War of 1812
The War of 1812 was a conflict fought between the United States, the United Kingdom, their respective allies from June 1812 to February 1815. Historians in Britain see it as a minor theater of the Napoleonic Wars. From the outbreak of war with Napoleonic France, Britain had enforced a naval blockade to choke off neutral trade to France, which the US contested as illegal under international law. To man the blockade, Britain impressed American merchant sailors into the Royal Navy. Incidents such as the Chesapeake–Leopard affair, which happened five years before the war, inflamed anti-British sentiment in the US. In 1811, the British were in turn outraged by the Little Belt affair, in which 11 British sailors died. Britain supplied Native Americans who raided American settlers on the frontier, hindering American expansion and provoking resentment. Historians debate whether the desire to annex some or all of British North America contributed to the American decision to go to war. On June 18, 1812, US President James Madison, after heavy pressure from the War Hawks in Congress, signed the American declaration of war into law.
With most of its army in Europe fighting Napoleon, Britain adopted a defensive strategy, with offensive operations limited to the border, the western frontier. American prosecution of the war effort suffered from its unpopularity in New England, where it was derogatorily referred to as "Mr. Madison's War". American defeats at the Siege of Detroit and the Battle of Queenston Heights thwarted attempts to seize Upper Canada, improving British morale. American attempts to invade Lower Canada and capture Montreal failed. In 1813, the Americans won the Battle of Lake Erie, gaining control of the lake, at the Battle of the Thames defeated Tecumseh's Confederacy, securing a primary war goal. A final American attempt to invade Canada was fought to a draw at the Battle of Lundy's Lane during the summer of 1814. At sea, the powerful Royal Navy blockaded American ports, cutting off trade and allowing the British to raid the coast at will. In 1814, one of these raids burned the capital, but the Americans repulsed British attempts to invade New York and Maryland, ending invasions of the northern and mid-Atlantic United States from Canada.
Fighting took place overseas in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In neighbouring Spanish Florida, a two-day battle for the city of Pensacola ended in Spanish surrender. In Britain, there was mounting opposition to wartime taxation. With the abdication of Napoleon, the war with France ended and Britain ceased impressment, rendering the issue of the impressment of American sailors moot; the British were able to increase the strength of the blockade on the United States coast, annihilating American maritime trade, but attempts to invade the U. S. ended unsuccessfully. Peace negotiations began in August 1814, the Treaty of Ghent was signed on December 24. News of the peace did not reach America for some time. Unaware of the treaty, British forces invaded Louisiana and were defeated at the Battle of New Orleans in January 1815; these late victories were viewed by Americans as having restored national honour, leading to the collapse of anti-war sentiment and the beginning of the Era of Good Feelings, a period of national unity.
News of the treaty arrived shortly thereafter. The treaty was unanimously ratified by the US Senate on February 17, 1815, ending the war with no boundary changes. Historians have long debated the relative weight of the multiple reasons underlying the origins of the War of 1812; this section summarizes several contributing factors which resulted in the declaration of war by the United States. As Risjord notes, a powerful motivation for the Americans was the desire to uphold national honour in the face of what they considered to be British insults such as the Chesapeake–Leopard affair. H. W. Brands says, "The other war hawks spoke of the struggle with Britain as a second war of independence; the approaching conflict was about violations of American rights, but it was about vindication of American identity." Americans at the time and historians since have called it the United States' "Second War of Independence". The British were offended by what they considered insults such as the Little Belt affair.
This gave the British a particular interest in capturing the United States flagship President, which they succeeded in doing in 1815. In 1807, Britain introduced a series of trade restrictions via the Orders in Council to impede neutral trade with France, which Britain was fighting in the Napoleonic Wars; the United States contested these restrictions as illegal under international law. Historian Reginald Horsman states, "a large section of influential British opinion, both in the government and in the country, thought that America presented a threat to British maritime supremacy."The American merchant marine had nearly doubled between 1802 and 1810, making it by far the largest neutral fleet. Britain was the largest trading partner, receiving 80% of U. S. cotton and 50% of other U. S. exports. The British public and press were resentful of commercial competition; the United States' view was. During the Napoleonic Wars, the Royal Navy expanded to 176 ships of the line and 600 ships overall, requiring 140,000 sailors to man.
