LOUISVILLE, Ky. — May is a big month in Louisville because of the Kentucky Derby, but it’s an important month in our history for another reason. It’s the month the Filson Historical Society was founded.
For our partnership with the Filson, This Month In History, we are taking a look back at the 137 year history of the society.
The original founding was in May 1884. It brought together a group of people in Louisville who were a mix of former Union and former Confederate supporters and veterans.
It was a private and exclusive club where members had to be voted in.
“They came together to study history to really heal the wounds of their younger lives of the war that had divided the state,” Filson Director of Collections and Research Patrick Lewis said.
They began looking at was the earlier generation of Kentucky's history, and focused on the settlement of Kentucky in the 18th and 19th century.
They named the Filson after Kentucky’s first historian, John Filson. He published a famous map of Kentucky that was a marketing tool to get people from the East Coast to the commonwealth.
Over the years, it stopped being a club and became a historical society. When it first began, there was no official home for the club. It would rotate between the homes of members who had their own private collections.
The biggest library and most important research library was owned by founder Reuben T. Durrett. Right before his death, the University of Chicago purchased all of his materials so their graduate students could access it.
It was such an extensive collection, Theodore Roosevelt even came and researched in Durrett’s library.
After Durrett’s death, the Filson remained dormant until the 1920s and 30s. That’s when it moved into a building, where Spalding University now sits. The society started publishing a journal.
There are now 25, full time, professionally trained staff to help researchers from all over the world.
“One of the things that we aim to do with all of our research and programs is to be a resource for Louisville and Kentucky in understanding its past…so that we can make better informed choices about our future,” Lewis said.
The Filson has lectures every week on Zoom, as well as research archives where you can search for your family history or architectural history among others. It also has rare books and manuscripts that are really the heart of the collection.
Right now, you can make an appointment to do research but they hope to be back open to the public on September 1.
►Contact reporter Rose McBride at rmcbride@whas11.com or on Facebook or Twitter.
►Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the WHAS11 News app now. For Apple or Android users.
Have a news tip? Email assign@whas11.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed.