The Filson Historical Society Blog

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 20^th 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 3^rd 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!

This series will highlight various events/exhibits that our staff members are involved with outside of their work at The Filson Historical Society.

This month, there is a Women’s History Month installation in the lobby of the Federal building (600 Dr. Martin Luther King Place). Filson Archivists Robin Wallace, Jennie Cole, and Sarah-Jane Poindexter organized the display, which is in two glass cases. The first case features images, manuscripts, and text about two different women, Julia Ann Tevis and Margaret “Peg” Allison Nightingale. The second case is a collection of approx. a dozen images (and captions) of women in a variety of roles during the nineteenth century (ex. aviatrix, women in the military, red cross during WWI, a tradeswoman/carpenter, etc. ).

Drs. Mark V. Wetherington and A. Glenn Crothers will be speaking at the “Victory Achieved – Freedom Denied: From Civil War to Reconstruction in Kentucky” on March 8^th and 9^th. On March 8^th, Dr. Crothers will present “Lucy Higgs Nichols and the Limits of Freedom in the Post-Civil War Ohio Valley,” and will also be part of a panel discussion entitled, “Lincoln: The Constitution and the Civil War.” Friday, March 9, Dr. Wetherington will present “‘Treat them as Wild Beasts’: The Breakdown of Law and Order in the Civil War and Post-War Era.” This symposium is open to the public; to register, please click here.

Finally, Curator Jim Holmberg will be giving a talk to the Louisville Historical League during their meeting about Researching at The Filson. He will be covering the types of sources that we have, how to research in the archives, and more! This meeting is Saturday, March 10 from 9:00 – 11:30. It is open to the public and will be held at the Peterson-Dumesnil House. There is no charge, but donations are always welcome.

We are always glad to see love of history shared with others!

Recently, my husband and I have decided to purchase our first home. Being first-timers, there were a lot of things to consider besides price: which neighborhood(s)? How far do we want to drive? Do we want to live in the city or the suburbs? Finding information beyond what our realtor could provide us with was difficult and most likely included a fee or required us to peruse the neighborhood on our own. We wanted to know about renovation histories, neighborhood dynamics, and proximity for running and bike commuting to our jobs. I couldn’t find a single website that had this information in one place.

Fortunately, The Filson is trying to change that. Starting with Old Louisville businesses and residences, we are asking for any historical information so that a file can be created for the building. Information such as photos, former owners, and renovation details could be placed in your home’s file, ensuring that the legacy of your home and our neighborhood lives on. These files would be categorized by street name and then by address. The Filson will be creating a file on the Ferguson Mansion, and we hope that our friends and neighbors in Old Louisville will work with us to create this valuable historical reference.

While our home search led us away from the downtown area, I hope that future residents of Old Louisville will be able to easily find the information that we couldn’t.

The staff of the Special Collections department reveals some of their

sentimental favorites from The Filson’s collection in honor of Valentine’s Day.

 

~Ellen Bodley and $50 of Love~

While searching for Valentine’s Day related material in the Filson’s Special Collections, this particular item caught my fancy due to its humorous and somewhat sarcastic tone. In a letter to her brother William Bodley dated 5 March 1855, Ellen Bodley described a surprise Valentine she received while out of town.

“I must tell you about my valentines…sister Maria opened it and thought it was a $50 bank note brother Harry had sent me, but on examining it more closely, it was the State of Matrimony, the Bank of Love, fifty years of devotion (I would prefer the money) of a true and faithful heart on acceptance.”

Despite her lack of sentimentality in this letter, love had not given up on Ellen (who at over 30 years of age was probably considered a spinster): according to the records, Ellen married George H. Gill in St. Louis on 13 April 1857.

~Jennie Cole, Associate Curator of Special Collections

 

~Valentine Cards from the Bullitt Collection~

Although Valentines have been around since the Middle Ages, when lovers more than likely sang or said their valentines, manufactured cards did not come on the scene until the late 19^thcentury.  Since then the practice of sending Valentines has taken off.  Americans do like to express their love for one another.  So much so that Valentine’s Day is now second only to Christmas as the Holiday when most cards are sent. These two Valentines are from the Bullitt family papers and were sent to a young Tommy Bullitt in 1929. 

