Isaac Scott Hathaway Museum, Lexington History Center

The Isaac Scott Hathaway Museum in downtown Lexington looks forward by looking back. The museum hopes that the inspirations, art and writings of great African Americans in the past will help illuminate the path for an up-and-coming generation.

Located within the Lexington History Museum, the 800 square feet of the Isaac Scott Hathaway Museum exists to spread the word about African-American artists, writers and public figures from the Bluegrass area. The museum provides a number of programs, including an annual celebration on Juneteenth (June 19) and other educational programs.

The museum is named for Lexington-born sculptor Isaac Scott Hathaway, who specialized in statues and busts of prominent African Americans. Hathaway determined to become a sculptor when, at the age of 9, he visited a museum and discovered not a single work of art by or of an African American. While Hathaway worked mostly in plaster, he did sometimes sculpt in bronze. Hathaway sometimes painted, although only one of his paintings survives, an 1896 portrait of a horse named Queen Ban.

Hathaway, who died in 1967 at age 93, was the first African American commissioned to design a coin. He designed two U.S coins in his lifetime: a 50-cent piece depicting Booker T. Washington in 1946 and another 50-cent piece with George Washington Carver's image in 1951. Hathaway also sculpted the death mask when famed emancipationist and ambassador Cassius Marcellus Clay died in 1903.

While admission is free, the museum appreciates donations.

- by Ivonne Rovira, Lexington Reporter for HelloMetro  (Click to leave a message)

Ivonne Rovira

A graduate of the prestigious Columbia University School of Journalism in New York City, Ivonne Rovira worked as a reporter for the Miami News, The Miami Herald and The Associated Press. She has written articles for The National Catholic Reporter and The Courier-Journal. For more than 15 years, Ivonne wrote and edited articles aimed at middle-school children.