J. Winston Coleman (November 5, 1898May 4, 1983) was an American tobacco farmer, contractor, newspaper columnist, historian, book collector, and bibliographer who specialized in the study of 19th-century

Kentucky Kentucky (, ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north, West Virginia to the ...

, United States. & He graduated from the

University of Kentucky The University of Kentucky (UK, UKY, or U of K) is a Public University, public Land-grant University, land-grant research university in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. Founded in 1865 by John Bryan Bowman as the Agricultural and Mechanical ...

in the 1920s with a bachelor's and master's in

mechanical engineering Mechanical engineering is the study of physical machines and mechanism (engineering), mechanisms that may involve force and movement. It is an engineering branch that combines engineering physics and engineering mathematics, mathematics principl ...

. He worked as a building contractor and started the historical work as a hobby. He wrote a newspaper column on Kentucky historical topics for 20 years. A lifelong resident of Lexington, Coleman owned Winburn Farm from 1936 until his death. There was an exhibit of "slave lore" collected by Coleman at the University of Kentucky in 1940. In addition to writing several books, he published over 50 pamphlets. In the late 1960s he donated "3,500 books and pamphlets," scrapbooks, photographs, "Kentucky church histories, maps, atlases, personal correspondence and manuscripts" to

Transylvania University Transylvania University is a private university in Lexington, Kentucky, United States. It was founded in 1780 and is the oldest university in Kentucky. It offers 46 major programs, as well as dual-degree engineering programs, and is Higher educ ...

in Lexington, Kentucky. His ''Slavery Times in Kentucky'' remains a standard reference on the topic, and papers and images he collected during his research are held at the University of Kentucky libraries. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1983 after a long illness. Coleman was buried at

Lexington Cemetery Lexington Cemetery is a private, non-profit rural cemetery and arboretum located at 833 W. Main Street, Lexington, Kentucky. The Lexington Cemetery was established in 1848 as a place of beauty and a public cemetery, in part to deal w ...

Selected works

* ''Masonry in the Bluegrass'' (1933) * ''Stagecoach Days in the Bluegrass'' (1935) * ''Slavery Times in Kentucky'' (1940) * ''A Bibliography of Kentucky History'' (1940) * ''Historic Kentucky'' (1967) * ''Lexington During the Civil War'' (1968) * ''Famous Kentucky Duels'' * ''The Springs of Kentucky''

References

1898 births 1983 deaths 20th-century American historians University of Kentucky alumni Writers from Lexington, Kentucky Burials at Lexington Cemetery {{US-historian-stub