While the Royal Navy could man its ships with volunteers in peacetime, it competed in wartime with merchant shi
George Rogers Clark
George Rogers Clark was an American surveyor and militia officer from Virginia who became the highest ranking American military officer on the northwestern frontier during the American Revolutionary War. He served as leader of the militia in Kentucky throughout much of the war, he is best known for his celebrated captures of Kaskaskia and Vincennes during the Illinois Campaign, which weakened British influence in the Northwest Territory. The British ceded the entire Northwest Territory to the United States in the 1783 Treaty of Paris, Clark has been hailed as the "Conqueror of the Old Northwest". Clark's major military achievements occurred before his thirtieth birthday. Afterwards, he led militia in the opening engagements of the Northwest Indian War but was accused of being drunk on duty, he was disgraced and forced to resign, despite his demand for a formal investigation into the accusations. He left Kentucky to live on the Indiana frontier but was never reimbursed by Virginia for his wartime expenditures.
He spent the final decades of his life evading creditors and living in increasing poverty and obscurity. He was involved in two failed attempts to open the Spanish-controlled Mississippi River to American traffic, he became an invalid after suffering the amputation of his right leg. He was aided in his final years by family members, including his younger brother William, one of the leaders of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, he died of a stroke on February 13, 1818. George Rogers Clark was born on November 19, 1752 in Albemarle County, near Charlottesville, the hometown of Thomas Jefferson, he was the second of 10 children of John and Ann Rogers Clark, who were Anglicans of English and Scottish ancestry. Five of their six sons became officers during the American Revolutionary War, their youngest son William was too young to fight in the war, but he became famous as a leader of the Lewis and Clark Expedition. The family moved from the Virginia frontier to Caroline County, Virginia around 1756, after the outbreak of the French and Indian War, lived on a 400-acre plantation that grew to include more than 2,000 acres.
Clark had little formal education. He lived with his grandfather so that he could receive a common education at Donald Robertson's school with James Madison and John Taylor of Caroline, he was tutored at home, as was usual for Virginian planters' children of the period. His grandfather trained him to be a surveyor. In 1771 at age 19, Clark left his home on his first surveying trip into western Virginia. In 1772, he made his first trip into Kentucky via the Ohio River at Pittsburgh and spent the next two years surveying the Kanawha River region, as well as learning about the area's natural history and customs of the Indians who lived there. In the meantime, thousands of settlers were entering the area as a result of the Treaty of Fort Stanwix of 1768. Clark's military career began in 1774, he was preparing to lead an expedition of 90 men down the Ohio River when hostilities broke out between the Shawnee and settlers on the Kanawha frontier that culminated in Lord Dunmore's War. Most of Kentucky was not inhabited by Indians.
Tribes were angry in the Ohio country who had not been party to the treaty signed with the Cherokee, because the Kentucky hunting grounds had been ceded to Great Britain without their approval. As a result, they were unsuccessful. Clark spent a few months surveying in Kentucky, as well as assisting in organizing Kentucky as a county for Virginia prior to the American Revolutionary War; as the American Revolutionary War began in the East, Kentucky's settlers became involved in a dispute about the region's sovereignty. Richard Henderson, a judge and land speculator from North Carolina, had purchased much of Kentucky from the Cherokee in an illegal treaty. Henderson intended to create a proprietary colony known as Transylvania, but many Kentucky settlers did not recognize Transylvania's authority over them. In June 1776, these settlers selected Clark and John Gabriel Jones to deliver a petition to the Virginia General Assembly, asking Virginia to formally extend its boundaries to include Kentucky.
