On this eighth day of 2024, I would like to welcome you to our 20th year anniversary celebration! That’s right, through the commitment of our founder, perseverance, and Kentucky pride, the Frazier has been in the business of igniting the human spirit for two decades.

I’m excited to share with you that for the entirety of 2024 we are honoring and recognizing the incredible legacy left behind by Owsley Brown Frazier.

From our exhibitions to our programming, from our students to our Stories in Mind seniors, the Frazier is committed to life-long learning. From bridging divides in our community to being the ideal starting place for folks to learn about our Commonwealth, 829 West Main Street is Where the World Meets Kentucky.

So what does that mean for you?

Here are just a few of the things our team is working on to ensure that this year is one of the best yet for our followers, our members, our supporters, and our partners.

First, we added an extravagant event to our annual calendar of Frazier favorites: on Friday, April 12, we will host a Night at the Museum: Celebrating 20 Years of the Frazier, presented by Fifth Third Bank. Our inaugural gala will be a night of elegance, heritage, and celebration as we honor the legacy of our founder, Owsley Brown Frazier, and his commitment to education and history. Keep reading to learn about the updates our curatorial team is making to the Founder’s Gallery dedicated to Mr. Frazier.

Throughout 2024, each Monday in Frazier Weekly, we’ll share a photo from our museum’s history. Each month, we’ll publish a new 20-item listicle—for example, the 20 best exhibitions, the 20 best programs, the 20 coolest artifacts—with content dating back to our founding. And all year, we’ll offer $20 memberships and free admission to anyone who is 20 years old. How fun is that?

We’ll also debut 120: Cool KY Counties, an exhibit created in partnership with representatives from all 120 of Kentucky’s counties. We’ll feature some of those cool stories in issues of Frazier Weekly, as well. And finally, our multimedia production KentuckyShow! is getting a facelift.

Yes, we’re getting bougie in 2024. I sure am glad you’re along for the ride!

This Week in the Museum

20th Anniversary Photo: Opening Day Ribbon-Cutting, 2004

On May 22, 2004, the Owsley Brown Frazier Historical Arms Museum opened its doors! Pictured here cutting the ribbon is founder Owsley Brown Frazier, alongside Royal Armouries chair Ann Green and Mayor of Louisville Jerry Abramson, in front of a crowd of spectators.

Curator’s Corner: Frazier Updating Founder’s Gallery for 20th Anniversary

This is such an exciting year here at the Frazier! In 2024, every department is finding ways to celebrate our 20th anniversary and to honor our founder, Owsley Brown Frazier. Here in the exhibitions and collections department, we are planning a big update to the Founder’s Gallery. The last major installation of this gallery was in February and March of 2018, so it is certainly ready for an upgrade!

Many of the objects on display in this gallery have been on display since that installation in 2018, so they are overdue for a rest. Some objects, such as paper and textiles, are especially sensitive to fading and other damage from light. It is important to allow these objects periods of time to rest in the darkness of collections storage to prevent them from fading too quickly. But never fear: items that are made of metal, like many of the famous firearms on display, are much more stable and less in need of these periods of darkness. You can expect favorites such as Teddy Roosevelt’s Big Stick and George Washington’s rifle to remain on display even after the updates.

New updates to the gallery will include highlights from the past 20 years of exhibitions and important pieces from Owsley’s original collection. We will also showcase some of our more recent acquisitions that especially show how we are still collecting to represent Owsley’s legacy. The Founder’s Gallery will have an updated look to reflect all the cool new graphics that have been created to celebrate our 20th anniversary.

Stay tuned for more information on the updates and to learn about the objects we will feature!

Geronimo Weapon and Portrait to Come Off Display Next Month

Objects representing the Apache war chief Geronimo in the Frazier’s Founder’s Gallery are temporarily coming off display next month.

