The Filson Historical Society Digital Projects

Browse Items (128 total)

  • Mss_A_B879_79_LadiesFair1847.jpg

    Advertisement for a fundraiser by the Black women of the Baptist Church in Frankfort, Kentucky, on December 2, 1847 at 7:00 PM. The advertisement notes that "A Good Supper, Oysters, Jellies, Salads, Ice Creams, Cakes, &c. &c., will be offered for sale on reasonable terms." The advertisement delineates that white attendees "will be waited on from 5 to 6 o'clock," before the main fair.
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    Letter from Asturgus to Woolfolk at Mrs. Christian's in Mercer County. Mentions kettles and furnaces (saltworks). Mentions proposed partnership with Mrs. Christian, hopes Woolfolk will put in a good word for him.
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    "Fanny" Frances Latham Slaughter was a wife and a mother who had strong ties with her family as seen through letters sent to her daughter and other relatives. "Time passes away tedious and heavy" writes Frances Latham Slaughter to her daughter (who left home) on 12 October 1816. Women who were separated from family and friends often experienced loneliness on the frontier.
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    In the era before photography, miniature portraits were popular mementos of loved ones that could be easily carried across long physical distances. The watercolor on ivory portraits were desired for the way artists could accurately capture a subject, working in such small dimensions. Ann Rogers Clark Gwathmey (1755-1822) was the sister of George Rogers Clark and William Clark. She was married to Owen Gwathmey. She and her husband moved to Louisville with at least five of their twelve children in 1797. They purchased 335 acres and built a home near Harrod's Creek, east of Louisville not very far from her sister Lucy Croghan's home at Locust Grove. The proximity to her sister and other family members ensured that Ann had a strong social network to rely on. The Gwathmeys enslaved twenty individuals on their estate, whose labor created economic advantage and comfort for the family.
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    Women experienced death and loss regularly on the frontier. Ann Booth Gwathmey (1782-1862) was no exception. The daughter of William A. and Rebecca Hite Booth, she migrated to Jefferson County, KY, with her family as a child. She married John Gwathmey in 1800 when she was eighteen years old, and he was twenty-six. She was nineteen years old when she gave birth to their first daughter, who died less than six weeks later. During the next twenty-five years, Ann lost both of her parents, two more pre-school aged children, and her husband. In her senior years, two of her adult children preceded her in death. See also the mourning necklace that belonged to her.
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    Cotton bedspread belonging to Elizabeth Tyler Sturgeon. Elizabeth married Thomas Sturgeon in 1816, who died only seven years into their marriage. Elizabeth then took on the responsibility of managing their farm while also raising her three young sons. Elizabeth enslaved seven people who provided crucial labor that contributed to the success of the farm and household. After her husband died, an unidentified enslaved woman helped Elizabeth manage the farm. In 1833, Eliza died from cholera, leaving her three sons, all under the age of eighteen, to live with her brother.
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    Linen coverlet belonging to Elizabeth Tyler Sturgeon. Elizabeth married Thomas Sturgeon in 1816, who died only seven years into their marriage. Elizabeth then took on the responsibility of managing their farm while also raising her three young sons. Elizabeth enslaved seven people who provided crucial labor that contributed to the success of the farm and household. After her husband died, an unidentified enslaved woman helped Elizabeth manage the farm. In 1833, Eliza died from cholera, leaving her three sons, all under the age of eighteen, to live with her brother.
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    Sheet belonging to Elizabeth Tyler Sturgeon. Elizabeth married Thomas Sturgeon in 1816, who died only seven years into their marriage. Elizabeth then took on the responsibility of managing their farm while also raising her three young sons. Elizabeth enslaved seven people who provided crucial labor that contributed to the success of the farm and household. After her husband died, an unidentified enslaved woman helped Elizabeth manage the farm. In 1833, Eliza died from cholera, leaving her three sons, all under the age of eighteen, to live with her brother.
  • https://filsonhistoricalimages.files.wordpress.com/2022/12/1936_1_11.jpg

