Tag Archives: John Bryan Bowman

The McDowells Update Ashland

13 Monday Mar 2017

Posted by in Architecture, McDowell Era (1882-1950), Preservation, Public Hospitality

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YOU ARE HERE – > 1880s

It had been almost thirty years since the Ashland mansion had been rebuilt by Henry Clay’s son, James B. Clay …and the house had seen some serious wear.  Kentucky University had used the mansion for many purposes, including the housing of its sizable Natural History Museum (with accompanying taxidermy facilities) and then several tenants had occupied Ashland after the University moved away.  In 1882 when Henry Clay’s granddaughter and her husband, Anne and Major H.C. McDowell, brought the estate back into the family, it was likely in a state of disrepair.

SEE ALSO: RETURN TO GLORY: CLAY’S FAMILY BACK AT ASHLAND

Ashland Drawing Room, 1880s or 90s

The McDowells, like the press and the public at this time, believed that 1880s Ashland was still Henry Clay’s home.  Yet there was no question that it would serve as the McDowell family home as they modernized and remodeled to suit themselves.  They considered it crucial to bring the mansion up-to-date in order to make it suitable for entertaining, comfortable for their family…and worthy of Clay’s memory and image in the world.  They boldly made decisions that affected the permanent structure of the mansion.

During James and Susan’s time, the rebuilding of the Ashland mansion had been the focus of controversy, but the McDowells’ sweeping 1880s remodeling was greeted with nothing but praise.  As historic interior design consultant Gail Caskey Winkler observed: the “son built,” but the “granddaughter modernized.” The McDowells would leave a profound and permanent mark on Ashland as they were the ultimate definers of the mansion’s overall structure and appearance.

McDowell women with friends and family at Ashland

The McDowells were clearly unafraid to modify Ashland, even to the point of altering Clay’s Federal floor plan that James had been so careful to preserve.   A significant modification was required when the McDowells, as Caskey Winkler describes, “sacrificed the 1856 dining [breakfast] room for that most welcome of modern conveniences – indoor plumbing…”  Creating a full, modern bathroom for the family and a “water closet” for guests in a first floor passageway created the need for an alternative passage for the servants.

McDowell-era floorplan with current room labels

The new narrow service stair, which descended from the main staircase landing back into the first floor dining/breakfast room, served that need.  That room was then remodeled as the butler’s pantry.  This new service space was the “staging” area for the more elaborate formal dining that would occur in the adjacent dining room.

The domestic service wing was also altered in other ways during the McDowell period: from the installation of a servant call bell system to a water cistern (instead of the old well) to the introduction of modern kitchen appliances.

The McDowells’ updating manifested most dramatically in the replacement of the old elliptical staircase.  They installed a radically different type of staircase: oak, Eastlake style with straight flights.  They deemed James’s spiral staircase unsuitable, too narrow and awkward.  To install the new staircase, they had to completely remove the existing stairwell walls on the first and second floors with the end result an undeniably impressive, bright and open entrance hall.  The Eastlake staircase spoke more clearly to their refined taste, modernity, and desire for sophisticated hospitality.  Retaining the original staircase for preservation’s sake was not as important to the McDowells as perpetuating the tradition of grand hospitality at Ashland – and doing it with elegant style.

New staircase in entrance hall

The McDowells were interested in modernizing the mansion through the creation of a sense of spaciousness.  ‘Open planning’ was a significant architectural innovation during the 1870s and 1880s and they utilized this concept to enhance Ashland’s interior spaces.  The entrance hall, drawing room, and dining room were united—all doors open wide—as one expansive public space for entertaining.   The adjoining library and brand new glass conservatory completed this large entertainment space.  Replacing the central staircase dramatically opened up the entrance area of the house as well.  The addition of a full-length mirror in the entrance hall reflected light and gave the illusion of a larger space.

Major McDowell in entrance hall

The McDowells’ interior design transformed the mansion into a fin de siècle showcase of sophistication as they embraced a mix of decorative styles: the late-Victorian and Eastlake styles, but particularly the Aesthetic Style that was popular at the end of the nineteenth century.  Oriental carpets, “Japanesque” patterned anaglypta, potted palms, art pottery, portières, richly colored wall finishes and thinly slatted hardwood floors comprised this look—and found their places at Ashland.  They purchased fine woods for their new interiors: oak for the front hall flooring, cherry for the drawing room flooring, and walnut for the guest restroom wainscoting.

A further catalyst for change in the 1880s was the availability of new technology.  While James had added such upgrades as coal-burning fireplaces and probably an indoor kitchen, the McDowells would definitively usher Ashland into the twentieth century.  Many modern upgrades were regarded as necessary in late nineteenth-century upper-class homes.  Privies, outdoor kitchens, and oil lamp lighting may have been perfectly respectable in Henry Clay’s period, but would be looked upon as woefully primitive by the end of the century.  Modern innovations allowed them to make Ashland a more comfortable place than it had ever been with the addition of indoor plumbing, central heating, gas (and later, electric) lighting, and telephone service [one week after the McDowells moved in, The Daily Lexington Transcript reported what must have been groundbreaking news: “Major McDowell will have a telephone line run out to Ashland” (19 January 1883)].

Because the estate was too distantly located for municipal gas service, the McDowells introduced gas lighting to Ashland through the innovative Springfield “gas works” Machine system buried in the front yard, which supplied vaporized gas to all the light fixtures in the home.  They replaced virtually all of the light fixtures in the house with elegant gas lamps and chandeliers of European stained and beveled glass, brass and silver plate, and elaborate globes.  From the dramatic vaulted ceiling in the library, they installed an exotic serpent-shaped gasolier fixture.

Ashland library view into billiard room – with part of gasolier visible

The new McDowell Ashland, while not as sumptuously Victorian as James and Susan’s, was, all the same, much more dazzling than Henry Clay’s original.  An 1883 guest described the net effect of their changes:

Ashland is a beautifully planned house for entertaining—five rooms ‘en suite.’  Friday night it presented a most magnificent appearance.  The whole house thrown open, brilliantly lighted, elegantly furnished, and filled with rare and beautiful gems, and decorated with the greatest profusion of exquisite flowers and blooming plants.  The drawing room opens into a conservatory filled with palms and rare plants of every variety, and lighted with gas lights… (Lexington Weekly Press, 16 May 1883).

New conservatory

Clay Family Loses Ashland, University of Kentucky Predecessor Moves In

27 Monday Feb 2017

Posted by in Farm, James and Susan Clay Era (1852-1866), Kentucky University Era (1866-1882), Preservation, Public Hospitality, Transfer of Ownership

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YOU ARE HERE -> 1860s

Although Ashland had survived its first transfer of ownership (from Henry Clay’s widow Lucretia to his son James), remaining in family hands, after the Civil War it would not.  Due to James’s death in 1864, the financial hardship after the war, and complex dealings with settling the Ashland estate, James’s widow Susan was forced to sell Ashland in February of 1866.  The buyer was John Bryan Bowman, founder and regent of Kentucky University.

