Archives

Held by The Filson Historical Society

Creator:  Castlewood Athletic Club (Louisville, Ky.)

Title:  Records, 1927-2009

Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these papers, contact the Collections Department.

Size of Collection:  1 cu. ft.

Location Number:  Mss. BK C253

Historical Note

The Castlewood Athletic Club was started between 1927 and 1928 by Bobby Moore and a group of his friends, who all lived in the Castlewood neighborhood in the Highlands in Louisville, Kentucky. What started as a small football club that held meetings in Moore’s shed. It gained traction after winning some games against other football clubs and soon became a full athletic club for ages 10-16 with 35 members.

The larger number of members meant the boys could take turns hosting meetings at each other’s houses and expand the CAC to include other sports such as basketball and tennis. Prospective CAC members had to become pledges and go through hazing trials before joining the club. Hazing trials included pledges carrying shoeshine equipment with them outside of school to shine the shoes of CAC members on command. “Hell night” was the last day of the pledging process, and various hazing tactics were used on these new recruits, including being beaten with paddles.

CAC was unique because it was completely run by the members. The boys involved in the CAC hosted and ran the meetings, collected dues, and scheduled practices and games with other teams and clubs. While the CAC used coaches from their schools at first, as club members aged out, many former members returned to coach.

The CAC had a few traditions and practices beyond athletics, including an annual Father and Son Banquet held at the end of each season. Coaches from local high schools and sports journalists from the Courier Journal were invited to attend and speak at these events. The five “honor” players also received recognition and awards at the banquet. Another annual tradition was the Castlewood Sweetheart: a teenage girl chosen by the CAC members. The Sweetheart hosted a party for the CAC and had to kiss each member during the event. The end of each season, or the “last day,” was celebrated by the members of the CAC through a trip to Tuckers Lake in Jeffersontown and the Fontaine Ferry Amusement Park in West Louisville.

In 1991, former members of the CAC got together for a reunion. In 2006, the collection donor, Allan “Moose” Weiss, sent out surveys to former CAC members soliciting memories of and memorabilia from the club. The responding members include Silas Lanham Frazier Jr., John R. Farmer, Larry Barnes, Joe Dumesun, Tom Grissom, Jeff Duprey, Dan Sullivan, John Porter Sawyer, Gene Douglas Scott, Donald F. Kohler, A. Steven Miles Jr., Tom Musselman Sr., Doug Keller Sr., Junius W. Prince III, Edward Quest, Fairleigh Lussky, Brock Martin, Frank B. Hower Jr., Jay Stewart, William Hoke Camp Jr., Stephen Green, Rodger Hubbard, Joe Helm, Morman W. Cummins, Frank Payne, and William W. Davis.

 

Scope and Content Note

This collection consists of records and materials from 1927 to 2009 related to the Castlewood Athletic Club, a sports club in Louisville for boys aged 10 to 16, which focused on football.

Folders 1-2 contain information about the early years of the Castlewood Athletic Club. Folder 1 includes the 1927 Castlewood Constitution and rules for new pledges. Folder 2 contains a typed history of the CAC by former member Lanham Frazier.

Folders 3-5 contain information related to the team coaches and captains, game scores, and meeting minutes. Folder 3 includes typed transcripts of Volumes 13-15. Folder 4 includes a scanned copy of the CAC member book, which belonged to Bob Moore. Folder 5 includes a scrapbook that belonged to Steve Miles.

Folder 6 contains programs for the annual Father and Son Banquet. Folder 7 includes invitations, newspaper articles, speeches, and correspondence related to the 1991 Reunion Banquet.

Folder 8 includes correspondence related to the 1991 Reunion Banquet and the conservation of Cherokee Park, which was used by the CAC. Folder 9 contains reminiscences, biographies, and recollections of former CAC members in response to Allan “Moose” Weiss’s CAC history project.

Folder 10 contains newspaper clippings relating to CAC games, dances, banquets, and the Castlewood Sweetheart, as well as obituaries of former CAC members. Folder 11 contains copies of photographs that cannot be found in the Castlewood Athletic Club Photograph Collection.

Folder 12 contains miscellaneous materials, including materials related to Hunter Thompson, a former CAC member and famous author and journalist, the history of the Cherokee Triangle in relation to the CAC, and an artist profile on David Ross Stevens, including sculpture sketches.

Volumes 13-14 include lists of team members, captains, and coaches, as well as game scores. Volume 15 contains CAC Meeting Minutes.

Related collections:

Castlewood Athletic Club Photograph Collection 016PC11

Castlewood Athletic Club Museum Items 2016.8.1-6

 

Folder List

Box 1

Folder 1: Castlewood Athletic Club Constitution, 1927

Folder 2: History of Castlewood Athletic Club, 1928-1938

Folder 3: Transcripts of Volumes 13-15, 1928-1954

Folder 4: CAC Members Book, 1927-1933

Folder 5: Scrapbook by Steve Miles, 1941-1945

Folder 6: Father and Son Banquet, 1950-1957

Folder 7: Reunion Banquet, 1991

Folder 8: Correspondence, 1991-2018

Folder 9: Castlewood Athletic Club Biographies, 2006-2009

Folder 10: Newspaper Clippings, 1943-2021

Folder 11: Photocopies, 1932-1991

Folder 12: Miscellaneous, 1949-2017

Volume 13: Team Members and Game scores, 1928-1952

Volume 14: Team Members and Game scores, 1953-1962

Volume 15: Meeting Minutes, 1952-1954

 

Subject Headings

Adolescence.

