CLICK "LECTURE SERIES" ON THE BANNER FOR THE 2024 SEASON LINEUP!
SPEAKER: Jessica Dalton, Executive Director of Liberty Hall Historic Site
WATCH HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gbjfzJrYWQ&t=1869s
In the late 19th century, famed American artist and poet Robert Burns Wilson made Frankfort his adoptive home. During his time here, Wilson had a deep friendship with fellow artist Paul Sawyier and Mary Mason Scott, the last member of the Brown family to live in Liberty Hall. This discussion will not only focus on the connection between Wilson and Frankfort’s most famous house, but it will also highlight the art & poetry he left behind that is now a part of Liberty Hall’s permanent collection.
Jessica Stavros has been a museum professional and local historian for nearly 20 years. She received a Bachelor’s degree in History from the University of Louisville and a Master’s degree in Business Communication from Spalding University, both of which were fully funded by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation in Washington DC. She is also a graduate of the History Leadership Institute, class of 2016.
Her passion lies in 19th century Ohio Valley history, and this focus brought her to work within historic house & community museums in the Louisville area. As the Southeast Regional Director for the Indiana State Museum & Historic Sites, she directed 3 historic sites located in Southern Indiana – Culbertson Mansion in New Albany, Corydon Capitol in Corydon, and Lanier Mansion in Madison. Most recently, she served as Deputy Director of the Kentucky Historical Society in Frankfort, Kentucky.
SPEAKER: Howard W. Cox, retired Assistant Inspector General for Investigations, Central Intelligence Agency
WATCH HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJJKhf7A1MA
A fresh examination of the life and crimes of the highest-ranking federal official ever tried for treason and espionage, American Traitor examines the career of the notorious Gen. James Wilkinson, whose corruption and espionage exposed the United States to grave dangers during the early years of the republic. Wilkinson is largely forgotten today, which is unfortunate because his sordid story is a cautionary tale about unscrupulous actors who would take advantage of gaps in the law, oversight, and accountability for self-dealing.
Wilkinson's military career began during the Revolutionary War and continued through the War of 1812. As he rose to the rank of commanding general of the US Army, Wilkinson betrayed virtually everyone he worked with to advance his career and finances. He was a spy for Spain, plotted to have western territories split from the United States, and accepted kickbacks from contractors. His negligence and greed also caused the largest peacetime disaster in the history of the US Army. Howard W. Cox picks apart Wilkinson's misdeeds with the eye of an experienced investigator.
American Traitor offers the most in-depth analysis of Wilkinson's court-martial trials and how he evaded efforts to hold him accountable. This astounding history of villainy in the early republic will fascinate anyone with an interest in the period as well as readers of espionage history.
Howard W. Cox is a retired member of the Senior Intelligence Service of the Central Intelligence Agency. During his 40-year career as a federal government employee, Howard served as a cyber crimes prosecutor with the Department of Justice, and as an attorney and criminal investigator with the Department of Defense, the General Services Administration, and the US Postal Service. He also served as staff counsel to the US Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. Prior to his civilian service, he was a trial attorney with the US Army Judge Advocate General's Corps. He is a graduate of Georgetown University Law Center and Seton Hall University.
American Traitor: General James Wilkinson's Betrayal and Escape From Justice is his first book.
Roda Ferarro, Director
Keeneland Library
WATCH HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfGEKB1SNkU&t=21s
Keeneland Library's traveling exhibit, The Heart of the Turf: Racing's Black Pioneers, highlights the lives and careers of 80 African American horsemen and women from the mid-1800s to today. Lexington’s East End, home to the Kentucky Association track from the late 1820s through 1933, also was home to many Black horsemen and their families. By the late 1800s, four future Racing Hall of Famers lived in Lexington’s East End: jockeys Isaac Burns Murphy and Jimmy Winkfield, trainer Ansel Williamson, and trainer/owner Edward Dudley Brown. Hundreds of others bought their homes, built their businesses, and raised their families in neighborhoods around the Kentucky Association track and in surrounding counties.
