The Filson Guide
GUIDE TO SELECTED MANUSCRIPT AND PHOTOGRAPH
COLLECTIONS OF THE FILSON HISTORICAL SOCIETY
RESEARCHER NOTICE: The Filson encourages researchers to use the Online Catalog for a more extensive search. Hundreds of additional collections have been processed since this guide was compiled in 1996 and appear in The Filson's Online Catalog.
Compiled by: James J. Holmberg, Curator of Manuscripts
James T. Kirkwood, Assistant Curator of Manuscripts
Mary Jean Kinsman, Curator of Photographs and Prints
Copyright ©1996 by The Filson Historical Society, Louisville, KY
Funded in part by the Gheens Foundation, Louisville, KY
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In May 1884 ten prominent Louisvillians gathered at the home of Reuben T. Durrett and founded The Filson Historical Society, Kentucky's privately-supported state historical society named to honor Kentucky's first historian, John Filson, whose book The Discovery, Settlement, and Present State of Kentucke, and map, the first one focusing solely on Kentucky, were printed in 1784. The Filson grew through the late nineteenth and twentieth centuries, from its beginning in the library of Durrett's house to a professionally staffed and fully operating historical society. Today, it is a privately endowed non-profit research library with four collections departments (manuscripts, photographs and prints, library, and museum), publishing department, and education program. Its membership numbers almost 4,000, and over 12,000 people visit the society annually to conduct research, attend programs, and tour the building and museum.
At the core of The Filson's mission is the collection and preservation of historical material for the use and benefit of the present and future generations. Our non-circulating library holds over 50,000 titles of local, regional and national interest, including a fine Civil War collection; approximately 1,500 maps, primarily of Kentucky and other southern states; some 3,000 reels of microfilm containing Kentucky census and tax records, as well as the Draper and Shane collections; over 840 newspaper titles, including one of the largest nineteenth century Kentucky newspaper collections in original form; a large nineteenth century sheet music collection, most of it written or published in Kentucky; a Louisville theater program collection from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; over 3,500 published family histories; and almost 4,000 genealogy files on Kentucky families. While Kentucky is the focus of the library collection, many titles and files concern other states. Kentucky was a migration route over which thousands of people passed during America's westward expansion, and states such as Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Virginia, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and others are well represented in our holdings. In fact, The Filson houses the largest collection in Kentucky of printed material about Virginia.
The manuscript department, featured in this guide, contains approximately 1.5 million items. Shortly after its founding, the historical society began collecting historical material in Kentucky when no other institution was doing so. With many of its early members belonging to Kentucky's oldest and most prominent families, The Filson was able to assemble an important manuscript collection. Its holdings for the late eighteenth through mid-nineteenth centuries are unrivaled in the state, and significant holdings date up to the present day. The collection focuses on Kentucky, but is national and even international in scope, with researchers from across the nation and abroad visiting each year. Our unique holdings are an essential primary source for scholars. It is difficult to highlight just a few collections when faced with such historical wealth, but the collections most often mentioned are our Pleasant Hill Shaker records, Lewis and Clark Expedition letters, Henry Clay letters, and the two earliest known documents written and signed by Daniel Boone. To these must be added hundreds of other collections documenting America's economic, military, political, and social history.
The photographs and prints collection, also described in this guide, serves as a visual window to the past. Our approximately 50,000 images record people at work and play, as well as scenes throughout Kentucky, other states, and foreign countries. Areas of human endeavor such as agriculture, architecture, commerce, industry, and transportation are visually recorded. Two highlights are the Rogers Clark Ballard Thruston collection of photographs, taken by Thruston during his travels in the United States and abroad from the 1880s to 1930s, and the earliest known photograph of Louisville, taken in the 1850s. The collection frequently is used by book and magazine publishers, as well as documentary film producers.
The Filson's museum forms an excellent resource for the study of Kentucky's material culture. Among its more important collections are Kentucky coin silver and nineteenth century clothing, coverlets, and quilts. The portrait collection is excellent and includes the largest collection of antebellum portraiture in Kentucky. Renowned regional and national artists such as Jouett, Poindexter, Bush, Davenport, Brenner, Joiner, Edwards, Jarvis, Harding, Bingham, and Healy are represented. The museum is an important resource for teachers, students, academic researchers, and the general public. Not only are in-house exhibits maintained, but items are loaned to other institutions for temporary exhibit.
The mission of The Filson Historical Society also includes publishing historical material. In 1884 the society launched its first publication series, producing thirty-six volumes before drawing to a close in 1938. A second series was started in 1964 and continues today. In 1926 The Filson History Quarterly began publication. It not only contains articles focusing on Kentucky's history, but also essays and book reviews pertaining to surrounding states and the South. Work currently is underway on a cumulative, fifty year index to the Quarterly.
