Great Gatsby–Themed Michter’s Speakeasy, Podcast on Kentucky Giants, Civil War Nurse Lucy Nichols Program, and More
Can you believe this will be the tenth year?
It’s true, the first Speakeasy at the Frazier History Museum was held in October 2016. Since then, our annual Speakeasy has become the cat’s meow of Prohibition-era parties in Kentucky.
2025 Michter’s Speakeasy at the Frazier graphic.
Guests dance at last year’s Michter’s Speakeasy at the Frazier, September 5, 2024.
Michter’s Master of Maturation Andrea Wilson leads a tasting for guests at last year’s Michter’s Speakeasy at the Frazier, September 5, 2024.
This year’s Michter’s Speakeasy at the Frazier will kick off Bourbon Heritage Month and pay homage to the Great Gatsby theme that has taken Louisville by storm in 2025. With live music from the Gatsby Gang, dance lessons, Roaring Twenties hair and makeup, rooftop garden tastings, and a Daisy Buchanan–inspired welcome cocktail, this wingding will not disappoint.
So, get dolled up, grab your favorite dapper or dame, and get your tickets today to the premier Great Gatsby party in town!
In today’s issue of Frazier Weekly, the next episode of our Kentucky Wide podcast has dropped, and it features some of the literal giants of Kentucky. Sevent-foot-eight-inch giant Jim Porter shows up big in our Cool Kentucky exhibition, Abby Flanders heads back out on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail®, and Rachel Platt launches another compelling Bridging the Divide program.
Oh, and Louisville’s oldest neighborhood newspaper turns fifty years old. We see you, Portland!
I hope you enjoy.
Andy Treinen
President & CEO
Frazier History Museum
This Week in the Museum
New Kentucky Wide Podcast Episode Looks Up at Kentucky Giants!
Our podcast summer forges on! If you haven’t tuned in to Kentucky Wide yet, hit play! Better yet, subscribe! That helps us be discovered, but you’ll also be treated to some great stories from our Commonwealth.
Written by the Frazier’s own Jason Berkowitz, episode four was released today. It covers the stories of Jim Porter and Martin Van Buren Bates, two Kentucky men from the nineteenth century who were nearly eight feet tall. You’ll be amazed at the lives of these two larger-than-life figures!
Mick Sullivan
Curator of Guest Experience
Curator’s Corner: Kentucky Giant Jim Porter’s Rifle, Bell, and Hand Cast
Jim Porter objects on display in the Frazier’s Cool Kentucky exhibition, July 10, 2025.
Jim Porter, who stood seven feet eight inches tall, is truly one of the larger-than-life figures in Kentucky history. While living in Louisville, Porter drove passengers and cargo along the Portland & Louisville Turnpike and later opened multiple taverns.
We are lucky enough to have a few objects on display in our Cool Kentucky exhibition that show just how big Jim Porter was. The largest and perhaps most impressive of the objects is a rifle that belonged to the Kentucky Giant himself. Some say that the rifle was specially made for Porter, but most likely it is a punt gun, a giant duck hunting gun popular in the 1800s. Whether or not the gun was specially made for Porter, he was able to wield the enormous eight-foot rifle with ease.
Other objects in the case include a bell that was once outside of Porter’s tavern and a plaster case of his giant hand, measuring thirteen inches from the wrist to the tip of the middle finger. All these incredible pieces are on loan to us from the Filson Historical Society.
Be sure to stop by and see them on the “Historic Kentucky” wall in Cool Kentucky the next time you visit the Frazier.
Amanda Briede
Sr. Curator of Exhibitions
Join Us August 10 for Nurse Lucy Nichols: Unsung Civil War Hero
Nurse Lucy Nichols: Unsung Civil War Hero flyer.
At center, nurse Lucy Nichols poses with Union Army veterans at a Twenty-Third Indiana Infantry Regiment reunion, 1898.
There is a historical marker and a statue that pays tribute to Lucy Higgs Nichols in New Albany, Indiana, where she is buried. If you don’t know her story, now is your chance.
Local author Eileen Yanoviak has written a new book on her titled The Tenacious Nurse Nichols: An Unsung African American Civil War Hero.
Nichols escaped slavery and became a nurse for the Union Army during the Civil War. She was affectionately known as “Aunt Lucy” and was as devoted to the soldiers as they were to her.
There are only two known images of Nichols, one of which shows her standing in the middle of a large group of war veterans at a reunion she attended every year.
Her story is remarkable, and now you can learn more.
Join Eileen Yanoviak at the Frazier on Sunday, August 10, at 2 p.m., for her talk and then a Q & A with audience members. She will also sell and sign copies of her book.
Click here to purchase tickets. The program is free with the price of admission to the museum.
Rachel Platt
VP of Mission
Museum Shop: The Tomato Countdown is On!
Julia’s Pantry’s Fried Green TaMaters Mix sold in the Frazier’s Museum Shop and online.
