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Historic St. Paul Catholic Church
The St. Paul Catholic Church Collection includes materials from the Church's archive. The Roman Catholic church is over 150 years old, and is located on West Short Street, in downtown Lexington.
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Cyrus Parker Jones Funeral Notices
Compiled by Cyrus Parker Jones, a man formerly enslaved by the Parker family, these funeral notices cover 667 funerals of individuals in Lexington, including seven free blacks. The funeral notices cover the years 1806-1886. Jones donated his collection to a trustee of the Lexington Public Library prior to his death in 1887, who then added some notices and donated the collection to the Lexington Public Library in 1900.
Directory Collection
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.
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Congregations and Religious Materials Collection
This collection contains materials from Lexington and Fayette County religious groups.
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Almanac Collection
The first Kentucky almanacs were printed by John Bradford, on the same printing press that published the Kentucky Gazette. The Kentucky almanacs in the library's collection contain monthly calendars containing weather predictions, zodiac changes, and significant events, as well as the schedule of Kentucky court days, anecdotes, recipes (receipts), and essays on a variety of topics.
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Architecture Collection
Fayette County's buildings contain a great deal of history about the region and its inhabitants. The earliest structure in Lexington was built in 1779, the Blockhouse. Lexington currently has over 200 years of history reflected in its buildings all around the county. The contents of this collection show some of the published works about local architecture.
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Lexington Weekly Press (1881)
The Lexington Weekly Press was published every Wednesday in Lexington, Kentucky, and contained local, state, and foreign news. The paper focused on Central Kentucky’s “agriculture, manufactures and fine stock”, as well as literary and scientific news, market reports, and serial stories. Local weddings, deaths, community events, and elections for Lexington and the surrounding region. The paper was sent anywhere in the United States at a cost of one dollar per year.
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The Reporter (1808-1817)
The Reporter was published from March 1808-September 1817, by William W. Worsley. It was a Republican paper (Jeffersonian Democratic Republican - liberal at the time). The paper was published throughout the War of 1812, and was occasionally semi-weekly when Congress was in session. The name of the paper changed to Kentucky Reporter in October 1817.
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Voyages, Adventures and Situation of the French Emigrants, translated by A Lady
This work contains information about French Emigrants to America over the years 1789-1799, and provides a history of the French Revolution. The work was originally in French, and was translated into English by an anonymous translator using the pen name, "A Lady." Published in 1800 in Lexington, KY, this work uses the "Long S" depicted as an "f".
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The Independent Gazetteer (1803-1804)
The Independent Gazetteer was founded and printed by James Charless in 1803, with ads appearing in the Kentucky Gazette about its upcoming publication. The first issue was printed March 29, 1803. The paper was later sold to Robert Kay and then to T. Anderson. This collection contains issues from 1803 and 1804, though the paper may have been published through 1809.
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Katherine Pettit Diary
The diary (ca. 1899) of Katherine Pettit, details her settlement work for the Kentucky Confederation of Women's Clubs, made yearly trips to Hazard during this period and was a central figure in establishing the Hindman (Kentucky) Settlement School in 1902. Activities described here include teaching, reading, cooking, and hygiene. The diary also includes daily entries (August 3-September 13) detailing Pettit's travel from Lexington and Hazard with fellow settlement workers, her encounters with Hazard and mountain families, and the general scope of her work. Also includes a manuscript map of her camp.
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The Daily Argonaut (1895-1899)
The Daily Argonaut began in 1895 and seems to have ceased publication in 1899. This collection includes scattered issues from 1896, 1897 and 1898. The paper focuses more on sensational news and tabloid-like reporting, though it later claims to be the only "Democratic Daily" in Central Kentucky. Many of the issues in this collection cover the Pearl Bryan Murder. The 1897 Courthouse Fire is also covered in detail.
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The Kentucky Reporter (1817-1830)
The Kentucky Reporter was published from October 1817-April 1832, by William W. Worsley and Thomas Smith. It is the direct continuation of the The Reporter. Politically, it was a Republican paper (Jeffersonian Democratic Republican - liberal at the time.) It reported local and national news, elections, and speeches. The Library’s digital and microfilm collection ends in December 1830, but the bound volumes are available by request in the Kentucky Room Closed Stacks through 1832.
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Lexington History Museum Collection
The Lexington History Museum began in 1998, and opened its doors in the Old Courthouse in 2003. Its purpose is to educate Fayette County about its rich history, and preserve pieces of that history for future generations. The Old Courthouse closed in 2012 for extensive renovations. The History Museum still creates exhibits and works on school and film collaborations to create an understanding and appreciation of local history.
