Shelby County Tobacco Farmers - A Pictorial History

Shelby County Tobacco Farmers - A Pictorial History, by Phyllis L. Bailey, of Bagdad, contains more than 650 pictures that capture tobacco farming in Shelby County from the turn of the 20th century to recent years. The photos follow the crop from setting to harvest to

stripping and then to market, and include pictures from the

Shelbyville Tobacco Festival.

The book cover features Bailey's father, Stewart L. Waits, standing among the rows of one of his early tobacco crops in 1952.

Contact the writer at phyllisbailey@earthlink.net

Edward Troye: Painter of Thoroughbred Stories

For author Genevieve Baird Lacer, three loves--art, horses, and history--came together in this her first published work. A collector at heart, her overriding interest is research and delving into the stories behind pieces of the past. Her horses still consume a large part of her life having had a father about whom it was remarked, "There never was a man who loved his horses more." Genevieve is a Kentucky native and a graduate in Education of the University of Kentucky. Previously a teacher of reading and writing of elementary and middle school students in Kentucky private and public schools, she now volunteers for educational projects that foster local history. She continues to spend time assisting children with their writing for classroom teachers.

Introduction by Edward L. Bowen, top racing historian and author of Legacies of the Turf: A Century of Great Breeders.

Edward Troye

In 1831 a young Swiss immigrant stepped onto American soil bringing a talent that would impact the world of the American Thoroughbred. For forty years Edward Troye painted America's most distinguished horses beginning with Medley, Sir Archy and Trifle and finishing with such notables as Kentucky, Lexington, and Longfellow. Troye's career began in a day preceding the age of photography so now his paintings allow us perhaps the only visual record of our early foundation sires and mares, those legends whose names fill the pedigrees of our more familiar champions. Troye became known for his faithful renderings; his patrons appreciated his artistic attention to an animal's conformation and coloring. These were horsemen intent on establishing and preserving the bloodlines of their cherished livestock.

At the same time America's first magazine of sport began. The American Turf Register and Sporting Magazine primarily devoted its pages to the turf and to its thoroughbreds and Edward Troye's paintings became engraved frontispieces for twenty-one different issues. Troye's art served as a marketing tool for magazine and horseman as the Turf Register spread his work across the country. For the first time these engraved portraits of early thoroughbreds appear together in one place and their stories are retold borrowing the very words of the magazine. Sifting through fifteen years of Turf Register history was necessary to retrieve the excerpts chosen to tell the stories of these important horses. Reading these nineteenth-century passages transports us back to that time and brings appreciation to that first American sporting journal. This book celebrates not only a beautiful legacy of Troye's art, but also his desire to preserve a historical record as well.

Troye's dedication to preserving images of American livestock did not stop with our earliest thoroughbreds. Arabians, jacks, trotting stock and Shorthorn cattle stood amid landscapes on Troye canvases. He also painted a series of landscapes depicting the Holy Land and included in this book are photographs of paintings that represent the breadth of Edward Troye's work. Thanks to the generosity of private collectors, thoroughbred associations, museums and libraries across the country, images of Troye paintings are exhibited in this volume. From 1832 to 1872 Edward Troye painted some of America's most important blooded stock and now his paintings give us their stories.

Visit www.edwardtroye.com for more information or to order.