Lexington Group, Inc. is a non-profit educational organization 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 $2,500 to underwrite travel expenses to conduct research at archives and libraries. Recipients will be invited to make a presentation at an annual Lexington Group meeting to summarize their findings. The deadline for applications is March 15, 2009. The Awardee(s) will be notified by June 1, 2009.
Information concerning the Richard C. Overton Research Fellowship may be obtained by contacting Professor Keith L. Bryant, Jr., P.O. Box 5366, Bryan, TX 77805-5366.
Call for Papers
Railways in Transition--Eastern Europe Railways--Past, Present and Future in the 20th and 21st Centuries." The third international conference on railway history will be held in Bratislava, Slovakia, from September 24-26, 2009, sponsored by the International Railway History Association. For additional information, contact:
PD Dr. Ralf Roth
Historisches Seminar
Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universitat
Gruneburgplatz 1
60629 Frankfurt am Main
Germany
E-mail: Dr.Ralf.Roth@t-online.de
Fax: +49 (0) 6664 402699
2009 Annual Meeting
The 2009 annual meeting is scheduled to be held September 23 to 26, 2009 in Sheridan, WY. One of the four days will be given over to a field experience.
Officers: The Lexington Group, Incorporated
H. ROGER GRANT
President
Department of History
Clemson University
Clemson, SC 29634-0527
864-656-5371
MICHAEL W. BLASZAK
Vice President & Secretary
10 South Riverside Plaza, Suite 1900
Chicago, IL 60606
312-777-5496
DON L. HOFSOMMER
Treasurer/Editor, LEXINGTON QUARTERLY
Department of History
St. Cloud State University
St. Cloud, MN 56301
320-308-4906