The History Museum's Community Collections currently contains part of the exhibit "Our Fair City: The 1999 Lexington Fairness Ordinance," which was displayed in the summer of 2019 at the Lexington Public Library, to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the ordinance's passage.
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Clubs and Organizations Collection
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Bath County Memorial Library Collection
The Bath County Memorial Library was founded in 1949 by the Owingsville Women’s Club, and opened in January, 1950. It expanded into a bookmobile in 1953, and in 1963 moved into the old Farmer’s Bank Building at 24 W. Main St. Community response was high; a 1965 survey showed resident usage at 70%, and the library expanded again in 1996.
Both of those collections are owned by the Bath County Memorial Library, and held in their local history collection.
The two collections in Bath County’s Community Collection are both primary sources from Bath County residents.
- The Gilmore diary collection spans 1944-1955 and is written by Etta Evans Gilmore.
- The Young WWII letter collection was written by Bath County native Sergeant Johnston A. Young, during his time stationed in the Pacific theater during World War II.
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Brown Hocker Collection
The Brown-Hocker Collection is a community collection of photos and realia from African American events and people in Lexington and Kentucky history.
The objects in the collection are primarily for events in African American schools and churches. Several items also involve to civil rights activism in Kentucky. The 1964 March on Frankfort, led by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Jackie Robinson, attracted over 10,000 marchers. The two volumes of “The Kentucky Club Woman” were published by the Kentucky Association of Colored Woman’s Clubs, which represented over 100 Kentucky clubs across the state. There are also several objects honoring the life and legacy of Whitney M. Young, Jr. (1921-1971).
The Constitution School and Booker T. Washington Elementary School were both segregated schools for African American children in Lexington. The Constitution School closed in 1972, but Booker T. Washington Elementary is still in use today.
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Imperial Court of Kentucky
Founded in 1982 by Gigi Galore (Greg Butler) and Blanche Pink (Marlon Austin), the Imperial Court of Kentucky, Inc., is a nonprofit charity that supports the LGBTQ+ community of Kentucky “one dollar at a time” through drag shows, social programs, and fundraisers. The Court uses the modus of English peerage to establish male and female lines of descent, with the female line comprising of drag queens (i.e. performers in drag), with each year an empress and emperor being elected. These “royals” represent the court throughout the upcoming year. The Court is a charter member of the International Court System with kingdoms in the US, Canada, and Mexico. Member courts are autonomous organizations bound together in a shared structure, policies, and goals, fundraising for HIV/AIDS services, human rights advocacy, and other LBGTQ+ stakeholders.
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Government Documents Collection
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.
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Lexington Public Library Collection
The Lexington Public Library opened a Carnegie library in 1905. It incorporated the collections of the former subscription Lexington Library Company (est.1801) and the former Transylvania Library (est.1795). The library became a free library in 1899, shortly before moving locations. When the city outgrew the Carnegie building, the Central Library was built and it opened in 1989.
The system contains six branch locations. The largest is the Central Library, located on E. Main St. The Beaumont Branch, located on Fieldstone Way just off Harrodsburg Rd., replaced the Southside Branch in 1997. The Tates Creek Branch, located on Walden Drive, replaced the Lansdowne Branch in 2001. The Marksbury Family Branch, located on Versailles Rd at Village Dr., replaced the Village Branch in 2024 and is an English-Spanish bilingual branch with bilingual staff. The Northside Branch, located on Russell Cave Rd., replaced the previous Northside location in 2008. The Eastside Branch, located on Blake James Dr., replaced the Eagle Creek Branch in 2016.
The contents of the library's digital collection contain some images and brochures at various points in library history. The typed library history by Mary K. Bullitt was a part of the library's cornerstone collection, which was buried in 1902, during the construction of the Carnegie building. It was opened in 1989 when the library moved locations. The other images depict the construction of the Central Library from 1987-1989.
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Aunt Tiny Belle Collection
The collection consists of an image, homemade brochures, flyers, pamphlets, and programs covering LGBTQ+ events and places from 1983 to 1999 in both Lexington and Louisville. Subjects include Leigh Angelique and other drag queens, Sweet Evening Breeze, Henry Faulkner, Greg Butler, the Royal Sovereign Imperial Court of All Kentucky and its Coronations, the Bungalow, the LMNOP, Jezebel’s, The Bar Complex, Crossings, Disco Circus, the Bluegrass C.O.L.T.S., AIDS Volunteers of Lexington, Johnny Angel’s, The Loft, and Trixie’s Hide and Seek.