Bowman possessed a lofty vision for higher education in Kentucky and the new Kentucky University grew quickly in the mid-1860s with the establishment of its (land grant) Agricultural and Mechanical College and a merger with Transylvania University.  Bowman had searched to find a farm in or near Lexington with appropriate buildings to establish a University campus and launch the A & M College.  In February of 1866 Bowman purchased for the Kentucky University/A & M campus both the Ashland estate for $90,000 and the adjoining Woodlands estate (which had belonged to Henry Clay’s daughter and son-in-law, Anne Brown Clay and James Erwin) for $40,000, a total of 433 acres for $130,000.   These two properties joined the existing downtown Transylvania campus.

The Lexington Observer & Reporter applauded the purchase, saying that the University “will do credit to our State, and serve as a monument to the memory of Mr. Clay.”  Beyond the historical significance of Ashland, the rich and handsome land of Henry Clay’s farm was praiseworthy; it was doubted at the time that any other newly-founded agricultural college in the country could boast such a desirable location.  Fourteen years after his death, Henry Clay’s homestead in 1866 continued to sustain the many improvements he had made.  The estate was ideally located a short distance from town on a main thoroughfare and virtually everyone knew how to find Ashland.  It would have been impossible to produce such a fine physical setting for the University campus elsewhere.

In Ashland’s history, the Kentucky University period is an anomaly.  The Clay family was no longer involved in the status and fate of Ashland.  It was now an institutional property, interpreted and preserved by non-family members.  In the absence of the living memorial that his family and artifacts represented, the connection to Henry Clay was now less tangible.

Yet Henry Clay was undeniably important to Kentucky University.  Bowman knew that the historical significance of Ashland lent dignity and gravity to his cause, as he described it in 1866:  “The associations which cluster around it as the homestead of the great Commoner and friend of Agriculture, the inspiration which will be caught by the student…, the advertisement which it will give the Institution…all give it a value above money, and make it eminently fitting that it should be held sacred and dedicated to a great and permanent work such as ours…”

Ashland after the Civil War continued to symbolize the greatness of Henry Clay and his home state, serving as something of a spiritual capital for Kentuckians.  In this period of healing and optimism, a time of rebuilding and investing in young people, Clay was a fitting beacon of conciliation and progress.  The Great Compromiser’s efforts had not prevented Civil War, but his major role in forestalling it cast him as an even larger hero in its aftermath.  His former home was tangible proof to Americans that there had been such a great man who had walked among them and manifested the highest ideals.

People from all around the country continued to journey to Ashland, which remained the public destination it had long been.  University students were known to have given visitors tours of the historic grounds; one visitor described how he was shown around by students who pointed out “as a relic of the hallowed past” the bath-house where “the statesman courted health, and philosophized, like Diogenes, in his tub” (c1870s unidentified newspaper).  Bowman commented on how the lasting memory of Henry Clay at Ashland drew “the thousands of his admirers who visit it from year to year.”  Lexington in 1874 was described as a “quiet town,” which also happened to be “the Mecca of thousands of pilgrims, because it contains the old residence and the grave of Henry Clay…” (Scribner’s Monthly, December 1874).

As much as Henry Clay was revered by the University, its students, and the community, he represented Ashland’s past, while the University pointed to the estate’s future.  Thus the preservation of Ashland was about keeping the essence—the cachet—of the historic estate while making it workable for the nascent University.  Bowman did not contemplate any particular form of historic preservation of the mansion or other Clay-era outbuildings because he believed that the University was to be permanently located at Ashland.  He freely razed, built, and altered buildings for University use.  Bowman and his wife lived in part of the Ashland mansion while part was given over to University administration and to the housing of the University’s Natural History Museum.

Bowman had devised a program for beautification of the campus, and though his plans ultimately never progressed far, substantial changes occurred to the farm, the grounds, and the buildings.  There was at that point no inkling that Ashland would return to the private ownership of a Clay heir nor that it would eventually serve as a public memorial to Henry Clay…

The Origins of Kentucky University and The Kentucky A&M …and How They Came to Ashland

28 Wednesday Dec 2016

Posted by in Kentucky University Era (1866-1882), Transfer of Ownership

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Founder and Regent of Kentucky University, John Bryan Bowman (1824-1891) held a lofty vision for higher education in Kentucky and was devoted to the ideal of egalitarian education, proclaiming, “I want to build up a People’s Institution, a great university eventually accessible to the poorest boy in all the land…”[1]

John Bryan Bowman

Bowman was a man of energetic determination and a finely-honed gift of persuasion, repeatedly raising enormous sums of money and convincing many of the need for a great Kentucky university.  Bowman’s plans for his university were big and bold, even though Kentucky had so far lagged behind other states in education.  Bowman fully expected his new university to attain a first-class national reputation: “…we would not be deemed arrogant in proposing to build, upon a more modern basis, an Institution equal to any in America…with a high grade of scholarship…”[2]

Kentucky University, a private, sectarian institution situated in Harrodsburg, was officially formed in 1858 and opened in the fall of 1859 (emerging from the defunct Bacon College, 1836-1850).  It survived the war years, but didn’t survive in its location in Harrodsburg when its main building was destroyed by fire in 1864 and Bowman couldn’t procure enough land to expand and develop the University there.

The University’s Board decided that the permanent location of the University would be moved to a community that would subscribe at least $100,000 for it.  Louisville and Covington made proposals.  And Transylvania University in Lexington (established 1798) – which had proposed a merger with Kentucky University four years earlier – renewed its offer.[3]

Transylvania’s original main building, downtown Lexington

Three years prior to this, President Lincoln signed into law the Morrill Act, which allotted states public land or equivalent “land scrip” to generate endowment funds for schools, particularly Agricultural and Mechanical colleges, to teach practical skills instead of the customary curricula based on the classics. Kentucky’s participation in the Morrill grant program was tardy due to the war and heavy debt, inducing the State Legislature to consider refusing it altogether.

But Bowman stepped in.  He made his proposal: that Transylvania and Kentucky Universities would merge and take on the A & M College as a part of the new enlarged University, that it would be located in Lexington, and that the University Board would faithfully execute the intent of the Morrill Act.[4]

The bill was passed to create the Kentucky Agricultural and Mechanical College as a part of Kentucky University. [5]  Although organized under the private, sectarian Kentucky University, Kentucky A & M was Kentucky’s land grant college.[6]

The Ashland mansion depicted during Kentucky University’s tenure

Now that Transylvania’s campus was part of the new vision, Bowman searched to find a farm in or near Lexington with appropriate buildings to launch the A & M College.  He considered many “desirable locations which were offered,” but “in harmony with the wishes” of many of the Fayette County donors, he purchased Ashland.[7]  This was a decision widely applauded by citizens who saw it as a noble use of Henry Clay’s historic homestead and a source for continued pride within the community.

