Although the title Kentucky Barns: Agricultural Heritage of the Bluegrass will conjure images of tobacco and horse barns for many, this book of photographs beautifully illustrates the diversity of barns in both use and disuse in Kentucky. It presents the subcategories “horse barn” and “tobacco barn” and displays as well the great variety of other types of barns: mule barns, hemp barns, stock barns, hay barns, and many more. According to architectural historian Janie-Rice Brother, author of the introduction, Kentucky ranks fourth in the nation for the number of existing barns built before 1960. Though she doesn’t say so, this is surely due in part to the fact that, according to the US Census of Agriculture, Kentucky continues to rank in the top ten states with the most farms but ranks low in terms of farm size. Kentucky has maintained small farms for a variety of reasons, and therefore many historical barns remain—even as many have been lost.

In the foreword, Mary Berry—director of The Berry Center and daughter of famed Kentucky writer/farmer/activist Wendell Berry—describes the loss of farmland, farm people, and farm culture as well as of towns in her home county. She writes, “As I look back now, the first sign of this decay was the barns. Farmers didn’t need them anymore, or they couldn’t afford to fix them” (ix). In her “Artist Statement,” Carol Peachee points out, “The barn is an iconic symbol for farms and agriculture,” but this “iconic symbol of farming is also disappearing” (5). This book frames the loss of barns as symbolic of the loss of farms and farming culture, which it certainly is. However, the majority of the photographs testify to the enduring importance of farming in Kentucky, and they display the extraordinary creativity of builders and users of barns, both past and present.

In her introduction, Brother provides a brief but informative overview of a few common barn types, from catchall barns to more specialized structures—bank barns, stock barns, dairy barns, burley tobacco barns, fire-cured tobacco barns, and so forth. For those distanced from rural and farm life, “barn” may be an unmarked term, perhaps one that conjures the red Fisher-Price toy barn from childhood. Yet barns are highly specialized, varying by region, use, construction method and material, and historical era. As Brother describes and the photographs show, many barns also reveal the regional origins of builders and users, which in Kentucky includes influences of English, German, Swiss, and Dutch immigrants.

This book’s nearly 400 photographs include barns in use, restored barns, barns in danger of collapse, and, of course, barns thickly covered in kudzu. The photos include the insides and outsides of barns; historic barns made of wood, stone, and brick (as hemp barns once were); and large barn structures built for use in the contemporary thoroughbred industry. They show farmers’ creative uses of existing structures to fit changing needs—stock barns used to store hay, hay barns used to house tobacco, a small church converted to a burley tobacco barn, and dairy barns standing empty or used for other purposes, reflecting the move from dairy to beef cattle in Kentucky over the course of the twentieth century. There are numerous octagonal and round barns, which Brother notes trended in the 1870s, and there is an experimental dark-fired tobacco barn on the grounds of the University of Kentucky Agricultural Experiment Station in the western Kentucky town of Princeton. There are many barns decorated in times past with advertisements urging people to “Chew Mail Pouch Tobacco” and large quilt squares painted in more recent times as part of the Kentucky Quilt Trail. Though most of the photos feature the expected bucolic landscape, the lights of neighboring chain restaurants can be seen in at least one photograph.

The captions for each photograph all include the name of the county in which the barn sits, but otherwise they vary widely. The best of them provide details about the family, builder, and/or the farm where the barn sits, and contextualize the barn in terms of use and changing farm practices. In some cases, it is clear that Peachee did not speak with the barn owner, which means that little information is provided about either historical or contemporary uses. In a few cases, captions suggests that a barn appears to be in disuse and is therefore threatened, but a closer look reveals a new roof, suggesting preservation efforts. On a similar note, it has become the norm to present Kentucky tobacco as a thing of the past, and this book is no different—even as it includes photo after photo of tobacco curing in all kinds of structures.

Peachtree writes that she photographed barns in forty-five percent of Kentucky’s 120 counties, and central and western Kentucky are particularly well represented. For many Kentuckians the title will be misleading, for although Kentucky is known as the “Bluegrass State,” within the state “Bluegrass” refers to the central Kentucky region surrounding Lexington. Such small imperfections are forgivable, as the book presents a broad picture of barns around the Commonwealth with skill and beauty. I initially wished for more text contextualizing barns and barn types. But as I spent more time with the book, page by page, I came to appreciate it as a celebration of barns as symbols of agricultural life as well as of vernacular creativity, particularly the ways in which material culture tied to livelihood is often celebrated through aesthetic details added far beyond functional necessity.

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[Review length: 910 words • Review posted on October 1, 2020]