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Wonderful podcasts and walking tours have been created by our staff. Please enjoy!
This is your gateway to our most popular resources. Search for books and eBooks, access tools for research and learning, and discover our unique collection of genealogy and local history materials.
Celebrate Lexington, Kentucky’s 250th anniversary all year long. Join us for programs, galleries, podcasts, and more highlighting our city’s history, heritage, and legacy.
Celebrate Black History Month at LPL
Throughout February, join us as we celebrate Black history with programs, materials, podcasts, and more.

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.
Help us make digital archives searchable, from anywhere.
For September, the Blue Grass True Crime Book Club is reading Cemetery Road Murders: The Shocking True Tale of Kentucky’s Murder Mansion by Wes Swietek.

The Council of Defense books contain records for Fayette County’s Army soldiers, Navy sailors, Marines, and Army nurses in World War I, and include information regarding the person’s residence, birth place and date, specific units and en


Mountain Ballads for Social Singing contains 15 songs selected for the Vesper Hour gatherings at Berea College.

Elmer L. Foote served as official photographer of the Cincinnati Public Library for many years, and produced photographs that appeared in the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune during the early years of the twentieth century.
Join us for a walking tour of the places the Marquis de Lafayette visited in downtown Lexington in 1825!
Tour Length 1.76 miles
The music clips used in this tour are from “Walking Barefoot on Grass” by Kai Engel, and are used with a CCBY license. It is available here.

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 Knowles Postcard Collection contains images of notable Kentucky locations, such as Ashland, Keeneland, and Mammoth Cave, as well as county courthouses, farms, schools, and many others.

The Kentucky Progress Commission was formed in 1928 in order to draw tourism and business to Kentucky. It was formed by the Kentucky Legislature, and was a 12 person board.

The Hamilton Female College catalogs list the school’s Board of Trustees, faculty, alumnae, graduates that year, directory of students, courses of study, and the members of each department.