I planted my tomatoes on Derby Day like any respectable Kentuckian, and I’ve been watching the vines with anticipation ever since. Now they’re bursting with green, and that can only mean one thing—it’s time to kick off the culinary summer with a true Southern classic: fried green tomatoes. Make it easy (and extra delicious) with Julia’s Fried Green Tomato Mix, available now in the Frazier’s Museum Shop and online.
Mindy Johnson
VP of Operations
Waterfront Park PlayPort to Host its First Community Event
Waterfront Park PlayPort Picnic flyer.
A child uses the slide at Waterfront Park’s PlayPort in Louisville.
The Frazier History Museum is proud to support our new neighbor PlayPort. If you haven’t been to the new play area as part of the westward expansion of Waterfront Park, you are missing the boat! Keep reading for your invitation to its first community event, a free Family Fun Day.—Rachel Platt, VP of Mission
PlayPort Picnic
Saturday, July 19
11 a.m.–2 p.m.
1105 Rowan Street
Waterfront Park’s newest development, PlayPort, is excited to host PlayPort Picnic on Saturday, July 19, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. This is a free, family-friendly event. PlayPort is partnering with local organizations to bring fun activities to this state-of-the-art playground, located at 1105 Rowan Street. The Kentucky Science Center will be there to interact with children and conduct science experiments. There will be a touch-a-truck experience with construction, fire, and police vehicles, face painting, a 360 photo booth, and other fun activities. DJ Walt will provide entertainment and there will be appearances by Catfish Louie and other life-sized characters. Several food and beverage vendors will be on site or guests can bring their own lunch. The event will also provide some fantastic giveaways from partners like Kentucky Kingdom, Louisville Bats, LouCity, Slugger Museum, Frazier Museum, Belle of Louisville, Raising Cane’s, StageOne Family Theatre, and more.
If you’ve not yet had the opportunity to visit PlayPort, this is a great time to do so. Waterfront Park PlayPort is an innovative outdoor experiential learning and play area. Paying homage to the Ohio River’s cultural and industrial heritage, this 3.5-acre space features custom-built playground equipment made from repurposed construction and boat materials, creating a distinctive environment for hands-on exploration. Designed to foster creativity, collaboration, critical thinking, and imagination, PlayPort offers engaging opportunities for families to learn together. Educational signage and interactive exhibits include graphics, content explaining how the exhibits work, play prompts, and links to videos developed by the Kentucky Science Center. PlayPort is an inclusive, transformative space where children of all abilities can enjoy accessible play alongside STEM-based learning. This project marks the beginning of the Phase IV expansion, with exciting additions to come. Come out and join the fun!
Angie McCorkle Buckler
Project Manager, the 40 & 1 Company
Guest Contributor
On the Trail with Abby: Monk’s Road Boiler House in Louisville
On the Trail with Abby graphic.
Bourbon tourism is booming—and the Kentucky Bourbon Trail® is growing faster than ever! Each week, the Frazier’s Abby Flanders takes readers on a digital stop-by-stop tour of this expanding adventure, spotlighting the distilleries, stories, and expressions behind America’s native spirit. Ready to hit the trail in real life? Start your journey at the Frazier History Museum, the Official Starting Point of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail®.
Interior of Monk’s Road Boiler House in downtown Louisville.
Boiler House is where Monk’s Road turns up the heat. Another newbie on Downtown Louisville’s Whiskey Row, this Kentucky Bourbon Trail® stop is unique in that Monk’s Road Boiler House is the first to feature a truly “fine dining” restaurant. Located next to the KFC Yum! Center, and just a few blocks from the Frazier History Museum, this intimate tasting room and chophouse is the urban outpost of Nelson County’s Log Still Distillery.
You’ll find exposed brick, steel beams, and bottles galore alongside cozy lounge seating and a well-curated lineup of Monk’s Road spirits. You’ll (maybe) also find a speakeasy!
Don’t miss a guided tasting of their Bourbon, award-winning barrel finished gin, or a seasonal smash cocktail. Whether you’re a Bourbon fiend or gin-curious, the Boiler House is a great place to relax, sip, and eat up Downtown. If you love the Monk’s Road lineup as much as we do, purchase the Frazier’s privately selected barrel pick, the Frazier’s Road Less Traveled, in our Museum Shop.
Abby Flanders
Administrative Chief of Engagement
History All Around Us
On this Date: Scopes Monkey Trial, July 21, 1925
John T. Scopes poses one month before the Tennessee v. John T. Scopes trial, June 1925. Credit: Watson Davis, Smithsonian Institution.
William Jennings Bryan (seated at left) is interrogated by Clarence Darrow during the Scopes Monkey Trial, July 20, 1925. Judge Raulston had moved court proceedings outdoors that afternoon due to the extreme heat. Credit: Watson Davis, Smithsonian Institution.
On July 21, 1925, the state of Tennessee found Kentuckian John T. Scopes guilty of teaching evolution in a public school.
