Back to School Field Trips, the Hill(topper) Sisters, Did a Cincinnati Red’s Home Run Reach Kentucky?, and More
Good Monday morning,
Well that was a kick!
A volunteer pours a serving in the VIP-access area, the Frazier’s Gateway Garden, at Summer Beer Fest at Frazier, August 7, 2021. Credit: Kendrick Jones.
Brother Smith performs on stage. Credit: Kendrick Jones.
A vendor serves beer to a festivalgoer. Credit: Kendrick Jones.
On Saturday, the Frazier hosted more guests in one day than on any other occasion in the museum’s 17-year history. Well over 1,000 people now have a better understanding that the Frazier is the place Where the World Meets Kentucky — to learn, laugh, and engage in stories that make the Commonwealth so special. In this case, our guests got to literally taste a little Falls City history.
Two festivalgoers chatting in front of the Froggy’s Popcorn food truck. Credit: Kendrick Jones.
Festivalgoers compare samples. Credit: Kendrick Jones.
I will resist the temptation to deliver an Academy Awards-esque laundry list of shout-outs to all the great people who made it possible. It was a monumental inaugural undertaking for our team. I’ll simply say thank you, I am very grateful!
In this week’s Virtual Frazier Magazine, it’s back to school time led by one of our JCPS moms, Megan Schanie. Megan leads our curriculum-based education and sets up what looks like another unorthodox school year for kiddos. And speaking of the kids, Frazier summer campers offer some light-hearted video advice for parents on how to motivate children for school.
Curator Amanda Briede has a sneak peek at our soon-to-open exhibition West of Ninth: Race, Reckoning, and Reconciliation, magician Mac King sets up our upcoming Hometown Magic program featuring King and Lance Burton, and Simon Meiners highlights an historic 2004 home run — a ball that was hit from Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park all the way to the state of Kentucky.
I hope you enjoy,
Andy Treinen
President & CEO
Frazier History Museum
This Week in the Museum
Back to School: Virtual and Guided Field Trips in 2021 – 22
Heather Gotlib, Manager of Youth and Family Programs, discusses a student-created map of Louisville with elementary age children visiting for our “History in Miniature” program in 2019, prior to the pandemic. We are looking forward to a time when students are visiting with us daily yet again. Until then, our Virtual Field Trips are ready to go!
It’s always hard to believe summer is coming to a close and another school year is beginning. As the proud parent of two teenagers, my husband and I will soon be dropping one daughter off for her freshman year of college at WKU and getting the other settled as a junior at Atherton High School. Like many other students, my younger daughter will be starting her third year at a high school where she is yet to spend a full year in person — something that would have been hard to fathom before the pandemic.
Masking up for classes and other safety protocols are in place for many districts including Jefferson County Public Schools. The JCPS back to school website shares those details, as well as the bus finder, preparation tips, information on the virtual learning option, and more.
I’m happy to say our education team here at the Frazier is prepared to meet students wherever they are! Our Virtual Field Trip options will guide them through discovery of topics including Lewis and Clark, Kentucky’s hidden histories, suffrage and voting rights, and more — all from the safety of their home or classroom. When students are able to visit us on site, we will be ready and excited to run our Guided Field Trip options that align with standards and many unique themes. Thanks to the generosity of local grant funders, we are able to provide these experiences for free to Title 1 schools.
Want a sneak peek into educational programming at the Frazier? We are excited to now have a video overview pulled together by our talented summer intern from Western Kentucky University, Josh Thompson, in collaboration with our own Curator of Guest Experience, Mick Sullivan. It’s 40 seconds well spent!
If you have any questions about educational programming at the Frazier, please reach out to our team at education@fraziermuseum.org.