A letter written by an unidentified person, prior to Susan Clay’s 1866 sale of Ashland, was sent to Susan’s brother and trustee of her estate, Thomas Jacob.  The writer provides an argument for Kentucky A & M’s establishment at Ashland.  It is quite possible the letter was written by John B. Bowman in an effort to convince Jacob to sell the estate: “…it would place Ashland where it may be supposed the friends of Henry Clay would prefer to see it, in the hands of the state rather than in the possession of some unknown individual.” [8]

The “hands of the state” refers to the Kentucky Agricultural & Mechanical College’s funding specifically as the land-grant college of the Commonwealth, because its umbrella institution, Kentucky University, was a privately funded, denominationally-affiliated establishment.

A Lexington paper fully approved, saying that the University “will do credit to our State, and serve as a monument to the memory of Mr. Clay.”[9]  Beyond the historical significance of Ashland, the rich and handsome land of Henry Clay’s farm was praiseworthy: it was doubted at the time that any other newly-founded agricultural college in the country could boast such a desirable location.

Fourteen years after his death, Henry Clay’s homestead in 1866 continued to sustain the many improvements he made over the course of 47 years.  The maturing landscape with its exceptional variety of fine trees, shrubs, lawns, flowers and gardens was a tremendous gift to the new College.  The estate was ideally located a short distance from town on a main thoroughfare and everyone knew where Ashland was located.  It would have been impossible to reproduce such a fine physical setting.

In February of 1866 Bowman purchased both the Ashland estate for $90,000 and the adjoining Woodlands estate for $40,000[10], for the Kentucky University A & M campus, a total of 433 acres for $130,000.[11]

The Ashland and Woodlands estates that Kentucky University purchased in 1866

[1] John D. Wright Jr.  Transylvania: Tutor to the West.  Lexington, KY: Transylvania University, 1975, 198.

[2] Henry Milton Pyles.  “The Life and Work of John Bryan Bowman.”  (Diss., University of Kentucky, 1944), 25.

[3]Transylvania University endeavored to bring the University to Lexington in 1860, but Bowman was opposed to it at the time because he expected to secure the Harrodsburg Springs property. – Pyles 36-37.

[4] Pyles 52.

[5] Pyles 52.

[6] Carl B. Cone. The University of Kentucky: A Pictorial History.  (Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 1989), 3.

[7] Pyles 65.

[8] Undated and unsigned letter known to have been sent to Thomas Jacob. From Library of Congress, Collections of the Manuscript Division; a reproduction in the Ashland archives.  It is in currently unrecognizable handwriting, but the point of view of the letter implies someone whose interest lies with the College, if not Bowman, perhaps a member of the University Board of Curators.

[9] Lexington Observer & Reporter, January 17, 1866.

[10] The Woodlands had belonged to Henry Clay’s daughter and son-in-law, Anne Brown Clay and James Erwin.

[11] James F. Hopkins,  The University of Kentucky: Origins and Early Years. Lexington,KY:University of Kentucky Press, 1951 67.  Kiesel puts the amount at $147,000, 106.  Linda Raney Kiesel. “Kentucky’s Land-Grant Legacy: An Analysis of the Administrations of John Bryan Bowman and James Kennedy Patterson, 1865-1890.”  Diss., University of Kentucky, 2003.

Kentucky University Leaves Ashland

25 Monday Jul 2016

Posted by in Kentucky University Era (1866-1882)

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YOU ARE HERE -> 1870s

From such grand and glorious beginnings, John Bryan Bowman’s vision for Kentucky University began to unravel in the 1870s.  The details of the troubles he and the university encountered could—and has—filled volumes.  Ashland plays a central part in the sad story.

Ashland during Kentucky University/A & M years

All of the tumult made the period of 1865-1878, which should have been one of great growth and success, one of fracture and failure.  A contemporary of Bowman’s later assessed what had gone wrong with Kentucky University: “The rock of offense–the thing that brought grief to [Bowman’s] soul and disappointment to his plans–was his endeavor to unite under one control a college historically and traditionally denominational with an institution under state control.”

Finally after years of bitter conflict, private Kentucky University split from the public A & M College.  What was left of the University relocated to the old Transylvania campus downtown and later took back that name.  In 1878 after 19 years of service, John Bryan Bowman would no longer serve as Regent of Kentucky University.  He was ordered to vacate Ashland.

John Bryan Bowman

A poignant scene occurred at Ashland during these dark days for Bowman and the Lexington Daily Press recounted the details.  The faculty and class of the Law College came to the house for dinner and presented Bowman with a “beautiful, gold-headed cane” as testimony of their respect for him and the work he was doing, congratulating him for the latest vindication in the struggle.  One of the faculty rose before dinner and thanked Bowman, stating that everyone gathered possessed “unshaken confidence in your fidelity to that grand and noble object to which you have already given the manhood of your life.  Believing, as we do, that your every act has been prompted by motives the purest…”   Bowman was moved, calling it “one of the most cherished remembrances” of his life.  Dinner was “heartily enjoyed” and followed by speeches, anecdotes and songs.  When Bowman’s guests left late in the evening they wished the Regent long life and prosperity (June 17, 1877).

While the A & M had been situated at Ashland since 1865, Bowman proposed in 1877 that both the Ashland and adjoining Woodlands estates be sold to the state for use by the A & M College, but the Kentucky A & M College Commission rejected his proposal, claiming that the state did not need so much property.  A final agreement was reached which allowed the A & M College to rent the Ashland property for two more years, continuing to utilize all buildings and equipment for that time, while Kentucky University retained ownership and oversight.   Once the agreement was reached, Kentucky A & M managed to thrive for a time.  The future appeared more hopeful, although the search for a new site was on.

Citizens of Lexington grew especially worried about the A & M leaving Ashland and leaving the city.  It seemed out of the question for the school to be located anywhere but Ashland:  “Where else in our State can a more suitable tract of land be offered for its location?” the Lexington Daily Press asked in April 1878, “Where is agriculture carried on with greater success?”  Lexingtonians also saw the move as morally reprehensible: after all, their contributions had specifically brought the Agricultural and Mechanical College to the city for the benefit of the entire citizenry.  They refused to accept that sectarian Kentucky University now held ownership of the Ashland and Woodlands estates.

In the summer of 1879 the donors and citizens of Lexington presented a petition to the University Board demanding that a portion of the Ashland and Woodlands tract be offered to the state.  The Board ultimately rejected it.  The people of Lexington were bitterly disappointed to have lost the historic Ashland and Woodlands tracts as the state college campus.

The A & M Mechanical Building

State-wide bidding began for the A & M College site.  Lexington was especially anxious to retain the state’s only public college and the city won by offering its fairgrounds. The A & M moved to its new campus on South Limestone Street in 1882.  It became commonly known as the “State College,” until in 1908 it adopted its legal name, “State University of Kentucky,” and in 1916 took on its current name, “The University of Kentucky.”

In 1879 the University Board had settled all financial dealings between the University and Bowman.  The Secretary of the Board was to “transmit a copy of this resolution to John B. Bowman, accompanied with a polite request that he surrender possession of the Mansion and appurtenances at Ashland to the Executive Committee.”

