Readers, one more reason to love October (as if you needed another one): It's American Archives Month in the USA! This means that it's appropriate to visit, support, or otherwise promote your own favorite local archival institution. Kentucky has decided to expand its Archives Week into a full, month-long celebration to coincide, and this year's theme is especially exciting: the Lincoln bicentennial! Check out that poster!
Kentucky has a (somewhat tenuous) Lincoln connection which we tend to exaggerate--er, focus on--he was born here, and though he only spent a few years of his early boyhood in the state before his family moved to Indiana, we get to claim those great legendary Honest Abe, log cabin, teaching himself to read on a dirt floor stories. Plus, an added Lincoln bonus for the state: his wife Mary Todd was born and raised in well-to-do Lexington society (a distant relation, Charles Todd, was the very first Kentucky Colonel). So, yeah, Kentucky's Lincoln fixation may be a bit much sometimes--yet another bid for fame and relevance--but in a lot of ways it's legit.
Anyway, it's October 1st and you all have 30 more days to figure out how you will celebrate American Archives Month. I recommend making that visit to your local archives that you've been putting off--research your family in a genealogical collection, ask to see some awesome primary resource, or even just subscribe to a mailing list so you'll be informed of things like interesting lectures, publications, and new collections in your area. Support your local archives--read a book, make a donation, and/or buy an archivist a drink--you'll be doing your part.
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