~Shirley Harmon, Associate Curator of Special Collections

 

~John “Romeo” Thompson~

Letter writers of the 18^th and early 19^th centuries didn’t typically write passionate love letters – at least many that survive. Their letters tended to be rather formal and circumspect in any proclamations of love. An exception to this is John Thompson. Born in Virginia in 1764 he married Elizabeth “Betsy” Housion (ca. 1768) on February 15, 1784, just missing a day that suited him so well. In their courtship, and whenever separated from her, he faithfully writes of his love and affection for her. A surviving letter written during their courtship serves as a wonderful example:

My Dear Miss Betsy,

Were you acquainted with the Tumult of my soul, the agonizing Torments your Absence occasions me to suffer, you’d pity my distress, and render me some relief, since from you alone it is in my Power to obtain it. . . . What hope of Happiness have I now left, what flattering reflections to sooth [sic] my troubled Breast, but your Constancy, Generosity and Fidelity.  Remember the Vows you have given me, my Love, my Sufferings, the great Probability of an eternal Seperation [sic] without your Exertions?  Consider your own Happiness, the Ease with which you may obtain it; &you must, “it is impossible you can avoid it” you must consent and be mine forever, throw off every appearance of reserve, tell me the Secrets of your Soul, drive away each Thought of doubt and make me blest in blessing you.  I declare to you “my dear Miss Betsy” I call Heavens to witness, I never deceiv’d you, that I have told you every Circumstance concerning me, & I swear to you again that what you have heard is base, false & malicious.  If it’s in my Power to make you happy, if I am the Person you would chose to marry, you may entrust yourself with Safety to my Care, & nothing in my Power shall be ever wanting to make you forever & compleatly [sic] blest. . . . Reflect, “Oh lovely Maid,” reflect on what I feel, bless me once more with your deluding Smiles & if I am to die then will I die content.  I am My Dr Miss Betsy Your unhappy Lover John Thompson April 29, 1783″

“Die” John Thompson did. After moving to Kentucky in the mid-1790s and settling just outside Louisville on a farm along present Brownsboro Road in Crescent Hill, John left his family in August of 1805 to serve as a territorial official in Louisiana. He never saw his beloved Betsy again. His letters are full of his protestations of love and longing but she refused to move to Louisiana and he never returned home, not even for a visit. In January 1810 Thompson suffered a mental breakdown and killed himself. Despair over believing he’d lost the love of his life – like the ill-fated Romeo and Juliet – was certainly a contributing factor.

~James J. Holmberg, Curator of Special Collections

~A Undying Affection~

There is always a sense of intruding when reading someone else’s letters.  Never is this more apparent than when reading their love letters.  But please, don’t call me a snoop, I’m an archivist!  It’s my job to catalog and preserve the lives of others.   Most correspondence is fascinating and it is truly difficult to not get sucked into the lives of others, nevertheless select letters are more arresting than others. I encountered one such letter recently while helping a researcher and was immediately moved by its tenderness.

The letter was written by a young Simon Bolivar Buckner to his sweetheart (and later wife) Mary Jean Kingsbury.  The romantic sentiment and respect expressed in his short letter is almost tangible. At the time, Buckner was 24 years old and a soldier in the Mexican-American War (Buckner went on to have a career as a business man, Civil War General, and Governor of Kentucky).  On 15 August 1847, he dashed off a short note  from Chalco, Mexico to his beloved Mary Jean while facing an impending battle.  I imagine him quickly penning these words, with growing anxiety, as he approached battle, then slipping the letter into his pocket.  Should he fall in battle, the note, with his last message, would be retrieved from his person and delivered to Mary Jean.