In a letter to the Board of Curators, Bowman said, “In regard to the Surrender of Ashland and its appurtenances, I will say that I have advertised to see my Household furniture, stock, [etc.] on the 29th of July and I will give possession of the place and other property of the University on the day following.”  The sale of the Bowmans’ belongings took place at Ashland with about 2,000 people in attendance.

John and Mary Bowman—and, soon, the Kentucky A & M—left Ashland for good.

See also: Historic Homestead as College Campus and Clay Family Loses Ashland, University of Kentucky Predecessor Moves In.

The Exotic and Curious at Ashland

25 Monday Apr 2016

Posted by in Artifacts, Kentucky University Era (1866-1882)

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YOU ARE HERE -> 1860s-1870s

After the Civil War, Ashland was in the hands of the predecessor of the University of Kentucky.  The estate was no longer a family home and farm, but a nascent multipurpose college campus.  SEE ALSO: Clay Family Loses Ashland, University of Kentucky Predecessor Moves In and Historic Homestead as College Campus.

As Regent John B. Bowman stated when Kentucky University was founded, “The Natural Sciences, in their application to the useful arts and to agriculture, should receive more attention.”   He had envisioned an intense focus on “science in its widest ranges.”  In Bowman’s February 1872 report to Kentucky Governor Leslie, he provided a history of the University’s Agricultural and Mechanical College in his plea for greater funding, stating: “In order to constitute an efficient and fully manned institution, such as contemplated by Congress and desired by the State, a large expenditure in buildings, experimental farm, Philosophical and Chemical apparatus, Geological and Mineralogical cabinet, with Museums of Natural History, would be required.”

John Bryan Bowman

Bowman’s goals were lofty.  He even encouraged the legislature to fund and complete the geological survey of the state, with the assistance of the Kentucky A & M: “We can…furnish a competent Botanist…with a Zoologist and Paleontologist…”  He knew the survey would benefit Kentucky University: “large collections of Botanical, Geological, Mineralogical, and other specimens, could be made for the Museums…greatly to the benefit of the State and of the College.

So Bowman set about organizing the “required” facilities and many of his envisioned scientific pursuits at Ashland. From the old—and now absorbed into Kentucky University—Transylvania University, library, apparatus, and museum collections that had been scattered during the Civil War now came to Kentucky University.   A meteorological observatory was established at Ashland in 1872, a zoological collection was initiated, and a natural history museum installed.

Some of the items that were in the Natural History Museum (photographed later, at Transylvania University). From Eric Brooks, Images of America, Ashland the Henry Clay Estate, Arcadia Publishing, 2007.

The extant evidence points to a curious zoo at Ashland.  It was mentioned in a February 1872 Lexington Daily Press article a “gift of two fawns” that was added to “the zoological collection at Ashland.” The paper declared that “the collection promises to become one of great importance.”  But the only other animal known to have been a part of this collection is a bear.  An event recorded by Henry Clay’s great-granddaughter, Lucretia Clay Erwin Simpson, identified a “pet bear” that had escaped from Regent Bowman’s “embryonic State University” at Ashland.  She felt the need to qualify the account with, “this incredible story was true.” (Ashland archives)  Clay’s youngest son, John, inherited the stud farm of Ashland, which was located adjacent to Kentucky A & M at Ashland proper.  A servant at the stud farm, who carefully tended the prize mares and foals, broke into a family gathering stammering that a bear was walking around the horses “having the time of its life trying out the young foals.” (Ashland archives).

But Bowman’s Natural History Museum was a far more substantial endeavor. His motivation to create a museum was rooted in his educational goals, especially in the area of the natural sciences, but was perhaps influenced by his milieu, as well.  Bowman was a product of his time in his intrigue with the material world and the penchant for acquisitiveness that characterized mid- to late-nineteenth century culture.  Bowman’s idea of a museum may have come from a Victorian conviction that progress increased with knowledge, and the more artifacts exhibited, the more knowledge gained.

Ledger of donations to the Natural History Museum. From Eric Brooks, Images of America: Ashland the Henry Clay Estate, Arcadia Publishing, 2007.

Bowman was undoubtedly inspired by the renowned Charles Willson Peale and his Philadelphia Museum.  Peale was a natural historian and artist who, in the 1780s, conceived of the idea of an American museum of natural history where rare and commonplace specimens of nature would be exhibited together.  The Philadelphia Museum opened to the public in Philadelphia in 1786 as a for-profit institution.  His “collection of curiosities” at first involved only preserved animals arranged in careful order. But he soon looked to expand his museum collection with a greater variety of animals, including birds and fish, reptiles and insects. Peale also sought vegetables, minerals, shells, fossils, medals and old coins and other “curiosities” from around the world to display.  By 1799, he had amassed a collection of hundreds of animals and thousands of insects, fish, minerals and fossils, as well as exotic animals for the first time displayed in America, such as anteaters and giraffes.  In 1801 he acquired the skeleton of a mastodon.  Peale’s museum, like Bowman’s, also included a zoo where live animals could be observed within close range.

Museums were regarded as vital to universities in the 19th century, particularly in relation to the sciences.  Not only did Peale set the stage for many natural history museums to follow, but James Smithson’s 1836 bequest and the decision of Congress to create the Smithsonian Institution, composed of a group of museums, added to the midcentury momentum toward museums intended for serious study and research.  University museums were regarded as laboratories for students and researchers, but ideally accessible to the public.

It is telling that most of Bowman’s museum collection was in storage due to lack of space, but no matter:  he continued to collect.  A plea went out in the June 11, 1872 Lexington Daily Press, entreating readers to consider what they themselves might contribute to Kentucky University’s museum “in the way of relics or other curiosities…,” suggesting coins, Indian relics, old books, newspapers, letters and paintings and “especially anything which will illustrate the lives of our early pioneers and distinguished men.”  The Louisville library and natural history museum are held up as prime examples for Lexington:

Why cannot our citizens do the same, and let us foster our own great institution of learning, and hold up the hands of its founder, who is toiling in so many different ways to make it attractive to the public.  Let everyone who visits Ashland remember to take something rare or curious which may be lying by, and which will soon be lost unless deposited in some such permanent place, where it will be well preserved and credited perpetually to the kind donor.

We know that at least one of Henry Clay’s descendants responded. When Clay’s family vacated Ashland by 1866, the Henry Clay artifacts of course went with them.  But one important Clay relic returned to Ashland: the Museum of Natural History accepted as a donation Henry Clay’s Ghent jacket.  It had been on display in James and Susan’s Ashland library and later ended up in the possession of one of their sons, but sometime during the 1872-73 school year, this grandson donated it to the Museum of Natural History.  There amidst the stuffed birds, shells, and bones in the Museum at Ashland, was Henry Clay’s splendid Ghent jacket.  (Kentucky University Catalogue, 1872-73.  Transylvania University Special Collections.)

