Bluegrass Renaissance

by Klotter, James C.; Rowland, Daniel

• ISBN13: 9780813136073
• ISBN10: 0813136075
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-07-31
• Publisher: Univ Pr of Kentucky

Summary

Originally established in 1775 the town of Lexington, Kentucky grew quickly into a national cultural center amongst the rolling green hills of the Bluegrass Region. Nicknamed the "Athens of the West," Lexington and the surrounding area became a leader in higher education, visual arts, architecture, and music, and the center of the horse breeding and racing industries. The national impact of the Bluegrass was further confirmed by prominent Kentucky figures such as Henry Clay and John C. Breckinridge. The Idea of the Athens of the West: Central Kentucky in American Culture, 1792-1852, illuminates Lexington's status as one of the most important educational and cultural centers in America during the first half of the nineteenth century. Editors Daniel Rowland and James C. Klotter gather leading scholars to examine the successes and failures of Central Kentuckians from statehood to the death of Henry Clay, in an investigation of the area's cultural and economic development and national influence. The Idea of the Athens of the West is an interdisciplinary study of the evolution of Lexington's status as antebellum Kentucky's cultural metropolis.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 1
Overview and Comparisons
Central Kentucky's "Athens of the West" Image in the Nation and in History	p. 11
Putting Kentucky in Its Place	p. 36
Kentucky's "Athens of the West" Viewed in a "Distant Mirror"	p. 53
Facets of Life
Slavery and Abolition in Kentucky: "'Patter-rollers' were everywhere"	p. 75
"Mrs. Boone, I presume?" In Search of the Idea of Womanhood in Kentucky's Early Years	p. 93
"A richer land never seen yet": Horse Country and the "Athens of the West"	p. 131
Three Central Kentuckians, the "Bone" of Political Office, and the Kentucky Exodus, 1792-1852	p. 158
Science, Arts, and Education
Jewels in the Crown: Civic Pride and Educational Institutions in the Bluegrass, 1792-1852	p. 181
Horace Holley and the Straggle for Kentucky's Mind and Soul	p. 204
Living Hills: The Frontier Science of Rafinesque	p. 222
Lexington Limners: Portrait Painters in the "Athens of the West"	p. 240
Public Music Making, Concert Life, and Composition in Kentucky during the Early National Period	p. 264
Benjamin Henry Latrobe and Neoclassical Lexington	p. 286
Afterword	p. 344
List of Contributors	p. 347
Index	p. 351
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