Brunch with the Babies at Shaker Village
A few years ago, I went on a press trip to Shaker Village. My childhood memories of Shaker Village were of a particularly joyless class trip when I was in 5th or 6th grade, and of the long-held family story that I behaved terribly at Shaker Village when I was around 2 years old. It was pretty nice to revisit the spot as an adult and see how beautiful and historic and fun it can be!
Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill was established by the Shakers, a communal Christian society rooted in celibacy, equality of race and sex, and freedom from prejudice, in 1805. The original buildings have been restored, and the site features hiking and riding trails, a working farm and an excellent restaurant. A fun fact they did not teach us in 5th grade is that, while the Shakers personally abstained from drinking, their longstanding tradition of hospitality extended to honoring their guests’ choice to imbibe. In the spirit of that tradition, you can find a surprisingly good cocktail at Shaker Village, as well as an absolutely amazing slice of lemon pie.
In addition to that pie (seriously, it’s ridiculously good!), Shaker Village offers some absolutely stunning views of central Kentucky, the simple and beautiful architectural style for which the Shakers are famous, and a full working farm with a petting zoo. I seriously never turn down the opportunity to hang out with baby goats or farm dogs, so this was one of my favorite parts of the trip!
If your family would like to get in on the great food and sweet animals portion of the Shaker Village experience, they’re offering a “Brunch with the Babies” experience this April (every Saturday and Sunday, except Easter Weekend). It would be such a fun way to enjoy the Shaker Village experience without traumatizing the kids.
Why Do We Wear Hats to the Kentucky Derby?
Did you ever wonder why we wear elaborate hats to the Kentucky Derby? Well, the history of the Kentucky Derby goes back to the Derby Stakes in Britain, known here in the States as the Epsom Derby. The Epsom Derby was first run in 1780 and is the highest-purse horse race in Britain.
In 1873, Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr. visited Europe, taking in the Epsom Derby and the Grand Prix de Paris at Longchamp. He returned home to Louisville and organized the race now known as the Kentucky Derby, looking toward these races for inspiration for track design, race length and other details. When the Kentucky Derby began in 1875, Kentucky ladies wore their finest to the races, just as their British counterparts did. Of course, in those days, finery included a chapeau, and the tradition stuck.
Kentucky Derby 1938. via The Huffington Post.
These days, a Derby Hat is the first thing most ladies look for when they make place for the big race. Kate Welsh, co-owner of The Hat Girls, the Official Hat Designers of the Kentucky Derby Festival, says "Sixty percent of our business is custom work, which wasn’t in our original business plan. We find that, typically, a lady wants to pick out her clothes around the hat. Others want a custom design made from dresses they’ve already picked out."
Of course, there's a fine line between a dramatic hat and one that's too comfortable for race day wear. Kate Welsh says "We’re very honest with customers about what works for them. People try the hats on, and they don’t always realize that an adjustable hat brim only helps them so much. As designers, we try to limit how many feathers or sequins we add to the hat so thatit’s not sagging down into the customer’s face."
Rachel Bell, Ms. Welsh's Hat Girls partner, notes that their designs do strike a balance between practicality and flair. "But, at the same time, the hat usually is the focal point of the outfit."
Kate Walsh of The Hat Girls shows a hat that was custom-made to match a client's Derby Dress.
Whether your preferred look is a practical fascinator or a show-stopping chapeau, you can thank the Derby's English roots -- and especially Meriwether Lewis Clark Jr's trip to Epsom -- for the tradition of Kentucky Derby Hats.
Want to learn more about the Kentucky Derby's history? Download The Kentucky Derby by Bill Doolittle, now in eBook format, on Amazon or iBooks.
Elizabeth Blackwell, Frances Jane Coomes, and the History of Women Physicians in Kentucky
Elizabeth Blackwell
Today is National Women Physicians Day, in observance of the 196th anniversary of Elizabeth Blackwell's birth. The British-born Dr. Blackwell is remembered as the first woman to earn a medical degree in the United States as well as the first woman on the United Kingdom Medical Register. What you may not know is that, prior to undertaking her medical training, Dr. Blackwell briefly worked as a schoolteacher in Kentucky!
Elizabeth Blackwell was born in a large, nurturing family in Bristol, Gloucestershire, England in 1821; her father, Samuel, was a sugar refiner. Following civil unrest in Bristol, Samuel moved the family first to New York City and later to Cincinnati. As the family fell on hard financial times, Elizabeth accepted a teaching position in Henderson, Kentucky, at a salary of $400/year. Ultimately, Elizabeth's time in the Bluegrass State was unsatisfactory. She found herself suited neither for the town nor the profession, and returned to Cincinnati after a few months, resolving to find a more fulfilling line of work. She worked as a music teacher in North Carolina, saving money for her goal of pursuing a medical education, ultimately enrolling at Geneva Medical College in upstate New York. The degree of medical doctor was conferred upon Dr. Blackwell in January 1849.
