

Website Search

Old Homes of the Blue Grass is a photographic review of historic homes in Kentucky’s Blue Grass region.

Illustrated Lexington Kentucky contains photographs, demographics, commerce and financial information about Lexington up to 1919.


The Cyrus Parker Jones Funeral Notice collection contains 667 funeral cards of Lexington residents during the years of 1806-1886.

Dunbar High School opened in 1923 at 545 North Upper Street as the only all-black high school in Lexington’s city school system.

The Kentucky Mountain Club was founded in 1929 as a social organization for residents of Lexington, Kentucky, who had been born or resided in the counties of eastern Kentucky.

Tina Belle Green Winters Simpler Young (1880-1930), was born in Elmville, Kentucky. Known as Tiny, she was believed to be a sex worker in the 1920s and 30s, and sent $5.00 a week home to support her sister.

The city reports and ordinances for Lexington contain a wide variety of information about the people, infrastructure, and businesses.

Major Henry Clay McDowell purchased the Ashland Estate from Kentucky University in 1882 with his wife, Anne Smith Clay McDowell, who was a granddaughter of Henry Clay. The McDowells took great care to revive the grounds to their fo

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.

The Lexington Musicians' Association is the local chapter of the American Federation of Musicians (Local 554-635) and was chartered in 1910.

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.

The Cochran Chronicle appears to be a neighborhood leaflet created by two school children, Philip Borries and Laurence Kraehe, living on Cochran Road in the Chevy Chase area of Lexington, KY in 1960.

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 True American was an anti-slavery newspaper started by Cassius Marcellus Clay in June 1845.

The Daily Lexington Atlas ran from December 11, 1847 through November 20, 1848 and was Lexington’s first daily paper, and the first to publish information from the telegraph lines.



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.

The Library's digitized collection includes some non-Fayette County directories for businesses, farms and residences.



The United States Army Armor School began in 1940 as the Armored Force School and Replacement Center at Fort Knox, Kentucky.