Clark and Jones traveled the Wilderness Road to Williamsburg where they convinced Governor Patrick Henry to create Kentucky County, Virginia. Clark was given 500 lb of gunpowder to help defend the settlements and was appointed a major in the Kentucky County militia, he was just 24 years old, but older settlers looked to him as a leader, such as Daniel Boone, Benjamin Logan, Leonard Helm. In 1777, the Revolutionary War intensified in Kentucky. British lieutenant governor Henry Hamilton armed his Indian allies from his headquarters at Fort Detroit, encouraging them to wage war on the Kentucky settlers in hopes of reclaiming the region as their hunting ground; the Continental Army could spare no men for an invasion in the northwest or for the defense of Kentucky, left to the local population. Clark spent several months defending settlements against the Indian raiders as a leader in the Kentucky County militia, while developing his plan for a long-distance strike against the British, his strategy involved seizing British outposts north of the Ohio River to destroy British influence among their Indian allies.
In December 1777, Clark presented his plan to Virginia's Governor Patrick Henry, he asked for permission to lead a secret expedition to capture the British-held villages at Kaskaskia and Vincennes in the Illinois country. Governor Henry commissioned him as a lieutenant colonel in the
Louisiana State Museum
The Louisiana State Museum, founded in New Orleans in 1906, is a statewide system of National Historic Landmarks and modern structures across Louisiana, housing thousands of artifacts and works of art reflecting Louisiana's legacy of historic events and cultural diversity. The Louisiana State Museum system has its beginnings in the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904 at St. Louis, Missouri. A large number of pertinent artifacts were gathered to be displayed at Louisiana's exhibition at this fair. After the Exposition, it was decided that this collection should be stored and displayed; the Louisiana State Museum was established in 1906 to fulfill this role. The Presbytere and the Cabildo buildings, located on either side of the St. Louis Cathedral on Jackson Square, were some of the first properties that the Louisiana State Museum was lodged in; the Louisiana State Museum now has thirteen properties around the state: historic structures, museums open to the public, modern purpose-built buildings.
Over the past 100-plus years, the Louisiana State Museum has not only operated museums and maintained buildings, but it has served as the repository for all things historic from the state’s past. As Louisiana has been part of a French colony, a Spanish colony, Napoleon’s short-lived property, the United States' Louisiana Purchase territory, the state of Louisiana. In addition to protecting and preserving Louisiana’s historic artifacts and buildings, the Louisiana State Museum is proactive in many areas concerning the state’s unique culture and history. Several new museum sites have opened in the last ten years or so, including the Wedell-Williams Aviation & Cypress Sawmill Museum - Patterson location, the Performing Arts Center at the New Orleans Mint, the Capitol Park Museum - Baton Rouge, the Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame & Northwest Louisiana History Museum – Natchitoches. In addition to opening new facilities, the State Museum is continually creating new temporary and permanent exhibits, bringing to light intriguing topics from Louisiana’s culture and history.
The Museum hosts an array of programs such as lecture series, school group educational tours, walking tours of historic districts, musical performances. Numerous organizations exist throughout Louisiana to support the Museum including the Louisiana Museum Foundation, Friends of the Cabildo, Friends of the Capitol Park Museum, Wedell-Williams and Cypress Sawmill Foundation, Friends of Louisiana Sports and History, Friends of the E. D. White Historic Site; the Cabildo - Spain's old City Hall, or "Casa Capitular," built in 1799. Site of the two Louisiana Purchase transfers of 1803. Housed various government offices, including the Louisiana Supreme Court; the Cabildo displays three floors of exhibits concerning Louisiana's history, with additional changing exhibits in the adjoining Arsenal building. New Orleans Mint - A United States Mint built under the direction of President Andrew Jackson in 1835, it was the only U. S. Mint to mint under a flag other than that of the United States, as it minted coins for the Confederacy.
The building served as a federal prison and a Coast Guard depot before becoming a Louisiana State Museum. There is a permanent exhibit on the Mint's coining operations, exhibits on Louisiana music on the 2nd floor, a Performing Arts Center on the 3rd floor, the Louisiana Historical Center and archives on the 3rd floor; the Presbytère - Originally built to serve as housing for the local clergy, it served many functions before becoming a Louisiana State Museum property in 1911. The first two floors house exhibits and the third floor houses the State Museum offices; the Arsenal - Built in 1839, the Arsenal stands adjacent to the Cabildo on the site of the old Spanish Arsenal built in 1762. Its first floor acts as a classroom for visiting school groups, the second floor houses changing exhibits, the third floor serves as meeting space; the Arsenal is accessible through the adjoining Cabildo museum. 1850 House, a historic house museum in the Lower Pontalba Building. The 1850 House museum depicts middle-class family life during the most prosperous period in New Orleans' history through a furnished three story apartment in the Lower Pontalba building.
