Transy Library: Lexington History: General Research Sources

Lexington & Kentucky : online primary historical sources

Bullock Photo Collection - A collection of photographs taken in and around Lexington and Fayette County, Kentucky. Included are images of local buildings, businesses, racetracks, banks, schools, churches, and homes. Also present are photographs of the courthouse, public library, orphan asylum, jail, and Transylvania University.

Coleman Scrapbooks - Collected by J. Winston Coleman, this set of 60 scrapbooks contain items of historical interest that caught his eye. They include materials from the late 1700s through the 1980s. The materials are focused on Kentucky and Lexington.

Coleman Photos - This collection of photos was collected or taken by J. Winston Coleman. Approximately 1200 of the 5000 photos are available here (as of 4/2023). These illustrate Lexington and Kentucky history. Coleman was interested in buildings, bridges, stagecoaches, trains, farming, and more.

Transy University Documents

Black People in Lexington Oral History Project - Louie B. Nunn Center This link opens in a new window
This project was originally created as a partnership with the Urban League of Lexington-Fayette County in 1978. These interviews concern the educational, political, economic, and social opportunities for African Americans in Lexington during the twentieth century. It consists of 232 interviews.
Civil War Governors of Kentucky This link opens in a new window
Primary source material covering the history of Kentucky around the time of the Civil War. Includes documents covering slavery, tavern ownership, governance, and others. Created and maintained by the Kentucky Historical Society.
Lexington Herald Leader Photo Archive - UK, 1939-2001 This link opens in a new window
John C. Wyatt Lexington Herald-Leader photographs (LHL) consist of an estimated 2 million unique photographic negatives spanning the years 1939-2001. The collection also contains associated newspaper clippings, job sheets, and hand-written photographers' notes. The LHL photographs are an unparalleled source of photographic evidence of the many historical, cultural, and industrial changes that have shaped Lexington and its surrounding region. The scope of the collection highlights the day to day activities of Kentuckians. It follows the changing urban landscape of Lexington, the agricultural, tobacco and horse racing industries, key national events such as World War II and Vietnam, as well as notable regional and national figures. It is the most extensive, single collection of still photographic images documenting Lexington's 20th Century history in existence.
Faulkner Morgan Archive This link opens in a new window
"As an archive, our primary goal is to collect the story of Kentucky’s LGBTQ community through documents, artifacts, and oral histories. We use this material to create our own programming, including exhibits, lectures, and walking tours. Collections within the archive are also available to other institutions and researchers." Some materials are available online in the Digital Transgender Archive.
Fayette County Online Records - Fayette County Clerk's Office This link opens in a new window
The Fayette County Clerk's office, The University of Kentucky's Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies, & the Lexington Black Prosperity Initiative are working to create a digitized database of records. Read more about their Digital Access Project.
Kentucky Room Digital Archives - Lexington Public Library (LPL) This link opens in a new window
The Lexington Public Library's Kentucky Room has been digitizing materials having to do with Lexington history. This includes newspapers, guides, photos, and other resources.

Lexington & Kentucky - online non-primary sources

Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (NKAA) This link opens in a new window
The Notable Kentucky African Americans Database (NKAA) offers information about African Americans in and from Kentucky. It is a free online collection of entries about people, places, events, and communities. The entries go far beyond straight biographies addressing issues and subjects, as well. Created and hosted by librarians and scholars at University of Kentucky

