Henry Clay (1797-1852): Known as the “Great Compromiser,” this famous lawyer, U.S. representative and Senator ran for president and lost on three separate occasions. His most famous quote is, “I’d rather be right than president.” Ashland, which is Henry Clay’s mansion and estate, is preserved as a museum on East Main Street.

John C. Breckinridge (1821-1875): Becoming Vice President of the United States at the age of 36, Breckinridge later lost to Abraham Lincoln in the 1860 presidential election. During the Civil War, Breckinridge became a general and Secretary of War for the Confederacy. After the Civil War, Breckinridge returned to his law practice in Lexington. A statue of Breckinridge stands on the lawn of Lexington’s old courthouse on Main Street. (The former courthouse is now the Lexington History Museum.)

John Hunt Morgan (1825-1864): Perhaps the most talented cavalry commander of the Civil War, Gen. John Hunt Morgan was known as the “Thunderbolt of the Confederacy.” His family home, the Hunt-Morgan House, is now a museum in Lexington’s historic Gratz Park neighborhood. His statue also graces the lawn of the Lexington History Museum on Main Street.

Thomas Hunt Morgan (1866-1945): Considered the father of modern genetics, Morgan was a Nobel Prize-winning scientist who also pioneered the field of embryology. Having taught at Johns Hopkins University, Bryn Mawr and Columbia University, Morgan also founded the Division of Biology at the California Institute of Technology. At least seven of his students were also awarded the Nobel Prize.

Mary Todd Lincoln (1818-1882): From a blueblood Kentucky family, Mary Todd married a young attorney, Abraham Lincoln, in 1842. Facing both personal and national tragedy at her husband’s side, Mary Todd’s influence on U.S. history is only now beginning to be appreciated. The Mary Todd Lincoln House, on West Main Street, is the only museum in the United States dedicated to a First Lady.

Jefferson Davis (1808-1889): Born in Western Kentucky, Davis was briefly a resident of Lexington while attending Transylvania College, now known as Transylvania University. Davis later went on to become a U.S. Senator, Secretary of War and the President of the Confederate States of America. The house Davis lived in while a student still stands on East High Street and contains a restaurant.

Belle Brezing (1860-1940): The famed madam after whom the Belle Watling character was patterned in Margaret Mitchell’s book, “Gone With the Wind.” One of Brezing’s former houses of ill fame now houses the women’s locker rooms next to the athletic field used by Transylvania University.

Isaac Burns “Ike” Murphy (1861-1896): The winningest jockey of all time. In the late 19th Century, Murphy was to horse racing what Tiger Woods is to golf. Murphy’s 44 percent winning rate has never been equaled and is considered unapproachable by horse racing experts. His grave is located at the Kentucky Horse Park, near the grave of Man O’ War, one of the greatest Thoroughbred horses of all time.

Adolph Rupp (1901-1977): Retired as the winningest basketball coach of all time. Rupp coached four NCAA championship teams at the University of Kentucky in 1948, 1949, 1951 and 1958 and one NIT championship team in 1946. Kentucky basketball teams coached by Rupp appeared in 20 NCAA tournaments and captured 27 Southeastern Conference titles.

Dr. Thomas D. Clark (1903-2005): One of America’s greatest 20th Century historians, Clark was an ardent preservationist and archivist who is largely responsible for assembling the core collection of documents at the Kentucky Department of Libraries and Archives. Named as Kentucky’s first Historian Laureate, Clark was also known as the “Dean of Historians.”

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