Kentucky Historical Society

10/16/2026

“Here in Kentucky, we still use the infrastructure that they built.”

During the Great Depression, the Civilian Conservation Corps provided employment and training to young men while improving public lands. Known as the “Tree Army,” CCC crews planted forests, built roads and trails, installed telephone and power lines, developed parks and assisted communities following the devastating 1937 flood.

More than 40 Kentucky counties hosted a CCC camp or benefited from its work. This tapestry from the KHS collections depicts a typical camp, complete with barracks, roads, fences and rows of trees. Today, Kentuckians continue to walk trails, visit parks, and use infrastructure created by those young men nearly a century ago.

Kentucky History Treasures are produced by WTVQ.

Find your place in history at history.ky.gov.

https://youtu.be/DmgYkZraHKQ

This is a woven wall hanging depicting a Kentucky Civilian Conserva...

10/15/2026

Future inventors, artists, architects, and history makers wanted! 🔨🎨

Homeschool families, we've got a full day of hands-on history planned for you on October 23.

🏛️ Create the Capitol! Discover architecture and try your hand at building.
💡 Innovative Inventors: Explore the ingenuity behind inventions and get creative with your own ideas.
🎨 Paint Like Paul: Try watercolor painting inspired by Kentucky artist Paul Sawyier.
⚒️ Art of the Powder Horn: Explore the decorative artistry of an important early American object.
🏗️ Plaster Master: Discover historic building techniques at the Old State Capitol.

Plus, explore our Revolution to Statehood exhibition, visit the Kentucky Military History Museum, and discover even more activities throughout the day!

📅 Friday, Oct. 23 | 10 a.m.–4 p.m.
📍 Kentucky Historical Society, Frankfort
🎟️ $5 | Children 5 and under FREE
👨‍👩‍👧 Suggested for preschool through middle school, but all ages welcome!

Some activities have limited capacity and are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Bring your imagination. We've got 250 years of Kentucky ingenuity to explore!

See the full schedule and plan your visit:

Celebrate 250 years of Kentucky innovation with us! Delve into the accomplishments of Bluegrass builders and artists with Learning Labs, tours, and activities at the Kentucky History Center and Museums. Create your own invention, design a frontier community, try old-fashioned art techniques, and so....

10/15/2026

In the 1830s, the Whig Party rose up to challenge the Democratic Party, leading both groups to use innovative tactics to attract voters. On October 26, 1842, the Whigs organized a massive barbecue, which was held on the lawn of the Old State Capitol (OSC).

The gathering offered several resolutions in favor of Henry Clay for president in the upcoming contest of 1844. A stage was erected on the steps of the OSC. Governor Thomas Metcalfe, who helped organize the affair, spoke briefly, but the highlight of the festivities was an address delivered by Henry Clay.

Whether or not barbecue played a role, the Whigs won the state of Kentucky in five straight presidential elections: 1836 (Harrison), 1840 (Harrison), 1844 (Clay), 1848 (Taylor), and 1852 (Scott).

(KHS, 1987.30.290)
https://kyhistory.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/1FB179BE-1D1D-4D52-B544-996032167620

10/14/2026

No ghosts required. Kentucky history is spooky enough. 🕯️

This October, step inside the Old State Capitol after dark for Machinations, Murder, and Mystery—Oh My!, a low-light nighttime tour exploring some of Kentucky’s darker stories.

Revengeful star-crossed lovers. A gang whose explosions and threats rattled Frankfort. Murder on the Capitol grounds. Two deaths on the Senate floor. And Victorian mourning and funeral practices that might leave modern visitors feeling a little...uncomfortable.

It’s an evening of grisly facts, strange traditions, and stories that take on a decidedly different atmosphere after the lights go down.

📅 Oct. 16, 23 & 30 | 7–8:30 p.m.
📍 Old State Capitol, Frankfort
🎟️ Pre-registration required by 5 p.m. the day before your tour
⚠️ Content may not be suitable for small children.

Choose your night and reserve your spot:
https://history.ky.gov/events/haunted-by-history-3

The Old State Capitol has seen more than legislation.

Machinations, Murder, and Mystery—Oh My! Join KHS at the Old State Capitol for a low-light, nighttime tour of the “darker side” of Kentucky history. Dive into notorious tales that include revengeful star-crossed lovers doomed to tragedy, the John Fallis gang whose explosions and rebellious thr...

10/13/2026

In Kentucky, Civil War violence didn’t happen only on battlefields.
Guerrilla raids, military occupation, irregular fighting, and other forms of violence brought the war into communities across the Commonwealth.

During Civil War History Day, KHS historian Dr. Jacob T. Wood brought together Steve Phan of Camp Nelson National Monument, Derrick Lindow of the Department Number 2 Podcast, and Dawn Davis of Mill Springs Battlefield National Monument for a wide-ranging conversation about the different forms that violence took in Kentucky.

Drawing on different places and areas of expertise, the panel helps reveal just how complicated the experience of war could be on the ground from 1861 to 1865 and beyond.

🎥

10/12/2026

Before Kentucky became a state, Kentuckians were already helping shape a nation.

Join us for Our Shot: Kentucky’s Revolutionary Story, a walking tour that explores Kentucky’s connections to the American Revolution and the people whose choices shaped both the Commonwealth and the country.

From Boone to Burr, discover stories of the men and women who lived through an era of revolution, settlement, conflict, and change. The tour also includes a visit to KHS’s newest exhibition, Revolution to Statehood, where objects and stories help trace Kentucky’s path toward becoming the 15th state.