The first floor houses a museum gift shop, operated by Friends of the Cabildo. The Creole House - Built in 1842 on the site of a colonial prison, the Creole House is the headquarters for the Friends of the Cabildo, the Louisiana State Museum's support foundation for the French Quarter museums; the Jackson House - This structure derives its name from Andrew Jackson, the hero of the Battle of New Orleans. The original 1842 building was rebuilt by the WPA in 1936. There are no exhibits on display. Madame John's Legacy - A building of historic significance because it escaped the Great New Orleans Fire, which leveled much of New Orleans, the house is a product of the preceding fire of 1788; the structures on the site in the early 1780s were destroyed by that conflagration and the current structure was rebuilt in the same French colonial fashion six months later. The Capitol Park Museum - Baton Rouge features thematic exhibits on the diverse aspects of Louisiana history and culture; the museum includes two permanent exhibitions, entitled "Grounds for Greatness: Louisiana and the Nation," and "Experiencing Louisiana: Discovering the Soul of America."
The Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame & Northwest Louisiana History Museum – Natchitoches is the Louisiana State Museum's newest facility. The Louisiana Sports Hall of Fame exhibit is a collection of portraits and memorabili
Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette
Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, known in the United States as Lafayette, was a French aristocrat and military officer who fought in the American Revolutionary War, commanding American troops in several battles, including the Siege of Yorktown. After returning to France, he was a key figure in the French Revolution of 1789 and the July Revolution of 1830. Lafayette was born into a wealthy land-owning family in Chavaniac in the province of Auvergne in south central France, he followed the family's martial tradition and was commissioned an officer at age 13. He became convinced that the American cause was noble in its revolutionary war, he traveled to the New World seeking glory in it, he was made a major general at age 19, but he was not given American troops to command. He was wounded during the Battle of Brandywine but still managed to organize an orderly retreat, he served with distinction in the Battle of Rhode Island. In the middle of the war, he sailed for home to lobby for an increase in French support.
He was given senior positions in the Continental Army. In 1781, troops under his command in Virginia blocked forces led by Cornwallis until other American and French forces could position themselves for the decisive Siege of Yorktown. Lafayette returned to France and was appointed to the Assembly of Notables in 1787, convened in response to the fiscal crisis, he was elected a member of the Estates General of 1789, where representatives met from the three traditional orders of French society: the clergy, the nobility, the commoners. After forming the National Constituent Assembly, he helped to write the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen with Thomas Jefferson's assistance; this document was inspired by the United States Declaration of Independence and invoked natural law to establish basic principles of the democratic nation-state. He advocated the end of slavery, in keeping with the philosophy of natural liberty. After the storming of the Bastille, he was appointed commander-in-chief of France's National Guard and tried to steer a middle course through the years of revolution.
In August 1792, radical factions ordered his arrest, he fled into the Austrian Netherlands. He was spent more than five years in prison. Lafayette returned to France after Napoleon Bonaparte secured his release in 1797, though he refused to participate in Napoleon's government. After the Bourbon Restoration of 1814, he became a liberal member of the Chamber of Deputies, a position that he held for most of the remainder of his life. In 1824, President James Monroe invited him to the United States as the nation's guest, he visited all 24 states in the union and met a rapturous reception. During France's July Revolution of 1830, he declined an offer to become the French dictator. Instead, he supported Louis-Philippe as king, but turned against him when the monarch became autocratic, he is buried in Picpus Cemetery in Paris, under soil from Bunker Hill. He is sometimes known as "The Hero of the Two Worlds" for his accomplishments in the service of both France and the United States. Lafayette was born on 6 September 1757 to Michel Louis Christophe Roch Gilbert Paulette du Motier, Marquis de La Fayette, colonel of grenadiers, Marie Louise Jolie de La Rivière, at the château de Chavaniac, in Chavaniac-Lafayette, near Le Puy-en-Velay, in the province of Auvergne.