The objects—a bow, a quiver, five arrows, and an oil painting—have belonged to the Frazier since before the museum opened in 2004. “These objects have been on display for many years, so it’s time to give them some rest,” registrar and manager of collections impact Tish Boyer said.

Geronimo (1829–1909) was a member of the Chiricahua Apaches in the American Southwest. By the mid-1870s, the US Army had forced most Apaches into inhospitable desert reservations—particularly San Carlos on the Gila River in Arizona. From 1881 to 1886, Geronimo led breakouts: he helped Apaches escape to the mountains, from which they raided ranches on either side of the US-Mexico border.

Because Geronimo was a potent symbol of resistance, the US military made his capture a top priority. He ultimately surrendered to Gen. Nelson Miles at Skeleton Canyon, Arizona, on September 4, 1886.

“According to a tradition from the beginning of the twentieth century, the bow, quiver, and arrows shown here were handed over at the time of Geronimo’s surrender,” former Frazier curator Walter J. Karcheski Jr. writes in the 2003 book Selections from the Frazier Historical Arms Museum. “They are authentic, rare Native American weapons . . . of the type that could have been used by him and his warriors in the 1860s. However, there have been other sets also claimed as his, and staged photos show him with props of such stereotypical native weapons. Long before his surrender, Geronimo and his men had exchanged their bows for firearms. If this set belonged to him, it no doubt sat unused for years.”

After his surrender, Geronimo was detained in Texas for six weeks before being moved to Fort Pickens in Pensacola, Florida. Around September 17, residents of western Kentucky towns along the Louisville & Nashville Railroad turned out to witness 385 other captured Apaches, mostly women and children, travel through the area under Army guard en route to Fort Marion in St. Augustine, Florida. In 1894, the Apaches were again transferred to Fort Sill in Oklahoma Territory.

In 1897, Elbridge Ayer Burbank, a young artist from Chicago who painted many Native American subjects, came to Fort Sill to paint Geronimo. In Selections, Karcheski describes their encounter: “Burbank recalled, “[Geronimo’s] keen, shrewd face was deeply furrowed with strong lines. His small black eyes were watery, but in them there burned a fierce light . . . I tried to get Geronimo’s real character into the portrait . . . every wrinkle in his face and even a mole on his cheek.” As for Geronimo’s verdict of his portrait, Burbank said “he turned, laughed, and slapped me on the back.””

The Geronimo objects will remain on display in the Founder’s Gallery until late February or early March.

Simon Meiners
Communications & Research Specialist

Celebrate Our Legacy, Become a Member

We’ve Got “Sunshine” Joe Mallard for Sunday’s Program on Quilting

You know the line “I’ve got sunshine on a cloudy day”?

A fifth grader may not have known the song “My Girl,” or the group the Temptations, but that student knew enough to give the nickname “Sunshine” Joe to Joe Mallard.

Why? Because after working with the local quilt artist in class, the student said: “the sunshine brings light—and you do, too.”

Sunshine Joe has been lighting up classrooms and people of all ages with his message of empowerment through his cultural enrichment programs for years.

Sunshine Joe Mallard is part of our program on January 14 here at the Frazier, Kentucky Quilts and Quiltmakers.

He teaches in classrooms, community centers, homeless shelters, libraries, and universities.

His wise words tell us anybody can start a project, but it takes a special person to finish.

A local teacher whose students worked with Sunshine Joe put it this way: “He integrated life lessons into each quilting session. “Sunshine” Joe taught them to persevere, to do their best, and always try to finish what they start. They learned to work together while respecting each other’s differences.”

Don’t miss out on some “Sunshine” in your life on January 14. Chances are he will be your sunshine on a cloudy day in winter.

We hope to see you at the program! Click here to sign up. And a reminder to Frazier members to join us for the Winter Book Club discussion of the book between 1 and 2 p.m.

