Night at the Frazier, Spring Break Camp Egg Drop, Marion County on Chitlin’ Circuit, and More
2025 Night at the Frazier graphic.
Happy Monday!
Say goodbye to the frosty flurries of February and hello to the biggest fundraising event of the year at the Frazier History Museum! We are thrilled to invite you to the second annual Night at the Frazier on Saturday, April 5—an evening dedicated to celebrating Kentucky, history, community, and the impact of the museum. As Frazier Weekly readers, you are a part of that impact! This is our moment to come together to reflect on all we’ve accomplished and look ahead to the future.
This year’s event marks the opening of our newest exhibition, Love & Marriage, an exquisitely curated showcase of fifty historic wedding dresses and artifacts spanning 150 years of Kentucky history. From courtship traditions to jewelry, décor, and gifting customs, this immersive experience will highlight the beauty and diversity of love—both past and present.
Guests attend last year’s Night at the Frazier gala, April 12, 2024.
Guests attend last year’s Night at the Frazier gala, April 12, 2024.
Guests attend last year’s Night at the Frazier gala, April 12, 2024.
But the night doesn’t end there! Our Late Night Party promises an evening of energy and excitement, including:
Live bluegrass music from trio the Esteemed Colleagues as you explore the galleries
Bourbon tastings & signature cocktails from distilleries like Jim Beam, Horse Soldier, and Kentucky Peerless
Full exhibition & gallery access with tours of Love & Marriage
Small plates from top local caterers like RK Bluegrass and Michaelis
Yacht rock vibes from Tony and the Tan Lines to take the night away
Kentucky-oke (yes, Elvis will make an appearance!)
Fragrance samples from Future Society crafted from an extinct Kentucky flower
Roaming & 360 photos from Rivertown Photo Booths
And of course, you’ll have the chance to bid in the silent auction and support the museum’s annual fund, ensuring we continue to bring engaging exhibitions, educational programs, and community outreach to our city and region.
Promo Alert: Become a member now and receive 20% off Late Night tickets! This discount is typically reserved for our Sustainer-level members and Giving Society; but new members who sign up between now and the event will unlock access to this additional perk. Click here to become a member!
Limited tickets remain for Night at the Frazier dinner guests. Our Night at the Frazier guests will enjoy cocktail hour, a seated dinner with jazz piano by DéQuan Tunstull, and the presentation of the second annual Owsley Brown Frazier Impact Award with the opportunity to support the museum’s annual fund. Please contact me directly with any questions at hharlow@fraziermuseum.org or (502) 753-1693.
Semi-formal or cocktail attire in black & white is encouraged. Valet parking is available.
We can’t wait to celebrate with you—history, community, and a party to remember awaits!
Hayley Harlow
Sr. Manager of Fundraising
Frazier History Museum
This Week in the Museum
Drop Eggs at Spring Break Camp—and Join us for Free Family Day!
Frazier campers participate in an egg drop activity.
Spring Free Family Day flyer.
You can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs—so they say. But who can afford to break eggs these days? And who would be so careless with their eggs that they would break in the first place? Frazier campers, that’s who!
One of the fun, silly, exciting, and yes, educational activities we have planned for our Spring Break Camp, Dreaming of Spring, is an egg drop. Campers will devise and construct their own protective egg capsules then launch them from the balcony right here in the middle of the museum. The eggs will hopefully all land on the tarp we’ll have laid out, and maybe a few of them will survive the fall. This game combines physics, engineering, biology, and art as we learn why an egg is shaped the way it is and how that shape can help an egg stay intact when dropped onto a hardwood floor from fifteen feet above.
If a young person in your life might be interested in breaking, or saving, some eggs this spring, then act fast to secure your spot at our Spring Break Camp from March 31 to April 4.
Also, don’t forget to join us Saturday, March 8, for the Frazier’s Spring Free Family Day presented by Kosair for Kids for more hands-on learning! Our guests will include Waterfront Park, Louisville Grows, Rhythm Science Sound, and more. This event will be tailored to those with sensory processing sensitivity—sound and light levels will be controlled for ease of transition and special activities will allow for hands-on interaction with materials.
