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As America became a nation, Maysville became the threshold to a new continent. Pioneers, Native Americans, soldiers, and slaves on their way to freedom all came here, and they left a heritage unmatched in our Commonwealth.
At the Kentucky Gateway Museum Center, you’ll find detailed depictions of the region’s past and fascinating insights into the men and women who played their parts in its rich history—people like Daniel Boone, Simon Kenton and his wife Martha Dowden, Henry Clay, Tecumseh, and many others.
Permanent exhibits bring the whole history of the region to life, but the museum is home to more artifacts, documents, and materials than can be displayed at any one time. Like our country, the exhibits here are always changing—there’s always something new and exciting to see.
The Museum Center also plays host to local collectors and traveling programs. Whether you’re interested in history, art, or the everyday life of an extraordinary community, you’ll find it here. Plan on visiting often to see the latest show.
1900's Dollhouse
December 21, 2007
Kay Miller, who recently relocated to Maysville, has lent the museum her historic dollhouse for display.
Her family purchased the house in Shanghai, China in 1948 and were told it had been made by a Chinese craftsman for a European family around 1900. She will be adding furniture to the house as she gets settled in her new home.
Warriors in the Shadows: Women of the Underground
March 20, 2008
The Kentucky Gateway Museum Center will host the University of Kentucky's Department of Sciology's photographic exhibit "Warriors In the Shadows" to run between February 8, 2008 until March 30th.
The unique social history exhibit focuses on women's roles in the Underground Railroad. They were all "soldiers," whether black or white, slave or free, and they fought not with guns, but with their basements and cellars. They took part in what became known as the Underground Railroad - a network of hiding places run by people who put their lives on the line to help slaves reach the North, where they could be free.
Doris Wilkinson, a UK professor of Sociology, was the original researcher and curator for
the collection of photographers. In thinking of a theme for the brave women who helped fleeing slaves, she says: "I began thinking of fighters, strugglers, activists," Wilkinson
said. She selected the term "warrior" for the women who served as conductors on the Underground Railroad. Because much of their work was in secret, she called them "Warriors in the Shadows".
Museum curator, Sue Ellen Grannis says that the social history exhibit will be enhanced by items from the museum collection of documents of manumission, slave sales, wills, books and other ephemera. Roberta Dean Perry, former Maysville native, has lent herpoems and illustrations, and photos of Rosa Park and Martin Luther King to the exhibit.