Collections

The Frazier History Museum’s permanent collection highlights a wide array of historically significant artifacts of Kentucky and American history. Our founder, Owsley Brown Frazier, established the internationally recognized Frazier Historical Arms Museum in 2004 to display his extensive collection of historic weapons. Rare and noteworthy objects in Mr. Frazier’s collection include Teddy Roosevelt’s “Big Stick,” Geronimo’s bow and arrows, and 19th-century Samurai armor.

In 2017, the Frazier History Museum became “Where the World meets Kentucky” and continues to maintain a focus on collecting and preserving objects significant to our state’s history and culture. Today, the Frazier houses a collection that contains artifacts relating to the Civil War, the Bourbon and tobacco industries, clothing and textiles, works of art, and documents that represent the lives of Kentuckians and the places they’ve called home throughout history. Notable features include an 1828 powder horn that belonged to Kentuckian L.C. Priest and an early 19th c. Kentucky Sugar Chest currently on view in The Commonwealth: Divided We Fall, the Donald Farabee Tobacco Industry Collection, the 1875 arrest warrant for Mary Todd Lincoln, and Bourbon history artifacts dating from pre-prohibition to today.