Lafayette's lineage was one of the oldest and most distinguished in Auvergne and in all of France. Males of the Lafayette family enjoyed a reputation for courage and chivalry and were noted for their contempt for danger. One of Lafayette's early ancestors, Gilbert de Lafayette III, a Marshal of France, had been a companion-at-arms of Joan of Arc's army during the Siege of Orléans in 1429. According to legend, another ancestor acquired the crown of thorns during the Sixth Crusade, his non-Lafayette ancestors are notable. Lafayette's paternal uncle Jacques-Roch died on 18 January 1734 while fighting the Austrians at Milan in the War of the Polish Succession. Lafayette's father died on the battlefield. On 1 August 1759, Michel de Lafayette was struck by a cannonball while fighting a British-led coalition at the Battle of Minden in Westphalia. Lafayette became marquis and Lord of Chavaniac. Devastated by the loss of her husband, she went to live in Paris with her father and grandfather, leaving Lafayette to be raised in Chavaniac-Lafayette by his paternal grandmother, Mme de Chavaniac, who had brought the château into the family with her dowry.
In 1768, when Lafayette was 11, he was summoned to Paris to live with his mother and great-grandfather at the comte's apartments in Luxembourg Palace. The boy was sent to school at the Collège du Plessis, part of the University of Paris, it was decided that he would carry on the family martial tradition; the comte, the boy's great-grandfather, enrolled the boy in a program to train future Musketeers. Lafayette's mother and great-grandfather died, on 3 and 24 April 1770 leaving Lafayette an income of 25,000 livres. Upon the death of an uncle, the 12-year-old Lafayette inherited a handsome yearly income of 120,000 livres. In May 1771, aged less than 14, Lafayette was commissioned an officer in the Musketeers, with the rank of sous-lieutenant, his duties, which included marching in military parades and pr
Speed Art Museum
The Speed Art Museum known as the J. B. Speed Memorial Museum, now colloquially referred to as the Speed by locals, is the oldest and foremost museum of art in Kentucky, it is located in Louisville, Kentucky on Third Street next to the University of Louisville Belknap campus and receives around 180,000 visits annually. The museum offers visitors a variety of "art experiences" outside its collection and international exhibitions, including the Speed Concert Series, the Art Sparks Interactive Family Gallery, the popular late-night event, After Hours at the Speed; the Speed houses ancient and modern art from around the world. The focus of the collection is Western art, from antiquity to the present day. Holdings of paintings from the Netherlands and Italian works, contemporary art are strong, with sculpture prominent throughout; the museum was built in 1927 by Arthur Loomis in the Neo-Classical style. Loomis was well known in Louisville for landmarks like the Louisville Medical College and Levi Brothers'.
The original building was designed as an understated Beaux-Arts limestone facade. Hattie Bishop Speed established the museum in memorial of her husband James Breckenridge Speed, a prominent Louisville businessman, art collector, philanthropist. Ms. Speed set up the endowment to fund the museum; the museum underwent a $60 million expansion and renovation project from September 2012 to March 2016, designed by architect Kulapat Yantrasast of wHY architecture. During the closure, the museum opened Local Speed, a satellite space in Louisville's East Market District for rotating exhibitions and events. Local Speed is located at 822 East Market Street; the 62,500-square-foot North Building doubled the overall square footage and nearly tripled the gallery space from the previous wing. The expansion created a space for larger special exhibitions, new contemporary art galleries, a family education welcome center, 150-seat theater, indoor/outdoor café, museum shop, a multifunctional pavilion for performances and entertaining.
