1920s Michter’s Spookeasy, Mick Sullivan at Lincoln Center, Saluting Commander Billie Farrell, and More
Andy Treinen poses with guests at Michter’s Speakeasy at the Frazier, June 22, 2023.
Good Monday morning,
For all of you live wires, looking for the hottest gin joint celebration on the calendar, look no further than the Frazier’s October 29 Michter’s Spookeasy. Michter’s always does an amazing job with this annual affair, but this year it’s going to be both hip and hauntingly swankilicious.
Leading up to this year’s Halloween-themed speakeasy, we’ll be dropping details about what is sure to be a special night celebrating an era, an outstanding brand, and All Hallows’ Eve.
Today, I’m happy to share details on the best-dressed contest and our two complimentary cocktails that come with every ticket purchase. With help from our partners at Caufield’s Novelty, we’re awarding best dressed in the category of creativity to three couples or individuals.
For a little inspiration, think freakish flappers, ghoulish gangsters, dolled-up dollies, sugar daddies, and tasty tomatoes. Most importantly, have some fun!
As always, the team at Michter’s has done an amazing job curating two featured cocktails. First, there’s an American Pie made with Michter’s US*1 American whiskey, maple syrup, apple cider, lime juice, and a dehydrated apple and cinnamon stick for garnish. Second, there’s a Spellbound made with Farmer’s gin, green Chartreuse, basil eau de vie, blanc vermouth, and a lemon and basil oil droplet as a garnish.
Of course we’ll also have Michter’s always-popular Bourbon tastings—this year, paired with nostalgic candy.
So don’t wait—RSVP while tickets remain!
In today’s Frazier Weekly issue, we’ve got hot Halloween reads in our Cool Kentucky Shop. Our Curator of Guest Experiences, Mick Sullivan, is performing at Lincoln Center in New York on Saturday! The Frazier announces a new program saluting history-making Naval officer Billie Farrell from West Kentucky. And our 120 on the Road team heads to Russellville.
Enjoy!
Andy Treinen
President & CEO
Frazier Kentucky History Museum
This Week in the Museum
Cool Kentucky Shop: SpOoky Books
The Frazier’s Susan Reed reads a book sold in the Frazier’s Cool Kentucky Shop, October 1, 2026.
Get into the spooky spirit with our collection of books filled with Kentucky ghost stories, haunted happenings, and tales from the Bluegrass State. Perfect for a cozy night in . . . assuming you’re brave enough to turn the page! Find your next scary story in the Cool Kentucky Shop.
Frazier’s Mick Sullivan to Perform at Lincoln Center in New York Saturday!
Ten years ago, I visited New York City. In my mind, I was carrying the idea of a kids podcast called The Past and The Curious. Next weekend I will return to the city for the first time since and it will be to perform at the Lincoln Center.
While working with students and the public at the Frazier, I have spent the last ten years sharing my curiosity for the past with families through The Past And The Curious. I’ve written a couple of books, been heard by millions of listeners, and performed in several cities. A featured gig at the Lincoln Center is different, though. It’s more than a note on a resume. It’s something that will go on my obituary.
On Saturday October 10, at 11 a.m., I will perform a one-man show of history, music, multimedia, and humor for the family audience at Lincoln Center. Believe me, I’m going to talk about Kentuckians like Lily May Ledford, Tori Murden, and John Banvard. I’m also going to sing songs, perform original music, and revel in a moment I don’t expect to repeat.
I love what I do, and I’m fortunate that life at the Frazier gives me an opportunity to stay curious, stay engaged, and talk with new people every single day. If you have any family in the New York area, send ’em my way!
Mick Sullivan
Curator of Guest Experience
Join Us November 8 for Saluting Commander Billie Farrell
A teenaged Billie Farrell poses next to the USS Constitution in Boston, 1998.
What a picture, and what a story! A typical tourist picture really, a teenaged Billie Farrell from West Kentucky in Boston getting her picture taken next to the USS Constitution in 1998. It’s the oldest battleship in the world. The navy hat she was wearing was a hint that maybe one day she would climb aboard a ship. But this ship, nah!
Uh, yeah!
Fast forward to 2022 when she would be appointed the first female commander of the USS Constitution, nicknamed “Old Ironsides.”