Fort Harrod
While Dr. Blackwell is widely known as the first woman to attain a formal medical degree in the United States, the first woman who was recognized as a physician in Kentucky actually predates the Commonwealth's statehood. Frances Jane Coomes and her husband William accompanied Dr. George Hartt to Fort Harrod in the 1770s. Mrs. Coomes served an apprenticeship under Dr. Hartt, and also is known as Kentucky's first schoolteacher. According to Dr. John A Ouchterlony, in his 1880 book Pioneer Medical Men and Times in Kentucky,
The husband was brave and intrepid; took part in many fights with the Indians, and had numerous adventures and hair breadth escapes. He reached a high age, and was much respected and honored; but it is especially his wife who claims attention in connection with pioneer Medicine in Kentucky. She was a woman of remarkably vigorous intellect, great originality and fertility of resource, and of strong and noble character. She certainly was the first female who ever practiced Medicine in Kentucky and according to some she was the first of her sex to exercise the beneficent functions of the healing arts of our State. She was physician, surgeon, and obstetrician, and her fame and practice extended far and wide, even attracting patients from remote settlements and not only in Kentucky, but in adjoining States.
Here's to Mrs. Coomes, Dr. Blackwell, and all of the other great female physicians for whom Kentucky was part of the story!
The First Kentucky-Louisville Basketball Game
The first meeting of the Cards and the Cats.
As we count down the minutes until the next meeting of the Kentucky Wildcats and the Louisville Cardinals, I thought it would be fun to take a trip back in time -- 103 years back in time to be exact -- to the first meeting of the teams we now know as UK and U of L.
The first meeting of the Kentucky State University basketball team -- deemed the Wildcats in 1909 -- and the University of Louisville Cardinals took place on February 15, 1913. Revolution was in the air on the international political stage, as the Mexican Revolution had just begun and the House of Romanov, celebrating 300 years of rule in Russia, would soon be overthrown. In the United States, the Republican attorney from Cincinnati, William Howard Taft, was wrapping up his four-year term as President, soon to be succeeded by Virginia-born Democrat Woodrow Wilson, the Governor of New Jersey and former President of Princeton University. American women were rallying to make their voices heard in politics and the famed Woman Suffrage Parade would be held a few weeks later in Washington, D.C.
Here in Kentucky, James B. McCreary, a Madison County-born attorney, Centre College alumnus, and Civil War veteran was sitting as governor. The 1910 Census listed Louisville as the 24th largest city in the U.S., with a population of 223,928 people. The Ford Motor Company would soon establish a Louisville factory at the corner of Third Street and Eastern Parkway, which would employ 17 workers. Lexington had a population of 47,715, and neither Keeneland nor the Kentucky Theatre had yet been established.
Downtown Louisville, 1913. via U of L Libraries.
Kentucky State University had an established basketball presence, with teams dating back to 1903. The Louisville Cardinals had only begun playing organized basketball the previous season. The teams met at Lexington's newly-constructed Buell Armory Gymnasium.
Kentucky's team had recently experienced a coaching shakeup. Edwin R. Sweetland, Kentucky's first paid coach, had been forced to resign following a bit of a scandal involving the athletic office. The chair of the philosophy department, Dr. J.J. Tigert, was named athletic director and coach; he would later go on to serve as the President of the University of Florida. The first game of Taggart's 1912-1913 season was a crushing loss to the Lexington YMCA team. The Cardinals, under Coach William Gardinier, were at the disadvantage of having no gymnasium on campus and held games at the Tharp Business School gym.
Coach Edwin Sweetland's 1911-1912 Kentucky Wildcats
1913-1914 Louisville Cardinals Basketball
The game on February 12th was part of a double-header. Kentucky's women's team was taking on Kentucky Wesleyan, and the box office draw was $87.95, offsetting the $76 expense of putting on the game.
Gardinier's Cardinals suffered from injuries -- two starters were out of the game. Kentucky emerged victorious, 34-10, and set off an intrastate rivalry that is now in its second century.
Here's to another 100 years of great basketball between the Commonwealth's signature college basketball programs!
The Nineteenth Amendment's Kentucky Roots
In the 1920s, many Kentuckians were living rather rural and agrarian lives. The Commonwealth was the nation's top producer of tobacco, while Eastern Kentucky coal camp towns were transforming the Appalachian economy in response to a growing demand for coal-fired energy. The Bluegrass State's biggest cities were headed in exciting new directions: empowered by electric streetcars, Lexington expanded to include the Ashland and Bell Court suburbs, while Louisville would soon establish itself as a Prohibition-era playground for flappers, bootleggers, and even a gangster or two.
But did you know that 1920s Kentucky was important to the ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment, which gave American women the right to vote?