Frazier Events Team to Host Open Houses this Saturday and Next

Are you a wedding coordinator or a bride looking for the perfect reception space? Are you a corporate planner looking to hold an off-campus meeting or reception? Are you simply a friend of the Frazier looking to host a private party? The Frazier is hosting open houses of its event spaces this Saturday, January 13, and next Saturday, January 20. Come meet our events team for a fun tour of the museum’s event spaces! Anyone is welcome to drop in between 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., but we do encourage you to book your visit online in advance. We look forward to seeing you!

Frazier Adjusts Hours of Operation for Month of January

A quick reminder: we’re temporarily adjusting our hours of operation. From now through January 31, the museum and museum shop will be closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. But don’t worry! Starting February 1, we’ll go back to operating seven days a week.

Simon Meiners
Communications & Research Specialist

Plate Breaking, Vulture Masks a Hit with Winter Break Campers

We had so much fun at winter camp. Thanks to all thirty families who let us hang out with their awesome kids over four days. A big thanks also to our teen volunteers who helped us pull off all the fun, games, activities, and exploration. (And if you have a teen or tween who is twelve years old, or is in eighth grade, camp is a fun and skill-building volunteer opportunity for them here at the Frazier.)

We smashed dishes in accordance with Danish New Year’s tradition. We made vulture masks after learning about the importance of nature’s clean-up wizards. We built finger-skateboard parks, clay tomten (gnomes), and—most importantly—we had a lot of fun.

Next up: spring break in April and summer break camp in June and July. Registration for each camp will be open by February 1.

Huzzah!

Object in Focus: Cephalopod Fossils from the Devonian Period

I’ve been interning with the Frazier Museum through my high school, Holy Cross, since August. Every morning, my fellow intern and I walk all the museum exhibitions to ensure everything is in order. Every time we walk through The Commonwealth: Divided we Fall, I stop for a second to look at the fossils.

The fossils are a very small part of the exhibition. I’d wager many people just think they’re rocks. However, as someone who’s loved everything prehistoric for longer than I can remember, fossils hold a place in my memories. If you look, there are two things right as you exit the native creation myths room: a panel and a box of fossils.

The fossil I am focusing on is number six in the box: a cephalopod fossil from the Devonian Period.

The Devonian Period was around 410 to 360 million years ago, but cephalopods had existed long before that: up to 500 million years ago during the Cambrian Period. However, cephalopods are not the only interesting thing about the Devonian Period. Today, you can find many fossils from that time in the Falls of the Ohio. What’s more, the notorious fossil bed contributed to the founding of Louisville in the late 1700s by stopping river travelers from continuing downstream.

During the Devonian Period, Kentucky was almost entirely underwater. Imagine deep oceans full of plant life and otherworldly creatures. It saw the emergence of tetrapods—the first vertebrates on land! The decomposed plant life from this period is now the source of many oil, coal, and natural gas reserves in the state.

The oldest order of cephalopod from the Devonian Period was the Bactritida, which resembles the modern chambered nautilus as if someone put a squid in a shell. Its movements were likely similar to those of the chambered nautilus: propelling itself with bursts of water like a living rocket ship (or maybe just a water gun). Ancient cephalopods were predators for the most part, preying on small creatures like early fish, arthropods, and gastropods.

The fossil on display in the Frazier’s Commonwealth exhibition is in two parts. Its nearly straight shell indicates it probably belonged to the Bactritida or a similar order.

Cephalopods are incredibly interesting creatures, especially considering that they have not had to change too much throughout evolution. You know what they say: if it works, it works!

Bridging the Divide

Join Us February 22 for March on Frankfort: The 60th Anniversary

The Frazier History Museum is teaming up with Louisville Metro Government Office of Equity and the Courier Journal to bring you a special program on February 22. We’re looking back on the March on Frankfort in 1964. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and thousands of marchers descended on Frankfort to bring about change in Kentucky. I’ll have more about the program next Monday in Frazier Weekly. In the meantime, I hope you will sign up to be part of this special “free” program on February 22.

Rachel Platt
VP of Mission

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