Athletic clubs.

Basketball.

Coming of age – Kentucky.

Education, Secondary.

Football.

Hazing.

Junior high school boys.

Junior high school students.

Male junior high school athletes.

Sex role – Kentucky.

Social role – Kentucky.

Sports injuries.

Teenagers – Kentucky – Social life and customs.

Thompson, Hunter S., 1937-2005.

Youth – Societies and clubs.

Held by The Filson Historical Society

Creator: Canby, Edward Richard Sprigg, 1819-1873

Title: Papers, 1837-1873

Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these papers, contact the Collections Department.

Size of Collection: 0.33 cubic feet (appx 146 items)

Location Number: Mss. A C214 / 1-10

Scope and Content Note

Material relating to the career and death of General E. R. S. Canby, U.S.A., with a few items pertaining to other members of the Canby family and members of the Hawkins and Speed families. Material consists of: land papers, 1837, 1849 and 1870, military papers of E. R S. Canby: orders, correspondence, etc., 1851-1869; correspondence of Louisa (Hawkins) Canby (Mrs. E. R. S. Canby), with a few letters addressed to General Canby, 1850-1863; correspondence of John P. Hawkins, 1870, 1873; newspaper clippings describing the death of General Canby by members of ter Modoc tribe, his funeral and army career, ca.. 1873, and some receipts of members of the Hawkins family, 1849, 1852, 1861. Correspondence of Mrs. Canby discusses primarily family and local news. Her correspondents include: her sisters, Miriam Hawkins Speed (Mrs. John James Speed), Margaret Hawkins Speed (Mrs. Thomas Spencer Speed), and Fannie Hawkins; her brother, John P. Hawkins. Correspondence of John P. Hawkins is devoted to his attempt to assemble newspaper clippings about his brother-in-law, General Canby. Three photographs: General Canby, Colonel Thomas Speed, and Captain Thomas Speed.

 

Folder List

Folder 1: Record of marriage of E. R. S. Canby and Louisa Hawkins; notes on the Waller family; two photographs (Canby and Colonel Thomas Speed) and one print (Captain Thomas Speed).

Folder 2: Canby Land Papers, 1837, 1849, 1870.

Folder 3: E. R. S. Canby Military Papers: Correspondence, Orders, Etc., 1851-1862.

Folder 4: E. R. S. Canby Military Papers: Correspondence, Orders, Etc.,  1865-1869.

Folder 5: Louisa Hawkins Canby Correspondence, 1850-1858.

Folder 6: Louisa Hawkins Canby Correspondence,1859-1863, no date.

Folder 7: John P. Hawkins Correspondence, 1870, 1873.

Folder 8: Newspaper clippings about General E. R. S. Canby, 1873.

Folder 9: Newspaper clippings about General E. R. S. Canby, 1873.

Folder 10: Hawkins Receipts, 1849, 1852, 1861.

Held by The Filson Historical Society

Creator: Abramson Family

Title: Photograph Collection, ca. 1910-2011

Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these papers, contact the Collections Department.

Size of Collection: 1 cubic foot

Location Number: 020PC15

Scope and Content Note 

The Abramson family collection primarily documents the political career of former Mayor of Louisville Jerry Abramson and also includes photographs of his wife Madeline Malley Miller Abramson and other family members. Jerry Abramson served as Louisville 3^rd Ward Alderman (1975-1978), General Counsel and Secretary of Justice to Governor John Y. Brown (1980-1981), Mayor of Louisville (1985-1998), Mayor of Louisville Metro (2003-2011), Lieutenant Governor in the administration of Governor Steve Beshear (2011-2014), and Deputy Assistant to President Barack Obama and Director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs (2014-2016).

Folders 1-4 contain personal photographs of Jerry Abramson, Madeline Malley, and family members. Included are photographs of Jerry Abramson during his high school years, documenting his involvement with Jewish youth groups, and from his time at Indiana University and Army basic training at Fort Knox.

Folder 5 holds photographs of Jerry Abramson during the first part of his political career in the 1970s and early 1980s, relating to his years as Alderman and in Gov. Brown’s cabinet.

Folders 6-21 and albums 28-29 contain photographs pertaining to Abramson’s first campaign for Mayor of Louisville in 1985 and events during his first three mayoral terms from 1985-1998. Also of note are photographs from his bachelor party in Washington, D.C. in 1989, and ones documenting his involvement with the United States Conference of Mayors.

Folders 22-23 contain photographs from 2000-2011 and include Abramson’s years as Mayor of Louisville Metro and his inauguration as Lt. Governor of Kentucky.

