Let’s face it: The people who look forward to Halloween have been waiting to flip their calendars for months. Now that the time has finally come, it feels right to talk about the spooky, the haunting, and the dark. Throughout Louisville, families and individuals will head out on ghost tours, on lantern strolls, and to pumpkin patches searching for the perfect porch adornment. It’s a fun time of year and also a great time to peer into the darkness.

The Frazier is a great stop on your Halloween passport! We offer daily tours, and starting this week we’re adding a Spooky Frazier Tour to our regular rotation. Knowing the excitement for Halloween builds as the big day gets closer, we will offer the Spooky Frazier Tour every day starting on October 15. We’ll highlight some of the more macabre things in our collection—from a cast of Daniel Boone’s skull to a nineteenth-century wreath made of human hair. You’ll be dying to know more about those!

We’re also planning our Spooky Saturday Family Day on October 29, so make plans to start your Halloween weekend with the Frazier! Heather Gotlib will share more on that below. In the meantime, this video will give you a quick taste as education and engagement specialist Shelby Durbin highlights Kentuckian Sue Grafton and her Edgar Allan Poe Award.

In today’s issue of Frazier Weekly, Shelby spotlights the cast of Daniel Boone’s skull made when his bones were moved from Missouri to Kentucky. Eek! Hayley Rankin shares a surgical kit with several tools Dr. Washington Sandidge of Edmonton, Kentucky, would have used to operate on his patients: wounded soldiers during the Civil War.

Ahead of our much-anticipated Rivalries exhibition, Brian West shines a light on the field hockey rivalry between Assumption High School and Christian Academy of Louisville. And, to mark World Architecture Day, Simon Meiners delves into the construction and design of the Frazier Museum.

Last but not least, we’ve got an exciting announcement from guest contributor Eric Frantz. Is it possible the community-beloved Edgar Allan Poe performance series, once held at the Frazier every October from 2010 to 2019, is back from the dead?

To find out, keep reading!

Mick Sullivan
Curator of Guest Experience
Frazier History Museum

This Week in the Museum

Spooky Saturday to Feature “The Raven” Reading, Princesses of Louisville, and More

It’s officially October, and the countdown is starting for our October 29 Spooky Saturday!

We had a great time last year so we’re bringing back our favorite parts of the day. Brian West will do a live reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Raven,” we’ll be giving spooky tours throughout the day, and you’ll find crafts and trick-or-treating throughout the museum!

Special guests Mirabel and Anna from the Princesses of Louisville will have Halloween storytimes and photo ops for our younger friends, but there is something for everyone! The activities run from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and it’s free with your membership or $10 discounted admission!

Heather Gotlib
Manager of Youth & Family Programs

Museum Store: Myths, Mysteries, Ghosts, and Strange Phenomena

It’s spooky season and the right time to hear the scary stories from Kentucky! Do you know about the Harrington Lake Monster? Or Old Harrods’s headless ghost? Or Jonathan Swift’s buried treasure? Learn these tales and more in two books—True Stories of the Unsolved and Unexplained: Myths and Mysteries of Kentucky and Haunted Kentucky: Ghosts and Strange Phenomena of the Bluegrass State—both of which are available in the Museum Store.

Object in Focus: Plaster Cast of Daniel Boone’s Skull, September 12, 1845

If you’ve visited the Frazier lately, you likely noticed the cast of a skull mounted on the wall in the Natural Kentucky section of our Cool Kentucky exhibition. This plaster cast depicts the skull of frontiersman Daniel Boone, known for his “Wilderness Road” exploration, which started in Virginia and went through the Cumberland Gap and into central Kentucky.

Although Boone had strong ties to Kentucky (he even helped establish the early settlement of Fort Boonesborough in 1775), it wasn’t his final destination. In the 1780s and ’90s, Boone acquired a considerable amount of land in Kentucky while working as a surveyor. However, after failing to properly register some of his land claims and engaging in several ineffective business ventures, he continued west to Missouri alongside his wife Rebecca.