Megan Schanie
Manager of School and Teacher Programs
Back to School Advice From Campers
Curator’s Corner: World War I Black Battalion Panoramic Photograph
World War I Black Battalion panoramic photograph, on loan from the Alexander, Weaver, and Wingo families
Back of photograph showing inscription and repairs
If you have been following along with Curator’s Corner, I’m sure you’ve read the few articles I have written introducing our next exhibition, West of Ninth: Race, Reckoning, and Reconciliation. We have been working with Walt and Shae Smith of the West of Ninth blog on the exhibition for about two years now. It was supposed to open in May of 2020, during the first week of protests in Louisville surrounding the death of Breonna Taylor; but due to COVID, we had to push the opening back to September. We decided to use this extra time to expand the exhibition and dive further into the history of the Ninth Street divide and other issues that have affected Black communities in Louisville. Now that we are getting closer to the exhibition’s opening, I am excited to share some of the incredible objects that will be featured in it.
The first piece that I can’t wait for you to see is on loan to us from the Alexander, Weaver, and Wingo families. Shelly Weaver dropped off this incredible panoramic photo of a Black battalion from World War I that features two of her great uncles. Though Shelly now lives in Louisville, her family was living in Paris, Kentucky at the time of the war.
When Shelly brought the photo in, it had been rolled and stored in a closet for quite some time, and the piece was so delicate that it was unable to be unrolled without cracking. We were honored to help unroll the piece by putting it in a humidifier designed to help relax paper in just that condition. Once the photo was unrolled, we were able to repair and reinforce any cracks or tears in the paper by backing it with rice paper.
Be sure to stay tuned for more information about West of Ninth: Race, Reckoning, and Reconciliation and make plans to come see all the amazing pieces of Louisville’s African American history.
Amanda Briede
Curator
Hometown Magic From “the State of Kentucky”
Mac King
There’s something magical about performing, well, magic in front of a live audience. Just ask Kentucky native Mac King, who is considered the longest running stage magician in Las Vegas. Both King and Lance Burton, a fellow Kentuckian and stage magician who knows a thing or two about Vegas, will be working the crowd at the Frazier on September 12 with some talk as well as some magic. Until then, thanks to Mac King for sharing some of his heritage and his feelings about stopping and resuming shows in light of COVID.
I was born in the state of Kentucky. My wife Jennifer was born in the state of Kentucky. And although our daughter was born in Las Vegas, she tells people she’s from Kentucky. I think that’s because Kentucky is more than just a place to be from. When I say I am from the state of Kentucky, traditionally, that means I was born within the boundaries of the Commonwealth — west of West Virginia, south of the Ohio River, north of Tennessee, and east of the Mississippi River. But there is also another definition of “state”: it is the particular condition someone is in. So, even though I haven’t lived within those boundaries for more than 35 years, I still feel like I live in “the state of Kentucky.”
Mac King at an early age
I learned my first magic trick from my grandpa Pax King in my hometown of Hopkinsville. I performed my first magic shows in my grandparents Elwood and Gladys Huffman’s living room in Greenville before I was 10 years old. From the time I was 14, the longest I’d gone without doing a magic show was probably three weeks. Until March 14, 2020. And then, because of the coronavirus, I went more than 15 months without stepping in front of an audience.
I know a lot of folks had it way harder than me during that time. But getting in front of a group of strangers who are sitting shoulder to shoulder in the dark and somehow being able to cast a spell over that crowd and mold them into an audience that laughs and responds as a single unit is like a drug to me. In the past, when we’d go on vacation, my wife would (semi) jokingly say to me in her most sarcastic but loving voice, “I know what’s wrong with you — no one has laughed or applauded for you in three whole days.”
She’s right — I am addicted to my work. And that 15-month period of withdrawal from that dependency was shockingly difficult for me. So, when it was announced that I was to resume shows on June 22, 2021, I was elated. That first show back, my life seemed to come full circle as I stood backstage in the dark waiting to go on stage. I even cried a few tears as the announcer told the audience, “Please welcome, direct from Kentucky, Mac King!”
