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The Kentucky Room's collections contain Lexington's residential directories going back over 200 years, and are some of the most useful resources for researchers looking for family information, neighborhood histories, and house histories.
Jamie tells an abridged history of Russell’s Cave, Fayette County’s largest cave.
JP Johnson tells the story of the time artist Henry Faulkner’s goat, Alice, disappeared for several weeks in 1965, and gives a preview of Lexington Public Library’s Henry Faulkner Week, February 25-March 3, 2019.
Mariam and Denise discuss the history of the Joyland Amusement Park (1923-1963).
Mariam and Wayne discuss the history of Lexington & Fayette County’s merged governments, one of only fifteen merged city-county governments in the United States.
Mariam gives a brief history of the public schools in Lexington and Fayette County.
Jennifer and Erin discuss three new vegetarian cookbook titles and some of the issues that can come up with vegetarian cooking.
Mariam interviews Tom Eblen about the history and personalities surrounding Lexington’s Newspapers.
Mariam interviews Wayne Johnson about the murder of golfing great Marion Miley in Lexington, KY in 1941. This is part two of a two part series.
Mariam interviews Wayne Johnson about the murder of golfing great Marion Miley in Lexington, KY in 1941. They discuss Marion Miley’s life, and the events leading up to her death. This is part one of a two part series.
Mariam interviews Joseph Anthony, local author of historical fiction, about his latest work about the life and death of R.C.O Benjamin in Lexington, KY.
The library has a variety of directories and yearbooks with local information. In the library's current digital collection, there is a selection of residential and street directories, yearbooks, school directories, and organizational directories. These are all fully word-searchable.
Mariam interviews Lucy Jones, founder of the Harry Dean Stanton Festival in time for this year’s festival.
Mariam interviews Kentucky native Kevin Lane Dearinger about his forthcoming memoir, Bad Sex in Kentucky, his Broadway career, and his second career in education.
Mariam interviews Susan Griffith and Vikki Franklin from Eastern State Hospital about the 195 year history of the hospital, and shares stories from contemporary newspaper articles.
Denise Shanks tells the story of Smiley Pete, Lexington’s “town dog” in the 1940’s and 1950’s.
Mariam interviews Foster Ockerman, Jr., author of Hidden History of Horse Racing in Kentucky, and President and Chief Historian of the Lexington History Museum about his book and horse racing in Kentucky.
Mariam interviews Trevor Claiborn, co-founder of Black Soil: Our Better Nature, about the organization and the history of African American farmers in Kentucky. Trevor also performs as “Farmer Brown tha MC” to attract young people to farming.
Mariam interviews artist and activist Robert Morgan about his life with the internationally known queer Kentucky artist, Henry Faulkner.
Mariam interviews Wayne Johnson about the colorful life of abolitionist and Ambassador to Russia, Cassius Marcellus Clay (1810-1903).
Mariam interviews Rand Dotson, the Editor in Chief of LSU Press, about his research into the political rivalry between Armistead Swope and William Cassius Goodloe, which culminated in a deadly fight in the Lexington Post Office.
Mariam interviews Wayne Johnson about Lucille Caudill Little's kidnapping in 1979.
Mariam and Wayne discuss the Code Duello and several nineteenth century Kentucky duels, including duels fought by Andrew Jackson, Henry Clay, and a pair of doctors from Transylvania University’s School of Medicine.
Mariam interviews artist and activist Robert Morgan about his recollections of Sweet Evening Breeze.
Until 1974, Lexington and Fayette County had two separate governing bodies. Lexington itself was founded in 1775 and chartered in 1782 by an act of the Virginia General Assembly, since Kentucky itself did not achieve statehood until 1792. Fayette County was formed in 1780, and spanned what is currently about a third of the state, before achieving its current boundary lines in 1799.
The Lexington Fayette Urban County Government became a consolidated government in 1974. The digitized items in this collection are primarily Lexington city documents or merged city-county documents. The earliest digitized item is Lexington’s 1858 city charter and ordinances.