It is unknown if the Ghent jacket was ever on display in the University Museum at Ashland.  But this Clay artifact would have fit well into Bowman’s vision for his museum and its call to the public to donate historical items.   Other historical artifacts donated to the Museum included “relics from Mount Vernon” and a piece of Martha Washington’s wedding dress.  A curious Henry Clay artifact was donated, as well: a model of farm implements “made from the old house and coffin of Henry Clay.”  It was Bowman’s intent that the Kentucky University Museum of Natural History would be a repository for the safekeeping of historic artifacts…and Ashland was the site of this safekeeping for twelve years.

Historic Homestead as College Campus

27 Wednesday Jan 2016

Posted by in Architecture, Farm, Kentucky University Era (1866-1882), Preservation

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YOU ARE HERE ->1866-1879

After the Civil War, Kentucky University took ownership of Ashland.   (SEE ALSO: Clay Family Loses Ashland, University of Kentucky Predecessor Moves In.)

Ashland post Civil War (credit: Louisville Library)

Regent John B. Bowman believed that Kentucky University was to be permanently located at Ashland, so he made plans for the buildings and grounds to prepare them for University use.

The extant buildings at Ashland and the adjoining Woodlands estate had proved adaptable for University use, although “many of them were in a poor state of preservation,” as Bowman remarked when the University had first settled there (Hopkins, James F.  The University of Kentucky: Origins and Early Years.  (Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 1951).  He described what they had to work with: “Over these grounds there are scattered about thirty separate buildings, which are used for educational purposes, professors’ residences, dormitories, club houses, mechanical shops, etc.” (Pyles, Henry Milton.  “The Life and Work of John Bryan Bowman.”  Diss., University of Kentucky, 1944.)

Since the University initially lacked the resources to embark on a major building campaign, the extant buildings would suffice.  Bowman made plans to establish most University buildings on the Ashland and Woodlands estates: residences, dormitories, and lecture halls.  The old slaves’ quarters were possibly converted for use as student housing and the mansion itself was presented as a residence to Bowman and his wife by the University Board, since Bowman refused monetary compensation.  Other houses on the estates were offered to faculty members.

The Agricultural and Mechanical College situated at Ashland, in particular, had specific needs for experimental farming and mechanical shops.  Bowman erected a large barn and stables on the grounds.  The Mechanical Department’s shops for carpenters and blacksmiths were erected.  Over 100 young men worked and learned a trade, while also helping maintain the buildings and grounds at Ashland.

In 1868 Bowman constructed a large, two-story brick building, the “Ashland Mechanical Works.”   It featured a distinctive three-story tower and was equipped for the manufacture of agricultural implements. A Pennsylvania inventor looking to test his new mowing machine, donated $25,000 to the College, which Bowman used to construct the building.

Ashland Mechanical Works building

He also devised a program for beautification of the campus.  All of the land between the Woodlands border and the Ashland mansion was cleared for cultivation.  Bowman’s plans for the University’s physical plant ultimately never progressed far, but farming operations were successfully established on the A & M campus (Hopkins).

During the University’s years at Ashland (1866-1879), the Ashland mansion served as institutional headquarters while Regent John B. Bowman and his wife Mary made their home there.  Bowman and his wife surely savored living in the large and famous house.  People of the day noted that, to the already illustrious residence the Bowmans added “distinction through their celebrated hospitality…” (Stevenson, Dwight E. Lexington Theological Seminary: 1865-1965 The College of the Bible Century.  St. Louis, MO: Bethany Press, 1964.)  It is presumed that the Bowmans utilized the second floor for private living space.  But it is known that they hosted dinners and parties at Ashland, thus surely making use of the first floor public and domestic service rooms.

Kentucky University’s A & M College letterhead

But the mansion served as more than home and headquarters: the University’s burgeoning Natural History Museum would be located within the house.  Bowman explained the new museum’s situation: “…for the accommodation of this Museum, I have fitted up rooms at Ashland, which will answer our purpose until we can erect a suitable Museum building.” (Kentucky University Annual Catalogue: Session of 1867-1868.  (Louisville, KY: John P. Morton & Co, 1868.)

The Museum of Natural History probably occupied space on the first floor of the mansion.  The collection was stored and displayed there along with facilities for a taxidermist.  It is likely that the museum was in the library wing of the house because the parlors, dining room, and domestic service wing were used by the Bowmans for their intended purposes.

The Museum in the mansion was a source of great pride for Bowman, proving the progressive character of his new University.  It was intended first for the education of the students, but it also provided the impetus to invite the public to Ashland.  Bowman opened his University museum for the benefit of the community, merging the University’s role as educator of private students with the education of the public.

The Lexington Daily Press described the Museum that Bowman had been busy “creating at Ashland for several years, almost entirely by donations from liberal individuals throughout the country” as being visited “constantly” by Lexington citizens for “pleasure and profit.” By that point, the collection contained 20,000 specimens that had been gathered in the “various departments of natural history” (11 June 1872).  Donations described include eighty “specimens” from the Smithsonian Institution and a “valuable box of birds and mammals” from Australia.  The article stated that Bowman had set aside rooms in the Ashland mansion (“his private residence”) to exhibit part of the collection, but the majority of items was stored in boxes “awaiting the liberality of some wealthy citizens to erect a museum building…”

The Kentucky University Museum of Natural History could have developed into a great institution.  It possessed the Smithsonian collection, had employed the former Harvard museum director as its curator, its huge numbers of items and contributors—over 200 individuals and organizations had made donations (including the Chicago Academy of Science and the British Museum of London)—but the driving force behind it, John B. Bowman, was at cross purposes with the organization and in the end, it was largely forsaken… (Kincaid, Lori.  “John Bryan Bowman: The Triumphs and Tragedies of a Kentucky Visionary.”  May 1992, and Brooks, Eric,  “Ashland’s Lost Museum.”  Presentation given at Ashland, Lexington, Kentucky, 19 April 2006.)

(More about the Natural History Museum and the fate of Kentucky University in future posts.)

Clay Family Loses Ashland, University of Kentucky Predecessor Moves In

01 Tuesday Sep 2015

Posted by in Farm, James and Susan Clay Era (1852-1866), Kentucky University Era (1866-1882), Preservation, Public Hospitality, Transfer of Ownership

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YOU ARE HERE -> 1860s

Although Ashland had survived its first transfer of ownership (from Henry Clay’s widow Lucretia to his son James), remaining in family hands, after the Civil War it would not.  Due to James’s death in 1864, the financial hardship after the war, and complex dealings with settling the Ashland estate, James’s widow Susan was forced to sell Ashland in February of 1866.  The buyer was John Bryan Bowman, founder and regent of Kentucky University.

Bowman possessed a lofty vision for higher education in Kentucky and the new Kentucky University grew quickly in the mid-1860s with the establishment of its (land grant) Agricultural and Mechanical College and a merger with Transylvania University.  Bowman had searched to find a farm in or near Lexington with appropriate buildings to establish a University campus and launch the A & M College.  In February of 1866 Bowman purchased for the Kentucky University/A & M campus both the Ashland estate for $90,000 and the adjoining Woodlands estate (which had belonged to Henry Clay’s daughter and son-in-law, Anne Brown Clay and James Erwin) for $40,000, a total of 433 acres for $130,000.   These two properties joined the existing downtown Transylvania campus.