Folders 24-27 consist of photographs, ca. 1970s-2010s, of Abramson with celebrities, British royalty, and Kentucky and national politicians and officials. Also included are publicity photographs of Abramson.

People of note in the photographs include Robert Kennedy, Harvey Sloane, Muhammad Ali, Terry Meiners, Wayne Perkey, Mary Bingham, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, Colin Powell, Janet Reno, and Barack Obama. Among the events featured are ones related to the B’nai B’rith Youth Organization (BBYO), Aleph Zedek Aleph (AZA) fraternity, the Kentucky Derby, the Sister City program, and St. Patrick’s Day. See the folder listing in the attached finding aid for more information about these and other people and events pictured in the photographs. Photographers include Gus Frank and Gene Gilpin, among others.

The Filson deeply appreciates the volunteer work of Rabbi Stanley Miles in arranging the Abramson family photographs and writing the biographical note, and the assistance of Rabbi Miles and Jerry Abramson in identifying people and events in the photographs.

Related collections:

Abramson family papers, 1938-2016 [Mss. A A158].

Subject photograph of Abramson with Robert Kennedy, ca. 1967-1968 [PLT-39 (020PC15)]

Museum objects: New York City marathon cap [2021.30.1], “Mayors Care for You” United States Conference of Mayors pin [2021.30.2], “I Helped Build Waterfront Park” pin [2021.30.3], Jerry Abramson mayoral campaign button [2021.30.4], City of Louisville pins [2021.30.5-6], “Salute to Mayor Jerry E. Abramson” pin [2021.30.7].

 

Biographical Note

Jerry Edwin Abramson (1946- ) had a career which took him from a small grocery at the corner of Preston and Jacob Street to City Hall in Louisville, the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort, and finally to an office in the West Wing of the White House in Washington, DC.

Abramson was born in Louisville, Kentucky on September 12, 1946, at Jewish Hospital. His parents were Roy Abramson (1917-1998) and Shirley Botwick Abramson (1920-2002), and he has one sibling Sheilah Abramson-Miles (1950- ).

Abramson attended the Louisville public schools of Greathouse and Hawthorne Elementary, Seneca Middle School, and Seneca High School, graduating in 1964. During high school he was active in the teen programs at the Jewish Community Center, particularly the national high school fraternity AZA (Aleph Zedek Aleph) sponsored by B’nai B’rith, an international Jewish social and service organization. Abramson assumed a leadership role locally in the Resnick AZA chapter and regionally in the KIO (Kentucky-Indiana-Ohio) district. At Seneca High School he played in the marching band, was active in debate, and sang in the rock band Apollo and the Sunsetters.

In 1964 Abramson began his undergraduate career at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. He was a member of the ZBT (Zeta Beta Tau) Jewish social fraternity. In 1966, Abramson ran for and was elected to the IU Union Board. The Union Board was responsible for programming at the Indiana Memorial Union, then the largest student union complex in the world. He was also selected for the Indiana University Foundation, which oversaw Little 500 Weekend, a 50-mile bicycle race described as the “World’s Greatest College Weekend.”

In the spring of 1968 Abramson became involved in the presidential campaign of Robert F. Kennedy. He was selected to lead Youth for Kennedy during the Indiana primary. Meeting, working, and traveling with Senator Kennedy had a profound effect on Abramson and inspired him to pursue a career in public service. Sadly, at the time of Abramson’s graduation from Indiana University, Senator Kennedy was assassinated at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Abramson was invited to be on the funeral train from New York to Washington but declined because it would prevent him from attending his graduation ceremony.

In the fall of 1968 Abramson began his legal studies at the Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC. During the summer of 1969 he was drafted into the United States Army during the Vietnam War. He took basic training at Fort Knox in Kentucky and spent the remainder of his military career serving in the Judge Advocates Office at Fort Knox and the Presidio in San Francisco, CA. He left the service in the spring of 1971 and resumed law school at Georgetown where he had been elected to the Georgetown Law Review.

After graduating from Georgetown in the spring of 1973, Abramson returned to Louisville and took an Associate position at the Greenebaum, Doll, Matthews and Boone law firm. He also became active in both the secular and Jewish communities. In 1975 he ran for and was elected 3^rd Ward Alderman in the Louisville Board of Aldermen. Abramson served two terms on the Board of Aldermen from 1975 to 1979. In 1980 Governor John Y. Brown chose him to be his general counsel and secretary of justice. He served in this position through 1981. Eventually Abramson became a partner in the Greenebaum, Doll and McDonald law firm.

In the early 1980s Abramson decided to run for mayor of Louisville. He was elected as mayor in 1985 and served until 1998. Jerry Abramson earned the nickname “Mayor for Life” as eventually he became the longest serving mayor in Louisville’s history.

During Abramson’s first term as mayor on June 24, 1989, he married Madeline Malley Miller (1955- ). Prior to Madeline’s marriage to Jerry, she converted to Judaism. Madeline grew up in a Catholic family in Louisville’s South End. They were active in the Democratic party and with the Kentucky Irish American newspaper. Madeline graduated from Holy Rosary Academy in 1973. She earned an Associate Degree in Real Estate from Jefferson Community College and an Associate Degree in Paralegal Studies from the University of Louisville. She worked at a variety of firms, ultimately becoming Executive Assistant to the General Counsel of US Bank and a Member of the Advisory Board. In 1991 the Abramsons adopted their son, Sidney (1991- ). In 2016 Sidney Abramson married Kandice Oppell; they have two children, Grayson Robert Abramson (2018- ) and Ruby Jane Abramson (2021- ).