The Kentucky Encyclopedia by John E. Kleber (Editor)
Publication Date: 1992
The Kentucky Encyclopedia's subjects reflect all areas of the commonwealth and span the time from prehistoric settlement to today's headlines, recording Kentuckians' achievements in art, architecture, business, education, politics, religion, science, and sports. Broad overview articles examine such topics as agriculture, segregation, transportation, literature, and folklife.
The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia by Gerald L. Smith (Editor); Karen Cotton McDaniel (Editor); John A. Hardin (Editor)
Publication Date: 2015
The Kentucky African American Encyclopedia is an essential guide to the black experience in the Commonwealth. The encyclopedia includes biographical sketches of politicians and community leaders as well as pioneers in art, science, and industry. Kentucky's impact on the national scene is registered in an array of notable figures, such as writers William Wells Brown and bell hooks, reformers Bessie Lucas Allen and Shelby Lanier Jr., sports icons Muhammad Ali and Isaac Murphy, civil rights leaders Whitney Young Jr. and Georgia Powers, and entertainers Ernest Hogan, Helen Humes, and the Nappy Roots. Featuring entries on the individuals, events, places, organizations, movements, and institutions that have shaped the state's history since its origins, the volume also includes topical essays on the civil rights movement, Eastern Kentucky coalfields, business, education, and women.

Broad online primary sources that also contain Kentucky materials

AAS - American Antiquarian Historical Journal Collection - 1691-1876 This link opens in a new window
Over 6,500 titles titles from 1691 through 1876. Represents over two centuries of print culture documenting the life of America's people from the Colonial Era through the Civil War and Reconstruction. Broad subject areas covered in the collection reach into every facet of American life, including science, literature, medicine, agriculture, politics, slavery, women’s lives, family life, and religion.
African American Newspapers, 1827-1998 This link opens in a new window
Search articles from historical African American Newspapers.
Born in Slavery: Slave Narratives from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936 to 1938 - Library of Congress This link opens in a new window
This collection contains more than 2,300 first-person accounts of slavery and 500 black-and-white photographs of former slaves. These narratives were collected in the 1930s as part of the Federal Writers' Project (FWP) of the Works Progress Administration, later renamed Work Projects Administration (WPA). At the conclusion of the Slave Narrative project, a set of edited transcripts was assembled and microfilmed in 1941 as the seventeen-volume Slave Narratives: A Folk History of Slavery in the United States from Interviews with Former Slaves.
In 2000-2001, with major support from the Citigroup Foundation, the Library of Congress digitized the narratives from the microfilm edition and scanned from the original 500 photographs, including more than 200 that had never been microfilmed or made publicly available. This online collection is a joint presentation of the Manuscript and Prints and Photographs divisions of the Library of Congress.
Chronicling America - Library of Congress Newspapers, 1789-1963 This link opens in a new window
Search America's historic newspaper pages from 1789-1963. Chronicling America is a website providing access to information about historic newspapers and select digitized newspaper pages, and is produced by the National Digital Newspaper Program (NDNP). Papers included can be browsed by state.
NDNP, a partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the Library of Congress (LC), is a long-term effort to develop an Internet-based, searchable database of U.S. newspapers with descriptive information and select digitization of historic pages. Supported by NEH, this rich digital resource will be developed and permanently maintained at the Library of Congress. An NEH award program will fund the contribution of content from, eventually, all U.S. states and territories.
Digital Transgender Archive This link opens in a new window
"The purpose of the Digital Transgender Archive (DTA) is to increase the accessibility of transgender history by providing an online hub for digitized historical materials, born-digital materials, and information on archival holdings throughout the world. Based in Boston, Massachusetts at Northeastern University, the DTA is an international collaboration among more than sixty colleges, universities, nonprofit organizations, public libraries, and private collections. By digitally localizing a wide range of trans-related materials, the DTA expands access to trans history for academics and independent researchers alike in order to foster education and dialog concerning trans history." Some materials from Lexington based Faulkner Morgan Archive are included in the DTA.
DPLA - Digital Public Library of America This link opens in a new window
Mega database of historic materials from institutions all over the US.
HathiTrust Digital Library - ebooks This link opens in a new window
The HathiTrust Digital Library provides access to millions of digitized books and publications. Most of these are out of copyright which means that most are pre-1923 although there are some full text books dated after that. It is a consortial project of multiple libraries in the U.S.

How to

How to Read Cursive
This is a very good introduction to reading cursive writing and the form of letters, put together by the librarians at University North Carolina Wilmington.
Citing Archives, Manuscripts, Oral Histories, City Directories, and Maps
Created by the McIntyre Library