
The Frankfort Heritage Lecture Series explores themes in Frankfort and Franklin County cultural history - the big, small, and tangential - including the people, places, events, industries, and organizations that shaped our community and environment. The series also includes topics in historic preservation such as architecture, archaeology, public policy, and more.
Registration opens one month prior to each event. For more information, contact Diane Dehoney at (502) 352-2665 x100 or diane@pspl.org.
Sponsored by the Frankfort Heritage Week Coalition and PSPL.
Stuart Sanders

When the popular musical Hamilton showcased the celebrated duel between Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr, it reminded twenty-first-century Americans that some honor-bound citizens once used negotiated, formal fights as a way to settle differences. During the Civil War, two prominent Kentuckians—one a Union colonel and the other a pro-Confederate civilian—continued this legacy by dueling. At a time when thousands of soldiers were slaughtering one another on battlefields, Colonel Leonidas Metcalfe and William T. Casto transformed the bank of the Ohio River into their own personal battleground. On May 8, 1862, these two men, both of whom were steeped in Southern honor culture, fought a formal duel with rifles at sixty yards. And, as in the fight between Hamilton and Burr, only one man walked away.
Anatomy of a Duel: Secession, Civil War, and the Evolution of Kentucky Violence (2023) examines why White male Kentuckians engaged in the "honor culture" of duels and provides fascinating narratives that trace the lives of duelists. Stuart W. Sanders explores why, during a time when Americans were killing one another in open, brutal warfare, Casto and Metcalfe engaged in the process of negotiating and fighting a duel. In deconstructing the event, Sanders details why these distinguished Kentuckians found themselves on the dueling ground during the nation's bloodiest conflict, how society and the Civil War pushed them to fight, why duels continued to be fought in Kentucky even after this violent confrontation, and how Kentuckians applied violence after the Civil War. Anatomy of a Duel is a comprehensive and compelling look at how the secession crisis sparked the Casto-Metcalfe duel—a confrontation that impacted the evolution of violence in Kentucky.
Stuart Sanders is the Director of Research and Publications at the Kentucky Historical Society, where he oversees the agency’s library, the Register of the Kentucky Historical Society, the historical markers program, the America250KY Commission, and the Civil War Governors of Kentucky Digital Documentary Edition. Before coming to KHS, Stuart worked to preserve and interpret Kentucky’s largest Civil War battleground as the executive director of the Perryville Battlefield Preservation Association. He has served a number of roles KHS, including managing KHS’s outreach efforts, administering multiple statewide commissions, and communicating the relevance and value of Kentucky history. He is the author of five books and has been a staff member since 2005.
Nicky Hughes

Sitting on a hillside overlooking the Kentucky River and downtown Frankfort, the Old State Arsenal has been a prominent Frankfort landmark since 1850. For well over a century, this gothic revival style brick castle actively supported the Kentucky Militia, the Kentucky State Guard, the Kentucky National Guard, the Kentucky Department of Military Affairs, and other state agencies. Long a storehouse for weapons, uniforms, and other supplies, the Arsenal once actually came under hostile gunfire. For the last half century, it has housed the Kentucky Military History Museum, a joint project of the Department of Military Affairs and the Kentucky Historical Society. The venerable structure has played an important role in Kentucky's military history, and it preserves many important reminders of that rich military heritage.
Nicky Hughes went to work for the Kentucky Historical Society in 1973. He was very active in the establishment of the Kentucky Military History Museum, which opened in 1974. He served as curator of that museum until 1986 and remained with KHS until 1997, acting as Museums Division Manager and then as curator of the Old State Capitol. He finished his time with Kentucky state government in the Finance and Administration Cabinet’s Office of Historic Properties.
In 2000, Hughes joined the City of Frankfort’s Department of Parks, Recreation, and Historic Sites. He was responsible for the establishment of Leslie Morris Park on Fort Hill as a functional historic site and the formation of the Capital City Museum. Retiring from full-time work for the City of Frankfort in 2012, he later served as Director of the Shelby County Historical Society and is now Innkeeper at the Sandford Duncan Inn, a historic site in Simpson County. A co-founder of Frankfort Heritage Press, Hughes co-authored three major pictoral histories of Frankfort and a history of the Frankfort Cemetery.
Dr. Patrick Lewis

