Browse Items (7 total)

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  Louisville Mendelssohn Lodge membership register, 1860-1921

  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/
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  Ben Wiemeyer with dog, circa 1890

  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
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  Mourning Quilt, circa 1882

  Mourning quilt made by Elizabeth H. Bates Durrett (1831-1889) who lost one daughter, Florence Montgomery Durrett (1863-1869) at age six and a second daughter, Lily Bates Durrett (1859-1881) at the age of 21. The mourning quilt was made using material from her daughters' clothing.
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  Beaded Mourning Bonnet

  Black crepe beaded bonnet, most likely worn in mourning. Possibly worn by Mary Brigham Robinson after the death of her husband Stuart Robinson in 1881.
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  Cora Owens Hume (1848-1939)

  Cora Owens Hume (1848-1939) dressed in deep mourning following the death of her second husband in 1881. The tightly cinched waist, large bustle, and tablier, or apron style, overskirt on her dress are unique to the fashions of the 1880s. Cora was from a pro-Confederate, slave-owning family that moved from Columbus, Kentucky, to Louisville after the Civil War began. Cora married her first husband Edward J. Pope, an ex-Confederate, in 1869. Their infant son died later that year and Edward succumbed to tuberculosis in 1871. Cora was a widow at the age of 23. She married her second husband, William Garvin Hume (b. 1845), in 1874. They had three children between the ages of one and six when William died from tuberculosis in 1881, at the age of 35.
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  Ladies' Book of the U.B.F.: Constitution, General Laws, By-Laws, and Rules of Order Installation, Funeral Ceremonies

  Dinnie Thompson (1857-1939) was a member of the Sisters of Mysterious Ten (SMT), a Black women's benevolent society in Louisville. As a young child, she was enslaved by the Speed family, along with her mother, Diana, and grandmother, Phyllis Thurston. From 1889 through the 1920s, she worked as a laundress or domestic in private households, eventually earning enough money to purchase her own home. In the SMT, Thompson found a social support network and opportunities to do charitable work. In the Knights of Friendship, a related branch of the organization, she participated in patriotic demonstrations and competitive drills and was given a sword engraved with her name.
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  "The New Art Gallery"

  The great expositions of the 19th century were spectacles that displayed the nation's industrial, technical, and cultural accomplishments in the decades following the Civil War. Massive galleries dedicated to art provided unprecendented opportunities for American artists to exhibit their work the hundreds of thousands of visitors. Thum exhibited work at the Southern Exposition held in Louisville from 1883-1887. It helped launch her career and she developed a lasting friendship with expo's curator Charles Kurtz, an influencer in New York. Following the exposition Thum actively exhibited her work throughout the country.
  
  -1893, Columbia's Exposition in Chicago
  -1886 and 1889, National Academy of Design in New York City
  -1897, Nashville, Centennial Exposition
  -1898, Trans-Mississippi International Exposition
  -1905, St. Louis World's Fair