Our Story
The Kentucky Historical Society (KHS) was formed in 1836 by a group of prominent Kentuckians intent on preserving the history of the commonwealth. It was chartered as the state society in 1838 and began to collect books and printed materials. The Society became an agency of Kentucky state government in the early 1950s.
KHS, an agency of the Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet, has more than 3,300 members to whom it provides support and educational services. Outreach programs collaborate with more than 430 local historical organizations. KHS is administered by an executive committee, and supported by the KHS Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization.
Our Mission
KHS engages people in the exploration of the commonwealth's diverse heritage. Through comprehensive and innovative services, interpretive programs and stewardship, we provide connections to the past, perspective on the present and inspiration for the future.
Our Vision
The Kentucky Historical Society will be the recognized leader in helping people understand, cherish and share Kentucky's stories.
Our Work
KHS collects, preserves, conserves, interprets and shares information, memories and materials from Kentucky's past to assist those interested in exploring and preserving that heritage. KHS is guided in its work by a new strategic plan, in effect July 1, 2010 through June 30, 2013.
History of the Building
Gideon Shryock, an early Kentucky architect, designed the Old State Capitol when he was only 25 years old. Shryock used architectural symbolism to connect the vigorous frontier state of Kentucky with the ideals of classical Greek democracy. The building, which introduced Greek-Revival architecture to the United States west of the Appalachian Mountains, is widely recognized as a beautiful masterpiece of 19th-century American architecture and boasts a self-supporting stone stairway, a light-flooded rotunda and dual legislative chambers.
This was the only pro-Union state capitol occupied by the Confederate army during the Civil War. Plans to swear in a Confederate governor and establish a Confederate state government were ruined by the approach of the Union army just days before the Battle of Perryville in 1862.
In the aftermath of the bitterly contested gubernatorial election in 1899, the state legislature met here in 1900 to decide the winner. An assassin, hiding in an office in the Old Capitol Annex next door, shot the Democratic claimant, William Goebel, as he approached the Capitol. Armed citizens and State Guard soldiers occupied the grounds, and here for a time Kentuckians threatened to fight their own miniature civil war. A plaque marks the site outside the building where Goebel, the only governor in United States history to be assassinated while in office, fell.
Replaced by the New Capitol in South Frankfort early in the 20th-century, the building has served as the home of the Kentucky Historical Society since 1920. The subject of extensive restoration work since the early 1970s, the Old State Capitol looks today much as it did in the 1850s.