Rebecca Boone died in Missouri on March 18, 1813, and Daniel followed suit seven years later on September 26, 1820, at the age of eighty-five.

They were buried alongside one another close to what is now Marthasville, Missouri.

Or were they?!

Over the years, there has been speculation Daniel may not have been buried directly next to Rebecca, due to their deaths occurring several years apart. According to legend, he may have instead been buried at her feet or elsewhere, due to another body possibly occupying the plot beside her.

The controversy surrounding Daniel Boone’s burial site began in the mid-1840s, over twenty-five years after his death. Judge Mason Brown found inspiration in the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Boston, Massachusetts, the first incorporated cemetery in the United States. He desired to take on a similar project in Frankfort, Kentucky. In order to draw attention to the new cemetery, Brown and other community members decided to disinter the bodies of Daniel and Rebecca Boone from their graves in Missouri and bring them to Kentucky for reburial.

However, when the graves of Daniel and Rebecca were reopened, their bodies had largely disintegrated, save for a few of the larger bones.

Daniel and Rebecca’s bones were moved and reburied in Frankfort Cemetery on September 13, 1845. However, a plaster cast of Daniel Boone’s skull (supposedly!) was created the night before his second burial.

So, did Judge Mason Brown disinter the correct body, or was Daniel Boone really buried in another nearby plot in Missouri?

If the bones in Frankfort aren’t those belonging to Daniel, whose are they?

Historians have debated this for decades, and they likely will for years to come.

What do you think?

Shelby Durbin
Education & Engagement Specialist

From the Collection: Civil War-era Metcalfe County Physician’s Field Surgical Kit, c. 1840–60

As we enter October, there is a chill in the air, a spirit of gathering, and a shift toward the spooky. Throughout human history, this month has marked a final time of warmth and abundance before nature gives way to the cold of winter. “All Hallows Eve,” or Halloween, is a night when the dead come close to the living across many folklore traditions. Today, Halloween rituals have become fun, lighthearted, and filled with candy—but they remain tinged with shadows and a fascination creeping toward the edge of darkness.

It is fitting, then, to share a new acquisition to our permanent collection: an object—or, set of objects—situated in close proximity to death. While these objects were hopefully used to facilitate healing and recovery, they undoubtedly bore witness to the loss of lives during one of our nation’s darkest times.

Dr. Washington Sandidge (1830–1924) used this surgical kit during the Civil War to treat wounded soldiers. He was a certified physician practicing in Edmonton, Kentucky, when Confederate troops passed through Metcalfe County and captured him. We do not know how far outside of Kentucky he may have traveled, but he tended to Union and Confederate soldiers alike, upholding his Hippocratic oath. After the war ended, Dr. Sandidge returned home to his family in Metcalfe County where he continued to visit patients on horseback in the Wisdom and Edmonton areas. He served as the local physician until his death at age ninety-four.

Just by looking at this artifact, it is clear his surgical kit saw much use and possibly has some missing pieces, but contains all the essentials for various medical procedures. The kit itself perhaps gives off a grisly or macabre aura appropriate for spooky season, but it also represents the intent to preserve life despite one’s own personal beliefs. Ultimately, this artifact can serve as a meaningful reminder of the simultaneously grim yet hopeful reality of battle as well as the cost of a dark, divided time in our state’s history.

Visit our new permanent exhibition The Commonwealth: Divided We Fall to learn more about Kentucky during the Civil War.

Hayley Rankin
Manager of Collection Impact

An Evening With Poe Cast to Reunite for Dream Within a Dream Aboard Belle of Louisville

Belle of Louisville Riverboats is excited to announce Dream Within a Dream: A Journey With Edgar Allan Poe, to be performed on the boat this month!

Originally An Evening With Poe, an annual performance series the Frazier Museum staged from 2010 to 2019, this three-person show is now reborn—with the original cast!—aboard the historic steamer Belle of Louisville. The show explores a number of works of the nineteenth-century poet and author during a two-hour excursion on the beautiful Ohio River. Come experience Poe’s haunting tales performed in the round on the ballroom deck. Tickets are available for two evening cruises, October 13 and 14, from 8 to 10 p.m.