Lexington's school system dates back to the city charter of 1831, and it first school opened in 1834. From a single building in 1834 with about 100 students, today the Fayette County Public School system has over 40,000 students and 68 schools and programs. Lexington and Fayette County combined districts in 1968, shortly before the city/county government merger in 1974.
Fayette County's buildings contain a great deal of history about the region and its inhabitants.
The Old Kentucky Architecture book by Rexford Newcomb (1940) contains images, details, and some architectural layouts from all around Kentucky, but the Lexington properties include Llangollen (the Dr. John C. Lewis House), the Benjamin Gratz House, Rose Hill, Hopemont, Eothan, Ashland, Mansfield, Helm Place, Carrick House at Whitehall, Morrison College at Transylvania University, the tomb of Gideon Shryock's father Matthew at the Old Episcopal Burying Grounds, Ingleside (listed here as Ingelside), Loudoun House, Botherum, Walnut Hill Church, and the Sexton's Cottage at the Old Episcopal Burying Grounds.
The Court-Houses of Lexington by J. Winston Coleman, Jr. (1937) contains photos and history of Fayette County's four courthouses.
The Illustrated Lexington (1919) has a variety of images, but included are some exterior and interior photographs of downtown Lexington businesses and houses.
Bluegrass Houses and Their Traditions by Elizabeth M. Simpson (1932) contains photos of various Fayette and surrouding county properties, with descriptions of the families, buildings, and contents. The properties include Glendower, Castleton, Eothan, Idle Hour, Maxwell Place, Winton, Elmendorf, Clingendaal, Morrison College, La Chaumiere du Prairie, Scarlet Gate, the Meadows, Lindenhouse, Belair, Mount Brilliant, Coldstream, Hopemont, Bodley House, Roberts House, Woodburn House, Botherum, Greentree, Ingleside, Loudoun, Thorn Hill, Rose Hill (Buckner), Elmwood, Sycamore Park, Walnut Hall, Edwards House, Patchen Wilkes, Hurricane Hall, Forkland, the Old Keen Place, Xalapa, the Ward Place, Calumet, Dunreath, Kilmore, Alleghan Hall, Sumner’s Forest, Stoneley, Rose Hill (Talbert), Helm Place, Castlelawn, Dixiana, Bryan Station, Poplar Hill, Mansfield, Fowler’s Garden, Mount Hope, Hollyrood, and Ashland.
Gratz Park (1983) contains illustrations and brief descriptions of the buildings and features of Gratz Park in downtown Lexington.
Fayette County churches contain some of the earliest records and information preserved about central Kentucky history. The digital archive contents include church ledgers, minutes, directories, and informational brochures.
The Fayette County Postcard collection contains images of well-known sites in Central Kentucky, such as Keeneland, Transylvania University, Ashland, and many others. The 80 images provide an interesting perspective of Lexington architecture, industry, and culture in the early 20th Century.
Description coming soon.
Fayette County, Kentucky, has changed enormously since it was created in 1792. This collection contains government documents for the city of Lexington, for Fayette County, and for the merged Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government, as well as funeral notices, club directories, scrapbooks, image collections and a history of Lexington Public Library.
We are committed to supporting our democracy by providing nonpartisan voting information, whether you choose to cast an early ballot or go to the polls on Election Day.
The Lexington Public Library’s Digital Archives provide open access to researchers and students to learn more about the rich history of Lexington and Fayette County. It contains a fraction of the Library’s physical holdings, which are housed and available for reference in the Kentucky Room at the Central Library. New material is being digitized and added constantly, so there's always something new to find.
The archives have a simple keyword search, and it is possible to browse the collections by subject, area, or decade. The Lexington Public Library actively reviews and labels materials in our archives with statements that indicate how you may reuse the images, and what sort of permission, if any, you need to do so. Please check the information for each image to determine its legal status.
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