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Join us for Kentucky Legends: a series of programs exploring Kentucky culture, history, and lore. Programs include author visits, Chautauqua performances, live music, activities and crafts, and more.

741.5 is written and designed by Lexington Public Library staff member Bill Widener. The inaugural issue came out in January 2017. Sub-titled The Comics & Graphic Novel Bulletin of the Lexington Public Library, its intent is to promote new arrivals to the Library's comics collections. 741.5 takes its name from the numeral designation within the Dewey Decimal System that covers comics and cartooning.

Digital Archives - Collection - Group
historic frankfort kentucky

The Kentucky History collection contains Kentucky-related documents not specifically related to Fayette County.

 

The Central Kentucky Cemeteries Maps are powered by Google Maps.  Counties include:  Fayette, Bourbon, Clark, Garrard, Harrison, Jessamine, Lincoln, Madison, Mercer, Montgomery, Nicholas, Powell, Scott, and Woodford.

Digital Archives - Collection - Group
Kentucky Images

The Kentucky Images collection contains postcards, photographs and slides of people, architecture, and locations in Kentucky and Appalachia.

 

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Discover unique resources in our Digital Archives that tell the story of Fayette County.  Visit cemeteries throughout Central Kentucky using our cemetery maps.  Contact our resident experts in the Central Library's Kentucky Room with questions.

Digital Archives - Collection

The Kentucky Gazette was the first paper established west of the Allegheny Mountains, founded by John and Fielding Bradford. The frontier paper focused on East Coast and International news, though some local announcements can be found. Later, the paper focused on disseminating opinions on politics and issues of concern on the frontier. When political parties emerged, the paper developed a Democratic (conservative at the time) bent. John Bradford handed the reins of the paper over to his son, Daniel Bradford, in 1802.

While still owned and occasionally edited by the Bradford family, the paper had several editors and publishers through the mid-1830s, when Daniel Bradford returned to the paper’s byline as editor. Daniel Bradford edited the paper until 1840, when he sold it to Jim Cunningham. The paper shuttered in 1848, due to Cunningham’s failing health, but was revived in 1866 and published until 1910 by different publishers.

The years 1841-1910 are not digitized as of January 2020, but are viewable on microfilm and in print in the Kentucky Room at Central Library. Selected articles are indexed in the Library’s Local History Index.
 

 

Digital Archives - Collection

The Kentucky Rally Songs pamphlet contains 42 songs compiled and printed by the state chapter of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, to be used at the many gatherings and rallies that they organized in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The songs, sung to popular tunes of the day, dealt with prohibition and women’s suffrage.

The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union was an organization founded in 1873 to promote social reform along with Christian moral principles, and the Kentucky chapter was extremely active. In addition to politically supporting sympathetic political candidates, the WCTU also held many social events to advocate for alcohol and tobacco abstinence, with a focus on overall moral reform.

Information from the Kentucky Historical Society.

Digital Archives - Collection
The Kentucky Military Institute was a military preparatory boarding school from 1845 to 1971, chartered by the state legislature in 1847. It had several homes, with the longest in Lyndon, Kentucky, outside of Louisville. There was also a winter campus for many years in Eau Gallie, Florida, and later in Venice, Florida.
 
The Cadet Adjutant was the school magazine written by the cadets at KMI. It varied as a bimonthly, then quarterly publication, and contained considerable information about events and alumni, as well as photos and cartoons. The issues in the digital archive were donated to the Lexington Public Library by the Louisiana State University Libraries Special Collections.
 
Digital Archives - Collection
​The Kentucky School for the Deaf, located in Danville, was created in 1822.  The first class of students were admitted beginning in April 1823.  Through a partnership with Centre College, the school's board identified John Adamson Jacobs as a potential instructor for the school and sent him to train at the first school for deaf students in the US, the American School for the Deaf in Hartford, Connecticut.  He served as instructor, principal, and superintendent for KSD during the years from 1825-1869.  Jacobs Hall was built in 1857 and was named for him.  It is classified as a National Historic Landmark and is still in operation as the school's museum today.  From the beginning, KSD was committed to educating students academically while teaching life skills and providing vocational training. Deaf African American students began attending in 1885.
 
The Centennial History provides a detailed account of the formation of the school and its facilities, as well as its evolution through the first 100 years.  Financial structure of the school, methods of instruction, and the creation of the school newspaper and literary society are all discussed.  The book also contains lists of the names of all donors, trustees, commissioners, and students.  Officers of the school, which include superintendents, principals, teachers, and staff have a short biographical summaries accompanying their names.