Samuel W. Thomas

Samuel W. Thomas (1938-2012) was an award-winning Louisville, Kentucky, historian and author. Many of his 21 published books focused on Louisville history and architecture.

His books include: Views of Louisville since 1766 (1971); The Journals of Increase Allen Lapham for 1827-1830 (1972); The Simple Spirit: A Pictorial Study of the Shaker Community at Pleasant Hill, Kentucky (1972); Old Louisville: The Victorian Era (1978); Louisville since the Twenties (1978); Dawn Comes to the Mountains (1981); Cave Hill Cemetery: A Pictorial Guide and Its History (1985); Crescent Hill Revisited (1987); Changing Medicine, Constant Care: Kentucky Baptist Hospitals (1990); Barry Bingham: A Man of His Word (1993); Churchill Downs: A Documentary History of America’s Most Legendary Race Track (1995); St. Matthews: The Crossroads of Beargrass (1999); J. J. B. Hilliard, W. L. Lyons, Inc. (2000); Cherokee Triangle: A History of the Heart of the Highlands (2003); Oxmoor: The Bullitt Family Estate Near Louisville, Kentucky, Since 1787 (2003); The Village of Anchorage (2004); George Rogers Clark and Locust Grove (2006); The Architectural History of Louisville 1778-1900 (2009), Crescent Hill: Its History and Resurgence (2011); The Origins of Louisville’s Olmsted Parks and Parkways (2013), and Old J. T. S. Brown: Three Generations of Kentucky Distillers (2013).

He also edited, designed, and published numerous other books, and was president of the George Rogers Clark Press, which reprinted Henry McMurtrie’s Sketches of Louisville (1819), the first (1832) city directory of Louisville, and Ben Casseday’s History of Louisville (1852).

Born and raised in Philadelphia, he graduated from the University of Louisville in 1960 (B.A.) and 1964 (Ph.D.)