Benefactors of Posterity: The Founding Era of the Filson Historical Society 1884-1899

Commemorating 140 Years

In the fading years of the Gilded Age, Louisville emerged as an important center of Kentucky history, thanks to the efforts of the Filson Club (now the Filson Historical Society). Founded in 1884, the Filson Club fostered discussions and launched public history initiatives that can seem strikingly modern today. Dubbed “Benefactors of Posterity” by one founder, the Filson was often in the vanguard of collection and commemoration, rivaling more established historical societies in the East. Its output was also deeply mired in systemic racism and Jim Crow culture, and members actively worked to distort and erase the history of African Americans and Native Nations.

Writing during the organization’s 140th anniversary, historian Daniel Gifford recreates a 360-degree view of the Filson’s founding era. Benefactors of Posterity revises our understanding of key moments in Louisville and Kentucky history, including Enid Yandell’s Daniel Boone statue; the Southern Exposition; Louisville’s public parks; and the Ku Klux Klan. It is an explicit and intentional reckoning with the Filson Historical Society’s past, one that reverberates with the challenges facing our communities in the 21st century.

“He who would be counted among the benefactors of posterity, must, by his own toil, add to the acquisitions of his ancestors.” These are words worthy to be inscribed on the banner of the Filson Club.

—Captain Thomas Speed, evoking Samuel Johnson at the Filson Club’s Centenary of Kentucky banquet, June 1, 1892, Louisville, Kentucky

About the Author

Dr. Daniel Gifford is a public historian who focuses on American popular and visual culture, as well as museums in American culture. He received his PhD from George Mason University in 2011.

His career spans both academia and public history, including several years with the Smithsonian Institution. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Filson Historical Society in Louisville, Kentucky, and guest-curated their 2022 exhibit “Olde England on the Ohio: Louisville’s Tudor Revival.”

Along with public lectures, exhibits, and digital humanities projects, his expertise has been featured in numerous national interviews and publications. Previous books by Dr. Gifford have explored the commemoration of the whaling industry at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition; and how holidays and holiday imagery expressed deep divides at the height of the Progressive Era.