Kent Klarer
Sr. Manager of Youth Programs & Education Advancement
From the Collections: Carrie Porter Wedding Dress, 1895
Carrie Porter’s wedding dress from 1895.
This week, we want to give you a sneak peek at a wedding dress to be featured in our upcoming exhibition Love & Marriage! This dress was worn by an African American bride, Carrie Bridges of Macon, Mississippi. On April 9, 1895, Carrie Bridges married Dr. Otho D. Porter of Bowling Green, Warren County, Kentucky. The couple met at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. Dr. Porter graduated from Meharry Medical College in Nashville in 1894. Once married, the couple settled in in Bowling Green where Dr. Porter had his practice.
Pictured is the dress in our storage area. If you want to see the dress on a mannequin, in all her glory, come tour Love & Marriage, opening April 6!
Tish Boyer
Registrar & Manager of Collections Engagement
Highlights of 120: Marion County: Chitlin’ Circuit
120: Cool KY Counties graphic.
Did you know some of the best-known Black American musicians have performed in Marion County, Kentucky?
From the 1950s to the ’70s, the town of Lebanon, Kentucky, developed a reputation as a locus on the Chitlin’ Circuit—a collection of performance venues throughout the US where Black musicians, comedians, dancers, performers, and entertainers found cultural and commercial acceptance.
Two venues in Lebanon—Club Cherry and Club 68—were part of the Circuit. Countless notable pop, rock, soul, and blue musicians performed there—including Jimi Hendrix, Count Basie, Little Richard, Otis Redding, James Brown, Chuck Berry, Ray Charles, Sam and Dave, and Ike and Tina Turner.
“There were times that Ike and Tina [Turner] would be touring and someone would cancel one of their engagements,” local newspaper reporter Dennis George told the Frazier. “They would call Lebanon and my uncle to appear at Club 68. . . . There were times they would even stay at my uncle’s house.”
Learn more about the Chitlin’ Circuit in the following video. It’s one of hundreds of stories featured in our 120: Cool KY Counties exhibit.
Simon Meiners
Communications & Research Specialist
How Louisville Jazz Musician Lionel Hampton Popularized the Vibraphone
Louisville native jazz musician Lionel Hampton plays a vibraphone during a performance at the Aquarium in New York, c. June 1946. Credit: William P. Gottlieb, Library of Congress.
Vibraphone in the Frazier Museum’s Brown-Forman Theatre, February 20, 2025. Lionel Hampton helped design this model with the Musser Instrument Company in the 1940s.
In the early twentieth century, instrument makers in Chicago and Indianapolis were experimenting with materials and techniques to create a keyboard instrument that could artistically mimic the human voice. The idea was to produce a specialized instrument for vaudeville orchestras and the newly established electrical recording studios that could be used for fun or quirky songs that needed a unique sound. Their efforts were successful, and the vibraphone, as it came to be known, appeared on recordings from Columbia Records and other studios in the 1920s. The instrument’s popularity didn’t reach the mainstream, though, until one fateful day in 1930.
Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong brought his Sebastian New Cotton Club Orchestra to OKeH records in New York for a session and discovered a vibraphone in the studio. His drummer at the time was none other than twenty-two-year-old Louisville native Lionel “Hamp” Hampton. Satch knew Hamp had studied the xylophone, a very similar instrument, and asked him to play the vibraphone on a recording of the new song “Memories of You.” That would mark the first use of vibraphone in a popular jazz song. The recording received rave reviews, and the unusual yet captivating sounds of Hamp’s vibraphone took the jazz world by storm. Soon, Lionel Hampton wasn’t just Satchmo’s drummer—he was a bandleader in his own right and a worldwide phenomenon.
His association with the vibraphone carried on throughout the rest of his career. His playing inspired generations of young musicians and led to the adoption of the vibraphone as a standard instrument across multiple genres. He even worked with instrument manufacturers to improve the design of vibraphones.
I happen to own a vibraphone that Hamp helped design with the Musser Instrument Company in the 1940s. I keep right it here at the Frazier History Museum. Come see me in the education department some time and I’ll show you how it works!
Kent Klarer
Sr. Manager of Youth Programs & Education Advancement
Museum Shop: Bourbon Beanie
Bourbon beanie sold in the Frazier’s Museum Shop.
