The Filson Historical Society Digital Projects

Browse Items (3521 total)

  • 014PC17AV03_compressed.mp4

    This 16mm silent Kentucky wildlife film was produced by Walter (1892-1957) and Elizabeth Catterall Shackleton (1894-1982) from footage of nocturnal wildlife around their 200-acre home in the Sleepy Hollow area of Prospect, Kentucky. It was their first film produced under their company Shackleton Productions, incorporated in 1949. Wildlife filmed include birds, raccoons, a salamander, a mole, owls, and flying squirrels.

    Walter began naturalist documentary work as a bird and wildlife photographer. He attended an Audubon Screen Tour in the 1940s, which inspired him to take up motion picture film. For their films, Walter shot the footage, Elizabeth logged the shots, and the couple worked together to craft the story and splice together the film. Walter Shackleton showed their films in Louisville in the late 1940s and began touring for National Audubon Society sponsored showings around the United States in 1952.
  • MssBD_B661_Vol1_lowres.pdf

    An indexed membership register for the Louisville, Kentucky, B’nai B’rith Mendelssohn Lodge, a Jewish fraternal organization. The register documents members from 1860 to at least 1921. Recorded member information includes their name, place of residence, occupation, marital status, number of children, and date they were inducted.

    The Har-Moriah Lodge No. 14 (“Mt. Moriah”) opened in Louisville in October 1852 and a second B’nai B’rith lodge, the Mendelssohn Lodge No. 40, opened in Louisville in May 1860. Many of the early lodge members were recent Jewish immigrants from parts of now modern Germany who had strong bonds through neighborhood proximity, marriage, and business ventures. The Har Moriah and Mendelssohn lodges officially merged in February 1904 and became Louisville Lodge No. 14.

    Note: The PDF is 523 pages long, so please be patient while it loads.

    For the full collection finding aid, see https://filsonhistorical.org/research-doc/bnai-brith-louisville-lodge-no-14-louisville-ky-records-1860-1921/
  • 781_62_B168s.pdf

    Printed sheet music of the spiritual "O Let My People Go," as recorded by Rev. L. C. Lockwood from his interactions with formerly enslaved people at Fortress Monroe in Virginia and arranged by Thomas Baker.
  • MssCW_WhiteLewis_front.jpg

    Certificate that Lewis White is a soldier in the Company G, 109 U.S. Colored Infantry Regiment. As such, White, his wife, and their children are free citizens. Signed by James Brisbin.
  • 022PC21.jpg

    Photograph of Elmer Hammonds, Sr., posing outside with his dog. Elmer Johnson Hammonds, Sr. (1903-1987) grew up in Bardstown, Kentucky, and moved to Louisville in the early 1930s. In 1931, he married Ophelia Doyle Guinn (1899-1964). The couple raised three children on West Chestnut Street. Elmer worked as a Pullman Porter for over 39 years, from 1929 to 1968. During the heyday of railroad travel, the Pullman Porters attended to the needs of train passengers. In the beginning, the Pullman Company hired only Black men for the job of porter.
  • 014PC6.jpg

    This cabinet card of a young man and his dog was found in the Mittlebeeler family photo collection. On the back the image is the inscription “Ben Wiemeier [sic] Aunt Lizzie's Boyfriend.”

    Elizabeth “Lizzie” Moorman (1879-1945) was born to a German immigrant family in Louisville. She grew up on East Jackson Street in the Shelby Park neighborhood and later moved to Oak Street. In 1890 Lizzie succumbed to Typhoid Fever. Lizzie supported herself as a seamstress and remained single all her life, but this photograph provides a clue into an early romance.

    A Ben Wiemeyer is listed in City Directories from the 1880s and 1900s as living on East Chestnut Street, only a half-mile away from where Lizzie lived. He was also from a German family. Although Lizzie and Ben never married, they must have dated when they were teens. Ben went on to marry and became a machinist.

    Learn more about German photographer Paul Günter in this online exhibit: https://filsonhistorical.omeka.net/exhibits/show/gunter-photography/life-of-gunter
  • HaroldHDavis_Watch the Birdies.jpg

    Carbro print from direct separation negative of two parakeets by photographer H. Harold Davis (1908-1980). It was published in the November 1949 issue of The Courier-Journal Magazine and was later exhibited at the 1950 Photographers Association of America Convention.
  • Animalcompilation.mp4

    Compilation of silent film footage of animals from film collections at the Filson Historical Society. The footage was exhibited in "Animals in the Archives" at the Filson from 2023-2024.
  • Margaret Ferguson085.jpg

    Facsimile of black and white photograph of Margaret Fullerton Ferguson (d. 1928) with her Boston Terrier. Margaret was the daughter of Edwin Hite Ferguson and Sophie Fullerton Marfield. In 1928, when she was only 29, Margaret died of meningitis. Her death came just a few years after her wedding to Captain Earl E. Major, who moved into the Ferguson mansion with her family once they were married.
  • 010PC42_150.jpg

    Photograph of Clair Mills (1886-1978) posing in front of her home at 703 Alta Vista Road, Louisville, Kentucky. Mills is standing between her pug named Bob and horse named Brae King.
  • 14_02_0977.jpg