To give you some perspective of the ship’s history, President John Adams commissioned the ship for its maiden voyage. He was in attendance for its first launch date in 1797. It got the nickname “Old Ironsides” during the war of 1812 when enemy cannonballs bounced off the hull as if it were made of iron.
Now to Billie’s history, she grew up in Paducah, the daughter of a teacher and a police officer, so public service was in her blood. But the Naval Academy? It wasn’t exactly commonplace in Paducah for a young girl. So how did that naval career happen, and who were her role models? And, what about that historic command of the USS Constitution?
We can’t wait to welcome Commander Farrell to the Frazier just days before Veterans Day.
Join us on Sunday, November 8, for this special program with Kentucky’s own history maker, Saluting Commander Billie Farrell. Click here for your tickets.
What a story!
Rachel Platt
VP of Mission
Frazier’s Western Middle Student Art Exhibit Honors America250
Artworks by Western Middle School students on display at the Frazier, October 1, 2026.
Typically, if you stop by the second-floor classroom of the Frazier Museum, you’ll enjoy student art inspired by the question, “What’s cool about Kentucky?” We started that rotation with the opening of our Cool Kentucky exhibition in 2020 and have been at it ever since.
This year we decided to take a different route. Realizing how powerful it would be to include student voices, we adjusted our theme to align with our efforts to honor the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. I reached out to the exceptional art educators at Western Middle School for the Arts, and they immediately agreed to the project. At the end of last schoolyear, students created pieces inspired by America’s founding ideals of liberty, justice, and equality.
Their work is outstanding, and I’m pleased to announce that all their pieces are now up and hanging for all to enjoy.
When you come to visit our America250 exhibitions I Too am a Kentuckian, Pursuit of Happiness, and more, be sure to stop by second-floor classroom to enjoy some beautiful artwork as well. At times this multipurpose space is also utilized for meetings, educational programs, and camp sessions. If it looks busy when you stop by, feel free to ask for an education staff person at the front desk, and if we can get you in to see the work we certainly will.
Special thanks to Amanda Thompson and her students and fellow art educators at Western Middle School for the Arts for all their hard work on the exhibition.
Megan Schanie
Sr. Manager of Educational Programs
Frazier’s 120 on the Road Heads to Logan County’s Tobacco & Heritage Festival this Weekend!
Find us as we hit the road visiting all 120 counties in our Commonwealth! Our next stop will be:
· Logan County Tobacco & Heritage Festival. Town square. Russellville, Logan County, Kentucky. Saturday, October 10, 9 a.m.–4 p.m. (Central). Activities include 120 exhibit, Lewis and Clark–themed What the What? game, and a Lewis and Clark craft!
Look for our 120: Cool KY Counties on the Road exhibit as we share stories and songs from each county—and listen to your stories, too! Come greet 120 on the Road managers Jason Berkowitz and Megan Sleeper.
Frazier Welcomes Georgie and Trace to Their New Roles in Events!
Events team members Georgie Wilson and Trace Rawlins, October 1, 2026.
Lucky us to officially welcome two staff members into their new roles on our events team. We thought it was fitting to put them together in the article since they share the same birthday, April 29, born three hours apart. Georgie Wilson and Trace Rawlins are ready to share what they do and why the Frazier is such a good fit. And if you want to see all of our event spaces and what we offer, click here!—Rachel Platt, VP of Mission
“I’m Georgie Wilson and I’m beyond excited to have joined the Frazier as Event Sales Coordinator! I’ve been on the team for a while, originally as event staff, and I’m thrilled to be here full time. I’ve lived in Kentucky all my life, growing up on a farm in the heart of horse country. For as long as I can remember, I have had a fascination with history and culture, so working in a museum setting is a dream come true! As Event Sales Coordinator, I look forward to supporting my team, helping to ensure a smooth-running operation, as well as bringing new people to the Frazier for all manner of celebrations and experiences.”
“I’m Trace Rawlins and I’m excited to introduce myself as the new Events Manager here at the Frazier Kentucky History Museum! While my job title may be new, I certainly am not. I’ve been part of the Frazier family for the past six years, serving as an event staffer and closer. Born and raised in Louisville my whole life, along with my two older brothers, I am Kentucky through and through, whether that’s because my favorite sport is basketball (BBN) or because my mom bottle-fed me sweet tea as a baby. I’ve always had a deep love for Kentucky and everything that makes it special. I’m excited for my new position and look forward to what the future has in store.”