In his 2024 book Benefactors of Posterity, Daniel Gifford explored the motivations and activities of early history advocates and institution-builders who established the Filson Historical Society in Louisville in 1884. But as that generation passed on after the turn of the century, who would be the leaders to pick up the mantle of archiving, museum work, research, and publication in the state? The Filson found a new generation of leadership in president Rogers Clark Ballard Thruston and director of publications Otto Rothert, who solidified and began to professionalize the history professions in Kentucky, alongside contemporaries at the Kentucky Historical Society and the growing state university system. This presentation will trace those efforts, evaluate their success, and reflect on what they mean for Kentuckians today.
Dr. Patrick Lewis is the President & CEO of the Filson Historical Society. He came to the Filson in 2019 as served as the Director of Collections & Research and co-editor of Ohio Valley History journal. A Trigg County native, he graduated from Transylvania University and holds a Ph.D. in History from the University of Kentucky, where he taught for two years. Before coming to the Filson, he worked for the National Park Service and the Kentucky Historical Society. He has won grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and the James Graham Brown Foundation. Lewis is author of For Slavery and Union: Benjamin Buckner and Kentucky Loyalties in the Civil War (University Press of Kentucky, 2015) and co-editor of Playing At War: Identity and Memory in Civil War Video Games (Louisiana State University Press, Fall 2024).
This event was rescheduled from Saturday, January 11.
Russ Hatter

Join Russ Hatter as he introduces his new Franklin County Reference. As requested by Franklin County Fiscal Court, the original report was written to denote what the Capital City Museum contained in their collection concerning the county outside city limits. Each chapter highlights research material from files recognizing people, places, and historical events. By nature of the report, there is deliberate repetition and overlap. A helpful index provides access to content. A book signing will follow the lecture, with copies available for purchase.
Russ Hatter is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, and attended Kentucky Christian College and Kentucky State College. He began his 40-year career in broadcasting in 1961 at WGOH in Grayson, Kentucky. He moved to Frankfort in 1965, where he was morning announcer for WFKY. In 2001, he left radio to pursue a new career as Assistant Curator of Historic Sites for the City of Frankfort’s Department of Parks and Recreation, where he participated, along with Nicky Hughes, in the establishment of the Capital City Museum. After retiring in 2013, Hatter returned shortly afterward as the newly-created City Historian at the Capital City Museum, where he again retired in 2021 after twenty years of service.
Throughout his time in Frankfort, Hatter has appeared in or directed numerous theatrical productions, acted in three local movies, and can still be seen occasionally on Frankfort Plant Board’s Cable 10 with his popular walking tours. He has written and researched numerous books related to the incredible history of Frankfort and Franklin County through Frankfort Heritage Press. In 2024, Hatter was awarded the Dr. James C. Klotter Lifetime Dedication to Kentucky History Award by the Kentucky Historical Society. He resides with his wife Karen and their little dog MacKaye in South Frankfort.
Dr. David Pollack

This presentation focuses on an early to mid-nineteenth century cemetery located in downtown Frankfort. It was used by the city’s enslaved and working class people of African, European, and mixed heritage prior to the Civil War. Upon the establishment of the Frankfort Cemetery on the bluffs overlooking the city in 1844, this earlier cemetery fell into disrepair. In time, buildings and parking lots covered it; and for all intents and purposes, it was lost to history. When construction of a new state office building began, the cemetery was rediscovered. This presentation will provide an overview of the work carried out by archaeologists to locate the graves and remove the human remains prior to building construction. It also will discuss what was learned from the study of the human remains, the associated material culture items – like coffin hardware and objects buried with the deceased - and the spatial distribution of the graves within the cemetery. Dr. Pollack's book, Frankfort’s Forgotten Cemetery (2009), will be available for purchase.
Dr. David Pollack received his B.A. in Anthropology from Beloit College in 1977, his M.A. in Anthropology from the University of Kentucky in 1982, and his Ph.D. in Anthropology from the University of Kentucky in 1998. He worked for the Kentucky Heritage Council from 1982 until 2008 as a Staff Archaeologist and the Site Protection Program Manager. Since 1996, he has been the Director of the Kentucky Archaeological Survey, a program of Western Kentucky University's Department of Society, Culture, Crime & Justice Studies. He has over forty years of experience in Kentucky archaeology and has conducted archaeological research at sites throughout the Commonwealth. He has published extensively on Kentucky archaeology, with an emphasis on indigenous village farmers.
Registration begins March 1.
Julien Ischer & John Walker