The economy of the Bluegrass and viability of the Thoroughbred industry as a whole are rooted in their skill, hard work, knowledge, and tenacity. From race track superstars to behind-the-scenes caretakers, The Heart of the Turf: Racing’s Black Pioneers showcases select stories of the countless African Americans who forged their way in Kentucky and beyond from the era of slavery to the present, making the racing industry what it is today.
Roda Ferraro, Incoming Director of the Keeneland Library, pursued her undergraduate studies at Emory University and graduate studies at Indiana University before her years in teaching and research oversight at Vanderbilt University and the University of Kentucky. She holds a Master’s degree in Library and Information Science from the University of Kentucky.
Roda has more than twenty years of experience leading, assessing, and promoting library, museum, research, and educational services, including her work with the Keeneland Library and National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame since 2014.
Through her focus on creating responsive systems of access for researchers and racing fans around the world, Keeneland Library’s research services volume doubled during Roda’s tenure as Head Librarian. Additionally, the library’s outreach programs tripled their reach under her management, while her focus on digitizing collections grew the library’s digital assets by more than 500 percent in six years.
Roda’s industry educational initiatives include launching research fundamentals workshops for university equine students, curating Keeneland Library’s physical and virtual exhibits, expanding the Keeneland Library Lecture Series, and piloting the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame’s fifth and final season of Foal Patrol to an unprecedented global reach of four million users in 2022.
Roda returned to Keeneland Library in fall 2022 to curate the library’s newest exhibit, The Heart of the Turf: Racing’s Black Pioneers, and its associated educational programs and materials. The exhibit’s programs for youth and adults have reached record-breaking audiences for the library, and Roda will continue to work with industry and community partners to provide educational programs and travel the exhibit across the country after it closes at Keeneland Library on December 8, 2023.
Roda’s service work in the community includes her roles on the Board of Directors for the Lexington Public Library Foundation and the Lexington History Museum, refugee and immigrant health and social services task forces, school-based decision making councils, and providing best practices consultation for international libraries and museums.
Richard Lawrence Taylor, Ph.D., Author
The Great Crossing: A Historic Journey to Buffalo Trace Distillery (2002)
WATCH HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZXKLfeJAP4o
Bourbon enthusiasts worldwide are familiar with Col. E. H. Taylor, Jr. for his reputation as the founding father of the modern bourbon industry. However, the Taylor family's influence on Frankfort can trace its roots back to the earliest pioneer days of Kentucky. This presentation will discuss the lives, influence, and legacies of select early members of this prominent Kentucky family, including surveyor Hancock Taylor, Commodore Richard Taylor, Reuben Taylor, half-brothers "Black Dick" and "Hopping Dick" Taylor, and their relation to the founders of Leestown for whom the town was named.
Dr. Richard Lawrence Taylor is the author of numerous collections of poetry, two historical novels, and several books relating to Kentucky history, including Elkhorn: Evolution of a Kentucky Landscape (2018). A former Kentucky Poet Laureate, he has received two creative writing fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts as well as an Al Smith Award from the Kentucky Arts Council. Educated at the University of Kentucky (bachelors and Ph.D. in English), he also holds a masters degree (English) and a J.D. from the University of Louisville. Practicing law for a few months, he gave up legal practice, a leave-taking he regards as his gift to the Commonwealth of Kentucky. During graduate school he taught in high schools across Kentucky with the Poetry-in-the-Schools Program through the Kentucky Arts Council, editing an anthology of student writing called Cloud Bumping.
Embarking on a career in education, he taught at Kentucky State University in Frankfort until retiring in 2008. During that time he taught in the Governor's School for the Arts as well as serving as director of the Governor's Scholars Program on two campuses. He also spent a year in Denmark as a scholar-teacher in the Fulbright Program, also teaching a graduate course at Kangwon University in South Korea as well as short periods teaching abroad in England and Ireland in a studies-abroad program. He has received publication awards from the Kentucky Historical Society and the Thomas D. Clark Medallion for his Elkhorn book as well as receiving a Distinguished Professor Award at KSU. Recently retired after fourteen years from Transylvania University as Keenan Visiting Writer, he is co-owner of Poor Richard's Books and lives on a small farm outside Frankfort, Kentucky.