J. Winston Coleman

J. Winston Coleman (November 5, 1898 – May 4, 1983) was an American tobacco farmer, contractor, newspaper columnist, historian, book collector, and bibliographer who specialized in the study of 19th-century Kentucky, United States.^[1][2] He graduated from the University of Kentucky in the 1920s with a bachelor's and master's in mechanical engineering.^[2] He worked as a building contractor and started the historical work as a hobby.^[2] He wrote a newspaper column on Kentucky historical topics for 20 years.^[2] A lifelong resident of Lexington, Coleman owned Winburn Farm from 1936 until his death.^[3] There was an exhibit of "slave lore" collected by Coleman at the University of Kentucky in 1940.^[4]

In addition to writing several books, he published over 50 pamphlets.^[5] 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 in Lexington, Kentucky.^[2] His Slavery Times in Kentucky remains a standard reference on the topic,^[2] and papers and images he collected during his research are held at the University of Kentucky libraries.^[6]

He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 1983 after a long illness.^[2] Coleman was buried at Lexington Cemetery.^[7]

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