Gilbert du Motier, better known worldwide as the Marquis de Lafayette, was a military hero of the American Revolution and a visionary architect of democracy, freedom, and human rights. A major general of the Continental Army at just 19 years old and a close friend of George Washington, Lafayette secured France’s alliance and transformed the tide of the American Revolution, proving that freedom could – and should – be won. Today, Lafayette’s legacy rests in the values of the United States and France, in the ideals and bonds of democratic nations, in the global commitment to protect fundamental freedoms, and in the framework of transformational documents such as The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In 1824, Lafayette returned to the United States as “The Nation’s Guest” and embarked on a Farewell Tour of the Union. On May 14, 1825, he arrived in Frankfort to thunderous applause and fanfare. As he entered Frankfort from the road that now bears his name, the citizens of Frankfort and Kentucky government gave him a hero’s welcome and hosted a parade, a dinner, and a ball in his honor. To commemorate the bicentennial of his visit, two lectures will explore Lafayette’s legacy, the Farewell Tour, his connection to the family of Kentucky’s first U.S. senator, and his 1825 visit to Frankfort.
Presentation #1 - The Lafayette Trail in Kentucky: A Bluegrass Story of American Republicanism Narrated by a French Marquis
In 1824, French-born Revolutionary War hero General Lafayette returned to the United States for the fourth and final time at the invitation of Congress. As the last surviving major general of the Continental Army, Lafayette invoked a powerful revolutionary war imagery at a time of great political division. His French aristocratic credentials made his confirmation of the U.S. political experiment particularly meaningful to Americans. During his “Farewell Tour”, Lafayette visited Kentucky. Find out how Lafayette used his physical journey across the Bluegrass State in May 1825 to narrate a story of superior U.S. republicanism. As the nation celebrates the bicentennial of Lafayette's Farewell Tour (2024-2025) and approaches the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence (2026), now is the time to look back at Lafayette's legacy of national unity and come together around a celebration of the United States as a revolutionary form of self-government.
Julien Ischer is a French historian and geographer. He is the founder and president of The Lafayette Trail, Inc., a nonprofit organization promoting a greater understanding of Lafayette's legacy both in the U.S. and France. Julien also serves as host and director of Follow The Frenchmen, a YouTube-based documentary series produced by The Lafayette Trail, Inc. exploring the legacy of General Lafayette. It seeks to democratize access to educational materials about the inspirational life story of General Lafayette and promote a greater understanding of the Frenchman's lifelong evangelism of unalienable natural rights, constitutional liberties, and American-style republicanism.
Julien holds a bachelors degree with a double major in history and geography from the University of Toulouse in France as well as two masters degrees from Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, one in human geography, and the other one in digital geographies with a focus on the integration of spatial data into web environments.
Presentation #2 - Ties That Bind: The Unexpected Connection between Lafayette & Liberty Hall
While many know the Marquis de Lafayette visited Liberty Hall in 1825, most assumed it was due to the network of Kentucky’s Founding Father John Brown. However, new research has uncovered an unexpected connection between the Brown family and the Marquis, one that links him to the family of Margaretta Brown during the Revolutionary War. Join John Walker as he shares research, stories, and family ties that culminated in a historic visit to Frankfort’s most distinguished home.
John Walker is Curator of Collections at Liberty Hall Historic Site. After growing up in Kentucky, he spent many years traveling the United States and living abroad. He has worked as a journalist, sailor, website designer and office administrator. While at the University of Wisconsin – Madison he studied material history preservation and Native American archives. Walker returned to Kentucky in 2024 to work at Liberty Hall. When not working, he enjoys taking long country drives, doing family genealogy, and going to classical concerts.
Registration begins April 1.
Dr. Richard Taylor