Georgie Wilson and Trace Rawlins
Events Team Members
Pumpkins at PlayPort is Back!
2026 Pumpkins at PlayPort flyer.
Waterfront Park is excited to welcome families back for another memorable Pumpkins at PlayPort, and the Frazier Museum is once again participating! We can't wait to celebrate with you. Join us on Saturday, October 10, 4 to 7 p.m., at PlayPort, 1105 Rowan Street, for an evening filled with Halloween fun, community, and family-friendly activities.
This FREE event includes trick-or-treating throughout PlayPort, a DJ and dance floor, crafts, facepainting, pumpkins, giveaways, and of course the playground! Whether you’re coming for the treats, the costumes, the activities, or simply to enjoy an evening together, there will be something for everyone! Food and drink will also be available for purchase.
Wear your favorite costume and bring your treat bag. It's time to make some fall memories!
We can’t wait to see you there!
Tori Kennedy
Manager of Youth & Family Programs
Bridging the Divide
White oak at Ninth and Main, September 30, 2026.
The Cumberland Mountains in Tennessee after a fire.
The Frazier Kentucky History Museum is supportive of TreesLouisville as it gets ready to celebrate the roles trees play in our lives with Tree Week, October 9–18. Click here to learn about all the events happening for this effort. We want to make sure you notice the white oak tree that was planted outside the Frazier at Ninth and Main when we became the official starting point of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail®. White oak is essential to the Bourbon industry but I wasn’t sure if you everyone knew that history and some of the protections now in place for its future. We asked Kristen Bohannon with the Dendrifund to fill you in.—Rachel Platt, VP of Mission
Every bottle of Bourbon starts long before the mash bill: It starts with a tree. By law, Bourbon must be aged in new, charred containers made of white oak (Quercus alba), the only wood species with the tight-grained structure and natural tyloses that seal a barrel tight enough to hold spirits for years without leaking, while still letting the wood “breathe” enough to develop the color and flavor consumers expect. There is no substitute. The success of the Bourbon industry relies on healthy, sustainable white oak forests.
This is one reason why the forestry community has been monitoring white oak regeneration trends for decades. White oak dominates the overstory of forests across the Appalachian and Cumberland Plateau regions today, but it is struggling to replace itself. Decades of fire suppression, along with heavy shade from faster-growing competitor species and browsing pressure from deer, have made it difficult for young white oak seedlings to reach the canopy. A white oak tree takes roughly 80 to 100 years to mature, meaning the trees being harvested for barrel staves today were often established well before the mid-twentieth century. Today, not enough white oak saplings are maturing into larger trees to replace those lost to mortality and harvest. Current data from the US Forest Service suggests that nearly 70% of white oak timberland across the eastern United States is currently confronting sustainability challenges, most notably a critical disruption in the transition from young saplings into the next generation of mature trees. (USDA, Forest Service)
What makes this a solvable problem, and not just a slow-moving crisis, is who owns the land. The majority of white oak forestland is not held by government agencies or large timber companies; an estimated 80% of white oak forests are owned by individual private landowners. One white oak region Dendrifund is currently focused on is the Cumberland Plateau region of Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama. Any real solution to the white oak regeneration challenge must reach these landowners directly, one property at a time, with the right technical guidance and the right incentives to manage for the long term.
This is where Dendrifund’s work through the White Oak Initiative and the Cumberland Plateau Partnership comes in. Rather than managing forestland ourselves, Dendrifund convenes and funds the people who can reach private landowners where they are: foresters, extension partners, and regional timber industry organizations who help landowners implement forest management plans, apply prescribed fire, and thin competing species so young white oak can actually reach sunlight.
Over the next two years, Dendrifund’s support will help 3,000 private landowners apply white oak management practices to improve 6,300 acres across the Cumberland Plateau. Additional targets include applying prescribed fire for 900 acres, creating 100 management plans with Best Management Practices (BMPs), and delivering over $5 million in technical and cost-share assistance. Our partners are actively conducting site visits and outreach events with landowners, foresters, and industry leaders across Kentucky, Tennessee, and Alabama.
“White oak is a foundational species to the forest ecosystem,” Scott Taylor of Elk Cave Farm in Gravel Switch, Kentucky, says. “Managing for white oak gave our farm both ecological and economic sustainability for generational succession. So, it became both a moral and business imperative.”
