Lowell Harrison was an influential Kentucky historian who wrote or edited 15 books and taught history at Western Kentucky University for two decades. He also published 115 articles in journals.
“As a writer and historian, Dr. Harrison published groundbreaking scholarship that reframed how we think about Kentucky Civil War history, our state history, the commonwealth’s governors and more,” said Stuart Sanders, director of research and publications at the Kentucky Historical Society. “Most important, his writing made the Bluegrass State’s past accessible to the public and demonstrated how our history influences Kentucky today.”
Harrison was involved with many historical associations, including the Kentucky and Filson historical societies and the Kentucky Oral History Commission. He served on the University Press of Kentucky’s editorial board.
Harrison served in the Army during World War II as a combat engineer in Europe. He graduated from WKU in 1946 with a bachelor’s degree in history and earned his MA (1947) and Ph.D. (1951) at New York University. He attended the London School of Economics as a Fulbright Scholar.
From 1952 to 1967, Harrison taught and was head of the history department at West Texas State University. In 1967, he returned to his alma mater in Bowling Green a senior scholar and graduate advisor. He was twice elected to WKU’s Board of Regents.
Harrison retired from full time teaching in 1988, but continued to teach part time until 1994. He was married for 63 years to Elaine “Penny” Harrison, who died in 2016.
Major Works:
John Breckinridge, Jeffersonian Republican (1969)
The Civil War in Kentucky (1975)
George Rogers Clark and the War in the West (1976)
A Kentucky Sampler (1977)
The Anti-Slavery Movement in Kentucky (1978)
Kentucky’s Governors (1985)
Western Kentucky University (1987)
Kentucky’s Road to Statehood (1992)
The Kentucky Encyclopedia, edited with John E. Kleber, Thomas D. Clark and James C. Klotter (1992)
A New History of Kentucky, written with James C. Klotter (1997)
Lincoln of Kentucky (2000)
Major Awards:
Faculty Excellence Award, West Texas State University, 1965
Minnie Stevens Piper Foundation Texas Faculty Award, 1966
WKU Faculty Research Award, 1971
WKU Public Service Award, 1986
WKU Hall of Distinguished Alumni, 1999
Thomas D. Clark Award for Excellence in Kentucky History from the Center for Kentucky History and Politics, 2001.
Kentucky Historical Society Distinguished Service Award, 2010.
