January: The Museum Board signed a lease agreement effective the first of the year for 800 square feet of gallery space in the Lexington History Center at 215 West Main Street. We compliment the history of the region with the Lexington History, the Kentucky Renaissance Pharmacy and the Lexington Public Safety museums housed in the old county courthouse. The site has a Kentucky Historical Highway Marker designating that slave auctions once occurred on Cheapside, the town's market square on the west side of the building.
Even during our prep to open the gallery, programs for Black History month were given. "The Hathaway Family: From Slavery to National Recognition" was the title of a presentation to fifty-seven employees of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Rural Development district on the 12th. On the 13th, a Kentucky Humanities Chautauqua presentation of Miss Dinnie Thompson was co-sponsored with the Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation and the Lexington History Museum. Youth of the Sunday schools at First African Baptist Church had been given modeling clay and asked to create their own pieces of art. The children showed and told about their clay sculptures following a presentation about Isaac Scott Hathaway's life achievements. Approximately sixty adults and young people of the Sunday school departments were in attendance on the 18th.
January, February and most of March were spent preparing the gallery for its opening. Board members and volunteers cleaned and painted and professionals laid carpet and performed the carpentry tasks. City employees completed work orders just in time for the April 1st opening.
Dr. Anne Butler, who is a board member and Director of the Center of Excellence for the Study of Kentucky African Americans, worked with a graphic designer on the Kentucky First exhibit panels. Gary and Wanda Brown loaned artifacts to the gallery which complimented the archival panels. Angela Lewis, Creative Source Designs, advised us on paint colors and created our logo signage and program cover for our fund raising dinner.
March: Mr. Joe Dumars, President of Basketball Operations, Detroit Pistons, was the keynote speaker at our fund raiser on March 6th. Two hundred twenty guests rose to their feet to greet and thank him for his time and willingness to share his story. Mr. Dumars' presentation was based on his life experiences growing up in the rural south where his support and life lessons came from his family. His message to the sixty-two young people in the audience (the majority of them were sponsored through donations) was straight forward - know who you are and be responsible for your own actions. His story of "Defying the Odds" as he made his way from McNeese State College to the Detroit Pistons clearly gave the audience much to remember about the evening. 
Proclamations were made to Mr. Dumars by Ms. Priscilla Johnson, Chair of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights and by Dr. Thomas Blues, Second District Councilman who also presented a key to the city. Gary Brown designed a plaque featuring the commemorative coins as a special award for Mr. Dumars. 
Derrick Ramsey, served as Master of Ceremonies. Mr. Ramsey played football at the University of Kentucky and professionally with NFL teams from 1978 to 1987. He is currently Deputy Secretary of the Commerce Cabinet an appointment made in January 2004.
The Museum Board is still receiving extremely favorable comments about the evening. The program was taped for future educational use and for our archives.
Professor Nikky Finney, Interim Director of the African American Studies and Research Program at the University of Kentucky requested sets of the framed coins for the 22nd. She presented them to guest lecturers and keynote speaker Dr. Angela Y. Davis at the Mary McLeod Bethune Luncheon. The program was part of the 13th Annual Black Women's Conference held at the University of Kentucky. The recipients were clearly pleased with their unique gifts.
April: During our opening celebration on April 1st, gallery guests enjoyed presentations by E. Belle Jackson as portrayed by Denise Brown and Frederick Douglass, re-enacted by Michael Crutcher. Punch and birthday cake served in honor of Isaac's 135 birthday were enjoyed by nearly one hundred visitors, some of whom were traveling across country. They had stopped in Lexington to do some sightseeing before resuming their travel.
Mr. Donny White, a local attorney, led a group of thirty on a Civil Rights Walking Tour of downtown Lexington on the 13th. He had been a teen during the 1960s and well remembered the sites of stores which were targeted for peaceful protest and sit-ins during the movement in Lexington. As the group walked, he narrated the story of individuals who had participated and the reaction of the community to this show of solidarity by the African American community and those white citizens who supported them. The Museum served as coordinator for this tour. The activity was in conjunction with the Lexington Public Library's One Book/One Lexington community-wide reading event. This year's featured book was the Watsons Go To Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis.
