Archival Treasures: The Central Kentucky Photograph Albums at UK Libraries Special Collections

For as long as I can remember, a dry sink in the corner of the den of my childhood home has held stacks and stacks of photograph albums. As a little girl, I delighted in rifling through them, asking questions, peering into the faces of long-gone relatives, and excitedly pointing out sights I could identify. I’m not sure what a professional would make of these vestiges of my family’s past, but for me they help piece together the quilt of my family story. Professionally, finding historic photographs of a building I am documenting is nothing short of a major lottery win. And even if I don’t know the location, date, or subject matter of a historic photograph – it can still be an important research tool.

The above photograph is simply labeled “Log cabins with path.” No location is known, but the Central Kentucky Photograph albums (there are two of them) at the University of Kentucky Special Collections  depict scenes in Boyle, Mercer, Jessamine, and McCreary counties from roughly 1907 to 1920.

The black and white photograph shows two men standing in the domestic yard (the area around a dwelling), with a house that appears to have two building campaigns on the right side of the image. The two-story dwelling has a one-room deep log section in the foreground, with a two-story porch sheltering a single door on each floor. An exterior stair leads to the second story.

The side gable roof is clad in wood shingles. The rear portion of the house – which is not flush with the front portion – looks (and it is hard to see) like it is clad in milled lumber (maybe board and batten) on the exterior. It has more openings than the log house, but also has an exterior stair and two-story porch.

Interestingly, there is no sign of a chimney – maybe it is on the other gable end and simply can’t be seen in this image? Was this dwelling not heated? Did it use stoves with only small fluepipe openings?

But even without knowing where this house was   – or who the two men might be – building techniques can be observed (and pondered).

Perhaps most exciting to me is the left side of the image. If people include a building in their photographs (and to the very young people out there: photographs used to be hard to come by), it’s usually going to be the front of their house. Capturing an image of the barn or smokehouse wasn’t very high on most people’s list (this aversion to photographing outbuildings persisted in my profession well into the 20th century, which is highly frustrating to me).

Two outbuildings cluster together, facing on a diagonal toward the house, in the left frame of the photograph. The smallest one is log, the second one is a very familiar type – a front gable meathouse or smokehouse (it’s very tightly sheathed and only has one opening).

At the rear is another building, mostly disguised and not visible, but with a very large gable end chimney and at least one flue. This then, might be the main house of this complex – or was the main house at one time. It looks like two porches have been enclosed, but anything else is just conjecture.

Now, I would be lying if I said I didn’t want to know more about this photograph – I do! Even just knowing the county would be helpful, for Boyle County and McCreary County in Kentucky have building traditions and methods that may differ – based on when the county developed, the topography, the amount of land in farmland versus timber, ease of access to urban areas – well, I could go on but I will cease.

I’ve devoted over 600 words to one image – and could easily prattle on for another 600 words, but I’ll close with this appreciation: historic archives, like Special Collections at the University of Kentucky, deserve much more recognition than they receive by the general public. Who else would save the work of an unknown photographer and make it available via an online platform for nerds like me to examine, scrutinize, and enjoy?