The timeline matters here. A landowner who improves regeneration conditions today is making a decision that will shape the region’s timber supply and the Bourbon industry’s raw material for future generations, long after the current barrels are gone. That is a hard case to make to any one landowner working alone. It is a much easier case when there is a trusted partner in the field and a coalition like the White Oak Initiative connecting the dots between forest health and the industry that depends on it.
Dendrifund's vision started with a simple belief: the generational legacy of the Bourbon industry is inseparable from the health of the forests, land, and water that supply it, and that legacy is secured one property at a time, through the stewardship of families who have cared for this land for decades. Our role is to close the gap between individual landowners and the technical experts who can help them manage for the long term: convening and funding the foresters and partners who work directly with landowners, giving them the guidance and incentive to make decisions that serve both a resilient ecosystem and a sustainable supply chain. It’s a model we believe in beyond Bourbon: building a community that understands the connection between nature’s health and long-term prosperity, wherever that connection matters.
To learn more about Dendrifund and our work in the wood, water, and grain ecosystems, please visit dendrifund.org. To learn more about the White Oak Initiative or the Cumberland Plateau Partnership, visit whiteoakinitiative.org.
Kristen Bohannon
Programs & Operations Director, Dendrifund
Guest Contributor
History All Around Us
As our nation geared up for America250, one of the first people I heard from was Pradeep B. Deshpande, Professor Emeritus and former Chairman of the Chemical Engineering Department at the University of Louisville. As he says, he is a proud Louisvillian for fifty years. He went onto say the Declaration provided our legal and political framework, but the longevity of our Republic depends on what he terms “Internal Emotional Excellence” toward a better and more peaceful world. Keep reading to learn more about his research.—Rachel Platt, VP of Mission
The Milestone Before Us
As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of its founding—a milestone we are actively celebrating here in Kentucky—we celebrate the enduring, brilliant document crafted by our founders. To fulfill our sacred duty to ensure this nation remains thriving and resilient for the next quarter-millennium, we must look not only to our history but to the internal transformation of our collective mindset.
The Cycle of Civilizations
History teaches us that all civilizations follow natural rhythms of rise and decline. Having lived in Louisville for half a century and spent my career researching scientific frameworks for excellence, I have observed that a nation’s trajectory is deeply connected to human emotions.
A civilizational rise is propelled by an engine of positive traits: truthfulness, honesty, steadfastness, and equanimity. These qualities foster a collective spirit of national coherence. They are directly linked to positive emotions like love, kindness, empathy, and compassion.
Conversely, the decline of a society begins when attachment, ego, greed, and ambition take over. These factors introduce variance and dysfunction, breeding negative emotions such as anger, hostility, resentment, and fear. When lying, cheating, and causing injury become prevalent, the engine of decline accelerates.
Cultivating Internal Emotional Excellence
We hold this truth to be essential for our national survival: while civilizational decline is a natural phenomenon, its progression can be significantly postponed, and our prosperity extended. The key is the active cultivation of what I call Internal Emotional Excellence.
Internal Emotional Excellence is the predominance of positive emotions to the exclusion of negative ones, fostering a state of internal coherence. Products of reason—our sciences, laws, and policies—are indispensable for problem-solving, but they are often insufficient on their own. When reason fails to resolve a crisis, we must transcend it. We achieve this inner transformation through contemplative practices such as meditation or prayer that enhance our focus and attention.
Progress can be tracked with scientific measurements like heart rate variability (HRV), a feature now available on many smartwatches. Higher HRV indicates lower stress and a preponderance of positive emotions. For example, a regular, 10-minute practice of coherent breathing—taking about six breaths per minute—can significantly increase your HRV and help cultivate this inner balance.
The Core Benefits
Achieving this state of internal coherence brings profound benefits to individuals, communities, and our nation as a whole. Cultivating this internal balance yields five core benefits:
· Enhanced Health & Wellness
· Exemplary Performance
· Heightened Creativity
· Stronger Leadership
· Enduring Peace
Our Path Forward
A societal-level initiative dedicated to achieving higher internal emotional excellence is a historical necessity. It is the primary mechanism to ensure that the United States remains relevant, thriving, and resilient for the next 250 years—securing the blessings of liberty and prosperity for generations yet unborn.
Pradeep B. Deshpande
Professor Emeritus and Former Chairman of Engineer Department, University of Louisville
Guest Contributor