Two students enrolled in a class at Transylvania University were given the assignment of finding resources in Lexington which told of slavery and African Americans' quest to be free. After they discovered our museum gallery and the information about the Dark Days of Slavery in Kentucky, they arranged for the other fourteen students and their instructor to visit.
On the 20th, Beverly Persley made arrangements for John and Wanda Kawadza from Zimbabwe, Africa to share information about their country in a Cultural Exchange of Music and Conversation. Southern Elementary School, "Sticks" performed under the direction of Judi Reynolds to an audience of sixty. About ten of the guests were natives of various countries in Africa and now students at the University of Kentucky. They seemed to be very pleased to have conversation with someone still living on the continent. The couple remained in the Central Bluegrass Region for three weeks speaking to various groups.
Saunda Coleman donated a trunk that has the name "Dr. J.C. Carrick, Lex, KY" on the end. Ms. Coleman stated that her aunt, Lucy Estill, stored her hats in it. Ms. Coleman was not sure how the trunk came into her aunt's possession. She also donated some of her aunt's clothing, memorabilia and photos which will be utilized in future exhibits.
May: The Blue Grass Trust for Historic Preservation developed and graciously loaned to us an exhibit featuring the architectu
re of the Tandy and Byrd Construction Company. The brick work of the building in which we are housed was contracted to this company in 1898. Completed in 1901, it is the fifth structure built on this site. Other buildings along Short Street - The Merrick Lodge, First National Bank and Protestant Infirmary - reveal the skill of the masons employed by this company. Their reputation and workmanship earned them other contracts in the early 1900's. Archive records revealed that they built classroom structures on Eastern Kentucky University, University of Kentucky and Western University campuses. Many of them are still standing.
The American Literacy Corporation in Pennsylvania requested sets of the coins which they presented to honorees at their annual breakfast and luncheon. This year's recipients were Jerry and Gloria Jean Pinkney, artists and illustrators of children's books whose careers span a period of thirty-five years.
The Museum Board and Life Works, a video production company, applied for a grant to conduct an oral history project to record the memories of twelve senior adult women. Although we were unsuccesful in securing the grant, the museum was able to complete two of the interviews. The unedited tapes tell stories of these women's lives from their earliest memories of childhood to the present day. One tape reveals information about the Jonestown Community founded in 1891 and the other focused on 1940s and 1950s Lexington, YWCA youth group and Dr. Obed Cooley, one of physicians who practiced here.
June: The Museum Board prepared the exhibit on the United States Colored Troop Regiments organized at Camp Nelson. Among the individuals featured were George T. Prosser, member of the famed 54th Massachusetts and Robert Elijah Hathaway, Isaac's father who served in the 100th Infantry.
Yvonne Giles, chair, was recognized with an Ida Lee Willis Memorial Preservation Award by Preservation Kentucky, Inc. and the Kentucky Heritage Council. Mrs. Willis was the first executive director of the council. The highlight of the event was meeting the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Willis. In 1947 Mr. Hathaway presented a set of the first coin he had designed to her father, then Governor Simeon Willis.
July: Ms. Robinson and Mr. Mundy arranged a visit to the gallery for twenty yout
h participants in the Health Department's Outreach Center. The students asked questions as well as listened and then participated in a quiz about Kentucky African American history. The clay marbles on display however generated the most activity. They were passed around to each child and told that a game of marbles was one of the pastimes engaged in by Civil War soldiers when they were sitting in camp. When one of the adult leaders asked the children if they had ever played marbles, no one responded. Marbles kept at the museum were handed out; adults gave instructions on how to play and got down in the floor to shoot marbles with the children. 
The group also toured the courthouse square to read the historic markers and look at the statues in the courtyard. The three hours they spent that day were well worth it! (The group came on a day when the museum is normally closed, but with advance notice, a board member would be able to accommodate group visits).
