Chemists

Elmer Lucille Allen discusses general information about her life, including her educational and working career. She received degrees from University of Louisville and Spalding University. Her early childhood education was during segregation. Her working career included time at Brown Forman, where she was the first African American Chemist. Allen explains how her teachers shaped her adulthood. She discuses general information about her adult life, including her husband and children. She provides her and her children's experiences in school and the discrimination they faced. Allen discuses what she believes the boundaries of the Parkland neighborhood include. She discusses the riot of 1968 (she notes people destroying the neighborhood) and compares it to the riots in Ferguson Missouri. Allen describes the Parkland neighborhood after the riot, and notes the persisting negative stereotypes of the West End. Allen describes past segregation in Louisville, including parks and funeral homes, and the discrimination of African American's by businesses. She notes the progression of Louisville in general. (Interview index available.)

Dr. Hatch and Dr. Carpenter are chemists and executive director and executive director, retired from the Distillers Feed Research Council. They discuss the Council, its funding and its research projects, which include work on the B-complex vitamins, distillery by products, animal nutrition; also discusses cooperation among researchers.

Mr. Sipherd was a chemist for National Distillers Company. He discusses his years of employment from 1933 to the present.

Dr. Spanyer began with Brown-Forman as a chemist in 1936; notes changes in laboratories and distilling methods; research into new products and uses of by-products; discusses the chemistry of distilling.

Covers the distilling industry in general and Barton Brands in particular. Mr. Svihovec is a chemist and has administered the laboratory for Barton's for many years; he also talks about the history of whiskey.