Additionally, the new Elizabeth P. and Frederick K. Cressman Art Park and public Piazza was created for the display of sculpture. Timeline1927 – The Speed Art Museum is built. More than 74,000 visitors fill the museum in the first year. 1928 – The centenary of Kentucky portrait painter Matthew Harris Jouett is celebrated with a major exhibition of his portraits, many owned by prominent Louisvillians.1933 – The museum is incorporated as a endowed institution and its board of governors was established. 1934 – The museum received its first major donation, a valuable collection of North American Indian artifacts given by Dr. Frederick Weygold. 1941 – Dr. Preston Pope Satterwhite makes a significant gift to the museum – his collection of 15th century and 16th century French and Italian Decorative Arts including tapestries and furniture. 1944 – Satterwhite donates the English Renaissance room, moved in its entirety from Devon, England. Dr. Satterwhite's gift necessitated an enlargement of the museum and in his will he provided for the addition that bears his name.
Completed in 1954, it was the first of three additions to the original building. 1946 – Paul S. Harris becomes the first professional director of the museum. During his tenure, acquisitions to the collection were made in the areas of decorative arts and furniture. 1964 – Recently donated paintings and furniture from the collection of Mrs. W. Blakemore Wheeler go on view including works by Mary Cassatt, John Constable, Gustave Courbet, Thomas Gainsborough, Paul Gauguin, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Maurice Utrillo, James Abbott McNeill Whistler. 1966 – Charter Collectors Group forms to assist museum in the acquisition of pre-1940 art. 1970 – New Art Collectors Group forms to assist museum to acquire contemporary art. 1973 – The North Wing of the museum opens, giving new space for a theatre, indoor sculpture court, library. 1977 – The Speed celebrates its 50th anniversary in 1977 with the acquisition of Rembrandt's Portrait of a Woman, one of the museum's most significant acquisitions. 1983 – The 1983 Wing opens, designed by Robert Geddes of Princeton.
The new wing adds much-needed gallery space for special exhibitions. 1996 – Mrs. Alice Speed Stoll dies, leaving behind an estate that bequeaths over $50 million to the museum; the Speed closes to undertake an extensive renaissance. Newer lighting and cooling systems, bold wall colors, multi-layered labels about the collection, the Laramie L. Learning Center, Art Sparks. 1997 – The museum reopens. 2012 – The museum begins another major transition with a $60 million expansion project that will create a space for larger special exhibitions, new contemporary art galleries, a family education welcome center, 150-seat theater, indoor/outdoor café, museum shop, a multifunctional pavilion for performances and entertaining. The museum is closed to the public for three years during the construction period. 2013 – The Speed staff relocates offsite to the downtown Louisville neighborhood of Nulu and opens Local Speed, a satellite space for exhibitions, family activities and special events. 2016 – The museum reopens on March 12 with a 30-hour celebration.
The Speed houses a collection of African art, ancient art, Native American art, American art, European art, contemporary art. Highlights of the collection include works by: European painting and sculpture Modernism American painting and sculpture Contemporary art List of attractions and events in the Louisville metropolitan area Official site Listing on ArtFacts.net Listing on MuseumsUSA
Transylvania University
Transylvania University is a private university in Lexington, United States. Transylvania was founded in 1780, it offers 36 major programs, as well as dual-degree engineering programs, is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. Transylvania's name, meaning "across the woods" in Latin, stems from the university's founding in the forested region of western Virginia known as the Transylvania Colony, which became most of Kentucky in 1792. Transylvania is the alma mater of two U. S. vice presidents, two U. S. Supreme Court justices, 50 U. S. senators, 101 U. S. representatives, 36 U. S. governors, the one Confederate President, 34 U. S. ambassadors, making it a large producer of U. S. statesmen. Its medical program graduated 8,000 physicians by 1859, its enduring footprint, both in national and Southern academia, makes it among the most prolific cultural establishments and the most storied institutions in the South. Transylvania was the first college west of the Allegheny Mountains, was named for the Colony of Transylvania, Latin for across the woods, which aimed to educate good citizens.
