Trails in The Filson’s Archives

Posted in Browsing the Collections on 05/09/2012 01:28 pm by Jamie Evans

Runner nearing finish line, documented by Courier- Journal photographer Al Blunk ca. 1960s. Photo in Blunk collection in the Filson Special Collections.

On October 6, in celebration of my 27th birthday I will be running a 50k (31 mile) trail race in the Smokey Mountains of Tennessee.  A few weeks ago, after I learned that it was not advisable for me to run the Kentucky Derby Festival miniMarathon, I started looking for a new race in a new place. A few of my friends were running the Stump Jump 50k, and it seemed like the perfect fit. Never mind that I live in the Bluegrass, that my longest run to date is 15 miles, and that my trail experience is limited to hiking, one 4 mile trail race, and my long-ago tenure on Nelson County’s  varsity cross-country team.

You may be wondering if I’m crazy (the answer is yes, I’m crazy for running). I routinely get up and run at least 3 miles 3-4 days a week. You may also be wondering why on earth I’m telling you about this crazy running goal of mine and what it has to do with The Filson.

Since I’m fairly new to Louisville, having only lived here for a year, I needed to find some trails to run. I’ve always been interested in the outdoors and I enjoy hiking. So I turned to The Filson’s library to see if I could find information on Kentucky’s park system and the Smokey Mountains.

It turns out that The Filson has several resources on the history of the parks. A great book on trails is A Guide to the Backpacking and Day-Hiking Trails of Kentucky by Arthur B. Lander, Jr. At the writing of this book (1979), there were approximately 950 miles of backpacking and day hiking trails in Kentucky. I found some of my old favorites, namely the Martin’s Branch Trail in Morehead, which came out half a mile from my former apartment. The book gives the names of several trails all around the state with descriptions of each and how they are marked. This information is extremely helpful, especially if you get lost when every tree looks the same (kind of like me).

Among our resources, there are several pamphlets that are large and colorful. One of my favorites was Red River Gorge, Land of Arches, Daniel Boone National Forest in Kentucky. With the bright colors, vivid photography, and the memory of hikes at Natural Bridge and driving through Nada Tunnel, it was wonderful to have this walk down memory lane while learning something new.

If you are interested in learning more about the parks and trails of Kentucky and Tennessee, I highly recommend a trip to The Filson. There are more books and pamphlets than I have mentioned here, all of which are fascinating to look at. These selections offer a peek into the area’s rich history and may just point you in the direction of your next day trip!

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Architectural archives for the present and posterity

Posted in Uncategorized on 05/01/2012 09:09 pm by Sarah-Jane M. Poindexter

The D. X. Murphy & Bro., Architects records are comprised mostly of architectural records and drawings created by D. X. Murphy and his firm as well as a few plans by his mentor Henry Whitestone.

The Filson is pleased to announce that after years of preservation and cataloging efforts, the D. X. Murphy & Bro., Architects Records (1854 – 1949) are complete and open to researchers.

This massive collection of historical architectural drawings and business records documents 95 years of Louisville’s rich architectural history, mainly through the business records and drawings generated by two of the city’s most renowned architects: Henry Whitestone (1819–1893) and D. X. Murphy (1853–1933).  (Whitestone was famous for his work on the original Galt House and the L & N headquarters (located at the corner of Main & Seconds Streets which now anchors Whiskey Row) while Murphy’s firm was responsible for the iconic grandstand and twin spires at Churchill Downs and today is still extant as Luckett & Farley, Inc.).

Many of the grand buildings which once graced downtown, Broadway, and residential areas are documented in this collection, providing an invaluable glimpse of Louisville’s former architectural landscape. Additionally, a variety of late-19th and early-20th century Louisville building contractors and businesses are represented in the collection which provides valuable information on regional businesses, industry and technology, as well as substantive insights into architectural and decorative arts.

Filson intern Lena Gimbel arranging architectural drawings.

