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The Filson Historical Society Digital Projects The Filson Historical Society Digital Projects
The Filson Historical Society Digital Projects

Browse Items (638 total)

  • A sketch of the coffee nut tree seed pod from the last page of a letter from Dr. Charles Wilkins Short to Dr. Daniel Drake.
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  • Letter from Eleanor E. Clark requesting the recipient to use the enclosed linen to make a border for a bed quilt.
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  • French stock certificate for one share in the Compagnie de Colonisation Americaine (American Colonization Company). Share is for 100 acres of land in Virginia and Kentucky for an investment of 1300 francs. Yields six percent annual interest. Dividends paid annually over thirty years using the attached coupons.
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  • Daniel Chapman Banks was a Louisville Presbyterian minister. The diary chronicles his 1815-1816 trip from Connecticut to Louisville in which he travels through New Yok, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. This diary entry discusses Native American mounds.
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  • Daniel Chapman Banks was a Louisville Presbyterian minister. The diary chronicles his 1815-1816 trip from Connecticut to Louisville in which he travels through New Yok, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. This diary entry discusses murders committed by Native Americans.
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  • Daniel Chapman Banks was a Louisville Presbyterian minister. The diary chronicles his 1815-1816 trip from Connecticut to Louisville in which he travels through New Yok, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. This diary entry describes the death of a woman's baby.
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  • Daniel Chapman Banks was a Louisville Presbyterian minister. The diary chronicles his 1815-1816 trip from Connecticut to Louisville in which he travels through New Yok, Pennsylvania, and Ohio. In this diary entry, Banks gives an extensive account of the earthquake in New Madrid, Missouri, as it was told to him by a Mr. Hayes.
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  • Field notes and plat of a survey done in Jefferson County, Kentucky, by George May. Taken from George May's survey book.
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  • Strippy quilt credited to Elizabeth Tyler Sturgeon of Jefferson County, Kentucky. Elizabeth married Thomas Sturgeon in 1816. After he died in 1823, she managed their farm and raised three young sons. Her father, Edward Tyler II, enslaved up to fourteen people. Elizabeth herself enslaved seven people whose labor sustained both the household and the farm. This forced labor enabled the production of textiles like this quilt. Homespun fabric alone could not fulfill the amount of cloth needed by a single household. Fancy imported cloth was preferred for special textiles and dressier clothing. Fabric like the indigo printed calico used in this quilt was imported from Britain and sold by Kentucky merchants. The fabric was expensive as it was imported into Philadelphia, carried overland by wagon, and then floated down the Ohio River via flatboat to Louisville. Or it was transported up the Mississippi and Ohio rivers against the current, via man-powered keelboats or barges from the Port of New Orleans. Eliza supplemented this expensive fabric with a hand-woven overshot fabric that was frugally pieced together and perhaps upcycled from a previous textile, such as bed curtains, window curtains, or a dress. 
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  • Bowman's letter to Isaac Hite discusses trade with New Orleans, the abundance of money at Kaskaskia, British and American troops in the northwest, and a message he wrote that was not received because the messenger was killed at the Falls of the Ohio. Bowman gives a detailed description of the retaking of Vincennes in February 1779 by the Americans led by George Rogers Clark. Bowman mentions guns, military stores, and Native-American goods captured by Clark's men, and notes the Virginia Assembly's indifference to the western territory. Bowman died not long after writing this letter from wounds received during the retaking of Vincennes several months earlier.
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  • Hank of wool from Buchanan, Kentucky. Sheep were among the early domesticated animals brought to Kentucky. Home production of wool increased during the Revolutionary War and the War of 1812 due to trade embargos. Free and enslaved women prepared and spun the wool into a usable yarn. They used the yarn for knitting, or it was taken to a professional weaver (free or enslaved person) who turned it into cloth. Wool was often woven with cotton or hemp in early Kentucky textiles. Approximately 4/12 lbs. of spun wool were needed to make a single blanket. Wool cloth was also sewn into clothing by women.
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  • Early silk empire style wedding dress. Empire dresses emerged in the early 19th century and rapidly became fashionable across Europe, particularly England.
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  • Early style teaspoon with egg-shaped bowl and slender handle widening to a modified coffin style. Undecipherable monogram on end of handle. "SA" stamped in rectangular cartouche. Also a winged eagle, looking left.
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  • Silk dresses of the early 19th century embodies the period between the whiteness of dresses of the early Regency gowns and the decorative frills and flounces of the 1810s. This dress belonged to a woman of the McNair -Anderson family.
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  • This cotton dress is a great example of the changes (simplified, 'natural' dresses) occurring in women's fashion in the late 18th century to early 19th century. 'Naturalness' in this context refers to the use of lightweight , easily washable materials (like muslin, cotton, linen, poplin, and batiste) for dresses.
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  • Empire dresses emerged in the early 19th century and rapidly became fashionable across Europe (particularly England).
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  • This shawl is said to have belonged to Ann Rogers Clark Gwathmey (1755-1822). See also 1943.5.1 (miniature portrait). Paisley Shawls were a luxury item worn by affluent women. Paisley, as a style, didn't get its name until the 1830s-40s, named after the Scottish town that began to reproduce designs copied from textiles that were originally imported from India. The pin and cone design motifs had their origins from Indo-Iranian people in Persia. Luxurious textiles from India were in high demand among the upper class and often can be seen in portraits of affluent women. By the mid 18th century, England's East India Company was importing shawls to London. In the early 1800s, Scottish mills began producing their own version of the highly sought after shawls, which made them more accessible to the rising middle class.
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  • Samplers were a staple in the education of girls, designed to teach needlework skills needed for household duties. Samples could be symbolic of the girl's culture, religion, social class, or personal accomplishments. Sampler making was seen as the ground work for civic, social, and familial responsibility. This was made by Abigail Prather Churchill the daughter of Abigail Pope Oldham Churchill (1789-1854), around age 11-13 at Nazareth Academy (which is near Bardstown, KY).
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  • This sampler was made by Mary Ann Logan in Shakertown, Kentucky. Samplers were a staple in the education of girls. The samplers were designed to teach needlework skills needed for household duties and could be a symbol of the girl's culture, religion, social class, and personal accomplishments. Sampler making was seen as the ground work for civic, social, and familial responsibility.
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  • This darning sampler is a great example of the various embroidery techniques that young girls were expected to learn and be proficient in. Samplers were a staple in the education of girls. The samplers were designed to teach needlework skills needed for household duties and could be a symbol of the girl's culture, religion, social class, and personal accomplishments. Sampler making was seen as the ground work for civic, social, and familial responsibility.
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