On March 16, 1878, the General Assembly approved a "resolution in regard to Dr. L. P. Blackburn" for his assistance to the victims of yellow fever in Nassau, Memphis, and Florida. "Generously, without recompense, at great expense to himself," the resolution stated, "he has braved the dangers of the plague and the hardships of professional toil to relieve the poor and the suffering." At times, when attending physicians were dying or fleeing, Luke Blackburn had "gone into the battle, grappled with the dread enemy, and saved from the hungry pestilence thousands of lives." For these "eminent services" Dr. Blackburn deserves public recognition "reflecting as they do much honor upon himself and upon his State."
Luke P. Blackburn served as governor of Kentucky from 1879 to 1883. This portrait by Nicola Marschall is on exhibit in the Hall of Governors at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History. Kentucky Historical Society Collections.