My “best friend,”  We move in a few hours to attack the enemy’s works.  If I fall, believe that I remained until death, with fondest affection, Your “best friend,” S. Bolivar Buckner

166 years later as I hold his letter to Mary Jean, I feel downright swoony.  What a rush of emotions he must have felt writing this message to his Love, contemplating his mortality!  How her heart must have swelled to receive this and to know that her ‘best friend’ and Love was thinking of her at such a vulnerable moment!

Buckner and Kingsbury were married in 1850 at her aunt’s home in Old Lyme, CT and in 1858 had a daughter, Lily.  The Filson’s ‘Simon Bolivar Buckner miscellaneous papers’ contain many compelling letters that document their deep friendship and romantic courtship.

~Sarah-Jane Poindexter, Associate Curator of Special Collections

 

~Major General Elliott Warren Rice and Marion Harlan Lincoln~

Marion Eunice Harlan Lincoln - The Elliott Warren Rice Collection

While recently cataloging a small collection of photographs belonging to Civil War Major General Elliott Warren Rice, I encountered a faded carte de visite of a woman.  Although in relatively good condition, the CDV was creased and exhibited two or three very tiny holes.  The photograph had without a doubt suffered some wear over the last 150+ years, but had none the less been lovingly preserved.  Examining the back of the photo for identifying text, I read “Marion Harlan Lincoln, carried through the war by General E. W. Rice.”  As I continued to look at the photo, I was incredibly moved by the idea of General Rice carrying Marion Harlan’s image all throughout the dark days of the war.  The years seemed to fall away as I imagined Marion giving her likeness to Eliott, and what that might have meant to him….what comfort it may have given him in the difficult times ahead.

I have found nothing to indicate the nature of the relationship between Marion and Elliott, other than a note on the back of a CDV of Rose Mitchell in the same collection.   Mitchell was a “…cousin of Mrs. R. Lincoln,”  and the note further states, “… Mrs.Robt. Lincoln and Miss Rose Mitchell were friends of General E. W. Rice.”  However, we do know that in 1868, Marion Harlan married Robert Todd Lincoln, oldest son of President Abraham Lincoln.  Brevetted Major General for war service on March 13, 1865, Rice  mustered out of Federal service on August 24th, having been wounded 7 times in 4 years.  After the war he practiced law in Washington D.C., until retiring in poor health to his sister’s home in Sioux City, Iowa in 1885, where he died.

~Robin Wallace, Associate Curator of Special Collections

When perusing lists of veterans’ organizations around the world, it’s interesting to note that most countries are limited to one or two societies.  The United States on the other hand has more than eighty.  Why such a plethora?  Perhaps it is because we are such a diverse country, represented by so many nationalities and interest groups.  The war in Vietnam, for example, spawned organizations such as Vietnam Veterans against the War, Vietnam Veterans of America, Vietnamese American Armed Forces Association and Vietnam Veterans Motorcycle Club.

Without a doubt the Society of the Cincinnati is the oldest military society in continuous existence in North America.  Its first meeting was in May of 1783 and was chaired by Lt. Col. Alexander Hamilton.  Membership was limited to officers who had served at least three years in the Continental Army or Navy and also included officers of the French Army and Navy.  Originally, the participants of the first meeting simply agreed to stay in touch with one another once the Revolution was over and to observe three objectives: “To preserve the rights so dearly won; to promote the continuing union of the states; and to assist members in need, their widows and their orphans.”

Perhaps the most unusual society was the Military Order of the Serpent which was founded in 1904 as a society within the United Spanish War Veterans.  Active membership was confined to all members in good standing in the USWV and the Sons of Spanish War Veterans.  It is a secret society created to perpetuate the memories of the services of the veterans of the Spanish-American War era; to participate in the observance of patriotic holidays, especially “Remember the Maine Day”; to place flags on the graves of veterans of the war with Spain; to care for Spanish American war memorials; to uphold the principals of freedom, patriotism and humanity, and finally to encourage the study of American history in our schools.  Reactivated just recently, the MOS published their constitution and by-laws for their Ohio branch in 1907.  The Filson Library has this publication as well as publications of many other veterans’ groups.