Rhythm Science Sound will present a soundscape to complement the macabre mood with music specially created for the event. The score creates an enchanting and moody backdrop to the evening. Some of the works performed include “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Bells,” “Alone,” “The Raven,” “Murders in the Rue Morgue,” and a collection of love poems. Tickets are $39.99 for adults, $38.99 for seniors, and $18.99 for children ages five to fourteen. There will be a cash bar and concessions available during the cruise.

Eric Frantz
Education & Programs Coordinator, Belle of Louisville Riverboats
Guest Contributor

Field Hockey Rivals Assumption Rockets, CAL Centurions to Face Off Tomorrow

Tomorrow marks the renewal of one of Kentucky’s best field hockey rivalries: the Assumption Rockets versus the Centurions of Christian Academy of Louisville. Both programs are state title contenders year in and year out. Assumption High School field hockey has 11 state championships in girls’ field hockey (1990, 1993, 1997, 2002-2003, 2005, 2009, 2013, 2014, 2015, and 2019).

CAL, by comparison, is not as rich in tradition. However, the program has experienced tremendous success in a short time. Since 2013, the Centurions have been one of the last teams standing in Kentucky girls’ field hockey, good enough to play in the State Tournament. The Centurions improved each time they played in the tournament: losing in the opening rounds in 2013 and 2014, advancing to the semifinals in 2015 and 2016, and finally getting over the hump in 2017. In that year’s KHSAA State Field Hockey final, the girls beat the Assumption Rockets, 2–1, to win the Academy’s first ever-state championship in girls’ field hockey.

Even though this rivalry has been intense and competitive, Assumption holds the new kids on the block in high regard. In a phone interview, Rockets head field hockey coach Jody Schaefer said the Centurions play at a very high level: They “have great athletes, a good coach [Centurions head field hockey coach Stephanie Seeley], and are well organized.” When asked about any potential matchups that concern her ahead of the game, Coach Schaefer replied that every matchup with CAL concerns her.

Lastly, Coach Schaefer suggested that players on both teams would have an extra incentive to win tomorrow night’s game: bragging rights in the clubhouse.

Since field hockey is extremely competitive in the Commonwealth, few girls opt to rest during the offseason after high school play. Instead, many players from the major field hockey powers—like CAL, Assumption, Kentucky Country Day, and Sacred Heart—take part in competition via the three local clubs that field girls’ field hockey teams during the winter months, after the high school field hockey has officially ended. Oftentimes rivals from the major high school field hockey teams end up playing together as teammates for one of the three local clubs. Thus, whoever wins tomorrow might be able to brag after not only the game, but into the holidays too, at a teammate’s expense.

Speaking of that: tomorrow night’s varsity game between the Rockets and the Centurions will take place at Assumption Green Athletic Complex, the Rockets’ home field, at 7:30 p.m. You can purchase tickets here.

And, please be sure to check out our Rivalries exhibition at the Frazier when it opens November 3.

Special thanks to Assumption Rockets head coach Jody Schaefer for kindly accepting the invitation to be interviewed for this article.

Brian West
Teaching Artist

Baitcasting to be Followed by Shakespeare-themed Rabbit Hole Program

On Wednesday, the Frazier Museum hosted Bourbon, Beer, & Baitcasting Pioneers to a packed house. I’m a fairly new employee at the Frazier and not at all into fishing, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but the entire evening was fantastic! The event was held in our great hall on the first floor of the museum, an area that boasts three-story ceilings and displays our Cool Kentucky exhibition. Tables were set with snacks and tasting mats featuring Sig Luscher Pilsner and Porter, not to mention three Bourbons: Blanton’s, E. H. Taylor, and Stagg Jr. And everyone received a signed copy of the book. We were off to an amazing start!

