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Kentucky Historical Society

agency of Kentucky government

Layered newspapers, civic records and oral-history reels arranged as chronological evidence
History and societyInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 7, 2025
Entity authorityQ6392273 ↗
Source-derived summary

The Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) is an agency of the Kentucky state government that records and preserves important historical documents, buildings, and artifacts of Kentucky's past. It was originally established in 1836 as a private organization. The KHS history campus, located in downtown Frankfort, Kentucky, includes the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History, the Old State Capitol, and the Kentucky Military History Museum at the State Arsenal. KHS is a part of the Kentucky Tourism-Arts and Heritage Cabinet, is fully accredited by the American Alliance of Museums, is a Smithsonian affiliate, and endorses the History Relevance statement. The mission of the KHS is to educate and engage the public through Kentucky's history in order to confront the challenges of the future. The KHS allows the public access to their resources through the online Library catalog along with the in-person Library.

Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History

The Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History, also referred to as the Kentucky Historical Society, is the headquarters for the KHS. A multimillion-dollar museum and research facility, the center features both permanent and temporary exhibitions, a research library, and a gift shop.

The center contains an exhibition called "A Kentucky Journey" that covers the period from prehistoric times to the present. The center also contains the Martin F. Schmidt Research Library. The Library is a genealogical and historical research library, researchers can access books, manuscripts, graphic collections, and oral histories documenting the people and places of Kentucky's rich past.

Editorial summary

“Kentucky Historical Society” enters the record as agency of Kentucky government. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Kentucky, Historical and Society can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA strong contextual entry point for chronology, institutions and public events when official records are distinguished from later interpretation. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1836—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1836-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Kentucky, Historical and Society.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“Kentucky Historical Society” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Kentucky, Historical and Society provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 7, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q6392273. VIAF identifies the subject as 158244529. The Library of Congress control number is n50050063. 3 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1836.

Critical limits

Institutional narratives can privilege the records that survived while minimizing voices that were never formally collected. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.

Best used for
  • Event chronology
  • Institutional context
  • Locating named record creators
Verify next

Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Kentucky Historical Society”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Kentucky Historical Society primary sources, Kentucky Historical Society archive and Kentucky research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Kentucky Historical Society”?
  2. Who created the surviving record, and for what administrative purpose?
  3. What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Kentucky Historical Society” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.