The Lexington Observer & Reporter applauded the purchase, saying that the University “will do credit to our State, and serve as a monument to the memory of Mr. Clay.”  Beyond the historical significance of Ashland, the rich and handsome land of Henry Clay’s farm was praiseworthy; it was doubted at the time that any other newly-founded agricultural college in the country could boast such a desirable location.  Fourteen years after his death, Henry Clay’s homestead in 1866 continued to sustain the many improvements he had made.  The estate was ideally located a short distance from town on a main thoroughfare and virtually everyone knew how to find Ashland.  It would have been impossible to produce such a fine physical setting for the University campus elsewhere.

In Ashland’s history, the Kentucky University period is an anomaly.  The Clay family was no longer involved in the status and fate of Ashland.  It was now an institutional property, interpreted and preserved by non-family members.  In the absence of the living memorial that his family and artifacts represented, the connection to Henry Clay was now less tangible.

Yet Henry Clay was undeniably important to Kentucky University.  Bowman knew that the historical significance of Ashland lent dignity and gravity to his cause, as he described it in 1866:  “The associations which cluster around it as the homestead of the great Commoner and friend of Agriculture, the inspiration which will be caught by the student…, the advertisement which it will give the Institution…all give it a value above money, and make it eminently fitting that it should be held sacred and dedicated to a great and permanent work such as ours…”

Ashland after the Civil War continued to symbolize the greatness of Henry Clay and his home state, serving as something of a spiritual capital for Kentuckians.  In this period of healing and optimism, a time of rebuilding and investing in young people, Clay was a fitting beacon of conciliation and progress.  The Great Compromiser’s efforts had not prevented Civil War, but his major role in forestalling it cast him as an even larger hero in its aftermath.  His former home was tangible proof to Americans that there had been such a great man who had walked among them and manifested the highest ideals.

People from all around the country continued to journey to Ashland, which remained the public destination it had long been.  University students were known to have given visitors tours of the historic grounds; one visitor described how he was shown around by students who pointed out “as a relic of the hallowed past” the bath-house where “the statesman courted health, and philosophized, like Diogenes, in his tub” (c1870s unidentified newspaper).  Bowman commented on how the lasting memory of Henry Clay at Ashland drew “the thousands of his admirers who visit it from year to year.”  Lexington in 1874 was described as a “quiet town,” which also happened to be “the Mecca of thousands of pilgrims, because it contains the old residence and the grave of Henry Clay…” (Scribner’s Monthly, December 1874).

As much as Henry Clay was revered by the University, its students, and the community, he represented Ashland’s past, while the University pointed to the estate’s future.  Thus the preservation of Ashland was about keeping the essence—the cachet—of the historic estate while making it workable for the nascent University.  Bowman did not contemplate any particular form of historic preservation of the mansion or other Clay-era outbuildings because he believed that the University was to be permanently located at Ashland.  He freely razed, built, and altered buildings for University use.  Bowman and his wife lived in part of the Ashland mansion while part was given over to University administration and to the housing of the University’s Natural History Museum.

Bowman had devised a program for beautification of the campus, and though his plans ultimately never progressed far, substantial changes occurred to the farm, the grounds, and the buildings.  There was at that point no inkling that Ashland would return to the private ownership of a Clay heir nor that it would eventually serve as a public memorial to Henry Clay…

The Origins of Kentucky University and The Kentucky A&M …and How They Came to Ashland

11 Tuesday Aug 2015

Posted by in Kentucky University Era (1866-1882), Transfer of Ownership

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Founder and Regent of Kentucky University, John Bryan Bowman (1824-1891) held a lofty vision for higher education in Kentucky and was devoted to the ideal of egalitarian education, proclaiming, “I want to build up a People’s Institution, a great university eventually accessible to the poorest boy in all the land…”[1]

John Bryan Bowman

Bowman was a man of energetic determination and a finely-honed gift of persuasion, repeatedly raising enormous sums of money and convincing many of the need for a great Kentucky university.  Bowman’s plans for his university were big and bold, even though Kentucky had so far lagged behind other states in education.  Bowman fully expected his new university to attain a first-class national reputation: “…we would not be deemed arrogant in proposing to build, upon a more modern basis, an Institution equal to any in America…with a high grade of scholarship…”[2]

Kentucky University, a private, sectarian institution situated in Harrodsburg, was officially formed in 1858 and opened in the fall of 1859 (emerging from the defunct Bacon College, 1836-1850).  It survived the war years, but didn’t survive in its location in Harrodsburg when its main building was destroyed by fire in 1864 and Bowman couldn’t procure enough land to expand and develop the University there.

The University’s Board decided that the permanent location of the University would be moved to a community that would subscribe at least $100,000 for it.  Louisville and Covington made proposals.  And Transylvania University in Lexington (established 1798) – which had proposed a merger with Kentucky University four years earlier – renewed its offer.[3]

Transylvania’s original main building, downtown Lexington

Three years prior to this, President Lincoln signed into law the Morrill Act, which allotted states public land or equivalent “land scrip” to generate endowment funds for schools, particularly Agricultural and Mechanical colleges, to teach practical skills instead of the customary curricula based on the classics. Kentucky’s participation in the Morrill grant program was tardy due to the war and heavy debt, inducing the State Legislature to consider refusing it altogether.

But Bowman stepped in.  He made his proposal: that Transylvania and Kentucky Universities would merge and take on the A & M College as a part of the new enlarged University, that it would be located in Lexington, and that the University Board would faithfully execute the intent of the Morrill Act.[4]

The bill was passed to create the Kentucky Agricultural and Mechanical College as a part of Kentucky University. [5]  Although organized under the private, sectarian Kentucky University, Kentucky A & M was Kentucky’s land grant college.[6]

The Ashland mansion depicted during Kentucky University’s tenure

Now that Transylvania’s campus was part of the new vision, Bowman searched to find a farm in or near Lexington with appropriate buildings to launch the A & M College.  He considered many “desirable locations which were offered,” but “in harmony with the wishes” of many of the Fayette County donors, he purchased Ashland.[7]  This was a decision widely applauded by citizens who saw it as a noble use of Henry Clay’s historic homestead and a source for continued pride within the community.

A letter written by an unidentified person, prior to Susan Clay’s 1866 sale of Ashland, was sent to Susan’s brother and trustee of her estate, Thomas Jacob.  The writer provides an argument for Kentucky A & M’s establishment at Ashland.  It is quite possible the letter was written by John B. Bowman in an effort to convince Jacob to sell the estate: “…it would place Ashland where it may be supposed the friends of Henry Clay would prefer to see it, in the hands of the state rather than in the possession of some unknown individual.” [8]

The “hands of the state” refers to the Kentucky Agricultural & Mechanical College’s funding specifically as the land-grant college of the Commonwealth, because its umbrella institution, Kentucky University, was a privately funded, denominationally-affiliated establishment.