While most of the drawings in the collection are in excellent condition, a number of them have become severely brittle with time as well as exposure to fluctuating environment conditions, which hastened the breakdown of the papers’ composition.  Until rescued in the 1970s by local preservationists and historians Mary Jean Kinsman and Penny Jones, the collection resided for years in the turret of the old Louisville Trust building where it was exposed to the elements and an overly cozy population of pigeons.  The fragile nature of the collection as well as the dense amount of historical information it contains, made processing and stabilizing the historical drawings a slow process.

Lori Wilson sorting archival business records.

This work could not have been completed without the assistance of two dedicated, patient interns, Lori Wilson and Lena Gimbel, both of whom worked at the Filson while completing their Master’s in History at the University of Louisville.  Lori Wilson surveyed, arranged, re-housed and described project files, correspondence, business records, and account books associated with the D.X. Murphy & Bro. architectural firm and its predecessor Henry Whitestone.  Lena Gimbel indexed, preserved, and described architectural drawings representing nine decades of the area’s residences, churches, and medical, industrial, commercial, and federal buildings.

The two plus years it’s taken to process the D. X. Murphy & Bro., Architects collection have been an exciting and rewarding experience in building community and connections between historians, archivists, students, and architects all the while exposing a rich historical treasure for researchers.

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A Library Mystery…solved!

Posted in Institutional history, Uncategorized on 04/24/2012 08:00 pm by Cassie Bratcher

"The Boarsman" rare pamphlet 1934Recently there were a couple of people doing research in the library; and when they were leaving they wanted to give us an old family history book.  We are always happy to receive gifts so I made out a deed of gift, and they went on their way.  Later when I went to catalog the book I discovered something very interesting.  It was our book!  Yes; a family history that had been given to us in 1934, and was discovered missing in 1984, had returned to us in 2011! 

The Filson is a non-lending library, and in the early years we did not keep records of what books were requested by the patrons. There was no way to tell who had used the book, or when it actually went missing, because its absence was discovered during a routine check of the collection. The item is rather thin so it could have been an accidental theft, perhaps gathered up amongst the papers brought into the library with a patron. 

The poor book was in terrible shape, the cover was detached and most of the pages loose.  I decided to make it a rare item and placed it in an acid free envelope to keep it all together.  Now this item resides in our rare pamphlet collection and hopefully will stay put and not have any more adventures.

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Coming up at The Filson – “National Issues, Local Struggles: The Civil Rights Movement in the Ohio Valley and Beyond”

Posted in Programming on 04/18/2012 07:41 pm by Jamie Evans

I am an avid reader. At any one time, I’m reading no less than three books: one at work, one in the living room, and one on my nightstand. On my nightstand right now is The Help. It’s a gripping story that digs into race relations in early 1960’s Jackson, Mississippi. I first read this book in 2010 at the library and immediately went out and purchased it.

While The Help is a great book, I was really interested in race relations in Louisville and Kentucky during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. I checked out a book from the university library (Jim Crow Guide to the U.S.A.; The Laws, Customs and Etiquette Governing the Conduct of Nonwhites and Other Minorities as Second-class Citizens by Stetson Kennedy if you are interested), and while that gave me a good background on the laws regulating education, housing, and entertainment between the races, it still wasn’t specific to our area.

Luckily, this year I get to be a part of “National Issues, Local Struggles: The Civil Rights Movement in the Ohio Valley and Beyond,” The Filson Institute’s upcoming public conference. While I’m not speaking, one of the perks of working at The Filson is that working sometimes includes attending our events, and I am very much looking forward to this event. The conference kicks off on May 17 with a reception and viewing of our upcoming exhibit 20th Century African American Collections at The Filson, followed by a keynote speech by John Dittmer, Professor Emeritus at DePaw University. The conference continues on Friday, May 18 with a day of lectures. The speakers include Clarence Lang, Rhonda Y. Williams, and Luther Adams, with topics such as the border south, women’s role in the Civil Rights Movement, and the struggle for open housing in Louisville. Friday’s lectures will conclude with a panel discussion moderated by Tracy K’Meyer and featuring three local Civil Rights activists: Blaine Hudson, Mervin Aubespin, and Raul Cunningham. The conference ends with a driving tour of various Civil Rights sites in Louisville. The tour is led by Cate Fosl, Mervin Aubespin, and Bob Cunningham. During the tour, the leaders will talk about their own experiences in Louisville during this tumultuous period in history.

