The Lexington Group, Inc., an educational organization, seeks to promote a dialogue on railroad and transportation history and practice among academicians, practitioners, and others who have a serious interest in the history and tradition of transportation.
The Lexington Group began in 1942 at the annual meeting of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association (now known as the Organization of American Historians), held that year in Lexington, Kentucky. Nine attendees discovered that they shared an interest in transportation and transportation history. Since then, the Lexington Group has increased its membership to more than five hundred individuals in academia and industry. In 1997 the Lexington Group was incorporated as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit educational organization.
Each fall the Lexington Group hosts a three-day meeting where members present papers, tour transportation facilities, and discuss transportation issues in a contemporary and historical context. The annual meeting offers members an opportunity to form professional networks while exchanging ideas about transportation history and current practice.
Members of the Lexington Group receive the Lexington Quarterly which, among other items, contains notices of publications by Lexingtonians and reviews of recently published books on transportation and transportation history.
The Lexington Group funds the Overton Research Fellowship in Transportation History, named in honor of Richard C. Overton, a noted railroad historian who was a founding member of our organization. Grants range from $1500 to $2500, in order to support research in transportation history, conducted at libraries and archives.