WKU News

Kentucky Before Boone - Kentucky’s First Archaeology Poster

In 1989, the Kentucky Heritage Council printed Kentucky Before Boone, Jim Railey’s amazingly detailed and informative poster depicting Indigenous lifeways, technology, and diagnostic artifacts drawn from Kentucky archaeological sites and artifacts. At the time, Railey was a staff archaeologist at the Heritage Council. Specializing in lithic analysis and artifact illustration, Railey had conducted several field and research projects in Kentucky prior to creating the poster. 

Financial support for poster printing came from the Heritage Council, and from other state and federal agencies. The poster was printed at the Kentucky Department of Corrections, which did printing jobs for many Kentucky state agencies at that time. The Heritage Council distributed the poster, which was free.

Everyone Loved It!

The poster went through several reprintings in subsequent years, with additional and different supporting partners. The first poster was buffalo brown ink printed on antique white paper. The ink on some of the later reprintings, though, was black.

People framed their poster. Educators used the poster in their classrooms. Public archaeologists used it in classroom presentations, with artifact activities, and in teacher workshops. Individual scenes from the poster were used in museum exhibits and books because they brought aspects of ancient Indigenous lives to light.

Railey prepared a companion booklet to go along with the poster, funded by the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the U.S. Forest Service: Kentucky Before Boone – A 12,000-year Journey through Kentucky’s Past: A Poster Companion Booklet. It explained in broad terms many aspects of Kentucky’s Native peoples’ lifeways. Space limitations, though, prevented including detailed descriptions of the scenes themselves in the booklet.

Classroom teachers’ use of the poster and their questions about the scenes and artifacts depicted on it continued, despite the booklet. This prompted Gwynn Henderson to interview Railey and then prepare an essay describing its drawings. The essay was part of a collection of essays and activities developed for the 1994 Kentucky State Fair: Native American Cultural Project: Teacher Resource Packet, edited by Stephanie Darst and David Pollack. Resources and classroom activities accompany the essay. You can access this packet here.

In time, there were no more posters. And despite the clambering for additional reprintings from the public, from educators, and from archaeologists, there were none. Both technical and financial challenges conspired against the Heritage Council to reprint it.

The 2023 Poster

Now, at last, Jim Railey’s Kentucky Before Boone poster has been reprinted!! But why now?

A request from staff at Western Kentucky University’s Kentucky Museum got the ball rolling in the fall of 2022. They wanted to offer copies of the poster to people who visited a new exhibit focused on the Kentucky Archaeological Survey’s research at a Native farming village in Warren County, Kentucky – First Farmers of the Barren River Valley. Tiffany Isselhardt at the Museum offered to make a high-resolution scan of an old, clean poster and to clean up the scan for printing.

Archaeologists on the poster “committee” – Anne Tobbe Bader, Gwynn Henderson, and David Pollack – decided to make two important updates to the 2023 version. The ending date of the Paleoindian period/beginning date of the Archaic period was changed to 8000 BC, and the name for the last era in Native history before the arrival of Europeans was changed to Mississippian/Fort Ancient Period.

Taking over from Isselhardt, graphic artist Leigh Stein of Corn Island Archaeology made the changes. The brown-on-ivory version gives a nod to the original colors of the first poster. Stein also colorized the poster, making Bader’s long-term dream a reality. Funding came from Corn Island Archaeology, the Kentucky Archaeological Survey, and the Kentucky Native American Heritage Commission. Thoroughbred Printing in Lexington printed 5,000 brown-on-ivory and 700 colorized posters.

The new posters debuted at the 40^th annual Kentucky Heritage Council Archaeology Conference at Carter Caves State Park on Saturday March 4, 2023 – 34 years after Jim Railey created it. A few days later, a mistake was noticed on the brown-on-ivory version. It was quickly fixed, and 5,000 correct versions were printed…again.

It was a long time coming, but the Kentucky Before Boone poster is finally back!

How Can You Get A Copy?

The Kentucky Organization of Professional Archaeologists (KyOPA), Corn Island Archaeology, and the Kentucky Archaeological Survey (KAS) are selling the posters. Sales support poster reprinting and will help KyOPA defray the costs of developing and printing the annual Kentucky Archaeology Month posters.

One brown-on-ivory version is free. Each additional copy is $3.00. Shipping and handling is $10.00 to cover the cost of the mailing tube and postage.

The colorized version is a KyOPA fundraiser to guarantee that the organization has the resources to print the annual Kentucky Archaeology Month poster. KyOPA is asking for a donation of $10.00 for each colorized copy. Shipping and handling is likewise $10.00 to cover the cost of the mailing tube and postage.

To Order from KyOPA, go online and follow these instructions:
 
When adding an option, a Paypal cart will open in a new window. Return to this page to add more. Quantity can be specified in the cart. If you do not have Paypal, select “Checkout as Guest” and then “Pay with Debit/Credit Card.” Shipping is not automatically applied - you must add the Shipping Option to your order!
 
To Order from Corn Island Archaeology, email Anne Bader.