Lexington Group, Inc. is a non-profit educational organization (501c3) that concentrates on all aspects of transportation history, particularly railroads. The group has been active ever since its founding in the early 1940's. For years the sparkplug was Professor Richard "Dick" C. Overton (1907-1988), a long-time faculty member at Northwestern University and a prominent railroad scholar. "The chief characteristics of the Lexington Group are its informality, its spontaneity, and the fact that it is kept together by a common interest in railway history," explained Overton. "True to the tradition it has followed ever since, the group originated in a purely spontaneous fashion. After one of the MVHA [Mississippi Valley Historical Association] dinners at Lexington [Kentucky], in May, 1942, some of us [individuals interested in transportation scholarship] gravitated to a coffee shop to swap information about the state of railway history." The Lexington Group remains true to its original intent.
The Richard C. Overton Research Fellowship
In 2006 the Lexington Group established the Richard C. Overton Research Fellowship to honor one of the organization's founders and a leading scholar of America's railroads. To promote the study of transportation history, the Overton Fellowship will provide grants from $1,500 to $3,000 to underwrite travel expenses to conduct research at archives and libraries. Annoucements for the 2012 awards will be made later.
2012 Annual Meeting
The 2012 annual meeting will be held in Peoria, IL, from October 3-6.
Membership Information
Presently applications for membership are not being processed. A task force has been established to explore possible changes.
Officers: The Lexington Group, Incorporated
H. ROGER GRANT
President
Department of History
Clemson University
Clemson, SC 29634-0527
ggrant@clemson.edu
BYRON (BARNEY) OLSEN
Vice President & Secretary
1543 Grantham Street
St. Paul. MN
byronolsen@comcast.net
DON L. HOFSOMMER
Treasurer/Editor, LEXINGTON QUARTERLY
Department of History
St. Cloud State University
St. Cloud, MN 56301
320-308-4906