Highlights of Jerry Abramson’s first terms (1985-1998) include the $700 million expansion of Louisville International Airport; the creation of Waterfront Park as part of the revitalization of Downtown Louisville; and the expansion of the local economy by recruiting Yum Brands and the Presbyterian (Church) USA to relocate to Louisville. In 1994 he was elected president of the United States Conference of Mayors.

After completing three terms as mayor in 1998, Abramson returned to the practice of law at Frost, Brown, Todd. During this time frame there was a successful campaign to merge the governments of Louisville and Jefferson County into the Louisville Metro government. Abramson was instrumental in this campaign. He was selected to run for the position of the first mayor of Louisville Metro, a position he occupied from 2002-2010. Abramson integrated the two pre-existing governments into one system.

At the end of Abramson’s second term as metro mayor, he decided not to run for a final third term. For many years he had been friendly with Steve Beshear, who was serving his first term as governor of the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Beshear was seeking a candidate to run with him as his lieutenant governor for his second term, and Abramson joined the Beshear ticket. Abramson took office as lieutenant governor in December 2011.

In November of 2014 Abramson received an appointment from President Barack Obama to become Deputy Assistant to the president and White House Director of Intergovernmental Affairs. Abramson’s focus was to serve as liaison between the White House and state and local governments and Indigenous tribes.

When Abramson left the White House at the end of the Obama administration, he resumed his faculty position at Bellarmine University. In late 2018 he left Bellarmine to accept a position at Spalding University as executive-in-residence.

References
Carol Ely, Jewish Louisville: Portrait of a Community (2003), pp. 122, 175, 201, 216, 219, 228.

 

Folder List 

Box 1

Folder 1: Abramson family, ca. 1910-1951. Includes photographs of Jerry Abramson’s parents Roy and Shirley Abramson; his paternal grandparents Sidney and Sadie Abramson and their daughter Sylvia; Sidney’s brother Lester; Jerry Abramson’s Greathouse School kindergarten class, Spring 1951.

Folder 2: Malley and Abramson families, ca. 1970s-1990s, undated. Includes photograph of an unidentified female ancestor of Madeline Malley; Malley and her sister; Roy, Shirley, Madeline, Jerry, and Sidney Abramson.

Folder 3: High school, 1960s. Includes photographs from Seneca High School; B’nai B’rith Youth Organization (BBYO); Aleph Zedek Aleph (AZA) fraternity.

Folder 4: Indiana University and U.S. Army basic training, 1960s.

Folder 5: Falls of the Ohio and political events, 1970s-early 1980s. Includes photographs from Falls of the Ohio; 3^rd ward Alderman campaign and swearing in; Board of Alderman meetings and events; JCC Man of the Year; dedication of Kentucky Bar Center, 1980; Democratic National Committee, 1982; Gov. John Y. Brown’s cabinet and Derby brunch.

Folder 6: Photographs from album compiled by Roy Abramson, 1 of 2, ca. 1980-1986. Includes photographs of first mayoral campaign; election night; first day in office; inauguration and ball; family members; Billy Crystal at Kentucky Derby festival

Folder 7: Photographs from album compiled by Roy Abramson, 2 of 2, ca. 1986, 1990-1993. Includes photographs of Muhammad Ali signing copy of the Koran; Historic Parkland ribbon cutting; Red Cross blood drive; Bob Edwards; Mayor’s SummerScene; Abramson receiving Justice Award from Louisville Jewish community; Derby Festival Tea; U of L NCAA champs; St. Patrick’s day parade; United Jewish Appeal Young Leadership Conference; Abramson addressing Board of Alderman

Folder 8: Mayoral campaign, 1985

Folder 9: Mayoral inauguration, December 1985

Folder 10: Mayoral term, January-May 1986. Includes photographs of NPR host Bob Edwards at the library; Black Achievers banquet; Abramson with Terry Meiners on WHAS; WHAS crusade for children; Louis Levine and Carl Bensinger; throwing out first pitch; outstanding high school senior banquet; Historic Parkland ribbon cutting; victims’ rights press conference; Cherokee Triangle gazebo; Worth Plaza groundbreaking; signing of city-county compact; 2100 Chestnut ribbon cutting; Bellarmine commencement address; Sister Cities event; Louisville Zoo train

Folder 11: Mayoral term, June-July 1986. Includes photographs of Operation Brightside; dedication of new building at Home of the Innocents; Return of Riverfront celebration at Belvedere; Paul Hornung’s induction into the Pro Football Hall of Fame; city-county compact signing ceremony; Terry Meiners portrait unveiling; selection of Russell Sanders as Fire Chief; firefighters honored