    Photograph of Barry Bingham Sr. (1906-1988) with three of his five children, Jonathan, Sallie, and Eleanor, along with their standard poodle Figaro at the family amphitheater. The Binghams owned several standard poodles over the years, many named after opera characters. Bingham Sr. was a second-generation owner of The Louisville Courier-Journal, Louisville Times, and WHAS radio and television.
  • 12_01_0779.jpg

    Photograph of Barry Bingham Sr. (1906-1988) seated with the family standard poodle Popo on the West Terrace, Melcomb estate. Bingham was a second-generation owner of The Louisville Courier-Journal, Louisville Times, and WHAS radio and television. Popo is a frequent subject among the Bingham family photos.
  • https://filsonhistoricalimages.files.wordpress.com/2023/12/022pc30_26.jpg

    Polaroid of Lucy C. Mickens (1895-1970) holding her pet dachshund on her lap. Lucy was born in Eastwood, Jefferson County, Kentucky, and resided in the same neighborhood her entire life. She was married to Robert Thomas, Sr., and the couple had three children, Miles, Robert, and Estella. Lucy and Robert, Sr., separated in the 1920s, and Lucy remarried twice: first to Filmore Colemand and later to John Clark. In 1927, she bought property on Gilliland Road and worked as a laundress.
  • https://filsonhistoricalimages.files.wordpress.com/2023/12/parsons-shorty-funeral.jpg

    A scrapbook page on Shorty, the Irish terrier mascot of No. 1 Hook and Ladder Company and No. 2 Engine Company in Louisville, Kentucky. A photograph on the top left corner of the page captures Shorty standing on a brick road. A large photograph on the right hand side of the page shows Shorty seated in the passenger seat of a firetruck with firefighters and a woman posing around him. A veteran of 1,000 fires, Shorty died from falling from his accustomed place on the driver’s seat of the fire engine pumper. The remaining two photographs are on the bottom left of the page and labeled "Shorty Nov 26 1931." They depict Shorty's burial in the lawn plot between the No. 1 Hook and Ladder Company and the water tower at Sixth Street and Jefferson Street.
  • https://filsonhistoricalimages.files.wordpress.com/2023/12/003pc21_135.jpg

    Photograph of six employees posing with dog on a bench at Hazelwood Tuberculosis Sanatorium in Louisville, Kentucky. Pictured on the bench holding the dog’s paw is Adele Albrecht (1888-1961). Adele met and married Dr. Lee Palmer (1897-1985) while they both worked at Hazelwood, she as a nurse and he as a resident finishing medical school at University of Louisville. After medical school the couple moved to the coal mining town of Allock, Kentucky, where he served as a mining camp doctor. Dr. Palmer went on to serve on the Jefferson County Board of Health and research polio in children, including administering some of the first polio vaccines in Louisville.
  • https://filsonhistoricalimages.files.wordpress.com/2023/12/003pc21_142.jpg

    Unidentified photograph of a group of adults and children posing outside with a dog.
  • https://filsonhistoricalimages.files.wordpress.com/2023/12/989pc9x_21.jpg

    Silver gelatin print of Mona Williams posing with her dog Micky by British society photographer Cecil Beaton. A society column in the Daily News in February 1938 claims: “Mona (Mrs. Harrison) Williams intends to perpetuate the breed of Micky, the pooch she brought back from her last visit to Capri. It takes only one short glance at Micky to appreciate that he is a classic example of a genuine mutt. Mona picked up the small, beige mishap from a peasant in the public square on the Isle of Capri. The peasant wouldn’t sell the loveable mongrel but was willing to trade with Mrs. Williams for a thoroughbred Pekinese. This Winter, Mona heard that Micky’s mother had been found, and she sent for her to start breeding a race of ‘Tiberian Terriers’.” Countess Mona von Bismarck, one of the leading lights of international café society, was born in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1897 and raised in Lexington. She married five times throughout her life and each marriage propelled her upwards in society. Her status reached its pinnacle with her third marriage to Harrison Williams, who was known as the richest man in America.
  • Going to the Dogs.jpg

    Poster for the Kentucky Art & Craft Foundation featuring a poodle in sunglasses. Photography by Albert Leggett and Design by Julius Friedman. Julius Friedman (1943-2017) was an artist and graphic designer. He was considered Louisville’s beloved and renowned image maker and cultural advocate. Throughout his 50-year career, Friedman embraced a vast range of media and methods to delight viewers with his visual artistry. Friedman also had a rescue dog named Mr. Brown. Albert Leggett is a Louisville native who began his career under the commercial photographer Lyn Caufield before opening his own company in 1984. He worked with Friedman on various projects.
  • https://filsonhistoricalimages.files.wordpress.com/2023/12/008pc25_15.jpg

    Strip of four photograph booth images of young Martha Albert Butt with her dog.
  • https://filsonhistoricalimages.files.wordpress.com/2023/12/014pc38.jpg

    Color photograph of Helen Fay Lew (1926-2017) relaxing with her four children and their family dog Holly, a border collie. Helen and her husband Calvin (1925-2008) were married in 1949 in Seattle, Washington. The couple moved to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1958, when Calvin joined the faculty of the University of Louisville’s School of Medicine, where he founded the Biomedical Aging Research Program. Once their four children were grown, Helen founded the Crane House in 1987 to celebrate and share Chinese culture throughout Kentucky and Southern Indiana.
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