Good morning on this MLK Day, 2023. Since 1983, the third Monday in January has been recognized as a national holiday to commemorate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the most celebrated leader in the American civil rights movement. Today, our Heather Gotlib writes about Dr. King’s time in Louisville, spent largely at Zion Baptist Church, where his brother Dr. A. D. King was pastor.

We’re also announcing a new program today, carefully curated for Bourbon collectors who may also be Kentucky basketball fans. On February 2, the Frazier is proud to host the only program highlighting 78 Legends.

Join 1978 NCAA Basketball Champions Jack “Goose” Givens, Rick Robey, and Kyle Macy as they release a very limited-edition Bourbon, some of which was already aging in the barrel when Kentucky won the title. 78 Legends is a limited-edition blend of Kentucky 50-year and 5-year Bourbon whiskey, honoring the players and the coaches of the 1978 Championship team. Oh, and this is kind of cool—Kentucky’s all-time leading scorer Dan Issel is hosting the program.

Some of this same Bourbon was released as Final Reserve a few years back and is now selling on the secondary market for $3,999 per bottle. A very limited number of bottles were produced and signed by all three players. Secure your bottle here.

Also in today’s issue of Frazier Weekly, Rachel Platt previews a February 8 program about how Civil War documents can help Black Kentuckians conduct genealogical research. Curator Amanda Briede shares Civil War–era papers in The Commonwealth, collections manager Tish Boyer shows how she waxes the Stewart Collection miniatures onto plexiglass, and two sixth graders in Eminence recount a trip to the Frazier that inspired them.

Thank you for reading.

Andy Treinen
President & CEO
Frazier History Museum

This Week in the Museum

Museum Store: UK Doormat

Roll out the blue carpet for your guests and show your wildcat pride with this doormat from our museum shop! And speaking of BBN, don’t miss the rollout of the 78 Legends Bourbon at the Frazier on February 2.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Ties to Louisville

Every January, we celebrate a powerful role model in our country’s history, the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His work with civil rights and equality touches our everyday lives in so many ways—and some of it took place closer to home than you might think.

Dr. King’s younger brother, the Reverend Dr. A. D. King, preached at Zion Baptist Church on Muhammad Ali Boulevard in the mid- to late 1960s. In 1967, during Derby Weekend, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came to Louisville to support the open housing campaign in Louisville. This campaign brought Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to many places familiar to the Frazier, including Beecher Terrace, which was once visible through our museum’s windows.

Just a few weeks before that, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. sat down in his hotel room for ninety minutes with Louisville’s own Muhammad Ali to have a conversation about the issues of the day. Both men were passionate about civil rights, even if they took different approaches. As our own Casey Harden wrote in the January 17, 2022, Frazier Weekly, “although they took different avenues for civil rights, they had respect for the other, understanding that they were victims of the same oppression.” In the introductory film at the Ali Center, viewers can see footage of a sermon in which Dr. King praises Ali for his courage.

It’s very possible to celebrate today by visiting the same places in our city where Dr. King once stood. These include Quinn Chapel on Ninth Street, where Dr. King spoke, Zion Baptist Church, and the site of Louisville Gardens, where Dr. King once gave a speech. You can also watch footage of the “I Have a Dream” speech at the Ali Center, where they will be showing it on the hour today.

Heather Gotlib
Manager of Youth & Family Programs

February 8 Panel, Teacher PD to Explore Black Kentuckians’ Genealogy

It was hiding in plain sight—but no one had really connected all the dots, until now.

It’s information that can potentially benefit millions of African Americans nationwide, according to radio producer and writer Dan Gediman, who began the nonprofit organization Reckoning, Inc.

The information we’re talking about is ledger books created to keep track of African American men who joined the US Colored Troops (USCT) from Kentucky during the Civil War.

For every man listed who was enslaved, it provides crucial information about his first and last name, his birth location, when and where he enlisted, and the name of his enslaver.

That information about enslaved people from Kentucky, which had previously been hidden, is helping countless African Americans find their people.

When Dan Gediman asked the question about what reparations could look like to one family, a woman answered, “Help me find my people.” That is now happening thanks to an ever-expanding database.

The program in partnership with the Frazier History Museum on February 8 will feature executive director Dan Gediman and two researchers with Reckoning, Inc.

We’ll also introduce you to Charles Lemons, a local military historian.