Born in 1900, Scopes was raised on a farm on Bergen Road in Paducah, McCracken County, Kentucky. After studying pre-law at the University of Kentucky, an illness prompted him to return to Paducah. He soon got a job as a teacher and a football coach at Ray County High School in the small town of Dayton, Tennessee.
On March 21, 1925, Tennessee Governor Austin Peay signed into law the Butler Act. The Butler Act prohibited public school teachers in the state from either denying the Book of Genesis’s account of mankind’s origin or teaching that human beings evolved from lower orders of animals.
In Dayton, select community leaders—believing Dayton could benefit from the publicity—approached the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which was offering to pay the legal expenses for a test case challenging the new law. They asked Scopes if he taught evolution. He replied that he taught his students directly from the textbook—and when the biology textbook included evolution, he taught evolution. Scopes then agreed to be the test case.
The trial The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes, now better known as “the Scopes Monkey Trial,” was held from July 10 to July 21. Three-time presidential candidate William Jennings Bryan argued for the prosecution while labor lawyer Clarence Darrow argued for the defendant. The trial was seen as proxy for the clashing worldviews between Christian fundamentalists and modernists.
Scopes was found guilty and fined $100; however, the verdict was later overturned on a technicality.
Today, a replica portrait of Scopes can be seen on display in the Hall of Unsung Kentuckians on the first floor of the Frazier History Museum.
Simon Meiners
Communications & Research Specialist
Louisville’s Oldest Neighborhood Newspaper the Portland Anchor Turns 50!
Graphic commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of the Portland Anchor.
The story of the Anchor’s first printing from 1976’s one-year anniversary issue, Volume 2, Number 7. Credit: the Portland Anchor.
The Portland Anchor is turning fifty! The historic Louisville neighborhood newspaper will celebrate the milestone with a special retrospective issue in July featuring expanded coverage, articles from the past, and an exclusive letterpress print for subscribers.
First published in July of 1975, the debut issue of the Portland Anchor newspaper led with the frontpage headline “JUNK WAR GOES ON . . ..” The Portland neighborhood’s stereotyped reputation might have had readers preparing for a story of residents feuding over garbage cans or pickup trucks dumping trash under the cover of night, but this wasn’t a war between neighbors. Portland at the time was industrially zoned, and its people were banding together to curb the pollution and junkyards that had become an eyesore to their community. The article was but one in a series of civic pursuits recounted in the Anchor, with the next headline stating: “Portland Wins a Couple!”, which referred to the construction of two walking bridges over I-64. Fifty years later, those bridges still stand . . . and so does the Portland Anchor. To quote page one: “We worked together, avoided disagreements among ourselves, and once again demonstrated that Portland is a neighborhood that is alive and well.”
This was the founding mission of what would become Louisville’s oldest neighborhood newspaper. When certain citywide outlets called Portland “the cesspool of Louisville,” the Anchor fought back. The paper organized and advocated for government initiatives in a neighborhood that felt left behind, but also showcased the daily lives of its people too often lost in the hyperbolic coverage of Louisville’s West End. Its most popular section was ChitChat, a public forum for Portlanders to share congratulations, words of encouragement, and well wishes with neighbors. Composed entirely of articles submitted by champions of the Portland community, the pages were and still are a rare place to read news directly from those directly affected by and invested in it.
Returning to the Junk War, it would eventually end with Louisville’s Zoning Adjustment Board downzoning Portland to residential after a long-fought campaign led by the paper’s founders, including eventual Metro Councilperson (at that time Alderman) Sharron Wilbert and eventual Home of the Innocents CEO Gordon Brown. The group also included Houston Cockrell, a future banking executive, Sue Gentry, a future ministry director, and other young community leaders. Over the next fifty years, thousands of lives would be touched and depicted in the Portland Anchor newspaper, with staff coming and going. All along, Gordon Brown served like a lighthouse as its unflinching President. In 2023, Brown handed down the management of the paper to the Portland Museum which has stewarded it with reverence, celebration, and innovation, adding color printing, original journalism, and even an online presence for articles.
This month, July 2025, Portland Museum will celebrate the Portland Anchor’s fiftieth anniversary with an extra special issue filled with reflections on and stories from the past alongside new contributions from the Portland of today. This special issue will be double the usual size at 31 pages! You only turn 50 once (if at all), and with past Anchors collected in multiple archives, this issue is bound to be cherished now and for many years to come. You can receive the special issue delivered straight to your front door alongside a whole year’s worth of Anchors for only $15: subscribe online now via portlandanchor.com! Subscribers will also receive an exclusive postcard commemorating the occasion, printed on letterpress to honor the method used with the first issue.
Submissions and advertisements are also being sourced for the Anchor. If you’d like to share your Portland story, advertise your business, or just say congratulations to a community of dedicated readers, now’s a better time than ever! For more information, including ad sizes and rates, visit portlandanchor.com.
William Smith
Author, the Portland Anchor
Guest Contributor