    Sheet belonging to Elizabeth Tyler Sturgeon. Elizabeth married Thomas Sturgeon in 1816, who died only seven years into their marriage. Elizabeth then took on the responsibility of managing their farm while also raising her three young sons. Elizabeth enslaved seven people who provided crucial labor that contributed to the success of the farm and household. After her husband died, an unidentified enslaved woman helped Elizabeth manage the farm. In 1833, Eliza died from cholera, leaving her three sons, all under the age of eighteen, to live with her brother.
  • 1936_1_1_1 copy.jpg

    Quilt belonging to Elizabeth Tyler Sturgeon. The quilt has strips of hand-woven cloth believed to have been made locally in Jefferson County, Kentucky, alternating with a commercial indigo print that was imported into the United States. The quilt, the oldest quilt in the Filson's collection, is more than 100 inches long on each side and was completely hand-stitched. Eliza married Thomas Sturgeon in 1816, who died seven years into their marriage in 1822. Eliza then took on the responsibility of managing their farm in addition to rearing her three young sons. Eliza enslaved seven people who provided crucial labor for the success of the farm and household. After her husband died, an unidentified enslaved woman helped Eliza manage the farm. In 1833, Eliza died from cholera leaving her three sons, all under the age of eighteen, to live with her brother.
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    Elizabeth Wood Bayless was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania. She migrated to Mason County, Kentucky, with her family sometime within the first decade of Kentucky's statehood. Her father, George Wood, was a Revolutionary War Veteran who was one of the first Baptist preachers to settle in the region. Elizabeth married Benjamin Bayless in 1798 in Mason County, Kentucky.
  • https://filsonhistoricalimages.files.wordpress.com/2022/11/mssa_b937c_f397_17870824_001-copy.jpg

    Receipt signed by Bland Ballard for receiving eight and a half bushels of salt on Mrs. Christian's account from James Asturgus.
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    Hiring out receipt for an enslaved woman named Hannah.
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    Letter from Anna Blake to Harriet Corlis sending well wishes for the upcoming Christmas, including a gift for her. She relates that she is learning to draw in crayons, stating "Mr. Audubon who is my Master is very good natured and is perfect master of the Art."
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    Letter from Daniel Brodhead in Danville, stating that Mrs. Christian suggested Woolfolk might be able to provide him with currency, which he desperately needs.
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    Receipt for purchase of textiles by Mrs. Annie Christian; payment by Richard Woolfolk on reverse.
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    Abigail Oldham Churchill came from a lineage of wealthy and prominent early Louisvillian settlers. She was just two years old when her father, Colonel William Oldham, died in the Battle of Wabash. Her mother, Penelope Pope, a twenty-two-year-old widow with four children, remarried into the Churchill family. In 1802, two weeks after her fourteenth birthday, Abigail married Samuel Churchill, her step-father's twenty-four-year-old brother. She gave birth to their first child when she was fifteen and had a child almost every other year over a span of thirty years. She had her last of fifteen children when she was forty-four years of age.
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    Samuel Churchill moved from Virginia to Kentucky when he was eight years old. He owned 415 acres of land along Beargrass Creek. The Churchills enslaved thirty-six individuals whose labor created economic advantage and comfort for the family. He had an interest in horse breeding and was president of the Louisville Association for the Improvement of Breed of Horses. Samuel Churchill was one of seven founding trustees of the Oakland Racecourse in Louisville in early 1832, which was located on fifty-one acres of land purchased from Samuel and Abigail Churchill, as well as from other landholders. His sons, John and Henry, inherited land from Samuel, which they leased to his nephew Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr., founder of a new racecourse known today as Churchill Downs.
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    Letter to Patrick Henry requesting he post an announcement of William Christian's death in Virginia papers and send three mourning rings for her daughters from Annie Christian.
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    Letter from Annie Christian to James Asturgus regarding men retrieving salt; her request that he keeps a good order book; request for a kettle in exchange for sugar.
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