Folder 12: Mayoral term, August-December and unidentified months, 1986. Includes photographs of delegation from China; Germantown-Paristown Neighborhood Center dedication; Kentucky Candidate Speak Out; Metro United Way campaign; Abramson’s 40^th birthday party; USA/AAU karate champs; meeting with Toyota officials; Humana Hospital 25^th anniversary; dinner for ANYTOWN; Baxter Recreation Center; commissioning of the USS Louisville; Light up Louisville; Andrew Young; Iroquois Amphitheater renovation; dedication of Col. Harland Sanders Geriatric Center

Folder 13: Mayoral term, January-June 1987. Includes photographs of Abramson filing for reelection; the Mayor’s Players; groundbreaking for Shakespeare in Central Park; Liberty Hall home partnership program; Kensington Place residential project groundbreaking; Mockingbird Gardens groundbreaking; St. Patrick’s day parade; Home Place dedication; Streetball promo game; outstanding high school senior banquet; Wendell Cherry recognition ceremony; Youth Performing Arts School celebration at Superintendent Dr. Donald Ingwerson’s home; Barrier awareness day at Humana; WalkAmerica; Compact anniversary

Folder 14: Mayoral term, July-December and unidentified months, 1987. Includes photographs of Operation Brightside; crafts fair at the Watertower; 80^th birthday party for Gen. Dillman A. Rash; Toonerville II trolley; Old Walnut Street Park dedication; 2 hours free parking at the Galleria announcement; The Islands dedication; Christmas parade; Volunteers of America (VOA) apartments for homeless; New Year’s Eve at Theater Square; trip to England; Sister Cities plaque dedication

Folder 15: Kentucky Derby Festival and events, ca. 1980s-1990s. Includes photographs of senior citizen event at Senior House on Muhammad Ali Blvd; steamboat race; Pegasus Parade; KFC Take It to the Bucket West End Shoot-out

Folder 16: Destination Louisville rally and Presbyterian General Assembly, 1987

Folder 17: Mayoral term, 1988-1989. Includes photographs of Melissa Mershon and Reginald Meeks; Operation Brightside; Courthouse and Jefferson Street; Breeders’ Cup; City Fest; David Stoner, head of Presbyterian church; Gov. Wallace Wilkinson; Dukakis campaign event; Wayne Perkey; visit by Naval Ordnance Station officials; General Electric (GE) CEO Roger Schipke

Folder 18: Jerry Abramson’s bachelor party, Washington, D.C. and the White House, June 1989. Includes photographs of Charles Buddeke, Bill Lomika, Marvin Holthausen, Tom Jarrell, Bob Allison

Folder 19: United States Conference of Mayors, 1987, 1994-1996

Folder 20: Miscellaneous events, ca. 1980s-1990s. Includes photographs of Toonerville II trolley; the Monarchs; Reed Yader; blood donation event; Louisville Falls Fountain; Dickens on Main Street; Kentucky Shakespeare at St. James Court; Winn Dixie Streetball Showdown; Iroquois Park rededication; Mayor’s SummerScene; opening of Waterfront Park; Courier-Journal aerial image of waterfront before the Great Lawn; Sister City Tamale, Ghana event.

Folder 21: Miscellaneous events, 1990s. Includes photographs of Sister City event with Georges Freche, mayor of Montpellier, France; visit to Sister City of Mainz, Germany; Dainty contest; dedication of the Louisville Slugger Museum; renovation of Brinly-Hardy warehouse for Slugger Field; 1992 presidential campaign event; Asia-Pacific Forum II; City Fair; Churchill Downs president Thomas H. Meeker; Alderman Bill Wilson; Abramson leaving mayor’s office.

Folder 22: Miscellaneous events, 2000-2006. Includes photographs of the 2003 Louisville Metro mayoral campaign; dedication of Slugger Field; Abramson visit to Montpellier, France; Kentucky Derby events; mayor’s office staff members; French diplomat Jean-David Levitte; Abramson’s visit to Sister City Leeds, England

Folder 23: Lt. Governor inauguration, 2011

Folder 24: Celebrities and British royalty, ca. 1980s-early 2000s. Includes photographs of Muhammad Ali; Mary Bingham; George Clooney; Neil Diamond; Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip.

Folder 25: Kentucky politicians and officials, ca. 1970s-1990s. Includes photographs of Gov. John Brown and Phyllis Brown and their newborn baby Lincoln Brown; Gov. Martha Layne Collins; Harvey Sloane and Gov. Wallace Wilkinson; Gov. Paul Patton; Senator Wendell Ford and Ford with Prime Minister Menachem Begin of Israel; Gov. Brereton Jones and Representative William Huston Natcher; Mike Ward; David Karem, Wilson Wyatt, and Frank Burke

Folder 26: National politicians and officials, ca. 1980s-2010s. Includes photographs of Roslyn Carter; Michael Dukakis during presidential campaign of 1988; President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton; Vice President Al Gore; General Colin Powell; Attorney General Janet Reno; Rep. John Lewis; Sen. Mitch McConnell; President Barack Obama.

