Lexington’s African American Heritage Walking Tour
Join us for an on-demand walking tour of Downtown Lexington’s African American heritage sites.
Join us for an on-demand walking tour of Downtown Lexington’s African American heritage sites.
Explore topics related to Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math (STEAM) in this space for youth, grades 3-12.
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Destination Kindergarten is the library’s program aimed at preschoolers and their caregivers- trying to help them practice the skills they need to be ready for Kindergarten. During each Destination Kindergarten event, preschoolers and their caregivers can find a specalized area in the library with fun books, take-home activities, and information about development milestones and school readiness.
See below for more information on upcoming events and take-home packets and activities.
Please complete this form to request a Destination Kindergarten Storytime Kit. Kits may be borrowed for 2 weeks. Each kit contains: 5-7 books, a binder with songs, action rhymes, and fingerplays, and several classroom manipulatives for activities.
From early literacy to beyond, we're here to support your child's education. Find out about programs like Destination Kindergarten, LPL After School, and Student Success. Educators can apply for a Teacher Card and request a "bucket of books" or storytime kit.
New to the U.S. and Lexington community? Check out these programs for English language learners.
Join us for a walking tour of Downtown Lexington’s historic sites. The full tour is available as a single MP3, or you can download individual tracks. For the single MP3, music will play between the stops. You can pause the track while you walk between stops.
This tour covers a walking distance of 1.1 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: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kai_Engel/
The Kentucky Images collection contains postcards, photographs and slides of people, architecture, and locations in Kentucky and Appalachia.
How can we help you? We've gathered a variety of resources for readers, students and educators, job seekers. entrepreneurs and nonprofits, and English language learners.
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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Wonderful podcasts and walking tours have been created by our staff. Please enjoy!
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These tours are guided audio walking tours with a variety of topics focused on Downtown Lexington, KY. Music will play in between each stop, and the listener can pause the track while walking between stops.
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Fayette County's local businesses and organizations contain a wealth of information about local residents.
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 former glory and made several lasting improvements, including the construction of a glass conservatory adjoining the terrace, which is visible in several of the collection's images. During the period that Ashland was owned by Kentucky University, a large Mechanical Hall was erected on the grounds, which the McDowells converted to a stable and used to reestablish Ashland as a thoroughbred stock farm. The tenure of the McDowells at Ashland was marked by numerous celebrations and social events on the grounds.
This photo collection shows one of many gatherings of friends and family, 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.
Information on the history of Ashland from Ashland: the Henry Clay Estate by Eric Brooks, 2007.
Check here for your school's list of summer assignments.
The weekly classes will be informal and guided by a moderator. EVERYONE is welcome - ANY native language, ANY English level. No registration needed. Practica ingles y conoce gente nueva. ¡Todos son bienvenidos! ¡Todos los idiomas, todos los niveles de ingles. Jifunze Kiingereza na kukutana na watu wapya. Kila mtu anakaribishwa! Lugha zote, viwango vyote vya Kiingereza!
The weekly classes will be informal and guided by a moderator. EVERYONE is welcome - ANY native language, ANY English level. No registration needed. Practica ingles y conoce gente nueva. ¡Todos son bienvenidos! ¡Todos los idiomas, todos los niveles de ingles. Jifunze Kiingereza na kukutana na watu wapya. Kila mtu anakaribishwa! Lugha zote, viwango vyote vya Kiingereza!
The weekly classes will be informal and guided by a moderator. EVERYONE is welcome - ANY native language, ANY English level. No registration needed. Practica ingles y conoce gente nueva. ¡Todos son bienvenidos! ¡Todos los idiomas, todos los niveles de ingles. Jifunze Kiingereza na kukutana na watu wapya. Kila mtu anakaribishwa! Lugha zote, viwango vyote vya Kiingereza!
The weekly classes will be informal and guided by a moderator. EVERYONE is welcome - ANY native language, ANY English level. No registration needed. Practica ingles y conoce gente nueva. ¡Todos son bienvenidos! ¡Todos los idiomas, todos los niveles de ingles. Jifunze Kiingereza na kukutana na watu wapya. Kila mtu anakaribishwa! Lugha zote, viwango vyote vya Kiingereza!
The weekly classes will be informal and guided by a moderator. EVERYONE is welcome - ANY native language, ANY English level. No registration needed. Practica ingles y conoce gente nueva. ¡Todos son bienvenidos! ¡Todos los idiomas, todos los niveles de ingles. Jifunze Kiingereza na kukutana na watu wapya. Kila mtu anakaribishwa! Lugha zote, viwango vyote vya Kiingereza!
The weekly classes will be informal and guided by a moderator. EVERYONE is welcome - ANY native language, ANY English level. No registration needed. Practica ingles y conoce gente nueva. ¡Todos son bienvenidos! ¡Todos los idiomas, todos los niveles de ingles. Jifunze Kiingereza na kukutana na watu wapya. Kila mtu anakaribishwa! Lugha zote, viwango vyote vya Kiingereza!
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. Lantern slides are glass positive transparencies, viewed through a back lit projector. The Lexington Public Library does not have record of when the slides were donated, or the donor’s name. Records do indicate that the library purchased a projectoscope for viewing glass slides in 1912, and a separate lantern slide collection was donated to the library in 1919. The slides contain examples of posed portraiture, scenery from around Kentucky, documentation of the new High Bridge, as well as several historic buildings and homes, some of which are unidentified.
He was born in Glastonbury, Connecticut on February 27, 1863, the son of Edwin Foote and Ellen Hodges Foote, both natives of Connecticut. He came to Cincinnati about 1884 and married Estelle Allee of Cincinnati in 1888. Foote died at age 56 in Norwood, Ohio on September 21, 1919 and is buried in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio. Foote's obituary in the Commercial Tribune of September 22, 1919 describes him as nationally known, and mentions his "photographic genius." The article further describes Foote's pictures taken among the Cumberland Mountains and outdoor scenic snow views, appearing at intervals in the Commercial Tribune, as photographic classics.
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.
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Join us for a walking tour of Downtown Lexington’s African American Heritage Sites. The full tour is available as a single MP3, or you can download individual tracks. For the single MP3, music will play between the stops. You can pause the track while you walk between stops.
This tour covers a walking distance of 1.7 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: http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kai_Engel/
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.