The collection is named in honor of Tina Belle Green Winters Simpler Young, known as Tiny, a sex worker who in the 1920s and 30s sent $5.00 a week home to support her sister. For a time, she worked in the Crawl section of Frankfort, then moved to Lexington, and finally lived the rest of her life in Cincinnati.
The queerness of sex work, a marginalized woman using sex to support family, provides context both to this collection bearing her name and to the LGBTQ+ community that has historically formed families on the social margins.
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Sam'l D. M'Cullough's Reminiscences of Lexington
This is a handwritten series of lectures detailing Samuel D. McCullough's memories of his childhood and life in Lexington, Kentucky, accompanied by letters and a photograph of his house. The lectures were apparently delivered before the Historical Society of Fayette County of which McCullough was a member. The lectures begin with a discussion of McCullough's early childhood, followed by reminiscences on local inventors, railroads, turnpikes, jails, punishment of crimes, mills, and the theater. Among Lexington inventors, McCullough details the careers of acquaintances Thomas H. Barlow (1789-1865), John Jones (d. 1849), Edward West (d. 1827), and Nathan Burrowes (d. 1846) Correspondence (2 items; 1869, 1870) consists of a note accompanying the donation of a pamphlet to the library and a letter to fellow members of the historical society concerning an historical map of Fayette County which McCullough proposed to create. Samuel D. McCullough was born in Lexington, Kentucky in 1803 and attended Transylvania College, graduating in 1824. For fourteen years he conducted a female academy, after which he engaged in the manufacture and sale of mustard, having inherited a recipe from a relative, Nathan Burrowes.
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League of Women Voters Collection
The League of Women Voters of Lexington, Kentucky, was established in 1920. It is the local chapter of a national nonpartisan nonprofit organization that encourages informed and active participation of citizens in local, state, and national government.
In January 1920, Lexington’s Leader reported, “The Fayette County Equal Rights Association will become the Fayette County League of Women Voters when thirty-six states have ratified the Federal suffrage amendment or the Kentucky Legislature grants presidential suffrage to women.” The 19th amendment to legalize women’s voting rights had been approved by both the House and Senate in July, 1919, and was submitted to the states for ratification, requiring 36 for adoption. Tennessee became the 36th state on August 18, 1920. On August 26, 1920, the nineteenth amendment was signed into law.
Kentucky was the 24th state to ratify on January 6, 1920, and the local chapter of the League of Women Voters was formed, seven months before national ratification. In addition, on March 29, 1920, Kentucky passed and signed a separate bill ensuring that Kentucky women would have the right to vote, in case ratification was not reached.
At the time, Madeline McDowell Breckinridge of Ashland was the president of the Kentucky Equal Rights Association, and Mabel Sawyer McVey was the president of the Fayette County chapter. These and many other organizations had lobbied for national suffrage, and women were able to vote for the first time in the 1920 election between Warren G. Harding and James M. Cox.
Since its creation, the League of Women Voters has played an active role in encouraging voter registration and civic engagement in the community.
The collection contains assorted membership rolls, photographs, and documents for the local chapter.
Kentucky Photograph Collection
The photographs in the library's collection are donated from a variety of individuals.
The Ashland-McDowell Collection shows an unknown gathering of friends and family at the Ashland estate, taken circa 1894, which included a parade of the estate’s horses. Thoroughbreds Impetuous, King Reine, Oratorio, Argentina, and Bracegirdle are all being proudly shown at this event. Photos also show members of the McDowell family in attendance, including Major McDowell and his wife, and their daughters Nanette, Julia, and Madeline. The author John Fox Jr. was a frequent guest of the McDowells at Ashland and can be seen in one image playing a banjo on the lawn.
The Lena Hart Tobey Collection contains 12 photos. Lena Hart Tobey (1869-1939) was born in Mississippi to Thomas and Susan Watson Hart. In the 1890s, she attended school in Lexington, Kentucky. She married Ellis Tobey in 1896 and died in 1939 in Arkansas. After Lena Hart Tobey's death, her daughter Myrtis inherited a collection of photographs in a scrapbook. The family donated the Lexington, Kentucky marked cabinet cards to the Lexington Public Library in 2001. Some of the young adults in the photos have been named, though most have not.
The other images are miscellaneous photos donated from different sources.
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Postcard Collection
The collection contains various postcards featuring places in and around Kentucky and includes a selection donated by the Knowles family. The postcards in the library's collection were donated by various individuals throughout the years.