Folder 27: Publicity photographs, ca. 1980s-1990s

Album 28: Mayoral election, 5 November 1985

Album 29: Mayoral inauguration, 28-29 December 1985. Friday night dinner at home of Inez and Jack Segall (pp. 1-2); Keneseth Israel worship service on Saturday morning (pp. 2-3); inaugural ball at Brown Hotel (pp. 3-28); inauguration ceremony and reception at the Kentucky Center for the Arts (pp. 28-37); family photos (pp. 39-42); setting up City Hall (pp. 42-48).

 

Subject Headings

Abramson, Jerry E., 1946-

Abramson, Madeline Malley Miller, 1955-

Indiana University.

Jewish families – Kentucky – Louisville.

Jewish mayors – Kentucky – Louisville.

Keneseth Israel (Louisville, Ky.)

Kentucky Derby.

Lieutenant governors – Kentucky.

Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government (Ky.)

Louisville (Ky.) – History.

Louisville (Ky.) – Politics and government.

Mayors – Kentucky – Louisville.

Miles, Stanley R., 1948-

Political campaigns – Kentucky – Louisville.

Waterfronts – Kentucky – Louisville.

 

Held by The Filson Historical Society

Creator:  Stow Family

Title:  Stow Family Added Papers, 1853-1893

Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these papers, contact the Collections Department.

Size of Collection:  0.33 cu. ft.

Location Number:  Mss. A S891a

Biographical Note

The collection centers on the family of Uzziel Hayward Stow (1809-1890) and Catharine Manser Stow (1811-1899) of Switzerland County, Indiana. Uzziel and Catharine shared New England ancestral origins, as well as similar experiences migrating from western New York to southeastern Indiana as children in the late 1810s. Independently, their parents settled in Cotton Township, Switzerland County, Indiana in the early 1820s, and there Uzziel and Catharine ultimately met. They were married in 1834, and for the remainder of their lives resided at “Stowtown,” south of East Enterprise, Indiana. They had four children: Hiram S. Stow (1835-1853), Loring B. Stow (1838-1860), Viola A. Stow Dufour (1841-1912), and Baron P. Stow (1847-1864). Tragically, the three sons of the family all died young.

The Stows were farmers who by the 1850s were entering upon prosperity, due in part to the sheer industriousness of Uzziel Stow, and his pursuit of “improvement” in agricultural practice and technology. The family home was situated in the Ohio Valley, along one of the major inland transportation and migration routes of the day. The Stows were active members of the Methodist Episcopal Church and commentators on matters of importance to the church during the mid-19^th century. Uzziel and Catharine are buried in the family cemetery at Stowtown.

For more information on Uzziel and Catharine Stow and their extended relations, consult the descendant charts and person reports in folders 3-6 of the Stow family papers [Mss. A S891].

Sources:

Ellen Stepleton notes on the origin of the Stow archive. [Mss. A S891 / 1]

Descendant charts and person reports. [Mss. A S891 / 3-6]

 

Scope and Content Note

This collection contains diaries, autograph albums, and a commencement oration belonging to members of the Stow family, Methodists and farmers in Switzerland County, Indiana in the 19^th century. Materials date primarily from the 1850s and 1860s and document agricultural labor and housework, Protestant religious activities, social get-togethers, and sicknesses and deaths.

Volumes 1-3 are autograph books belonging to Viola Stow, daughter of Uzziel and Catharine Stow, and to Viola’s cousin Julia Stow. The albums contain notes and autographs of family members, fellow students, and friends. Viola’s two autograph albums begin in 1853 when she was 12 years old and cover her time as a student at Elizabethtown Female Seminary in Ohio from 1856-1860 and the years before and after her marriage to Frank Dufour in October 1862. Julia Stow’s autograph book spans her last half-year at Elizabethtown Female Seminary and her marriage in April 1860 to Lemuel Bledsoe.

Volumes 4-10 are diaries belonging to Catharine Stow, Uzziel Stow, and their children Loring, Viola, and Baron Stow dating from the mid-1850s through the mid-1860s. Catharine Stow’s 1854 diary documents the work and activities of family and hired laborers. It includes many entries chronicling her ailments as well as ones processing her grief after the death of her oldest son Hiram at college in December 1853. Uzziel Stow’s 1855, 1859-1860, and 1865-1866 diaries primarily document labor on the Stow farm. He also writes about sicknesses and deaths, his attendance at religious services and meetings, and his purchases from stores in nearby towns. Loring Stow’s diary, which opens in January 1860 when he was 21 years old, documents a flatboat trip he took down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers to deliver hay to New Orleans. Less than a month after his return by steamboat, he died of typhoid fever on April 30. Viola Stow’s 1862 diary opens when she is 20 years old. She writes of her dislike of teaching and describes quilting work, social gatherings, news of Civil War battles in other states, sicknesses, and memories of her brother Loring’s death two years earlier. Baron Stow, whose 1862 diary opens when he is 14 years old, writes of news of Civil War battles, his days at school, his farm work, his attendance at religious services and events, and the early stages of his courtship with Anna Ogle. Folder 11 contains a commencement oration that seems to be in Viola Stow’s handwriting. If written by Viola, the address would have been prepared for the Elizabethtown Female Seminary graduation exercises in June 1859.

