Good Monday morning,

With the opening of a vitally important exhibition Saturday, this promises to be a very special week at the Frazier! Our team has been working on West of Ninth: Race, Reckoning, and Reconciliation for over two years. The exhibition is important, not only for the history it uncovers, but because it serves as a celebration of the residents of the nine neighborhoods of the West End of Louisville.

Knowing full well that we alone could not tell this story, the Frazier has partnered with co-curators Walt and Shae Smith, the creators and founders of the website West of Ninth. We have explored the history of Louisville’s Ninth Street divide with multiple consultants and sought advice from various contributors.

I invite you all to the Frazier on Saturday, September 18 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., free of charge, to be among the first to experience the exhibit. We will have engaging presentations, hands-on history, refreshments, music, and art — all celebrating the opening of West of Ninth.

In today’s Curator’s Corner, Amanda Briede introduces us to Victor Sweatt and the community art project he’ll be hosting during the opening. You can see all of Saturday’s programing here.

Our Virtual Frazier Magazine is chalk-full of its usual nuggets of Kentucky charm, including a guest contribution from WHAS11’s Doug Proffitt on Ken Burns’ Muhammad Ali, which premieres Sunday, and a Carter Cave experience by Shelby Durbin. But we start with our Veronica Cosmópolis explaining the thoughtful process behind the creation of the West of Ninth exhibition logo.

I hope you enjoy,

Andy Treinen
President & CEO
Frazier History Museum

This Week in the Museum

Video: Creating the Logo for West of Ninth

Frazier Museum Preparator Veronica Cosmópolis explains the process behind the creation of the logo for West of Ninth: Race, Reckoning, and Reconciliation.

Curator’s Corner: Community Art Piece With Victor Sweatt

For the opening of our new exhibition West of Ninth: Race, Reckoning, and Reconciliation, we have an incredible community celebration planned with several family friendly activities. For me, the most exciting part of this celebration is that West Louisville artist Victor Sweatt will be on hand to help visitors complete an incredible mural that he designed especially for the exhibition.

Victor has a studio in the Portland neighborhood of West Louisville, but you can see his work on several doors for the Louisville Downtown Partnership’s Alley Gallery program, as well as murals in the Chickasaw neighborhood, the Russell neighborhood, the Southwick Community Center, the Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory, and more.

For his piece for the exhibition, Victor spoke with Walt and Shae Smith of the West of Ninth blog to come up with a design that pays tribute to the neighborhoods of West Louisville. The murals feature famous figures from West Louisville, including Ed Hamilton, Darrell Griffith, Samuel Plato, Muhammad Ali, Elmer Lucille Allen, Isaac Burns, Rajon Rondo, and Alberta Jones.

Be sure to stop by the Frazier on Saturday, September 18 between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. to meet Victor and help paint our community mural. You’ll also be one of the first to see our new exhibition, West of Ninth: Race, Reckoning, and Reconciliation. Once the mural is complete, it will be added to the “Neighborhoods” section of the exhibition.

Amanda Briede
Curator

Digging for a Promised Land: Collaborative Program With Indiana Church

If you’re interested in the connection between Kentuckiana and the Underground Railroad, visit Border State: Kentucky and the Civil, an exhibition on the second floor of the Frazier Museum. On display is a major artifact of local history: the large clock face from the Town Clock Church (2nd Baptist Church) in New Albany, Indiana.

Completed in 1852, the church holds strong ties to the Underground Railroad as a place whose members supported freedom seekers fleeing enslavement in Kentucky. What better place to hold our upcoming evening program, Digging for a Promised Land. We hope to see you there.

Digging for a Promised Land

September 23, 2021

7 – 8:30 p.m.

Join us at the Town Clock Church in New Albany, Indiana for an evening of discovery connecting archaeological digs from two countries to local history and regional ties to the Underground Railroad. Participants will hear from Anne Bader, principal archaeologist with Corn Island Archaeology, and Karolyn Smardz Frost, an archaeologist living in Canada and author of I've Got a Home in Glory Land, which shares the story of freedom seekers Thornton and Lucie Blackburn. Special thanks to the Caesars Foundation of Floyd County for their generous support of this program. Seating is limited and advance registration is required. To learn more or to make free reservations, click here.

To dive deeper into the history, watch our interview with Pamela R. Peters, author of the book The Underground Railroad in Floyd County, Indiana.

