Tag Archives: Kate Matthews

Photographer Kate Seston Matthews (1870-1956) was born in New Albany, Indiana, but she lived most of her life in rural Pewee Valley, Kentucky, a small community near Louisville. Matthews used this community and her friends and family as her subjects, but she is most well known today for her photographs depicting characters in the children’s book series, The Little Colonel. These stories were written by her neighbor, Annie Fellows Johnston. Matthews also loved to pose living pictures or tableaux vivants, whereby she captured on film a “water colored” view of her community and life in rural Kentucky. A patron has donated some of these original model prints depicting characters from the series to the Kentucky Library’s Photographic Archives. These materials are available for research Monday through Saturday (9-4) and may also be viewed at our online catalog, KenCAT.