Folder 12 contains Ellen Stepleton’s notes about the collection, as well as transcriptions for volumes 4 and 7-9 and for folder 11. The finding aid on the Filson’s web site include links to PDF scans of the notes and transcriptions.

Related Collections:

Stow family papers [Mss. A S891].

Stow family photograph collection [018PC4 and 021PC24].

 

Folder List

Box 1

Volume 1: Autograph album of Viola Stow (Dufour), ca. 1853-1859, 1893 (click to access transcript)

Volume 2: Autograph album of Viola Stow (Dufour), 1859-1892 (click to access transcript)

Volume 3: Autograph album of Julia Stow (Bledsoe), 1858-1862 (click to access transcript)

Volume 4: Diary of Catharine Manser Stow, 1854 (click to access diary transcript and list of names appearing in the diary)

Volume 5: Diary of Uzziel Stow, 1855

Volume 6: Diary of Uzziel Stow, April 1859-January 1860

Volume 7: Diary of Loring Stow, January-April 1860 (click to access transcript)

Volume 8: Diary of Viola Stow, January-August 1862 (click to access transcript)

Volume 9: Diary of Baron Stow, 1862 (click to access transcript)

Volume 10: Diary of Uzziel Stow, January 1865-January 1866

Folder 11: Commencement oration attributed to Viola Stow, ca. 1859 (click to access transcript)

Folder 12: Notes and transcriptions

 

Subject Headings

Agricultural exhibitions – Indiana.

Agricultural laborers – Indiana.

Agriculture – Indiana.

American Party.

Autograph albums.

Bledsoe, Julia C. Stow, 1843-1865.

Canning and preserving.

Cattle.

Clothing and dress.

Christians – Indiana.

Commerce – United States.

Consumer goods.

Courtship – Indiana – 19th century.

Cross-dressing.

Death – Psychological aspects.

Dentistry – Indiana.

Diseases – Indiana.

Dufour, Viola Stow, 1841-1912.

Elections – Indiana.

Elizabethtown Female Seminary (Elizabethtown, Ohio).

Falls of the Ohio (Ky. and Ind.) – Navigation.

Farm equipment – Indiana.

Flatboats.

Fourth of July celebrations.

Gender expression.

Guerrillas – Confederate States of America.

Hay trade.

Housekeeping – Indiana.

Indiana – Social life and customs – 19th century.

Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865 – Assassination.

Medical care – Indiana.

Methodists – Indiana.

New Orleans (La.) – Description and travel.

Orchards – Indiana.

Pets.

Physicians – Indiana.

Quilts.

River boats.

Schools – Indiana.

Schools – Ohio.

Sewing.

Singing schools – Indiana.

Slavery.

Solar eclipses – 1854.

Southern states – Description and travel.

Stow, Baron, 1847-1864.

Stow, Catharine Manser, 1811-1899.

Stow, Loring B., 1838-1860.

Stow, Uzziel Hayward, 1809-1890.

Sugar crops – Indiana.

Swine.

Teachers – Indiana.

Temperance – Indiana.

Thompson, Josiah C., 1841-1930.

United States – History – Civil War, 1861-1865.

Women – Education.

Women household employees.

Held by The Filson Historical Society

Creator:  Humes, Helen, 1909-1981

Title:  Helen Humes (1909-1981) Papers, 1927-2006

Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these papers, contact the Collections Department.

Size of Collection:  0.66 cubic feet and 1 oversized folder

Location Number:  Mss. A H922

Biographical Note

Helen Humes was a jazz and blues singer and native Louisvillian whose career took her across the country and around the world.

Personal Life

Helen Elizabeth Humes was born on 23 June 1909 in Louisville, Kentucky to Emma Johnson Humes (1881-1967) and John Henry Humes (1878-1975). Her father was a real estate agent and lawyer. She grew up on West Iowa Avenue, a few blocks from Churchill Downs, and graduated from Central High School in 1927.

Humes’s birth year is often reported as 1913, but it is more likely 1909. It is listed as 1909 on many documents, including a vaccination certificate (found in folder 6) and her tombstone at Inglewood Park Cemetery in Los Angeles. Even more evidence of the year is the U.S. census, which lists her as an infant in the Humes household in 1910.

Another wrinkle in published records about Humes is whether she had siblings. Most biographical information claims she was an only child. However, her mother’s will (found in folder 5) lists beneficiaries as “my two children Helen Humes Smith and Robert Humes.” No other child is listed as living in the Humes household in early U.S. census records, but in the 1910 census under “Number of Children Living” for Emma Humes, the number recorded is “2.” No further information so far has been found about Robert Humes.

There is also little known about Humes’s marriage to Harland Smith. Smith is never mentioned in published writing about Humes, but he does pop up in documents found in folder 5 of the collection. The first record we have of Humes using the name “Helen Humes Smith” occurs on an April 1963 receipt. In August 1963, she and Harland together took out a loan for property at 603 West Iowa Avenue. On a furniture receipt from October 1963, her name is written as “Mrs. Helen Humes Smith.” However, by February 1968, she signed a financial document without adding “Smith,” and Smith is not mentioned in the collection again.