👟 Comfortable shoes encouraged
🌦️ Tour takes place rain or shine, barring lightning
📍 Begins at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History
🎟️ $5 KHS Members | $15 Non-members

Take a walk through Kentucky’s revolutionary story.
Learn more and register:

Did you know that Kentucky played a key role in the American Revolution? From Boone to Burr, discover the men and women who shaped our state—and the nation—from its very beginning. Visitors will also get the chance to explore KHS’s newest exhibit, Revolution to Statehood. This walking tour wil...

10/12/2026

What do Christopher Columbus and Christopher Columbus Graham have in common besides a name? Their legends may be considerably tidier than their histories.

For Columbus Day, we're turning our attention a little closer to home.

Born near Danville in 1784, Dr. Christopher Columbus Graham lived a life that sounds almost too remarkable to be true. And historians have occasionally wondered how much of it actually was.
Physician. Soldier. Naturalist. Resort owner. Fossil hunter. Marksman. Author. Explorer.
Acquaintance of seemingly everyone who mattered. Graham even claimed that he attended the 1806 wedding of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, Abraham Lincoln's parents, after hearing about the celebration while he was out hunting for roots. He later swore to the story in an affidavit.

Some of Graham's remarkable life is well documented. Other stories depend heavily on the recollections of a man who lived to 100 and apparently never suffered from an excess of modesty. That makes him an oddly appropriate Kentuckian to consider on a holiday named for another Christopher Columbus.

For generations, Columbus was celebrated through a simplified story of heroic exploration and “discovery.” Today, historians tell a much more complicated story, one that also considers the Indigenous people already living in the Americas and the colonization, enslavement, violence, and displacement that followed European arrival.

History has a way of doing that. The more closely we examine our heroes, legends, and larger-than-life characters, the more complicated they become.

So today, perhaps the two Christopher Columbuses can remind us of something useful: don't stop at the legend. Keep asking questions.

Portrait of Christopher Columbus Graham, attributed to artist J.W. Barsham. From the KHS collections:
https://kyhistory.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/4F7A8D75-4CF5-4E65-8EE0-944909270020

Learn more about Christopher Columbus Graham from the Ky Secretary of State Michael Adams' website:
https://www.sos.ky.gov/land/resources/articles/Documents/Graham.pdf

10/09/2026

“Frankfort became the reel capital...”

Around 1820, Bourbon County watchmaker George Snyder adapted an English design to create a reel suited to Kentucky’s wide streams, thick riverbanks and aggressive black bass. With each turn of the handle, its internal spool rotated several times, allowing anglers to cast much farther than before.

Kentucky watchmakers, clockmakers and jewelers soon began crafting their own multiplying reels by hand. Frankfort makers such as Meek and Milam earned international reputations, producing reels that were owned by prominent anglers including Theodore Roosevelt and Grover Cleveland. These beautifully engineered objects became the direct predecessors of multiplying fishing reels used around the world today.

Kentucky History Treasures are produced by WTVQ.

Find your place in history at history.ky.gov.

https://youtu.be/v85EqCN_jdg

The Milam Family was in the reelmaking business in Frankfort from t...

10/08/2026

Kentucky might seem an unlikely place for James Bond to visit, but he did so in 1964 when he thwarted Goldfinger’s plot to steal gold from the U.S. Bullion Depository. The film starring Sean Connery as James Bond was fictional, but it drew national attention to a very real place.

Congress established the United States Bullion Depository at Fort Knox in 1936, creating a fortified compound to safeguard the nation’s gold reserves. During times of conflict, the bullion depository has also housed several national treasures, including the Constitution, Declaration of Independence, and original drafts of the Gettysburg Address.

For obvious reasons, the U.S. Bullion Depository has not hosted anniversary celebrations. Fort Knox, however, held a ceremony in 2018 to mark its centennial. The military base was built in 1918.
U.S. Bullion Depository.

(KHS, Graphic26_Box1_26)
https://kyhistory.com/digital/collection/PH/id/9932/rec/31

10/07/2026

246 years ago today, Major Patrick Ferguson was killed at the Battle of Kings Mountain. A pair of pistols he may have carried that day can now be seen at KHS.

Fought on Oct. 7, 1780, in South Carolina, Kings Mountain was a pivotal Patriot victory in the Revolutionary War's Southern Campaign. Ferguson, a Scottish-born British officer, commanded a force composed largely of American Loyalists against Patriot militia who surrounded their position on the mountain. In fact, Ferguson was the only British regular soldier on the battlefield.

He was also an innovative weapons designer. Ferguson improved an earlier breech-loading fi***rm design that allowed a soldier to reload more quickly and even while crouching or lying down. The British Army briefly equipped an experimental r***e corps with his weapons, but their expense prevented widespread production.

Ferguson was killed during the battle, and according to the history accompanying the objects, his pistols and holsters were collected by Patriot militia officer Colonel Benjamin Cleveland.
Today, those 1778 pistols and holsters, made for Ferguson by Swiss gunsmith Durs Egg, are on view in Courage of the Commonwealth at KHS.

The temporary exhibition, guest-curated by Dr. Mel Hankla, brings together historic weaponry from the Revolutionary era and pre-statehood Kentucky, offering tangible connections to the people, technology, and conflicts that shaped the Commonwealth before it became a state.

⚔️ Courage of the Commonwealth
📅 On view through Nov. 28
📍 Kentucky Historical Society

Learn more:
https://ow.ly/bogn50ZVrSM