Random Thoughts on History

Most people have probably never heard of Henry Watterson, but if you have ever driven on I-264 through Louisville, Kentucky, you might be fa...

Today is a special day for me, its my birthday. I share this day with some noteworthy people. Some of them, such as the beautiful actress S...

This particular roll of microfilm was in pretty bad condition. I was unable to make digital copies as I normally do for my records, and als...

Just finding the time to do research is one thing, but finding a certain elusive source can often be an exercise in futility...and frustrati...

When reading about the leading proponents of Southern secession during the antebellum era, one is struck by the uniqueness that is Edmund Ru...

Alabamian Stephen Fowler Hale was not home for Christmas in 1860, but he was having a homecoming of sorts. Born in Crittenden County, Kentuc...

Back on June 5 I posted about a pamphlet that I had found in the University of Kentucky's Special Collections that Henry Clay Pate had p...

Getting students to appreciate and enjoy history is sometimes an uphill battle. Half of that fight is making sure that educators who teach ...

I remember going to the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus in Knoxville, Tennessee when I was a boy. The sights, sounds, and yes...

Brothers James and John Harper set up a small printing business in New York City in 1817, and then, joined by younger brothers Joseph Wesley...

One of the last things I did as a resident of Virginia was attend the 2009 Virginia Civil War Sesquicentennial Signature Conference, Virgini...

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is offering a special program called the This Place Matters Community Challenge where individua...

Although it was a number of years ago, I remember that I was impressed the first time I saw a copy of "Taking the Oath and Drawing Rati...

I received an email notice from the Civil War Preservation Trust (CWPT) today that I would like to share with readers that may be interested...

Today marks the 148th anniversary of the last day of the battle of Second Manassas (August 28-30, 1862). The battle was one of the Army of N...

Information from article in Collegiate Times - The end of an era is coming. It has recently been announced that renowned Civil War professor...

As promised in the previous post I thought I'd share some of the Kentucky newspaper reports on Bleeding Kansas that I have recently come...

I thought it might be interesting to see how Kentucky newspapers covered events in "Bleeding Kansas," so I went back to the microf...

From the National Coalition for History - The National Park Service (NPS) recently awarded close to $1 million in grants from the agency...

Yet another of the pro-slavery Kansans was Sheriff Samuel Jones. Unfortunately there are not a lot details known about Jones's early li...