Authors Bill Hinkenbein and Art Lander Jr. discussed their new book A Brief History of Baitcasting, Bass Fishing, and the Kentucky Reel. Their book tells the story of early Kentucky reels, the forerunner of today’s modern fishing reels, and how so many famous distillers and brewers in Kentucky have used these reels. As the authors went through the evolution of the reel, Sig Luscher president Tim Luscher and Buffalo Trace distillery VIP visitor lead Freddie Johnson wove fascinating stories about George T. Stagg, Colonel Blanton, E. H. Taylor, and Sig Luscher, some of their fishing tales, and their addition to the Bourbon and beer industries. As stories were told, we tasted our way through all of the delicious Bourbons and beers and got to see some really cool antique Kentucky reels.

We have another incredible event coming up on October 26, Hopping Into Shakespeare With Rabbit Hole. Rabbit Hole founder and CEO Kaveh Zamanian and the Frazier team have chosen a single barrel selection and attendees will have the option to buy a bottle. Each bottle features one of six Shakespeare-inspired labels designed by Italian collage artist Beppe Conti. We hope to see you there!

Haley Hicky
Product & Program Manager

Bridging the Divide

Kentucky’s First Ever InterTribal Water Gathering to Take Place This Week in J-town

It will be a melding of Kentucky’s native history coupled with the current realities of water insecurity for many native communities across the country. The Jeffersontown nonprofit Water With Blessings has been inspired to host Kentucky’s first ever InterTribal Water Gathering this Thursday through Sunday in Jeffersontown. The Frazier History Museum will be represented with a video that takes you through a portion of our Commonwealth exhibition that focuses on Kentucky’s Native history. Please read more about the upcoming event and how you can help bridge this divide with safe drinking water for all.—Rachel Platt, Director of Community Engagement

As members of a community bounded by the Ohio River, Louisville Metro residents have access to plentiful supplies of safe drinking water. In many Native communities, such as the Navajo Nation in the southwestern United States, water security challenges persist. Navajo families often live in remote areas relying upon “trucked-in” water, stored in cisterns and vulnerable to contamination, rather than water flowing through pipes and taps.

A “COVID Connection” made during a 2020 Zoom conversation with Navajo teacher, artist, and actor Roger Willie inspired Sr. Larraine Lauter, head of Jeffersontown nonprofit Water With Blessings and Chickasaw by family heritage, to distribute household water filters in partnership with Navajo leaders. These gravity-fed filters, attached via medical-grade tubing to buckets, can be used immediately and require no power source or chemicals to operate.

Initially, private donations with matching support from the Louisville Water Foundation helped launch the Water Women project in the Navajo Nation. As the Navajo project expanded, Sr. Larraine and board member Anne Sahingoz, a nursing educator and Chiricahua Apache, articulated a vision for celebrating Water’s sacred role in Native cultures and the wellbeing its protection can ensure.

Together, in collaboration with the Ohio Valley Native American Veteran Warrior Society, they will host Kentucky’s first-ever InterTribal Water Gathering on October 6–9 in J-town’s Veterans Memorial Park. Featured activities include Native dancing and drumming in a Sacred Circle with special dances reserved for all children and their families to enjoy. Native foods and crafts with themed pavilions throughout the park will highlight Native cultures. Visit intertribalwater.com for details.

Returning to Louisville will be Navajo Ambassador Roger Willie who created artwork featuring horses, his favorite subject, for a free opening night event. During his first Louisville visit in July, Roger toured Churchill Downs and visited the Frazier where curator Amanda Briede provided a personal tour of the Commonwealth exhibition, which begins with Kentucky’s Native history.

A key feature of the InterTribal event will be Roger’s participation in the Water Council, where Native Elders will lead a Water Ceremony, consider discussions, and create a Water Proclamation. Please join us to “honor the blessing of water.”