For the past twelve years, Lemons has worked to assemble information about Black people who lived in Kentucky during the early nineteenth century. His quest began with a note passed to a Union Captain at the foot of the L & N Railroad Bridge in New Haven, Kentucky, in 1862.

Join us by reserving your ticket for a night of reckoning, learning, and, most importantly, accessing information that could lead to family members finally finding their people.

In conjunction with this program, the Frazier’s education department will be offering a three-hour Teacher Professional Development that combines the public program with an overview on utilizing Reckoning, Inc. resources to support inquiry-based learning. Interested educators can learn more here.

Rachel Platt
Director of Community Engagement

Curator’s Corner: 1821 Madison County Slave Ledger Page and 1864 Receipt

In our exhibition The Commonwealth: Divided We Fall, we discuss the institution of slavery in Kentucky in ways that we never have before. The exhibition places emphasis on anti-slavery activism and activists and includes information on slave revolts that happened in Kentucky. The object at the center of this section is a large clockface that once sat atop the Town Clock Church in New Albany and led enslaved people trying to escape on the Underground Railroad to freedom.

However, there are also objects in this section that glimpse the horrors of slavery. There are two plantation horns, used to call enslaved people back in from the fields, and a pair of heavy wrist shackles. Perhaps most disturbing, however, are an 1821 ledger page and an 1864 receipt that list enslaved people and their prices. Documents such as these force us to confront the reality of chattel slavery: what it actually means to buy and sell human beings and how little a human life was valued.

Though documents like these can be hard to look at, they are now being used as important tools to aid African Americans with genealogical research. Though the receipt currently on display does not list any names, the ledger page does. Information from documents such as these can be an important step in helping African Americans trace their ancestry to a time before slavery.

I encourage you to take a close look at these documents the next time you visit The Commonwealth and read the names of just a few of the people enslaved here in Kentucky.

Amanda Briede
Curator

Sneak Peek of Stewart Historic Miniatures Collection Re-waxing Project

Maintaining one of the world’s largest historic miniatures collections requires some effort!

Last week, our collections team began re-waxing the bottoms of thousands of figures from the Charles W. Stewart Historic Miniatures Collection—work that continues this week. If you’re here and you see the door to the Second Floor Marshall Charitable Foundation Education Center open—the classroom next to the first room of The Commonwealth exhibition—consider it an invitation to stop in. You can talk with the team members about the collection, ask what their favorite miniatures are, or find out what it’s like to put museum wax on the feet of a few hundred little guys in a day. It’s likely they’ll be working through this week!

Mick Sullivan
Curator of Guest Experience

Barrels of Heart Artist Spotlight: Latora Schmidt

The Frazier History Museum is thrilled to be the exhibiting partner for Barrels of Heart, a Bourbon barrel art exhibition open February 2–March 30. See twenty custom Bourbon barrels designed by local artists of varying ages, ethnicities, and levels of experience, all while walking through the Frazier's Spirit of Kentucky® Bourbon exhibition.

Would you like the opportunity to meet these amazing artists and find out what inspires them? Then secure your tickets to the unveiling party, which is February 1, 6–8 p.m. And vote for your favorite! The winning artist will receive a cash prize as well as a donation to the charity of their choice.

Curated by Morgan Hancock, founder of the non-profit Bourbon with Heart, this exhibition of beautiful barrels will only be on display for eight weeks—and we promise you don't want to miss it! You can find out more about her, the organization, and the artists at bourbonwithheart.org.—Haley Hicky, Product & Program Manager

A full-time creative in interior design, canvas art, set design, and staging, Latora Schmidt has found art to be her outlet in the world. “It has been my way as an introvert to connect with people in ways that I typically wouldn’t be able to do in a room.” She was excited to create on an entirely new surface. “I love what Bourbon barrels mean to the state of Kentucky, and I look forward to combining two things that I love—art and Bourbon! I am also excited to be among so many other great artists who bring different and unique audiences of their own for such a great cause!”

Latora is grateful to be part of Bourbon with Heart. “I’m excited to see what the other creatives come up with and to see the exhibition as a whole. And get the community involved in this.”