The subject of what is often regarded as Robert Penn Warren's best novel as well as unfinished play by Edgar Alan Poe, the murder of Solomon P. Sharp by Jeroboam Beauchamp in vindication of an alleged affront to virtue in 1825 is a classic tale of misdirected honor involving seduction, revenge, and a suicide pact, a killing that attracted national attention and was followed by a 137-page confession by the perpetrator. It is an instance where the actual facts eclipse almost any array of facts a novelist might imagine.
Dr. Richard Taylor is the author of numerous collections of poetry, to 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. Dr. Taylor received a bachelors and Ph.D. in English from the University of Kentucky and a masters in English and a Juris Doctorate from 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 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.
Dr. Taylor 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. He was inducted to the Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame in 2023.
Registration begins May 1.
Dr. Drew Andrews

The rivers and streams around Frankfort have not always flowed in their present courses. This presentation will use new digital resources to examine the landscape evidence for the ancient shifts and changes in the local stream valleys that have sculpted the Frankfort landscape.
Dr. William "Drew" Andrews is the Section Head of the Geologic Mapping Section for the Kentucky Geological Survey (KGS), where he has worked since 1996. Most recently, he was the Acting Director and State Geologist of KGS. With expertise in geographic information systems (GIS), geomorphology, and geologic mapping, William is also an adjunct assistant professor of geology at the University of Kentucky's Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences.
A life-long Kentuckian born in Frankfort, William received his Ph.D. in Geological Sciences from the University of Kentucky, is a member of the Geological Society of America, serves on the US National Committee for the International Union of Geological Sciences, and is licensed as a professional geologist in Kentucky.
Registration begins May 1.
Past Presenters

Dr. Douglas Boyd
Craw was a small neighborhood in north Frankfort, Kentucky, on fifty acres of swampy, low-lying land along the Kentucky River. To many neighborhood outsiders, Craw was considered the “bad” part of town, carrying a long list of deeply imbedded historical associations.

Dr. Daniel Gifford
Join Dr. Daniel Gifford as he discusses his latest book, Benefactors of Posterity: The Founding Era of the Filson Historical Society, 1884-1899.

Sylvia Sousa Coffey
One of the most dramatic but little-known episodes in our state history – a seventy-year battle fought nationwide and in every state, finally won with nary a shot fired.

James M. Prichard
Frankfort occupies a unique place in the annals of the Civil War. In 1862, it became the only loyal state capital to be occupied by Confederate forces during the war. In 1864 the capital was attacked by elements of Morgan's raiders in a sharp action in which Governor Thomas E.

Freddie Johnson
Freddie Johnson shares the life history of a young boy growing up in an environment surrounded by legends in the world of bourbon. Join us as he creates a narrative allowing you to enjoy this journey while leaving footprints in bourbon history!

Daniel J. Phelps
This presentation will be an overview of the various types of fossils found in Kentucky, discussing specimens from the Late Ordovician (450 million years ago) to the Pleistocene (ending about 12,000 years ago). There will be numerous fossil specimens on display before and after the talk.

Dr. Gwynn Henderson
After laying to rest the myths that continue to circulate about Kentucky’s ancient Native Peoples, this presentation will discuss Native history prior to the arrival of non-Native people, paying particular attention to information collected from Franklin County’s archaeological sites.

Robbie D. Jones, Sydney Schoof & Carolyn Brackett
In 2023, the City of Frankfort received a Certified Local Government grant from the Kentucky Heritage Council to complete a National Register nomination for the Green Hill Cemetery.

Tressa Brown
American Indian communities have been in Kentucky for more than 11,000 years. When Euro-Americans settled here, Shawnee, Cherokee, and Chickasaw, among others, already lived here. Myths and misconceptions about American Indian people permeate many sources of information.