Mac King
Host, The Mac King Comedy Magic Show
Guest Contributor
Museum Store: The Great Dissenter by Peter S. Canellos
Front cover of The Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan, America’s Judicial Hero, sold in the Frazier’s Museum Store
There’s still time to not only buy this book at our store, but finish reading it before our August 24 program with the author, Peter S. Canellos.
We hope to see you there, so you’d better act quickly. It’s a big book!
Back to School With Two Western Kentucky Hilltopper Sisters
Caitie Licciardi
My name is Caitie Licciardi, and I am a senior at Western Kentucky University studying Social Studies, Art History, and Secondary Education! I’ve worked as an Education intern at the Frazier Museum all summer, and it’s really pushed my future to the forefront of my brain. The stage of my college career at which I would obtain an internship always seemed so far away, but now it’s come to a close. I have one year of my undergraduate degree left, and it’s both incredibly exciting and intensely scary. I’m looking forward to starting my career, wherever that may be or whatever that may look like, despite the amount of fear that thought incites in me. One thing I’m over the moon about going into my senior year of college is having my little sister there with me. I’m stoked that she chose to attend WKU because we haven’t had a year of school together since my last year of high school. It’s very special to me to share those first and final moments of school with her, and I hope it brings us even closer together.
If I had to give any advice to her as she begins her college career, it would be to embrace the changes that come her way because the outcome may be better than the original plan. College is full of major changes, changes that will feel overbearing at times — but she is more than capable of conquering them. She is going to grow stronger, smarter, more passionate, more resilient, and more open than she’s ever been during these next few years. I would tell her to embrace every single part of herself and her “normal” that changes because she’ll be so thankful for them. I know I still have one year left, and I have even more changes headed my way, but I’m confident that I’m ready for them, as I know she is too.
Amanda Licciardi
My name is Amanda, and I am Caitie’s younger sister. I am an incoming freshman at Western Kentucky University studying Exercise Science, hoping to become a physical therapist. I am also pursuing my Personal Training certification because I hope to open my own gym one day. I am very excited to start my first semester this fall because I will have the opportunity to study my interests, make new friends, and experience campus life. However, I’m nervous about living in a dorm with community bathrooms and having to move away from my hometown. This is one of the main reasons I’m excited to have my sister on campus with me. College will be a big change in my life, and I know I will struggle; but no matter what, my sister will be there to help. I’m excited to move down to Bowling Green in three weeks, and I am ready to take on the challenges college brings me!
If I had to give any advice to Caitie as she enters her final year of college, I would tell her to make sure she always puts passion and love into work, whatever she chooses to do. I would also tell her to spend every moment of her last year appreciating every moment. I hope she appreciates every moment she has with her friends, on Western’s campus, and in her classes — because even though her time as an undergraduate is coming to an end, it will still have been very special.
We can’t wait for this school year to begin, and we’re super excited to be entering it together! Welcome back to school and go Tops!
Caitie Licciardi and Amanda Licciardi
Students, Western Kentucky University
Guest Contributors
History All Around Us
Normal Schools and the Hill Sisters
Joe Ley Antiques at 615 Market Street, whose colorful Chagall-style human figure mural can be seen from Spaghetti Junction, is a classic Louisville sight. It was also the second-largest individually owned antique shop in the country at one point. At the westernmost edge of NuLu, the building has been unoccupied for years. However, as a striking architectural reminder of Louisville’s Victorian past, it still catches eyes.
It recently came to my attention that the building still bears the name of what it originally housed: the Normal School. Knowing what we do now about how language and schooling has evolved over the years, you might stop in your tracks and think, “what could that possibly mean?”
However, the “Normal” in “Normal School” actually refers to the word norm. In the 1830s and later, America was working on establishing a more systematic and scientific approach to education. At normal schools, teachers learned how to teach. It was at a Normal School in the Iroquois Park neighborhood of Louisville, in fact, where Patty Smith Hill and her sister Mildred composed the melody and lyrics for what would become the most recognized song in the English language, “Happy Birthday to You.” It was thanks in part to her work that much of early childhood education and kindergarten became standardized and equitable.