Stay warm and in good spirits with our cozy Bourbon beanie! It’s perfect for chilly days and Bourbon lovers alike. Find yours at the Museum Shop or online.
Bridging the Divide
Parkland Library to Reopen Thursday After 39-Year Closure
Parkland Library in Louisville, c. 1980. Credit: LFPL.
Children read in the Children’s Room at the Parkland Library in Louisville, undated. Credit: University of Louisville Archives & Special Collections.
Parkland Library Ribbon Cutting and Family Fun Day flyer. Credit: LFPL.
It will be a banner day in the Parkland neighborhood on Thursday with the reopening of the historic Parkland Library. It’s a new chapter for what was one of the original nine libraries in our city. Paul Burns with the Louisville Free Public sets the stage for the big day.—Rachel Platt, VP of Mission
What better location for an incredible comeback story than the birthplace of Muhammad Ali—the Parkland neighborhood. Parkland has long been a cornerstone of Louisville’s history, and so has its library, a fixture at the corner of Twenty-Eighth and Virginia Avenue since 1908.
Parkland Library was one of the original nine libraries built with funding from philanthropist Andrew Carnegie. The land was donated by residents, and the Beaux Arts–style building, designed by local architect Brinton B. Davis, cost just over $20,000 to construct—though its impact would be priceless.
The cornerstone for the Parkland Library was laid on September 20, 1907, by Col. Bennet Young, a former Confederate officer often referred to as the father of the LFPL for his role in establishing Louisville’s public library system. Reflecting Kentucky’s peculiar Civil War history, opening day ceremonies a year later were led by former Union soldier Captain H. B. Grant, a Jefferson County Clerk and prominent mason.
On opening day, Parkland Library welcomed the community with 1,941 books on its shelves. By the 1940s, it was checking out more than 90,000 books annually and had become a hub for learning, gathering, and civic engagement.
For seventy-eight years, the library adapted to meet the community’s needs. During World War I, the Parkland Red Cross chapter used the meeting room to make bandages for the French war front. In the 1930s, the Parkland Baby Clinic operated in the library, providing mothers and babies pre- and post-natal services. During the 1937 flood, the Library served as a boat base. In the late-1970s and 1980s, the U of L Center for Continuing Education offered classes for the community.
But in 1986, budget cuts forced its closure, leaving Parkland without a library. Over the next few decades, the building found new life, briefly as the Kentucky African American Museum and later as an office for LMPD’s Professional Standards Unit. Still, its original purpose was never forgotten.
In 2016, community voices began calling for the return of library services to Parkland. The grassroots efforts of the Parkland Library Services Committee (later becoming the Friends of Parkland Library) spanned two mayors, three District 1 councilmembers, and two library directors. Through years of tireless advocacy, the dream of reopening the library finally became a reality. In 2022, it was announced: Parkland Library would be restored.
Now, thanks to a $6.6 million investment from Metro Government and generous donors to the Library Foundation, the newly renovated and expanded Parkland Library will reopen its doors on Thursday, February 27, at 10:30 a.m. The fully accessible library will offer books, technology, public meeting rooms, a makerspace, and free programming for all ages—ushering in a new era of learning and connection.
What’s more, the celebration will continue on Saturday, March 1, with Parkland Library Family Fun Day—a community-wide event filled with free activities, performances, and giveaways for all ages.
After nearly four decades, Parkland Library is coming home.
Paul Burns
Director of Marketing & Communications, Louisville Free Public Library (LFPL)
Guest Contributor
History All Around Us
How to Live to be “134” Years Old
John Shell poses with his youngest child, James Albert Shell, undated. Albert was born in 1915 to Betty Chappell Shell, who died when he was three years old. This is the son who accompanied John to the State Fair in 1919. Credit: Janet Shell Hartman, Old Man John Shell Facebook Group.
Home of George Burkhart, undated.
Smoky Mountains Hiking Club members rest at a large, hollowed-out chestnut tree, undated.
If you want to live a long life, you might want to look at the lives of Kentuckians John Shell and George Burkhart.