Megan Schanie
Manager of School and Teacher Programs

Video: Give for Good Louisville 2021

Crawling Adventure at Carter Caves State Resort Park

On August 22, 2021, I participated in a cave adventure hosted by Carter Caves State Resort Park in Olive Hill, Kentucky. Olive Hill is located about 2.5 hours east of Louisville and is less than an hour from the West Virginia border. It was my first time visiting the park, and I was in for quite the experience.

The particular caving adventure I attended was part of Carter Cave’s 2021 Crawling Adventure Series. If I hadn’t called the park before my visit, I would have never even known the series was happening at that time. They were offering a tour of Wilburn Cave, which is actually located on private property slightly outside the park. I was looking for a cave adventure, so I was grateful the logistics fell in to place naturally.

Prior to the caving adventure, our tour guide, Coy, sent an email to participants with all the necessary information for our crawling escapades. As a beginner caver, I laughed out loud when I read the following portion of the email:

“Greetings Cavers,

If you are receiving this email, then you have signed up for the Wilburn Cave Trip as part of the Wild Caving Adventure Series at Carter Caves State Park.

Here is the website trip description.

August 22 Wilburn Cave — Wilburn cave is located near the top of a big ridge. The trip to the cave entrance is a strenuous 250-foot climb up a 30-degree banking, so you should be in good health to participate in this trip. There is little to no walking passage found in the whole cave and it is known for plenty of nasty little crawls. At one point in the cave you will have to straddle over top of a 20-foot canyon to navigate through the passage. The cave is on private property and we have permission to visit the cave for the 2021 Crawling Adventure Series…”

And, with that, off we went!

With our headlamps and personal belongings in tow, we ascended the aforementioned 30-degree banking up to the cave head.

Once we reached the top (finally!), the cave head itself was very small, which was to be expected. You could not enter the cave without crawling very low to the ground. To make matters slightly more complicated, I was crawling with my phone in my hand to get some photos and videos of the inside of the cave. It was well worth it!

My tour group saw a small animal skull, feathers, a mini waterfall, and several creepy crawlies, in addition to the fascinating rock passageways. The crawling sections were mixed in with some areas you could squat or stand in, which was a nice break on your knees and elbows. (Carter Caves provided us knee pads and elbow pads.)

Overall, the experience was unforgettable. I am already planning my next trip to Carter Caves State Resort Park! This experience was an excellent reminder of Kentucky’s immense geographic diversity and beautiful natural wonders. If you would like more information on Carter Caves and the tours offered there, you can visit the Kentucky State Parks website.

Also, if you need more inspiration for your next Bluegrass road trip, visit us at the Frazier History Museum and check out our new Cool Kentucky exhibition! Additionally, stay tuned to our social media pages and Virtual Frazier Magazine for more of my Kentucky shenanigans (a.k.a., more ways to risk the life of my cell phone)!

Shelby Durbin
Education and Engagement Specialist

Frazier Classic: Shoot for the Stars but Aim for the Clays

Time is running out to join great people having great fun, enjoying great food for a great cause! Frazier Classic team and individual registration closes September 15. The event, named in honor of our founder, Owsley Brown Frazier, will take place Friday, September 24 with registration starting at 8 a.m.  All proceeds support Frazier’s exhibitions, educational outreach, and programs.

Folks will spend the day competing on the 25-station/72-target sporting clays course before a delicious lunch featuring live music, Bourbon cocktails, craft beer, a raffle, and a silent auction of premium Kentucky Bourbons and exclusive Kentucky experiences. Shooters of all skill levels are welcome. The tournament uses Lewis Class scoring, which allows shooters of any skill level the opportunity to win awards.

Not sure if the day is as good as we say it is? Here is what some of last year’s participants responded when asked to recount their favorite part of the day.

“Everything was great! The course was fun and the food and refreshments were delicious. The volunteers and the service they provided were helpful and courteous.”

“The shooting was my favorite part, but the lunch was also excellent!”

“Being able to meet all those people.”

“Learning to shoot — great fun.”

“Hard to come up with anything that was not excellent.”

Click here to register.

Fall Break Camps: You Wouldn’t Want to Live In…

If you haven’t signed up yet, our Fall Break Camps are looking to be a blast! Kids can enroll for one day, two, or all three. Space is limited, so sign up today!

We are excited to try something a little different this year — we’re bringing back our favorite summer camp theme, “You Wouldn’t Want to Live In...” We’ll visit three decades in history, exploring the events, people, mysteries, and more from each. Our active, story-based approach to learning has campers up and moving a lot of the day, and our outdoor spaces are the perfect place to enjoy the fresh fall air.

