Want to get announcements on new exhibits and events at the Kentucky Museum? Sign up for our e-newsletter!

America 250

America 250 logo

The leaders of the founding era did not have all the answers. Though their innovations of representative democracy and rights-based constitutionalism were transformative, they knew the nation was a revolutionary experiment. They expected future generations to improve upon the republic they created.

The 250th anniversary offers an opportunity to reconsider the origins of our government, democratic institutions, and broader civic life, and a chance to reflect on the ways we have changed them over time. Encouraging discussion about our democracy and civic institutions can help strengthen understanding, inspire action, and reveal ways that all of us can participate in and shape the ongoing American experiment.

We invite you to help us create America 250.

Note: The American Association for State and Local History’s (AASLH) The Field Guide for the Semiquincentennial Making History at 250 is an outstanding resource for all organizations to use prior to planning America 250 events.

Upcoming Programs

Fall Semester 2024

Coming Soon!

Spring Semester 2025

Coming Soon!

Past Programs

What’s the “Lock?" The “Keys” Needed for Unlocking the Model Minority Stereotype of Asian Americans

September 7, 2023

Presentation by Dr. Nicholas Hartlep, Associate Professor of Education Studies and Robert Charles Billings Endowed Chair in Education, Berea College. A leading authority on the model minority stereotype, Dr. Hartlep will untangle the model minority stereotype of Asian/Americans in a way that will illuminate three racist elements of the model minority myth's sophistry and discursive nature, and its reliance on dog whistle politics. This talk will draw from three of his previous books: The Model Minority Stereotype: Demystifying Asian American Success, The Model Minority Stereotype Reader: Critical and Challenging Readings for the 21st Century and Killing the Model Minority Stereotype: Asian American Counter Stories and Complicity.

This program was funded in part by Kentucky Humanities.

Location: Kentucky Museum

Cooking in Kentucky before the Civil War

October 18, 2023

Presentation by Dr. Cynthia Williams Resor, Foundation Professor, College of Education, Eastern Kentucky University. This program will explore the lives of Kentucky women, free and enslaved, as Resor prepares recipes from early nineteenth century cookbooks such as Lettice Bryan’s The Kentucky Housewife. Reviewing how women produced, preserved, and prepared food in pre-industrial kitchens, Resor explores the often-overlooked “women’s work” of the past and present and how teaching it can enhance our understanding of everyday Americans.

This program was funded in part by Kentucky Humanities.

Location: Kentucky Museum

Teaching History in the Past and Present

November 8, 2023

Panel discussion with WKU historians Dr. David Lee, University Historian; Dr. Kate Brown, Associate Professor, History; Dr. Jennifer Hanley, Associate Professor History; and Dr. Marko Dumančić, Director, Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning. The past has always been subject to interpretation discussion and reinterpretation. However, for many, history was often presented to students as a singular agreed upon narrative. Today, most historians agree that history should be studied from a multi-perspective approach. Join panelists in an exploration of how history has been, is currently, and might be, taught in the future.

Location: Kentucky Museum

I Got a Right to the Tree of Life Women’s Suffrage & African American Women’s Voices

February 7, 2024

Presentation by Dr. Kathy Bullock, Professor Emerita of Music, Berea College. Through songs and stories, this presentation will share the journey and the contributions of African American women in the struggle for the Right to Vote in the U.S. This program will highlight stories and struggles of African American women leaders, from the late 1870s up to the Voting Rights Act in 1965 and beyond.

This program was funded in part by Kentucky Humanities.

Location: Kentucky Museum

Quilt Art: Examining the Narrative in Kentucky Quilts

March 9, 2024

Presentation with Dr. Pearlie Johnson, Independent Scholar and member, Kentucky Humanities Council’s Speakers Bureau. Based on historical records, secondary sources, and oral history interviews with quilters across Kentucky, Johnson discusses 19th century quilts made by black women living and working on slave plantations, traditional quilts made by African American women of the 20th century, as well as contemporary art quilts made by women of all cultural groups of the 21st century. Her work explores women’s history, storytelling, identity politics, social activism, and empowerment. Her study of quilts in Kentucky is aimed at examining cross-cultural parallels in technique and assemblage, as well as revealing unique designs.

This program was funded in part by Kentucky Humanities.

Location: Kentucky Museum

Finding the First Farmers with Kentucky Archaeological Survey Staff

April 9, 2024

Finding the First Farmers with Kentucky Archaeological Survey staff and guest curators: Dr. David Pollack, and Dr. A. Gwynn Henderson.Panelists from the Kentucky Archaeological Survey (KAS) will discuss the diverse nature of indigenous farm life in the Barren River drainage of south-central Kentucky during the Mississippian era. Exploring recent archaeological finds, the team will expand on the First Farmers of the Barren River Valley exhibition at the Kentucky Museum to address misconceptions on indigenous peoples’ identity, technology, settlement patterns, foodways, and trade routes to reveal the complex societies present before Europeans arrived in what is now North America. They will also explore the similarities between indigenous farmers and Kentucky farm families of the late nineteenth to early twenty-first centuries.

Location: Kentucky Museum