The issue of women's suffrage has an interesting history in Kentucky. As early as the 1830s, some Kentucky women were allowed to vote in school board elections. The Women's Suffrage movement in Kentucky was championed by Laura Clay and her sister Mary Barr Clay, the daughters of famed abolitionist Cassius Marcellus Clay. The Clay sisters became fervent women's right advocates when their parents' divorce left their mother homeless and without agency. Laura's work was so tireless and far-reaching that she even became the first woman to be nominated for President by a major political party. Her work as founder of the Kentucky Woman Suffrage Association focused not only on the right to vote, but also on women's rights to property ownership and financial agency.
Soon, women's rights leaders like Laura Clay found their hard work being rewarded as national support of suffrage movements took hold.
On the first day of the 1920 Kentucky General Assembly, Kentucky ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution by a margin of 72 to 25 in the House and 30 to 8 in the Senate. Less than a month after taking office, on January 6, 1920, Governor Edwin P. Morrow, a Somerset-born Republican and former U.S. Attorney, signed the Bill into law. Kentucky was one of only four Southern states to approve the amendment, which went into effect after Tennessee followed suit in August of that year. The 19th Amendment was incorporated into the Constitution on August 26, 1920.
As with all revolutionary legislation, the 19th Amendment was met with immediate litigation. In Leser v. Garnett, 258 U.S. 130 (1922), the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously upheld the amendment's validity. The legal opinion, written by Louisville native Louis D. Brandeis, found that the amendment was properly ratified by the states and was, therefore, legally adopted.
Today we celebrate the ninety-sixth anniversary of the Nineteenth Amendment and thank forward-thinking Kentuckians like Laura Clay, Mary Barr Clay, Edwin P. Morrow, and Louis Brandeis for helping ensure the voting rights of Kentucky women. Thanks to these and other brave Kentuckians who have ensured freedoms and equal rights for Kentucky's women!
{Women's History Month} Rosie the Riveter
Kentuckian Rose Will Monroe served as a model for feminist icon Rosie the Riveter.
Everyone knows that Rosie the Riveter is one of the most iconic images of the 20th Century. Rosie was first a symbol for women called to work in America's factories during World War II, and later the rallying cry of all women seeking equal rights.
But did you know that Rosie the Riveter is a Kentucky girl?
Norman Rockwell's allegorical take on Rosie.
Rose Will Monroe
Rose Will Monroe was born in the tiny Pulaski County community of Bobtown in 1920. By the 1940s, she was a young widow with two daughters, living in the Detroit area. Rose was called not only by her patriotic duty but also by the very real need to support her family. Soon, she was building B-29 bombers at the Willow Run Aircraft Factory, a former Ford Motor factory.
Rose was chosen as the "face" of Rosie the Riveter for a promotional film about the purchase of war bonds, following the popularity of a song of the same name.
After the War, Rose continued to work hard, defy stereotypes, and follow her dreams. She challenged gender stereotypes by continuing to work in traditionally male-dominated fields. Over the years, she drove a cab and founded her own construction company. Rose also fulfilled a lifelong dream of learning to fly, earning her pilot's license in her 50s.
Like many other women of her era, Rose Will Monroe found her calling through necessity. Her "Can Do" attitude made her Rosie the Riveter.
The Kentucky Derby by Bill Doolittle
There are a whole lot of great things about springtime in Kentucky. There's basketball and beautiful weather and spring festivals, but absolutely nothing else compares to Derby! The Kentucky Derby puts Louisville in the international spotlight every year on the First Saturday of May. For Kentuckians, Derby is everything -- it's pageantry, it's history, and it's a whole lot of fun. And, as we all know, it's Decadent and Depraved!
I just got my copy of The Kentucky Derby -- Derby Fever, Derby Day, and the Run for the Roses, a fabulous new coffee table book by Bill Doolittle, and I couldn't be more excited about Derby, even though it's still 67 Days away! Mr Doolittle is a longtime track writer and Derby Historian, and his book delves into the history of the race itself. I love the book's message that the Derby didn't grow into something big; it's always been planned as the premier event for American racing, patterned on the huge horse races of England.
Of course, no book about Derby can leave out the traditions that surround the race -- the mint juleps, the roses, and the festivities. It's all there: Mr. Doolittle covers the blanket of roses, the bourbon cocktail we traditionally only drink on Derby Day, and the participants from the Infield to Millionaire's Row.
The coolest thing about Mr. Doolittle's book is that the experience isn't just limited to the pages of text. You can download the Digimarc app on your smartphone, scroll over photos that feature the Digimarc logo, and instantly pull up associated video and blogs! I love this interactive feature that takes you straight to the track to experience races and interviews.
The Kentucky Derby Book is available for purchase online and in Louisville at Dolfinger's and Carmichael's. It's the perfect way to get ready for Derby season, and would make a fantastic gift for the Derby fan in your life!
{Disclosure: The Kentucky Derby Book has an advertising relationship with HerKentucky.com, and I was provided a copy of the book for review. All opinions are my own. I truly do love this book, y'all.}