had an entire fleet of sales representatives that worked with shops, from small independently owned boutiques to large department stores. By creating a brand based on American craftsmanship, quality products, and modern styles, and selling their products using a variety of advertising technologies, the Churchill Weavers managed to create and maintain a business that lasted over eighty years. Continue reading

Check out the new collections available this month at the Kentucky Historical Society’s Martin F. Schmidt Library! Continue reading

Thursday Night Genealogy, Live! Join us each Thursday evening in the Library Reading Room during regular season hours for a full hour of genealogy instruction. These genealogy sessions will take place each Thursday night from 6:30-7:30PM, beginning March 14th and running until December 12th. All it takes is an hour to hone your research skills, get started on the basics, preserve your documents, get organized, become more familiar with genealogy software or share your genealogy success stories! Sessions are free and registration is NOT required. For more info: [email protected] or 502-564-1792 x.4460 Some of our upcoming topics include: March 28th:... Continue reading

I’m Kurt Robinson, an intern in the Museum Collection and Exhibitions team this semester. I am working on a military project involving mortars, mounts, and the occasional large machine gun in the National Armed Forces Museum Advisory Board Collection. All of these artifacts are from the World War II or Vietnam era, mostly World War II. Continue reading

We are often asked how to store large textiles like quilts, flags and coverlets. We normally recommend one of two ways when we are talking to smaller museums: the first is to store the pieces in acid-free textile boxes with the creases stuffed out with acid-free tissue. However, the folding involved with this can still cause stress on the textiles along the folds. The tissue in the creases helps to reduce the stress but it cannot eliminate it. That brings us to our second recommendation, which is rolling textiles. Continue reading

Office of Dr. Thomas Wendell, ca. 1904 Check out the new collections available this month at the Kentucky Historical Society’s Martin F. Schmidt Library! Thomas T. Wendell Collection, MSS 167 Materials related to the personal and professional life of Lexington, KY physician Dr. Thomas T. Wendell, his wife Mary Alice Wendell and their family, including family correspondence, greeting cards (birthday, Christmas, Mother’s Day), high school and college scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, WFG Moore’s bibles, commencement programs of Central Tennessee College and Maryland State College, newspaper articles, various business papers and materials including account books, receipts, stockholders§ documents and a stock certificate... Continue reading

Scarves and stoles and throws, oh my! Hello, my name is Em Eskridge and I’m an intern working with Jennifer Spence, KHS project coordinator, to digitize the Churchill Weavers fabric archive. I’d like to share with you what’s going on behind the scenes at KHS to preserve this important textile collection. So, let’s get started! Continue reading

Last Wednesday I pulled out many of the pieces from the Rude Osolnik collection for a researcher from the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art. Since I had the pieces out, I thought I’d photograph and share some of them with you. The collection is made up of pieces made by wood artist Rude Osolnik and some of the tools that he used to make the pieces. Continue reading

Working with large projects has always seemed for me a daunting task. This was especially true when I was first assigned to work with the Martin F. Schmidt Collection. What appeared most intimidating was that I would be cataloging a massive volume of printed material, from newspaper spreads to small pamphlets to large maps. Continue reading

The KHS Library would like to send out a big "THANK YOU" to all who made Saturday's event such a wonderful success! On Saturday, February 9th, we hosted our first Knowledge Sharing event as part of our new series "Piecing Together History." As we had hoped, many visitors arrived to share their knowledge of Lexington's African American Community with our staff, and with each other. We even had the current owner of Dr. Wendell's house come by with a photo album he found after moving in! The photos in his album included some never before seen images, but also showcased... Continue reading

Last week when I was cleaning up some artifact records, I came across an interesting piece from the family of J.T. Hatfield. This piece is a painting of a steamboat titled “Steamer J.T. Hatfield on the Ohio River.” Not only is it interesting because it tells us about the steamer but it also provides us with a look at what the Ohio River looked like from the artist’s perspective. Continue reading

Winter Scene Check out the new collections available this month at the Kentucky Historical Society’s Martin F. Schmidt Library! Harrod and Robertson family papers, MSS 183 This collection consists of genealogical research on the Harrod and Robertson families in Kentucky and Indiana. There are handwritten copies of marriage records and deeds for the following counties: Jefferson, Fayette, Franklin, Lincoln, Floyd, Bracken, Boyle, and Bourbon Counties in Kentucky, and Scott and Clark Counties in Indiana. Letters relating to the families genealogy and reunions are included in the collection. Other items of note are school reports cards for John Harrod, commencement programs... Continue reading