A Lexington paper fully approved, saying that the University “will do credit to our State, and serve as a monument to the memory of Mr. Clay.”[9]  Beyond the historical significance of Ashland, the rich and handsome land of Henry Clay’s farm was praiseworthy: it was doubted at the time that any other newly-founded agricultural college in the country could boast such a desirable location.

Fourteen years after his death, Henry Clay’s homestead in 1866 continued to sustain the many improvements he made over the course of 47 years.  The maturing landscape with its exceptional variety of fine trees, shrubs, lawns, flowers and gardens was a tremendous gift to the new College.  The estate was ideally located a short distance from town on a main thoroughfare and everyone knew where Ashland was located.  It would have been impossible to reproduce such a fine physical setting.

In February of 1866 Bowman purchased both the Ashland estate for $90,000 and the adjoining Woodlands estate for $40,000[10], for the Kentucky University A & M campus, a total of 433 acres for $130,000.[11]

The Ashland and Woodlands estates that Kentucky University purchased in 1866

[1] John D. Wright Jr.  Transylvania: Tutor to the West.  Lexington, KY: Transylvania University, 1975, 198.

[2] Henry Milton Pyles.  “The Life and Work of John Bryan Bowman.”  (Diss., University of Kentucky, 1944), 25.

[3]Transylvania University endeavored to bring the University to Lexington in 1860, but Bowman was opposed to it at the time because he expected to secure the Harrodsburg Springs property. – Pyles 36-37.

[4] Pyles 52.

[5] Pyles 52.

[6] Carl B. Cone. The University of Kentucky: A Pictorial History.  (Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 1989), 3.

[7] Pyles 65.

[8] Undated and unsigned letter known to have been sent to Thomas Jacob. From Library of Congress, Collections of the Manuscript Division; a reproduction in the Ashland archives.  It is in currently unrecognizable handwriting, but the point of view of the letter implies someone whose interest lies with the College, if not Bowman, perhaps a member of the University Board of Curators.

[9] Lexington Observer & Reporter, January 17, 1866.

[10] The Woodlands had belonged to Henry Clay’s daughter and son-in-law, Anne Brown Clay and James Erwin.

[11] James F. Hopkins,  The University of Kentucky: Origins and Early Years. Lexington,KY:University of Kentucky Press, 1951 67.  Kiesel puts the amount at $147,000, 106.  Linda Raney Kiesel. “Kentucky’s Land-Grant Legacy: An Analysis of the Administrations of John Bryan Bowman and James Kennedy Patterson, 1865-1890.”  Diss., University of Kentucky, 2003.

Kentucky University Leaves Ashland

14 Tuesday Apr 2015

Posted by in Kentucky University Era (1866-1882)

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YOU ARE HERE -> 1870s

From such grand and glorious beginnings, John Bryan Bowman’s vision for Kentucky University began to unravel in the 1870s.  The details of the troubles he and the university encountered could—and has—filled volumes.  Ashland plays a central part in the sad story.

Ashland during Kentucky University/A & M years

All of the tumult made the period of 1865-1878, which should have been one of great growth and success, one of fracture and failure.  A contemporary of Bowman’s later assessed what had gone wrong with Kentucky University: “The rock of offense–the thing that brought grief to [Bowman’s] soul and disappointment to his plans–was his endeavor to unite under one control a college historically and traditionally denominational with an institution under state control.”

Finally after years of bitter conflict, private Kentucky University split from the public A & M College.  What was left of the University relocated to the old Transylvania campus downtown and later took back that name.  In 1878 after 19 years of service, John Bryan Bowman would no longer serve as Regent of Kentucky University.  He was ordered to vacate Ashland.

John Bryan Bowman

A poignant scene occurred at Ashland during these dark days for Bowman and the Lexington Daily Press recounted the details.  The faculty and class of the Law College came to the house for dinner and presented Bowman with a “beautiful, gold-headed cane” as testimony of their respect for him and the work he was doing, congratulating him for the latest vindication in the struggle.  One of the faculty rose before dinner and thanked Bowman, stating that everyone gathered possessed “unshaken confidence in your fidelity to that grand and noble object to which you have already given the manhood of your life.  Believing, as we do, that your every act has been prompted by motives the purest…”   Bowman was moved, calling it “one of the most cherished remembrances” of his life.  Dinner was “heartily enjoyed” and followed by speeches, anecdotes and songs.  When Bowman’s guests left late in the evening they wished the Regent long life and prosperity (June 17, 1877).

While the A & M had been situated at Ashland since 1865, Bowman proposed in 1877 that both the Ashland and adjoining Woodlands estates be sold to the state for use by the A & M College, but the Kentucky A & M College Commission rejected his proposal, claiming that the state did not need so much property.  A final agreement was reached which allowed the A & M College to rent the Ashland property for two more years, continuing to utilize all buildings and equipment for that time, while Kentucky University retained ownership and oversight.   Once the agreement was reached, Kentucky A & M managed to thrive for a time.  The future appeared more hopeful, although the search for a new site was on.

Citizens of Lexington grew especially worried about the A & M leaving Ashland and leaving the city.  It seemed out of the question for the school to be located anywhere but Ashland:  “Where else in our State can a more suitable tract of land be offered for its location?” the Lexington Daily Press asked in April 1878, “Where is agriculture carried on with greater success?”  Lexingtonians also saw the move as morally reprehensible: after all, their contributions had specifically brought the Agricultural and Mechanical College to the city for the benefit of the entire citizenry.  They refused to accept that sectarian Kentucky University now held ownership of the Ashland and Woodlands estates.

In the summer of 1879 the donors and citizens of Lexington presented a petition to the University Board demanding that a portion of the Ashland and Woodlands tract be offered to the state.  The Board ultimately rejected it.  The people of Lexington were bitterly disappointed to have lost the historic Ashland and Woodlands tracts as the state college campus.

The A & M Mechanical Building

State-wide bidding began for the A & M College site.  Lexington was especially anxious to retain the state’s only public college and the city won by offering its fairgrounds. The A & M moved to its new campus on South Limestone Street in 1882.  It became commonly known as the “State College,” until in 1908 it adopted its legal name, “State University of Kentucky,” and in 1916 took on its current name, “The University of Kentucky.”

In 1879 the University Board had settled all financial dealings between the University and Bowman.  The Secretary of the Board was to “transmit a copy of this resolution to John B. Bowman, accompanied with a polite request that he surrender possession of the Mansion and appurtenances at Ashland to the Executive Committee.”

In a letter to the Board of Curators, Bowman said, “In regard to the Surrender of Ashland and its appurtenances, I will say that I have advertised to see my Household furniture, stock, [etc.] on the 29th of July and I will give possession of the place and other property of the University on the day following.”  The sale of the Bowmans’ belongings took place at Ashland with about 2,000 people in attendance.

John and Mary Bowman—and, soon, the Kentucky A & M—left Ashland for good.

