Lewis Nichols (Nicky) Hughes is curator of historic sites for the City of Frankfort, Kentucky.He supervises the Downtown Division of the city's Department of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Sites.He is responsible for several parks, including the Leslie Morris Park on Fort Hill, which preserves two Civil War earthwork forts and the site of an 1864 skirmish, both in a 125-acre forest preserve.Hughes recently supervised the renovation of an 1810 log structure there to house exhibits and a re-created Civil War era roadside inn.He completed the first phase of Frankfort's new Capital City Museum late in 2004.The museum tells the history of Frankfort, Kentucky, the state's capital city.He routinely gives tours of the historic district of KentuckyLewis Nichols (Nicky) Hughes is curator of historic sites for the City of Frankfort, Kentucky.He supervises the Downtown Division of the city's Department of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Sites.He is responsible for several parks, including the Leslie Morris Park on Fort Hill, which preserves two Civil War earthwork forts and the site of an 1864 skirmish, both in a 125-acre forest preserve.Hughes recently supervised the renovation of an 1810 log structure there to house exhibits and a re-created Civil War era roadside inn.He completed the first phase of Frankfort's new Capital City Museum late in 2004.The museum tells the history of Frankfort, Kentucky, the state's capital city.He routinely gives tours of the historic district of Kentucky's capital city.
Hughes co-authored the book Historical Images of Frankfort, published late in 2004.The second volume of Historical Images of Frankfort came out in the autumn of 2005.Both were top-selling books at the Kentucky Book Fair.He is a partner in Victoria & Albert Historical Consultants, which wrote much of the text for the Cincinnati Museum Center's major temporary exhibit Liberty on the Border: The Civil War and the Ohio River Valley and designed the re-creation of the state library in Kentucky's 1827 Old State Capitol.Victoria & Albert Consultants also planned the exhibits in the recently opened Big Sandy Regional Museum in Pikeville.He is working with the Mill Springs Battlefield Association to install the initial exhibits at that site's new museum.
During his 27-year career with Kentucky state government, Hughes was curator of the Kentucky Military History Museum, curator of the Old State Capitol, and museums division manager for the Kentucky Historical Society.He worked on initial plans for the museum portion of the new Kentucky History Center.Later, he was historic preservation specialist for the Division of Historic Properties, where he helped care for Kentucky's New State Capitol and Governor's Mansions.Hughes retired from Kentucky state government in 2000 to take his current position with the City of Frankfort.
Involved in living history since 1981, he was captain of the 7th and 15th Kentucky Infantry, US Army, reenacting groups and colonel of the Breckinridge Battalion, a Confederate umbrella organization.His first-person living history presentations have been popular with schools, historical societies and civic groups all across Kentucky.He is drum major and announcer with Saxton's Cornet Band, a re-created Civil War period brass band, and he serves as assistant surgeon in the Western Independent Grays, a campaigner battalion based in the Upper South.Hughes is a regular speaker at living history conferences, specializing in the material culture of the Civil War era.He was the founding publisher of The Watchdog, a quarterly newsletter dedicated to improving the historical accuracy of Civil War reenacting.From 2002 to 2004, he was editor of Camp Chase Gazette, the national magazine for Civil War living history enthusiasts.Early in 2006, he was named editor of Civil War Historian magazine.
In 2005, the Adjutant General of Kentucky presented Hughes with the Commander's Award for Public Service.This medal recognized his career of work in preserving and interpreting the military history of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1950, Hughes grew up in Logan and Simpson Counties in southern Kentucky.He graduated from Western Kentucky University in 1972 and attended the University of Kentucky College of Law.Hughes and his wife Susan Lyons Hughes live at the mouth of Benson Creek inside the City of Frankfort's Kentucky River View Park. ...more