Known as the oldest man in Kentucky, John Shell lived in Leslie County. Born around 1788, Shell lived his entire life in this isolated region, known for its self-reliant communities. While records from that time are sparse, we know that Shell worked his farm, had a blacksmith shop, harvested herbs and honey, turned wooden bowls and plates, made whiskey, and was a market hunter. Along the way, he had twelve children with his first wife, Elizabeth.
But what Shell was known for was his stories. Shell held court with his tales about seeing Daniel Boone kill many bears, deer, and turkeys. He once claimed that his earliest memory was when the news came over the mountain that the “father of our country” George Washington had died. He recalled the earthquake of 1811, saying that it lasted for two whole days. And Shell told the story of how he helped defend the settlement of Harlan against a flaming-arrow Indian attack. He later told that he had lived so long that he grew three sets of teeth.
Family history tells the story that when the Civil War broke out, Shell rode a horse to Virginia to fight for the Confederacy. He finally got to Robert E. Lee, who told him “Sir, I appreciate you for riding this far. But sir, I cannot take you because of your age.” John Shell was seventy-four years old at the time, according to family lore.
After the death of his first wife, and after he was well over one hundred years old, John Shell remarried and had another son, Albert James Shell. John and Albert were invited by the governor to be guests at the 1919 Kentucky State Fair, where Shell was presented as the oldest man in the world. Encouraged by promoters, Shell inflated his age and began to make fair appearances in Kentucky and Tennessee, becoming widely known as “the world’s oldest man.” In 1921, Shell was featured in The New York Times and other East Coast papers, raising interests of doctors who visited John to learn his secrets for longevity.
Shell eventually tired of traveling the fair circuit and returned to his farm, where he died in 1922. It was widely reported that he was 134 at the time of his death and that his funeral was attended by two sons, one aged ninety and one aged seven. Census records would show that Shell was actually 103 or 104 when he died.
When asked the secret of his long life, Shell said it was due to a diet of “hog, hominy, and honey.”
One county away, in Harlan County, lived George Burkhart. Born in 1741, George Burkhart remains legendary in Harlan.
Burkhart’s story began as he was leading his family from Virginia to Kentucky. As they passed through the mountains of Appalachia they encountered an approaching storm. Seeking shelter, Burkhart saw a hollowed-out sycamore tree and ushered his family inside to wait out the storm. Once the storm had passed, Burkhart, being self-reliant and resourceful, recognized the potential for the tree to become a home for his family.
The tree was forty-five feet in circumference and fifteen feet in diameter. For years, Burkhart, his wife, and their five children lived in this space with two beds, a table, and chests. It was said that one of the beds was in the roots of the tree. The tree had two forks and Burkhart turned one of them into a chimney, creating a hearth.
In 1849, a traveling agent for the American Bible Society found George and his family living in the sycamore tree and spent several nights with them. He wrote that Burkhart told him that he was a Lutheran, being of German faith, and that he received the offered Bible with gratitude.
Could it possibly be true that a family was living in a tree? Yes! Before the logging boom of the late nineteenth century, Appalachia was home to many giant trees. In fact, the treescape in Appalachia rivaled the forests of Sequoias in the northwest. In 1771, George Washington documented the largest trees ever measured in Appalachia, on Three Brothers Island in the Ohio River. Washington wrote that one of the trees was sixty-one feet in circumference. In 1750, the explorer Stephen Sewell lived in a hollowed-out sycamore tree in West Virginia. Hollowed out trees are part of the Appalachian lore. Even the Hatfields were said to place dead people in a hollowed-out sycamore that they called “the stink tree.”
Burkhart would bury three wives and in 1835, late in his life, he would marry his fourth wife, Lavinia, who was thirty-five years old. The age disparity was too much to overcome, and Burkhart was devastated when Lavinia left him.
Burkhart was too old to continue his courting, so he turned his interest in sorcery into an income. His power with his wand was well-known. People came from Tennessee and Virginia to seek relief from witches and other enemies. He also cured bewitched dogs, cats, and livestock.
Burkhart died in 1849 at the age of 108.
Both John Shell and George Burkhart are legends in their respective counties and in our state. Their stories are examples of the rich oral traditions and cultural heritage of the Appalachian region. These two men are examples of the resiliency, perseverance, and spirit that we associate with the peoples of Appalachia.
Susan Reed
Stories in Mind Facilitator
