FRANKFORT, Ky. — The Kentucky Historical Society collaborated with the Arizona Historical Society on an interesting project comparing the history of their two regions. While comparing Kentucky and Arizona may seem random, researchers found that there are in fact some similarities.
Stephanie Lang has been with the KHS since 2016. She took over as editor of the Register of the Kentucky Historical Society in 2019, making her the first woman in over 100 years to be an editor at the KHS.
“I’m originally from Kentucky and, you know, I’ve always had a thing with state history and ended up specializing in Appalachian history because of where I’m from,” said Lang.
Lang’s former colleague David Turpie, who is now with the AHS, approached her about a collaborative project between both historical societies after attending the 2019 Western History Association Conference. There were several panels that compared southern and western history.
“Each state is unique in some way or another and I think by making comparisons you can learn about each state, each place that you’re comparing and as we sort of got into the project, I do feel like there were some things that came out that we’re like, ‘Oh yeah! This is interesting to compare,’” said Turpie.
Lang says comparing Kentucky to Arizona is like comparing horses to gila monsters. However, the collaboration would uncover some similarities between the two states.
“When you think about Arizona and Kentucky, I don’t think a lot of people think about comparisons of these two states, I mean, or regions even, so I was really excited about it and was automatically on board,” said Lang.
The project was named “Stating History: Arizona and Kentucky in Comparison.” The Register and the Journal of Arizona History’s issues each contain topics that researchers discussed and compared over Zoom meetings. The Register’s issues typically have about three to four researchers, but this project had a total of 29.
Because of the political upheaval in 2020, some topics were tailored to those issues.
“I was able to learn a lot about Western history that I didn’t know and it also, you know, just as an editor lets me think about, ‘O.K. are there other questions that I need to ask? Are there other areas of research that are out there? Are there other voices, you know, that we need to bring to the table?’” said Lang. “And, you know, that’s probably been one of my favorite things from the whole project.”
Some topics from both issues include Indigenous history, the immigrant experience, labor history and borders.
The Journal’s issue has already been published. The Register will release its issue in March, which will be available online.