Two Pieces of Paper and a Contact Sheet

Sometimes, my day boils down to deciphering the scrawl of an architectural historian from four decades ago and squinting at tiny black and white photographs. The building depicted in these minute images is now nothing but bare earth surrounded by a copse of trees – but if it weren’t for those two pieces of paper and the rapid firing of the camera shutter way back when, there would be no record of many buildings that once stood across Kentucky.

Proof that a house once stood on a now barren hillside.

(For those under the age of 35, a contact sheet  – also known as a contract proof – is a positive print of all the negative images from a roll of 35 mm film or medium format film. These sheets allow the photographer to view a mini-preview of all the film to determine which photographs are best to print. Yep. Not only did we have to be judicious in what photographs we took, developing the film was the next step.)

A six-over-six double-hung sash window, like a ghost from a distant age.

The Bourbon County farmhouse I was hunting for must have fallen around 30 years ago. But thankfully, it was recorded in the Historic Resources Survey at the Kentucky Heritage Council (KHC), the State Historic Preservation Office.

The facade of the house.

There are more than 100,000 sites recorded in what is now called the Kentucky Historic Resources Inventory (KHRI) database – and this house is one of them.*

Rear and side elevation.

Since the 1970s, people like me have been filling out these forms (which have gone through a medley of incarnations) and submitting the paperwork and photographs to the KHC.

Late 19th century coal burning hearth.

It’s a treasure trove that few people know how to exist, and as an agency, it is one that is perennially underfunded and underappreciated. Preserving memories doesn’t make big bucks or a big splash like a new road or shopping center – but it tells the story of us. And today, as I translated handwritten notes, I am so glad that there have been and will hopefully continue to be people who take the time to take the picture and write down their observations. Without those people, so much more would have been lost.

*These files are housed at the KHC, but not currently available online. To inquire about accessing the survey files, you should contact the KHC directly.