Rebecca Stutsman
Chief-Donor Impact, Water With Blessings
Guest Contributor

History All Around Us

D. X. Murphy & Bros.–designed Doerhoefer Building, 1898

Monday, October 3, is World Architecture Day. Created by the International Union of Architects (UIA) in 1985, World Architecture Day is celebrated annually on the first month of October in parallel with UN World Habitat Day. To mark the holiday, we’d like to share some historical information about the architecture of the building the Frazier occupies!

Located on West Main Street in downtown Louisville, the museum occupies a late nineteenth-century, Chicago-style commercial structure of 100,000 square feet called the Doerhoefer Building.

The building, like many others along West Main, emerged in the wake of a natural disaster.

On March 27, 1890, a tornado measuring F4 on the Fujita scale visited Louisville, carving a path from the Parkland neighborhood to Crescent Hill. Called “the whirling tiger of the air” by the Courier Journal, the tornado killed an estimated seventy-six to 120 people and destroyed 766 buildings, one of which was the Ninth Street Tobacco Warehouse, located at the northeast corner of Ninth and Main.

A rapid reconstruction effort led to the building of more cast-iron façades along West Main between Sixth and Ninth Streets—in all, what would amount to the second largest number of cast-iron façades in the country behind SoHo in New York.

A small article published in the March 23, 1897, issue of the Courier Journal announced John Doerhoefer, the president of National Tobacco Works, would build “four handsome business houses at Ninth and Main Streets” on the site of the old warehouse.

Mr. Doerhoefer hired D. X. Murphy and Bros., the architectural firm that two years earlier had designed the iconic Twin Spires atop the grandstand at Churchill Downs, to draw the plans. The structure was to be made of brick, stone, and iron, with a tower at the corner.

Established in 1898 and built of cast iron and yellow-buff brick, the Doerhoefer Building was actually built as a complex of four adjoining buildings with common walls and a single façade. The structure spans four typical Main Street fronts (827–833) before it rounds the corner of Ninth Street with an oriel topped with a cornice roof.

Each façade is separated by pilasters with simple ornamentation. Machine-made festoons decorate the horizontal bandcourse which divides each major section between the second and third floors. Windows on the fourth floor are separated by brick pilasters with stone capitals, which continue into arches of radiating bricks with some trim.

Much of the original stone ornamentation has gone missing.

In 2001, when museum founder Owsley Brown Frazier purchased the complex, he had much of the interior gutted and rebuilt ahead of the museum’s 2004 opening. A copper-topped cupola was installed on the crest of the structure's southwest corner, as the original cupola had been removed sometime between 1936 and 1966.

In 2018, the museum opened the Gateway Garden—an outdoor park designed by landscape artist Jon Carloftis—at 825 West Main, the lot that separates the Doerhoefer from the building to its east.

If you enjoy the architecture of the Frazier, or you have a friend of family member who does, swing by our Museum Store! We sell ornaments made from woodcuts of the museum’s exterior.

Simon Meiners
Communications & Research Specialist

Membership

Bring a Friend to Happy Hour Halloween to Receive a Free Beer!

Celebrate the spooky season and join us for our member appreciation happy hour. Enjoy light refreshments and a cash bar with special happy hour pricing and other door prizes! Wear your best costumes: Prizes will be awarded for scariest and most creative! Don’t come to Happy Hour alone—bring a friend! When your friend becomes a member at the door, both of you will receive a complimentary drink ticket and a 2022 Beer Fest tasting glass*!

*Drink ticket will be valid for a selection of craft beer only, while supplies last.

RSVP by October 4 to aegan@fraziermuseum.org

All members age 21+ are welcome!

Wednesday, October 12
Doors Open: 5:30 p.m.
Happy Hour: 6–7 p.m.

Does the Happy Hour have a cover? Not if you are member! Become a member today! As little as $20 will allow you access not only to our happy hour party and prizes but also other member exclusive events throughout the year!* Did we mention that for the $20 Individual membership you would also get year-round access to the museum, a 10% discount in the museum store**, and discounted parking!?

*Not all member-exclusive invitations apply to the Individual and Family membership levels.

**Exclusions apply.

Amanda Egan
Membership & Database Administrator