In related news, the winning essay from The Filson’s 3rd Annual High School Essay Contest was about desegregation efforts in Louisville throughout the 1960s and 70s. Grace Elizabeth Daly, a senior at Sacred Heart Academy, authored the essay entitled “An Analysis of the Desegregation Efforts in Neighborhoods throughout the 1960s and 1970s in Louisville, Kentucky.” Her essay will be featured in the upcoming issue of The Filson magazine and will be uploaded onto our website in the next few weeks.

For more information about “National Issues, Local Struggles: The Civil Rights Movement in the Ohio Valley and Beyond,” check out the informational page here. We are adding more information all the time, and registration will open soon!

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Stone, Milly Stone, Licensed to Distill

Posted in Distilling History on 04/11/2012 02:44 pm by Michael Veach
1817 bond

1817 bond for female distiller, Milly Stone. From the Eli Huston Brown III collection.

In June of 1812 the United States declared war on Great Britain. The war would be over by 1815, but the bills would not be paid for several more years to come. In order to pay for the war, the United States government decided to renew the tax on distilled spirits. The “whiskey tax” had been repealed by President Jefferson in 1802, but brought back in 1814 as the war debt increased. The war would end in 1815, but the tax on spirits would stay around until the end on 1817. The tax on distilled spirits was set at 20 cents a proof gallon (one gallon of 50% or 100 proof, alcohol).

With many of the men in Kentucky serving in the military, Kentucky’s women were often left to run the distillery and pay the taxes. Many would become permanent owners of the distillery when their husband did not return from the war. The Filson’s Eli Huston Brown III collection has a license to distill issued to Milly Stone, dated 22 December 1817.

Milly Stone, of Nelson County, Ky., became a distiller when she inherited the distillery from her husband, John Stone. John had three stills with a combined capacity of 298 gallons, that he was licensed to use as a distillery during the first whiskey tax.  There is no indication that Stone had served in the military, but his estate was settled in 1814 with his wife Milly receiving property in his will. The license issued to Milly lists her as the owner of the distillery and allows her to legally distill starting on 22 December 1817 till 22 March 1818. The license sets the tax at 54 cents per gallon of capacity of the distillery. Small distilleries that only operated part time were taxed on their capacity, not on their actual production. Accompanying the license is a copy of a bond issued on the same day showing that Milly Stone paid $160.92 in taxes for the license for the same period. The collection also includes two earlier bonds showing that Milly Stone paid her taxes on 14 January 1817 (two months distilling, $107.20) and 17 March 1817 (two weeks distilling, $26.82). With these figures, Stone was only expected to make about 80 gallons in the three month period between 22 December 1817 and 22 March 1818.

Distillery License for Milly Stone. From the Eli Huston Brown III collection.

The amount of whiskey Milly was producing at any one time was a very small amount and it was not what we know as bourbon. Milly was probably putting her whiskey directly into jugs and selling the spirits either to neighbors or a wholesale grocer, or keeping it for personal use. Chances are it was not a product aged in oak barrels but it could have been flavored to make “cherry bounce” or “blackberry cordial”. The tax was repealed in 1818 and there are no other records in the collection to show what happened to Milly Stone’s distillery. Most likely the distillery stayed in the family until the federal government brought back the whiskey tax in 1861 to pay for yet another war. By that time the changes in the industry made it unlikely that the Stone family would want the expense of making whiskey on such a small scale. Aged bourbon was the product everyone wanted to drink and that market was becoming dominated by larger distilleries with warehouses filled with barrels of aging whiskey.

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