Having spent much of her youth in foster care, Latora found her haven in art. “Whether creating or simply admiring the works of others, it allows me to enter a world that can be defined however I want.” If her barrel design wins, Latora would like her charitable donation to go to Home of the Innocents. “What they provide for children in need during very difficult times makes them an organization very close to my heart. They provide children with what my art has given me, a safe space when the world is in chaos.”

Morgan Hancock
Founder, Bourbon with Heart
Guest Contributor

Wow, do we love it when teachers take things up a notch and involve the Frazier Museum with large, immersive projects! This fall we had such an experience with Jennifer Montgomery and her sixth-grade students from Eminence Independent schools. Jennifer reached out as she was planning a unit with her sixth graders studying Tori Murden McClure, which would include reading Tori’s book, A Pearl in the Storm, meeting Tori in person at school, visiting and learning about her connection to the Ali Museum, and investigating Tori’s artifacts on display the Frazier’s Cool Kentucky exhibition. I wish I could bottle up the student excitement as they were coming into the museum and getting their first view of Tori’s boat, American Pearl. It proved a true testament to Tori’s amazing story and how an insightful, diligent educator can bring Kentucky stories to life for students. Please enjoy this student-written summary of the project below.—Megan Schanie, Manage of School & Teacher Programs

Never Give Up

“A person who falls is not a failure. The failure is the person that falls and doesn't get up again.”—Tori Murden McClure

In the beginning, Tori Murden McClure was just a character in a book we read in the sixth grade—but then she became real. Our teacher decided to invite her to come speak to us, and although we didn’t really think she would come, she did. It was a life-changing experience!

As we were reading her book, A Pearl in the Storm, we learned that Tori was the first woman to ever row across the Atlantic Ocean solo, the first woman and first American to ski to the South Pole, and that she worked for the Muhammed Ali Center helping to get the funding for it to open. That is a lot of firsts for one person to accomplish!

Tori came to our school on October 27, 2022, and answered all of our questions about her life and her book. She even took pictures with all of us and slid down our indoor slide! It was interesting to learn how COVID delayed her book being published, how she had to find a new publisher, and how not many people know about such a great book. We also got to see a model of her boat and she gave us American Pearl stickers that she had autographed. Tori not only shared a lot about her experience but even her failures. I think that’s the most important thing, because when we fail at something we can actually learn a lot from that failure and use that knowledge to try again.

On November 9, we got to visit the Frazier Museum and feel Tori’s adventures come to life. There were so many great artifacts in the Frazier Museum like the original Dawn Landes cover art for the musical Row, which she wrote about Tori’s life, and the snowsuit Tori wore when she skied to the South Pole. The coolest thing we learned was how the staff of the Frazier Museum were having trouble getting the boat into the museum. Tori did some calculations, turned it at a specific angle, and it fit right in! Of course, the best part of the experience was seeing the boat we had only pictured in our minds and really imagining what Tori went through. When you read the book, you think, “Oh, that's a small boat;” but when you meet Tori and you see how tall she is, then you look at the boat and see how small it is, you wonder how she pulled this off. We really understood how brave she was when we realized that she was all alone in such a small boat, on the ocean, rowing over 3,000 miles!

This experience was really inspiring because Tori failed, but she chose to get back up and try again—no matter how many things went wrong. We hope to use that lesson in our own lives in big and small ways. We want to thank the Frazier Museum for allowing Eminence Independent Schools’ sixth-grade class to come and have this experience as well as Tori for inspiring us to never give up, even when we fail!

Amelie Waddell and Campbell Orr
Sixth-Grade Students, Eminence Independent Schools
Guest Contributors

Bridging the Divide

Goli Ameri to Speak at Filson on Women-Led Protests in Iran

Mahsa Amini: her death in police custody in Iran has touched off months of protests, mostly women-led, and now is your chance to learn more about what is happening.

While visiting Tehran in September 2022, Amini was arrested for violating Iran’s mandatory hijab policy. She was accused of not wearing the head dress properly and was taken into custody by the Guidance Patrol, considered Iran’s religious morality police. Police are accused of beating her, inflicting a fatal head injury, which has touched off protests and demands for wider freedoms for women.

The World Affairs Council of Kentucky and Southern Indiana has invited Ms. Goli Ameri to speak on the issue January 26 at the Filson Historical Society. Everything you need to know about this vital conversation is provided on the flyer above. The Frazier History Museum is a proud partner of this program.

Rachel Platt
Director of Community Engagement