Thomas Jefferson was governor of Virginia when the Virginia Assembly chartered Transylvania Seminary in 1780. Called Transylvania University by 1799, its first sponsor was the Christ Episcopal Church's rector, the Reverend Moore; the school became affiliated with the Presbyterian Church. Situated in a log cabin in Boyle County, the school moved to Lexington in 1789; the first site in Lexington was a single building in. By 1818, a new main building was constructed for students' classes. In 1829, that building burned, the school was moved to its present location north of Third Street. Old Morrison, the only campus building at the time, was constructed 1830–34, under the supervision of Henry Clay, who both taught law and was a member of Transylvania's Board. After 1818, the university included a medical school, a law school, a divinity school, a college of arts and sciences. An institution that aided in the development of today's Transylvania University was Bacon College of Georgetown, named after Sir Francis Bacon, a school that would, for a brief time, be known as Kentucky University.
This school was not affiliated with the modern University of Kentucky. Founded by Baptist churches in Kentucky, Bacon College operated from 1837 to 1851, it was distinct from nearby Georgetown College, another Baptist-supported institution. Bacon College closed due to lack of funding, but seven years in 1858, Bacon College's charter was amended to establish Kentucky University when the school had secured significant financial backing and was moved to donated land in Harrodsburg; this school closed in 1860 and its Harrodsburg building burned in 1864. By mutual agreement and an act of the state legislature the college was merged with Transylvania University in 1865. From these early years, Transylvania has dominated academe in the bluegrass region, was the sought-out destination for the children of the South's political and folk leadership, military families, business elite, it attracted many politically ambitious young men including the founder of Texas. Following the devastating Civil War, Kentucky University was hit by a major fire, both it and Transylvania University were left in dire financial straits.
In 1865, both institutions secured permission to merge. The new institution used Transylvania's campus in Lexington while perpetuating the Kentucky University name; the university was reorganized around several new colleges, including the Agricultural and Mechanical College of Kentucky, publicly chartered as a department of Kentucky University as a land-grant institution under the Morrill Act. However, due to questions regarding having a federally funded land-grant college controlled by a religious body, the A&M college was spun off in 1878 as an independent, state-run institution; the A&M of Kentucky soon developed into one of the state's flagship public universities, the University of Kentucky. Kentucky University's College of the Bible, which traced its roots to Bacon College's Department of Hebrew Literature, received a separate charter in 1878. Transylvania's seminary became a separate institution, but remained housed on the Kentucky University campus until 1950, it changed its name to the Lexington Theological Seminary.
In 1903, Hamilton College, a Lexington-based women's college founded in 1869, merged into Kentucky University. Due to confusion between Kentucky University and its daughter institution, the University of Kentucky, the institution was renamed "Transylvania University," in 1908. In 1988, Transylvania University experienced an infringement on the institution's trademark when Hallmark Cards began selling Transylvania University T-shirts; the product, developed for the 1988 Halloween season, was intended to be a novelty item purporting to be college wear from the fictional Count Dracula's alma mater. When contacted by Transylvania University, Hallmark admitted that they were not aware of the Kentucky-based institution and recalled all unsold product immediately. Transylvania University is now affiliated with the Disciples of Christ. Robert Penn Warren set part of his novel All the King's Men at Transylvania University. Robert Lowell referred to the university in his sonnet "The Graduate." The poem states gleefully that "Transylvania's Greek Revival Chapel is one of the best Greek Revival things in the South."
A 2004 heist at Transylvania University's special collections library was the subject of true-crime drama film American Animals, released in 2018. Transylvania is home to the Judy Gaines Young Book Aw
David Farragut
David Glasgow Farragut was a flag officer of the United States Navy during the American Civil War. He was the first rear admiral, vice admiral, admiral in the United States Navy, he is remembered for his order at the Battle of Mobile Bay paraphrased as "Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead" in U. S. Navy tradition. Born near Knoxville, Farragut was fostered by naval officer David Porter after the death of his mother. Despite his young age, Farragut served in the War of 1812 under the command of his adoptive father, he received his first command in 1824 and participated in anti-piracy operations in the Caribbean Sea. He served in the Mexican–American War under the command of Matthew C. Perry, participating in the blockade of Tuxpan. After the war, he oversaw the construction of the Mare Island Naval Shipyard, the first U. S. Navy base established on the Pacific Ocean. Though Farragut resided in Norfolk, Virginia prior to the Civil War, he was a Southern Unionist who opposed Southern secession and remained loyal to the Union after the outbreak of the Civil War.