Masks are required and social distancing is enforced, plus we have lunch and snacks outdoors for added safety.

Interested in learning more? Visit our Camps page for more details and registration!

Heather Gotlib
Manager of Youth and Family Programs

Museum Store: Becoming Muhammad Ali

We love this book that tells the story of Muhammad Ali’s childhood in Louisville, when he still went by the name Cassius Clay. It’s beautifully illustrated, and it’s not just written for a tween audience. It’s good gifting for you or yours and available in the Museum Shop.

History All Around Us

Documentary Filmmaker Ken Burns’ Visit to the WHAS TV Morgue

When filmmaker Ken Burns comes knocking, you answer — and that’s exactly what the team at WHAS TV did. When Burns asked to see what the station had on Louisville’s most famous son, Muhammad Ali, they delivered in a big way. Here, my former colleague Doug Proffitt gives you the inside look at the role WHAS played in Burns’ four-part, eight-hour film “Muhammad Ali,” which premieres Sunday, September 19 at 8 p.m. on KET. One of Ali’s daughters describes the film as “the whole picture.” Before you watch it, you can join KET’s Renee Shaw for a virtual panel discussion, via Facebook and YouTube, Thursday, September 16 at 7 p.m. — Rachel Platt, Director of Community Engagement

The thought came to my mind: What is the most respected documentary filmmaker in America going to think when he walks into the WHAS TV film “morgue”?

That’s the interesting name given in the 1950s to the space in the WHAS TV station in which original news coverage is stored — reels of footage dating back to 1950, the year the station went on the air.

It was the end of February 2020, just weeks before the COVID-related shutdowns would occur, and I was waiting for famed documentary filmmaker Ken Burns to arrive. Burns had come to Louisville to view a piece of film his producer Stephanie Jenkins had discovered while tracking down footage to use in Muhammad Ali, a four-part series on the iconic boxer and Louisville native.

Jenkins was cross-checking our hand-written file books for any mention of “Cassius Clay” or “Muhammad Ali.”

Fortunately, in the 1950s, WHAS TV’s famed Sports Director Cawood Ledford had spotted the teenage Ali, and subsequently covered him often. Louisville was still segregated at that time, and I’ve been told by many of Cawood’s former coworkers that he and the station received threats for showing a black athlete on the air; but the management of the station backed Cawood. Today, his original coverage of Ali is a gold mine of historic material.

When Jenkins placed one small newsfilm reel on the old projector in the “morgue,” it lit up with six seconds of something she told us she’d not seen before. Captured January 16, 1957, the footage depicts a skinny 14-year-old Ali — one day shy of his fifteenth birthday — standing at a table for the Golden Gloves boxing weigh-in in Louisville.

Jenkins told me, “I believe it is the earliest moving footage of him as just a 14 year old.”

The film is silent — which is unfortunate, because Ali is talking up a storm, pointing at the man behind the desk, and showing early signs of his now-iconic showmanship while he’s signing up.

When I asked Burns if this would wind up in his PBS documentary, he said, “OH YEAH! What we’re doing, from his birth in Louisville, to his death by Parkinson’s — that involved the deepest possible dive into not just all the aspects of his life, contradictory and all those things, but to find out how you tell the story in pictures. So to be able to look through here and discover this hidden gem is a godsend to us.”

So was Ali full of it?

One funny clip discovered is the coverage in Louisville, the excitement and hype, leading up to the February 1964 fight in Miami with Sonny Liston. WHAS11 reporter David Dick went over to the house of Mrs. Herman Clay, Ali’s grandmother, to ask her about listening to that night’s huge fight.

David Dick: Does he mean what he says?

Mrs. Clay: No. He keeps talking to be talking.

David Dick: Anyone listening to the match with you?

Mrs. Clay: No. I don’t want anyone; I want it to be quiet.

Since WHAS TV was the only Louisville station recording news film at the time, watching the film again makes you realize what a true marketer Ali really was, even dating back to his teenage years.

Yes, Muhammad Ali, who was at one time the most recorded and filmed man on earth, still manages to surprise.

But for Burns, Ali the figure is inseparable from his hometown.

“Louisville is the place he was born and the place he’s buried,” Burns told me. “Louisville is how we are defined by him. You can’t take Louisville out of this equation.”

Doug Proffitt
News Anchor, WHAS11
Guest Contributor