See also: Historic Homestead as College Campus and Clay Family Loses Ashland, University of Kentucky Predecessor Moves In.

The Exotic and Curious at Ashland

08 Monday Dec 2014

Posted by in Artifacts, Kentucky University Era (1866-1882)

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YOU ARE HERE -> 1860s-1870s

After the Civil War, Ashland was in the hands of the predecessor of the University of Kentucky.  The estate was no longer a family home and farm, but a nascent college campus.  SEE ALSO: Clay Family Loses Ashland, University of Kentucky Predecessor Moves In and Historic Homestead as College Campus.

As Regent John B. Bowman stated when Kentucky University was founded, “The Natural Sciences, in their application to the useful arts and to agriculture, should receive more attention.”   He had envisioned an intense focus on “science in its widest ranges.”  In Bowman’s February 1872 report to Kentucky Governor Leslie, he provided a history of the University’s Agricultural and Mechanical College in his plea for greater funding, stating: “In order to constitute an efficient and fully manned institution, such as contemplated by Congress and desired by the State, a large expenditure in buildings, experimental farm, Philosophical and Chemical apparatus, Geological and Mineralogical cabinet, with Museums of Natural History, would be required.”

John Bryan Bowman

Bowman’s goals were lofty.  He even encouraged the legislature to fund and complete the geological survey of the state, with the assistance of the Kentucky A & M: “We can…furnish a competent Botanist…with a Zoologist and Paleontologist…”  He knew the survey would benefit Kentucky University: “large collections of Botanical, Geological, Mineralogical, and other specimens, could be made for the Museums…greatly to the benefit of the State and of the College.

So Bowman set about organizing the “required” facilities and many of his envisioned scientific pursuits at Ashland. From the old—and now absorbed into Kentucky University—Transylvania University, library, apparatus, and museum collections that had been scattered during the Civil War now came to Kentucky University.   A meteorological observatory was established at Ashland in 1872, a zoological collection was initiated, and a natural history museum installed.

Some of the items that were in the Natural History Museum (photographed later, at Transylvania University). From Eric Brooks, Images of America, Ashland the Henry Clay Estate, Arcadia Publishing, 2007.

The extant evidence points to a curious zoo at Ashland.  It was mentioned in a February 1872 Lexington Daily Press article a “gift of two fawns” that was added to “the zoological collection at Ashland.” The paper declared that “the collection promises to become one of great importance.”  But the only other animal known to have been a part of this collection is a bear.  An event recorded by Henry Clay’s great-granddaughter, Lucretia Clay Erwin Simpson, identified a “pet bear” that had escaped from Regent Bowman’s “embryonic State University” at Ashland.  She felt the need to qualify the account with, “this incredible story was true.” (Ashland archives)  Clay’s youngest son, John, inherited the stud farm of Ashland, which was located adjacent to Kentucky A & M at Ashland proper.  A servant at the stud farm, who carefully tended the prize mares and foals, broke into a family gathering stammering that a bear was walking around the horses “having the time of its life trying out the young foals.” (Ashland archives).

But Bowman’s Natural History Museum was a far more substantial endeavor. His motivation to create a museum was rooted in his educational goals, especially in the area of the natural sciences, but was perhaps influenced by his milieu, as well.  Bowman was a product of his time in his intrigue with the material world and the penchant for acquisitiveness that characterized mid- to late-nineteenth century culture.  Bowman’s idea of a museum may have come from a Victorian conviction that progress increased with knowledge, and the more artifacts exhibited, the more knowledge gained.

Ledger of donations to the Natural History Museum. From Eric Brooks, Images of America: Ashland the Henry Clay Estate, Arcadia Publishing, 2007.

Bowman was undoubtedly inspired by the renowned Charles Willson Peale and his Philadelphia Museum.  Peale was a natural historian and artist who, in the 1780s, conceived of the idea of an American museum of natural history where rare and commonplace specimens of nature would be exhibited together.  The Philadelphia Museum opened to the public in Philadelphia in 1786 as a for-profit institution.  His “collection of curiosities” at first involved only preserved animals arranged in careful order. But he soon looked to expand his museum collection with a greater variety of animals, including birds and fish, reptiles and insects. Peale also sought vegetables, minerals, shells, fossils, medals and old coins and other “curiosities” from around the world to display.  By 1799, he had amassed a collection of hundreds of animals and thousands of insects, fish, minerals and fossils, as well as exotic animals for the first time displayed in American, such as anteaters and giraffes.  In 1801 he acquired the skeleton of a mastodon.  Peale’s museum, like Bowman’s, also included a zoo where live animals could be observed within close range.

Museums were regarded as vital to universities in the 19th century, particularly in relation to the sciences.  Not only did Peale set the stage for many natural history museums to follow, but James Smithson’s 1836 bequest and the decision of Congress to create the Smithsonian Institution, composed of a group of museums, added to the midcentury momentum toward museums intended for serious study and research.  University museums were regarded as laboratories for students and researchers, but ideally accessible to the public.

It is telling that most of Bowman’s museum collection was in storage due to lack of space, but no matter:  he continued to collect.  A plea went out in the June 11, 1872 Lexington Daily Press, entreating readers to consider what they themselves might contribute to Kentucky University’s museum “in the way of relics or other curiosities…,” suggesting coins, Indian relics, old books, newspapers, letters and paintings and “especially anything which will illustrate the lives of our early pioneers and distinguished men.”  The Louisville library and natural history museum are held up as prime examples for Lexington:

Why cannot our citizens do the same, and let us foster our own great institution of learning, and hold up the hands of its founder, who is toiling in so many different ways to make it attractive to the public.  Let everyone who visits Ashland remember to take something rare or curious which may be lying by, and which will soon be lost unless deposited in some such permanent place, where it will be well preserved and credited perpetually to the kind donor.

We know that at least one of Henry Clay’s descendants responded. When Clay’s family vacated Ashland by 1866, the Henry Clay artifacts of course went with them.  But one important Clay relic returned to Ashland: the Museum of Natural History accepted as a donation Henry Clay’s Ghent jacket.  It had been on display in James and Susan’s Ashland library and later ended up in the possession of one of their sons, but sometime during the 1872-73 school year, this grandson donated it to the Museum of Natural History.  There amidst the stuffed birds, shells, and bones in the Museum at Ashland, was Henry Clay’s splendid Ghent jacket.  (Kentucky University Catalogue, 1872-73.  Transylvania University Special Collections.)

It is unknown if the Ghent jacket was ever on display in the University Museum at Ashland.  But this Clay artifact would have fit well into Bowman’s vision for his museum and its call to the public to donate historical items.   Other historical artifacts donated to the Museum included “relics from Mount Vernon” and a piece of Martha Washington’s wedding dress.  A curious Henry Clay artifact was donated, as well: a model of farm implements “made from the old house and coffin of Henry Clay.”  It was Bowman’s intent that the Kentucky University Museum of Natural History would be a repository for the safekeeping of historic artifacts…and Ashland was the site of this safekeeping for twelve years.