Despite some doubts about Farragut's loyalty, Farragut was assigned command of an attack on the important Confederate port city of New Orleans. After fighting past Fort St. Philip and Fort Jackson, Farragut captured New Orleans in April 1862, he was promoted to rear admiral after the battle and helped extend Union control up along the Mississippi River, participating in the Siege of Port Hudson. With the Union in control of the Mississippi, Farragut led a successful attack on Mobile Bay, home to the last major Confederate port on the Gulf of Mexico. Farragut was promoted to Admiral following the end of the Civil War and remained on active duty until his death in 1870. Farragut was born in 1801 to Jordi Farragut, a native of Menorca and his wife Elizabeth, of North Carolina Scotch-Irish American descent, at Lowe's Ferry on the Holston River in Tennessee, it was a few miles southeast of Campbell's Station, near Knoxville. His father served as a cavalry officer in the Tennessee militia. Jordi Farragut, son of Antoni Farragut and Joana Mesquida, became a Spanish merchant captain from Menorca.
He joined the American Revolutionary cause after arriving in America in 1766, when he changed his first name to George. George was a naval lieutenant during the Revolutionary War, serving first with the South Carolina Navy the Continental Naval forces. George and Elizabeth had moved west to Tennessee after his service in the American Revolution. In 1805, George Farragut accepted a position at the U. S. port of New Orleans. He traveled there first and his family followed, in a 1,700-mile flatboat adventure aided by hired rivermen, the four-year-old Farragut's first voyage; the family was still living in New Orleans. His father made plans to place the young children with friends and family who could better care for them. David's birth name was James. In 1808, after his mother's death, he agreed to live with David Porter, a naval officer whose father had been friends with James's father, as Porter's foster son. In 1812, James adopted the name "David" in honor of his foster father, with whom he went to sea late in 1810.
David Farragut grew up in a naval family, as the foster brother of future Civil War admiral, David Dixon Porter, Commodore William D. Porter. David Farragut's naval career began as a midshipman when he was nine years old, continued for 60 years until his death at the age of 69; this included service in several wars, most notably during the American Civil War, where he gained fame for winning several decisive naval battles. Through the influence of his foster father, Farragut was commissioned a midshipman in the United States Navy on December 17, 1810, at the age of seven. A prize master by the age of 12, Farragut fought in the War of 1812, serving under Captain Porter, his foster father. While serving aboard USS Essex, Farragut participated in the capture of HMS Alert on August 13, 1812 helped to establish America's first naval base and colony in the Pacific, named Fort Madison, during the ill-fated Nuku Hiva Campaign in the Marquesas Islands. At the same time, the Americans battled the hostile tribes on the islands with the help of their Te I'i allies.
Farragut was 12 years old when, during the War of 1812, he was given the assignment to bring a ship captured by the Essex safely to port. He was wounded and captured while serving on the Essex during the engagement at Valparaíso Bay, against the British on March 28, 1814. Farragut was promoted to lieutenant during the operations against West Indian pirates. In 1824, he was placed in command of USS Ferret, his first command of a U. S. naval vessel. He served in the Mosquito Fleet, a fleet of ships fitted out to fight pirates in the Caribbean Sea. After learning his old captain, Commodore Porter, would be commander of the fleet, he asked for, received, orders to serve aboard Greyhound, one of the smaller vessels, commanded by John Porter, brother of David Porter. On February 14, 1823, the fleet set sail for the West Indies where, for the next six months, they would drive the pirates off the sea, rout them from their hiding places in among the islands, he was executive officer aboard the Experiment during its campaign in the West Indies fighting pirates.
In 1847, now a commander, took command of the sloop-of-war USS Saratoga when she was recommissioned at Norfolk Navy Yard in Norfolk, Virginia. Assigned to the Home Squadron for service in the Mexican–American War, Saratoga departed Norfolk on March 29, 1847 bound for the Gulf of Mexico under Farragut's command and upon arriving off Veracruz, Mexico, on April 26, 1847 reported
