Tobacco Barns of Western Kentucky

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$34.95

Book Details 

Author: Lynn Bartlett
Hardcover: 160 pages
Product Dimensions: 9" x 12"
Retail Price: $34.95
ISBN:  978-1-938905-87-2

Book Description

Anyone who travels the highways and back roads of Western Kentucky knows that tobacco farming was once (and still is) one of the biggest agriculture crops in the Commonwealth, a fact proven by the hundreds of old tobacco barns that dot the landscape. These old barns are a lasting tribute to a way of life that goes back generations—many are still being used to cure tobacco for market, while others have been abandoned to time and the elements.
In Tobacco Barns of Western Kentucky, photographer Lynn Bartlett has preserved images of these silent sentinels for posterity, a place where their beauty and purpose can be enjoyed and appreciated for all time. 
This book will encourage readers to hit the road and make their own discoveries of wood and nails. These timeless structures are waiting to be noticed…standing in the fields of nature’s spacious architectural museum. Enjoy Tobacco Barns of Western Kentucky!

Author

Originally from Belleville, Illinois, Lynn Bartlett spent 32 years in Tucson, Arizona. While in Tucson, Lynn owned and operated Gentlemen’s Choice Barber Styling. After selling her business and retiring in 2008, she and her husband decided to move to Western Kentucky where they could enjoy the relaxed, charming lifestyle of small town living. Once there, she decided to focus her attention and creativity on photography.

When she is not combing the rural back roads in search of great photo opportunities, she enjoys fishing on Kentucky Lake and participating in classic car shows with her husband. They reside in Benton, Kentucky.

Praise

“Lynn Bartlett has found beauty and pathos in the humble and utilitarian tobacco barn and its quiet voice in the Kentucky landscape. Tobacco Barns of Western Kentucky provides an elegant vehicle to showcase this slice of regional culture and commerce, as well as her passion for the subject and her skills as a photographer.”
—Paul Aho, Dean, Paducah School of Art and Design
“This book is a wonderful collection of a quickly disappearing part of Kentucky’s agricultural heritage. Western Kentucky has its own style of tobacco barn production and its own barn building traditions, and these structures represent some of the last vestiges of tobacco’s prominence on the region’s cultural landscape. Lynn’s photos capture these buildings in a beautiful light as their traditional utility fades like the setting sun.” 
—Craig A. Potts, Executive Director, Kentucky Heritage Council and State Historic Preservation officer
“I am pleased that photographer Lynn Bartlett has decided to document these tobacco barns. Even though they were constructed in a particular way for a particular purpose, they are not all the same; they have personalities, and Lynn captures this so beautifully! As someone from the outside looking in, she has called attention to these utilitarian buildings that we locals have taken for granted, and has shown us that they are works of art.”
—Shane Gregory, Executive Director, Ice House Gallery and Western Kentucky Museum
“We don’t farm tobacco anymore, but we have preserved the two tobacco barns my grandad and family had built. It makes our family proud that our tobacco barns have been chosen to be in this book.” 
—The Family of Owen H. Hale, Calloway County, Kentucky