Frankfort Heritage Lecture Series Pop-Up - Benefactors of Posterity: An Explicit Reckoning with the Filson Historical Society's Past

Join Dr. Daniel Gifford as he discusses his latest book, Benefactors of Posterity: The Founding Era of the Filson Historical Society, 1884-1899. Founded in 1884, the Filson Club quickly grew into a preeminent arbiter of Kentucky history, eventually becoming today’s Filson Historical Society. Benefactors of Posterity reexamines this crucial founding era, pulling back the layers of accomplishment and disappointment, illumination and obfuscation. Drawing from a wide range of sources, Gifford places us in Gilded Age Kentucky at a time of heady opportunity for some and growing subjugation for others. In the middle of it all was the Filson Club, whose multifaceted origin story provides a window into Louisville, Frankfort, and the evolution of historical study at the dawn of a new century.

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. Gifford currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Filson Historical Society in Louisville, Kentucky.