The Filson Historical Society Photograph Collection
Our photograph collection contains approximately 50,000 photographic prints, negatives, daguerreotypes, ambrotypes, tintypes, slides and films. The photograph collection dates from the 1840s to the present and documents agriculture, architecture, commerce and industry, river history, transportation, and other aspects of social history. There are photographs from all areas of Kentucky as well as from other states and foreign countries.
Kentucky Family with Spinning Wheels
Highlights from our collection include:
The Rogers Clark Ballard Thruston Collection: Rogers Clark Ballard Thruston, 1858-1946, was a photographer, historian and long-time president of The Filson Historical Society. This collection contains over 20,000 photographs dating from 1880 to 1942 and includes scenes from Louisville, Kentucky, the United States, and foreign countries. Of special interest are scenes and people of the eastern Kentucky mountains.
The Louisville Railway Company Collection:The Louisville Railway Company (later the Louisville Transit Company) was a privately owned company which operated the trolley and interurban lines in Louisville and adjacent suburban areas. The collection contains photographs of early mule cars, electric streetcars, buses, and interurban rail cars. Also included are photographs of car barns, power houses, shops, work cars, maintenance equipment, and street scenes of tracks and cars.
The Paul Gunter Collection: Paul Gunter, 1857-1936, was a Louisville photographer in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. An immigrant from Hanover, Germany, Gunter initially worked for photographer Daniel Stuber before opening his own studio. The collection illustrates Gunter's interest in photography as an artistic medium rather than his work as a commercial photographer. Photographs taken in Cherokee Park, on Harrod's Creek, and at Fern Grove, Ind., focus on Gunter's interest in the natural world and include images of wooded terrains, water courses, and landscapes. Also included are various Louisville scenes and the Gunter family.
Our finding aids for photographs include:
PastPerfect, an in-house, keyword searchable
computer database which includes subject photographs, individuals,
family collections, institutional collections, business
collections, collections by a particular photographer, prints, and
films.
The General Subject File, a set of photocopy files arranged by subject. Access to the General Subject File is gained through files of photocopied photographs, postcards and prints divided into approximately 200 subject headings and subheadings. Some of the subjects included are agriculture, boats and steamboats, bridges, bridge construction, churches, floods, historic buildings, industry, individuals, Kentucky houses, Kentucky counties, mining, parks, politics, railroads, rivers, schools, sports, streetcars and interurbans, and street scenes. A guide to the photocopy files is available online and in the department.
The Filson Online Catalog: a selection of items from the photograph collection have been cataloged in the Filson online catalog.
Guide to Selected Manuscript and Photograph Collections of the Filson Historical Society: a selection of collections up to 1996, available in print and online.
If you have a research question pertaining to photographs, please contact Robin Wallace, Associate Curator of Special Collections or Mike Veach, Associate Curator of Special Collections.
For image reproductions, please consult our order guidelines.
To view a sampling of images from The Filson's photograph collection CLICK HERE.
State Normal School Class of 1902
We want to preserve your history!
The Filson has collected photographs since its founding in 1884. We continue to add to the collections, mainly through gifts from our members, friends, and people who are interested in preserving important visual images for the future.
If you have images that you would like to donate to The Filson, we want to hear from you. Please contact Special Collections Curator James J. Holmberg by email or at (502) 634-8846 for more information on how to donate to The Filson's collections.