As Kentucky enters its third century, The Filson Historical Society continues to serve the public as one of the South's foremost history research centers. Thousands of researchers visit our headquarters each year seeking answers to their questions. To provide greater access to our collections, the society established several goals in 1993. One of these was the retrospective conversion of our library, manuscript, and photographs and prints departments' catalogs to an integrated and automated on-line catalog. A grant from the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) funded a consultantcy that enabled The Filson Historical Society to explore the issues relating to automated systems in the library, manuscript, and photograph collections during 1993-1994. A second NHPRC grant in 1995, together with a grant from the James Graham Brown Foundation, is funding in part the retrospective conversion to USMARC AMC format of over 1,000 manuscript and photograph collections and the creation of approximately 200 finding aids. The Brown Foundation grant also is funding the retrospective conversion to MARC format of the library collection. These projects will result in the creation of local computer databases and their inclusion in the OCLC and RLIN systems. The Filson's newspaper and serial holdings already have been entered into the OCLC database through the Kentucky Library Network, to which the society belongs.
Another goal established in 1993 to increase the research community's access to our collections was the publication of this guide and its nationwide distribution. This project was made possible in part by a grant from the Gheens Foundation of Louisville. Because of the Gheens Foundation's interest and generosity, we are now able to offer this guide to The Filson's manuscripts, photographs and prints collected and preserved for over a century, but often known only to those who visited our research library.
The realization of this goal is due to the hard work and dedication of the project team, to which I owe special thanks: James J. Holmberg, Curator of Manuscripts, J. Trace Kirkwood, Assistant Curator of Manuscripts, and Mary Jean Kinsman, Curator of Photographs and Prints. I also want to thank Dr. Nelson Dawson, Director of Publications, for assisting with editing and proofreading the Guide.
Mark V. Wetherington, Ph.D. Director
Acknowledgments
This guide would not have been possible without the work and help of a number of people and organizations. Foremost, The Filson
Historical Society wishes to thank the Gheens Foundation for their financial support. A grant by the Gheens Foundation underwrote the cost of the guide's design and printing, and the distribution of free copies to libraries and historical societies across the country. Filson staff Mark Wetherington, Nelson Dawson, and Judy Miller provided support and assistance. Both Dr. Wetherington and Dr. Dawson proof-read the guide and offered much welcomed advice. Ms. Miller assisted in securing the Gheens grant. Special thanks are due Trace Kirkwood and Mary Jean Kinsman. Mrs. Kinsman provided descriptions of the photograph collections and Mr. Kirkwood spent a great deal of time surveying manuscript collections, entering their descriptions into the computer, and proofreading. The three of us pooled our knowledge of the collections to choose illustrations. This guide was a team effort, and without the cooperation, assistance, and talents of all involved it would not have been possible.
James J. Holmberg Curator of Manuscripts
Manuscript Collection Introduction
The Filson
Historical Society has been collecting manuscripts since soon after its founding in 1884. In the more than one hundred years since then,
The Filson has acquired a large and important collection of historical manuscripts. The collection centers on Kentucky history, but the history of other states and regions, and even foreign countries, also is included. From the colonial period up to the present day, the collection chronicles the commonwealth's and nation's history and experiences. The Filson
Historical Society possesses the finest collection of pioneer, antebellum, and Civil War manuscripts in Kentucky. In addition, excellent collections containing information on women's studies, African Americans, and Louisville journalism also are available to the research community.
The policy of The Filson
Historical Society is to intensively catalog its manuscript collections. Its philosophy is to make the information contained in the collections as accessible as possible to researchers. While such a practice is time consuming,
The Filson believes that both researchers and the importance of the collections are served best by this policy. Library of Congress subject headings and name authority file are used to create catalog cards for all subjects and names in which researchers are likely to be interested. Since 1993, all collections cataloged also are entered into an in-house manuscript collection computer database. All collection-level descriptions included in this guide also are maintained on computer. In 1995-96 The Filson
Historical Society will be engaged in a project funded in part by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission to accomplish the retrospective conversion of one thousand manuscript and one hundred photograph collections to the USMARC AMC format. These records will be loaded into RLIN by the Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives. Other printed sources of manuscript listings are in the National Union Catalog of Manuscript Collections and various subject guides. A future volume of the Guide to Kentucky Archival and Manuscript Collections also will include Filson
manuscript listings.
Anyone wishing additional information about our collections should contact the manuscript department of The Filson
Historical Society. Queries by letter or phone are accepted, but the former is preferred. When making a query, reference to the collection's title and call number will facilitate in answering it.
The collections included in the guide were selected for their research importance and as representative examples of the type of information contained in
The Filson's manuscript collection. Some collections were listed in order to list certain individuals' names that may be of interest to researchers. All collections listed contain the title, dates, call number, volume of material (number of items or cubic feet), identification of the title person or organization, if possible, and a description. Depending upon the nature of the collection, the description provides either an overview or is quite detailed.
Illustrations for the guide are from the manuscript, photograph, and print collections. Letters, documents, broadsides, maps, trade cards, photographs, etc. were chosen to illustrate the visual nature and appeal of the collections. Historically important items with limited visual appeal, as well as visually attractive items with less historical significance, were chosen in order to reflect the broad nature of our holdings. In same instances that appeal and importance is represented in one item. When appropriate the illustration captions include the collection the illustrations are from. Upon occasion, additional information is provided. The illustrations vary in size from the originals; generally being smaller than the actual item.
It has been a goal of The Filson
Historical Society to publish a guide to its manuscript collection for a number of years. It is with great pleasure that that goal has been realized. We believe that all researchers using this guide will gain a greater appreciation of the historical significance of The Filson
Historical Society's manuscript collection, and appreciate
The Filson's long tradition of collecting and preserving historical material.
James J. Holmberg