This month we had more individuals visiting who had come to Lexington to participate in family reunions. Some had been told by family members but most had found us from the internet.
While adults are reading the archival panels in the museum, their children have created their own 'works of art.' Colored pencils, crayons and paper are kept at the museum just for that purpose. Most drew pictures which reflect their impressions of their visit to the history center. Three sides of our literature spinner are currently being used as a display of their work. Many left their drawings with us even though reluctantly.
Ashland, the Estate of Henry and Lucretia Hart Clay, encompassed 600 acres on which sixty Americans of African descent were enslaved prior to Clay's death in 1854. The enslaved performed most of the labor necessary to keep the farm and household productive and functioning. The historic home foundation again sponsored A Family Affair: Country Life in 19th Century 
Kentucky in which the museum took a part. This year we focused on food gathering - a task the enslaved would have been responsible for on a year round daily basis. Children were told that in order to have meals for the day, they would have to help. Elizabeth Lawson, Yvonne Giles and a youth volunteer helped the children learn to gather eggs, 'dig' potatoes, snap beans, husk corn and recognize the tops of vegetables to pull if they were eating carrots, beets or radishes as part of their meal. They were also asked to identify the dried variety of apples, plums and grapes. Their egg gathering needed some finesse but most managed to place them gently in the egg basket (we actually used brown speckled plastic eggs). Two hundred had pre-registered for the day and approximately another fifty came to visit and participate.
October: A Kentucky Historical Highway Marker was dedicated at Maddoxtown on the 6th. The community located on Huffman Mill Road was one of thirty "towns" in the Central Bluegrass Region founded by African Americans after the Civil War. It is believed that as early as 1867, the date of the founding of First Baptist Church Maddoxtown, the area contained homes of residents. Deed records for purchase of property were filed beginning in December 1871. The community eventually grew to contain a church, school, cemetery, several stores and eating establishments.
Tom Harbut, son of Will Harbut who was the long time groom for Man-O-War, was present for the ceremony. He and others in the community had worked with Carridder Jones in researching the history in order to apply for the Highway Marker. Ms. Giles, chair of the Museum Board, was invited to make a historical presentation during the ceremony.
The Pettaways, maternal relatives, spent a long weekend in Lexington visiting the museum, horse farms and old friends and doing some antique shopping. The weather was extremely cooperative for their stay.
November: 
Over the months, our gallery has changed in appearance as more archival information is added and artifacts are donated. One of our new additions is a Dynamic Door, a public art project conceived by the Lexington Art and Cultural Council. Seventy-three doors were removed from the 1930s Aspendale Housing Project before the buildings were scheduled for demolition. Local artists were commissioned to design and paint doors in 2003. The East End Empowerment Program chose Melody Brooks to create a door featuring African American writers. On one side is the image of Phillis Wheatley with an excerpt from one of her poems. On the other side are images of local writers Rosetta Quisenberry, Dr. Gerald Smith, Nikky Finney and Crystal Wilkinson. The door was donated by Bruce Mundy, past president of the East End Empowerment Program.
The Board of Directors authorized the purchase of letters and cards about the death of Elsmer, Isaac's only son, who died in 1941. The Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives prepared them for conservation and preservation for future research purposes.
December: The gallery was prepared for the holiday by featuring information about Kwanzaa, the cultural celebration established in 1966 by Professor Maulanga Karenga. Our visitors were told about the kinara and the significance of the seven candles. It was explained that gifts exchanged should be hand crafted. Among the gifts were hand carved artifacts from Africa.
Another was a tree topper angel made from an old quilt.
The quilt was pieced and sewn by Eliza Snowden Custard in the mid 1940s and given to her great niece as a wedding gift. After many years of use, the quilt had frayed in spots and had been placed in a cedar chest. In the 1980s, parts of the design, still intact, were used to craft tree topper angels for family members. Lace was taken from old pillow cases and doilies. New generations now have remembrances of relatives that would never have known. A crocheted coverlet crafted by Mrs. Pettaway, a material relative of Mr. Hathaway's, was another one of the items on display.