Career

Humes learned to play the piano as a girl at Bessie Allen’s Sunday School on Ninth and Magazine Streets. She was anywhere from 11 to 15 years old (various publications report different ages) when Louisville-area blues guitarist Sylvester Weaver heard her sing in her Sunday school band and introduced her to a recording executive. Soon after, she recorded her first record in St. Louis. She returned to Louisville to finish high school, then lived in New York for a time and traveled as a professional singer. Her occupation on the 1930 census, when she was 21 years old, is listed as “Artist.”

In 1937, while singing at the Cotton Club in Cincinnati, Humes was first noticed by jazz band leader Count Basie. The following year Humes joined Basie’s band, replacing Billie Holiday, who had recently left. While traveling with the band, she sang pop songs, ballads, and occasionally the blues, earning $35 a week. She broke away from the band in 1942 and toured around the country with pianist Connie Berry until 1944. She then moved to California, where she worked with various rhythm and blues bands and recorded her biggest commercial hit, Be-Baba-Leba.

Between projects, Humes often returned to Louisville for months at a time. In 1957, Humes toured Australia with Red Norvo’s Trio. She was nominated as one of the country’s outstanding jazz artists for the Playboy All-Star Jazz Poll in 1961, 1962, and 1963.

Humes spent much of the early 1960s living and touring in Europe, but she returned home in 1967 to care for her gravely ill mother. When her mother died, Humes gave up singing and reportedly sold her records and piano. She stayed in Louisville with her father, doing odd jobs that included working at an ammunitions plant in Indiana, shuttling women to bingo, and taking care of an elderly woman at night.

In 1973, after Humes had stayed out of the music industry for six years, music critic Stanley Dance persuaded her to appear in a tribute to Count Basie at the Newport Jazz Festival in New York. This began a resurgence in her career, and for the next two years she split her time between performing and recording in New York and Europe and her home life in Louisville. She was working out of town when her father died in 1975.

During the late 1970s, Humes enjoyed some of the most successful years of her career. She continued to tour Europe and made frequent appearances at famed New York restaurant and music room The Cookery. In the final years of her life, Humes was nominated for three Grammy awards. She died of cancer in Santa Monica, California in September 1981.

Sources (can be found in finding aid folder):

U.S. census records: 1910, 1920, 1930

Courier Journal articles: 30 June 1973, 23 Feb. 1975, 23 July 1978, 14 Sept. 1981

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/6842416/helen-humes

https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/helen-humes/10878

https://www.nytimes.com/1981/09/14/obituaries/helen-humes-singer-of-ballads-and-blues-68.html

Personal financial and legal documents (Folders 5-6)

Typescript of Victoria Norman Brown’s entry in the book Kentucky Women (Folder 13)

Press release from Century Associates, 26 February 1948 (Folder 13)

 

Scope and Content Note

This collection consists of material related to the career and personal life of Louisville jazz and blues singer Helen Humes. Professional material includes correspondence and contracts, as well as material related to Humes’s gigs and tours throughout the U.S., Europe, and Australia. Personal material includes postcards to her family, legal and financial material for properties and family life in Louisville, and newspaper clippings about her life and legacy.

Related collections:

Helen Humes photograph and print collection [021PC51]

Museum item: Helen Humes’s traveling suitcase [2021.39]

 

Folder List

Box 1

Folder 1: Personal correspondence (postcards), 1955-1962 and n.d.

Folder 2: Professional correspondence, 1959-1974

Folder 3: Travel brochures, 1965-1974 and n.d.

Folder 4: Sheet music, lyrics, and song lists, n.d.

Folder 5: Personal and family legal, property, and financial material, 1929-1968 and n.d.

Box 2

Folder 6: Professional financial and travel material, 1947-1964 and n.d.

Folder 7: Professional contracts, 1950-1963

Folder 8: Programs and ads for gigs and festivals in which Humes appeared, 1964-1975 and n.d.

Folder 9: Miscellaneous event invitations and programs, 1955-1974

Folder 10: Playboy Jazz Poll material, 1960-1963

Folder 11: Recording career material, 1947-1958

Folder 12: Newspaper clippings, local and international, 1959-1980 and n.d.

Folder 13: Death and legacy/biographical material, 1948-2006

Oversized

Folder 14: High school diploma for Helen Humes from Central Colored High School, 1927

 

Subject Headings

African American musicians.

African Americans – Music.

Australia – Description and travel.

Central High School (Louisville, Ky.)

Concert tours.

Davis, Jackie, 1920-1999.

Ellington, Duke, 1899-1974.

Gospel music – Kentucky.

Humes, Emma, 1881-1967.

Humes, John Henry, 1878-1975.

Jazz festivals.

Jazz musicians.

Jazz.

Jones, Quincy, 1933-

Man-woman relationships – Songs and music.

Music – Awards.

Music and race.

Musicians – Salaries, etc.

Musicians – Travel.

Musicians, Black.

Musicians’ contracts.

Sound recording industry.