The next time you find yourself in Nulu, stop by and take a second look at a building that was formative in the history of education. Back to school, indeed!
Heather Gotlib
Manager of Youth and Family Programs
Screen shot from YouTube video “Destination Cincinnati – Drone View Great American Ballpark (2020),” July 23, 2020. Credit: Penguin VR Media.
On August 10, 2004, the Cincinnati Reds played the Los Angeles Dodgers at Great American Ball Park in downtown Cincinnati. The ballpark, which opened in 2003, is situated along the north bank of the Ohio River, facing southeast from the batter’s perspective. Running between the ballpark and the water, parallel to the riverbank, is the Ohio River Scenic Bypass, also called Mehring Way.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, Reds batter Adam Dunn sized up and hit a fastball thrown by Dodgers right-hand pitcher Jose Lima. Blasted toward deep center field, the ball flew past the batter’s eye and out of the ballpark entirely. It bounced on Mehring Way, rolled past the riverbank, and reportedly came to a stop on a piece of driftwood in the river. There, a Reds electrician named Tom Tuerck retrieved the ball and gave it to Dunn, who donated it to the Reds Hall of Fame and Museum.
Adam Dunn’s home run ball on display at the Reds Hall of Fame, April 1, 2021. Credit: Erin Chamberlain, Marketing and Development Manager, Reds Hall of Fame and Museum.
Seventeen years later, Dunn’s home run — which flew 535 feet, equal to one-and-a-half football fields or three-and-a-half Statue of Libertys — remains historic. It’s not only the longest home run of Dunn’s career and the longest one hit in Great American Ball Park, it’s one of the five longest-hit home runs in MLB history.
But it also bears another, arguably more historic distinction: by crossing the riverbank, it technically reached the state of Kentucky.
Or did it?
Although no one disputes the claim the ball crossed the riverbank, there has historically been disagreement over what constitutes the border between Ohio and Kentucky.
“It’s kind of a fine line and could be interpreted either way,” Reds Hall of Fame Marketing and Development Manager Erin Chamberlain told me over email. She referred me to an entry in Ohio History Central, a website maintained and developed by the Ohio History Connection as an encyclopedia-style reference source for and about the people of Ohio. The entry, titled “Ownership of the Ohio River,” states the following:
“Since the late 1700s, various states have claimed ownership of various stretches of the Ohio River. The principal reason was to garner wealth from the trade that occurred on the river. In 1792, the federal government determined that Kentucky owned the Ohio River along its border with Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. In essence, the boundary between Kentucky and these three future states would be the low point of the Ohio River’s northernmost bank.
“Both Indiana and Ohio have sought to claim the Ohio River, despite the federal government’s declaration in 1792. In 1966, Ohio claimed that the Ohio River’s course had fluctuated since 1792, so that the low point of the Ohio River’s northernmost bank in 1792 actually would be near the south bank of the river today. Ohio asked the United States Supreme Court to give ownership of the river to Ohio or, at the bare minimum, to set the boundary between Kentucky and Ohio in the midpoint of the Ohio River. The Supreme Court ruled that Kentucky had legal ownership to the Ohio River.”
So there you have it. According to the U.S. Supreme Court, Adam Dunn thwacked a baseball from a field in Ohio to a hunk of wood in Kentucky — all in the time it takes to buy a box of Cracker Jacks.
If you’d like to see the ball in person, visit the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame & Museum where it’s currently on display.
Sources
“Ownership of the Ohio River.” Ohio History Central, Ohio History Connection. Web.
Kelly, Kevin. “Dunn’s blast flies a record 535 feet.” The Cincinnati Enquirer. August 11, 2004: B5. Print.
Rosencrans, C. Trent. “An all-time behemoth blast: Dunn’s ’04 home run into river the longest ever at Great American Ball Park.” The Cincinnati Enquirer. July 10, 2015: F17. Print.
Simon Meiners
Communications & Research Specialist