Hathaway Estate trustees have released Mr. Hathaway's birthplace lot here in Lexington to the care and trust of the Museum Board. Work will begin in the spring of 2008 on the redesign of the landscape.
Since our opening in April we have had visitors from eleven foreign countries, thirty-one states and twenty-one Kentucky counties. Information taken from our guest book, program registrations and our annual meeting shows that we have told the story of Kentucky African Americans to another 1,000+ individuals this year.
Our year has been productive and gratifying!
May: Thirty participants took A Main Stroll along Short and Main Streets in the Western Suburb, the geographical area in which the town of Lexington was founded in 1782 and the first to be designated a historic district. During the African American Heritage walking tour, a featured event for National Preservation Week, Yvonne Giles, chair of the Museum Board, narrated the biographies of those who had lived in the area. Zanne Jefferies, Education Coordinator for Blue Grass Trust, explained the significance of the plagues placed on historic homes and buildings. Bettie Kerr, Director of the Lexington Department of Historic Preservation, added historical facts about other buildings along the route. 
erican heritage. They toured, visited and learned the history of African Cemetery No. 2 and Cove Haven Cemetery, of Isaac Murphy, a three time winner of the Kentucky Derby and of Will Harbut, long time groom for thoroughbred Man-O-War, whose statue is at the Kentucky Horse Park. The travelers enjoyed a home cooked meal at St. Paul AME Church before being shown the "hidden room" believed to have been a hiding place on the Underground Railroad. Their next stops were at the Lexington History Museum to see the exhibit on Jockeys and the photo exhibit "In Black & White" and then Waveland Historic Site where they toured the restored slave cabin and main house. The group's visits to the Kentucky History Center and Kentucky State University in Frankfort and the Muhammad Ali Center in Louisville deepened their appreciation for Kentucky's rich history. Before departing for home, they paid a visit to the Old Dunbar High School site in Lexington; heard of the history of the school from the alumni chapter president and saw the bust Isaac Scott Hathaway sculpted of Paul Laurence Dunbar, the poet, for whom the school was named.
August: Sisohpromatem Art Foundation, Inc. and the Museum's youth activity for this year at the Woodland Art Fair gave children and the young-at-heart adults a challenge to their creative skills. They made wearable art pins using plastic "critters", wire, beads, feathers, buttons and other finds. (Link to Sisohpromatem Art Foundation at the end of the 2006 report)
Mr. Doyle, a member of the Little Rock Christian Church in Bourbon County, invited Ms. Giles to speak about the Hathaway family. Reverend Robert Elijah Hathaway, Isaac's father, was minister to the church for thirty-nine years. Samuel Buckner, a free black minister, founded the church in 1861; it has been in service to the community ever since. Mr. Buckner was ordained at Cane Ridge in 1855 and given his freedom to spread the gospel among enslaved African Americans. The original structure, built in 1877, has been updated but the feeling of the early church still remains.
Twenty-five high school students who participate in the Art Cluster of the YMCA Black Achievers program again experienced using plaster-of-paris by creating an ornamental mask. While they worked, Isaac Hathaway's story of determination to be an artist and sculptor was told. By the end of the session, when most had finished their mask, they could answer the questions, "who was Isaac Scott Hathaway" and "what did he do?" The chair was invited back to make a presentation to the entire group of two hundred students and adults for their annual Arts and Culture Day in December.
March: Celebration of the Life of Isaac Scott Hathaway was the theme of our program and luncheon on the 26th. Civil Rights attorney, Fred D. Gray, Sr. of Alabama gave the keynote address. Mayor Teresa Isaac and the Urban County Government issued a proclamation in honor of Isaac Scott Hathaway which was presented by Priscilla Johnson, Chair for the Commission on Human Rights. The Commission unveiled a poster in honor of Dr. Mary E. Britton during the program and Beverly Watts, director, spoke about the role the commission has played in honoring African Americans through their poster series. The program was recorded for archive and future educational programs.
peratures.