Kentucky is rich with Bourbon legacies, but no legacy is stronger or longer than that of the James B. Beam Distillery. With that in mind, there’s no better way to celebrate Father’s Day week, only a month away, than with the First Family of Bourbon. Join the Frazier on June 11 for Father’s Day with Fred & Freddie Noe from James B. Beam Distillery!

Guests will have an opportunity to hear stories about the distillery that boasts eight generations of master distillers and is the largest producer of Bourbon in the world. The Noes will lead you through a guided tasting that’s sure to be a Bourbon lover’s dream and a culinary delight.

Along with their finest Bourbons and whiskeys, you’ll enjoy amazing food pairings from the Kitchen Table, Beam’s full-service dining experience inspired by the original Beam family table.

This experience wouldn’t be complete without a unique Knob Creek single barrel picked for this evening that you can purchase with your ticket.

Bring your father, your son, or your favorite Bourbon connoisseur as we learn what it means to Fred to pass the torch to his son. We’ll celebrate fathers, Bourbon, and good times at the Frazier, the official starting point of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail®.

Read on for more of what’s going on at the Frazier and in our beautiful state of Kentucky, including a look into the PGA as it makes its way to Louisville and the Frazier’s newest social media superstar, Brylea Peach.

Greg Schoenbaechler
Sr. Marketing Manager
Frazier History Museum

This Week in the Museum

Frazier’s Justin Thomas Objects on View for PGA Championship Week

It’s a good Monday morning—with the city of Louisville in the spotlight once again!

The PGA Championship is coming to Valhalla golf course this week, and that is a big deal. And, as I recently explained to an international golf publication, it’s just the latest example to the world that Kentucky kicks tail, runs fast, swings big, and parties like (and with) rock stars!

With Kentucky Derby 150 still in the rearview mirror, there is no rest for the tens of thousands of people who are also all-in on one of golf’s signature events.

There are four major championships in the international game of golf and two of them are played at the same places every year. The Masters is always at Augusta National Golf Club and the Open Championship is always on a links course in the UK. So, hosting the PGA Championship is significant! Next week, Valhalla will host the Championship for the fourth time.

Here at the Frazier, where the world meets Kentucky, we have been counting down to the PGA in our Cool Kentucky exhibition with a clock that sits alongside two of our most notable golf artifacts. Last year, Justin Thomas and his family very generously gifted the Frazier these eighteenth green flags from both of Justin’s PGA Championships in 2012 and 2017. Wouldn’t 2024 be a nice addition?

Just last week, Justin was the latest Kentuckian honored with a Hometown Hero banner in Louisville—so like many of you, we’re proud to call him one of our own. We’re also grateful that his gift allows us to tell his story to the tens of thousands of worldwide visitors to the Frazier every year.

Louisville Tourism estimates 200,000 people will travel to the Bluegrass State for the big tournament, ensuring that the sun shines bright on our old Kentucky homes for the second time in just ten days.

If you are hosting friends for the big tournament and your cup runneth over with Kentucky pride, make sure to mix in a quick trip to the Frazier to show them all the things that make your home state so darn cool!

Andy Treinen
President & CEO

Museum Shop: Cheeky Caps for Summer Fun

Discover the perfect ball cap for all your outdoor activities, whether you’re hitting the golf course or tending to your garden. Visit the Frazier’s Museum Shop in person or online to find your ideal cap today!

Join Us June 8 for The Journey Walking Tour

Are you ready to take “the Journey”? Get out your walking shoes and join us on June 8 as we take you on a two-mile tour to see how Kentuckiana played a central role in the Underground Railroad. There will be four stops with immersive storytelling from our staff, including the story of freedom seekers Thornton and Lucie Blackburn. Their true-life journey from Louisville to Canada has been written about in books and plays but many people are hearing their names for the very first time.

We only have about forty spots available for the free tour, so make sure to sign up now. Those tours will start at 9:40 a.m. and 9:50 a.m. We will start at the Frazier History Museum with our final stop at the On the Banks of Freedom installation behind the floodwall near the Frazier shortly before 11 a.m.

Then, at 11 a.m., our partners IDEAS xLab will unveil their new (Un)Known Project installation called In our Elders’ Footprints. It features over twenty sets of footprints from Black Louisville elders including well-known activists, educators, and civil rights leaders. You can visit their website to learn more.

Both of these events are supported by the Louisville Metro Government Juneteenth Jubilee Commission.

It will be a day of learning and reflection.

We hope you’ll take “the Journey” with us.

Rachel Platt
VP of Mission

Join Us May 22 for a Southern Experience Curated by World-Famous Chef Edward Lee

The Frazier is proud and excited to host a special event on May 22: Southern Soul & Spirits: Exploring Bourbon Land with Ed Lee! What makes this event so special is that Chef Lee’s fingerprints are all over the program details—from the arrival cocktail to the honkytonk country band.

When I began to plan our book signing party with Chef Edward Lee, I asked him how he envisioned his event. He wanted a cocktail party with rockabilly vibes. It was a natural choice to ask Maker’s Mark to be involved. Maker’s is a philanthropic partner for Ed’s nonprofit, the LEE Initiative. Ed and Lindsey Ofcacek founded the LEE Initiative in 2018 after they recognized the need for a more diverse, compassionate, sustainable, and equitable restaurant industry. At its core, the LEE Initiative is about building a stronger community and solving problems to positively impact the next generation. Their mission, which focuses on equality in the food industry, exemplifies the Frazier Museum’s values and the voices we aim to amplify. Guests at our program will have the opportunity to hear more about the LEE Initiative and Maker’s Mark Community Batch Bourbon at our May 22 event.

Not only was Ed instrumental in securing our partnership with Maker’s Mark, he also hand-picked the evening’s musical entertainment. Ed suggested we reach out to Bullitt County native Tyler Lance Walker Gill to provide the rockabilly tunes for his cocktail party. Tyler, the eponymous leader of the Tyler Lance Walker Gill Band, describes himself as “a country music anti-hero”—but if you ask Ed, Tyler is the next big thing in country music, the face of where the genre is heading. Tyler’s band has been playing together for seven years; their style is honest, upbeat, occasionally rowdy, but always entertaining. They have a substantial fan base in the area and count Ed as one of their followers. You can expect to hear a unique flavor of honkytonk and classic country, with illuminated guitars, and a kind of grit born out of dive bars and similarly glamourous venues. In the words of Tyler, “the one thing everyone agrees on is a good drinking song, and we have a ton of those.”

Tickets are selling fast! Don’t miss your chance to secure tickets to this one-of-a-kind event. Listen to Ed’s hand-picked musical entertainment, sip on a cocktail, taste exclusive appetizers featured in Bourbon Land, and mingle with Ed Lee himself.

Leslie Anderson
Partnership Manager

Sippin’ with Stephen: New Bourbons and Ryes with New Riff

As the official starting point of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail®, the Frazier History Museum shares stories of the people, places, and producers of the Kentucky Bourbon industry. To learn more, visit our Kentucky Bourbon Trail® Welcome Center or tour our Spirit of Kentucky® exhibition.—Simon Meiners, Communications & Research Specialist

This month’s episode of Sippin’ with Stephen features Jay Erisman, co-founder and vice president of New Riff Distilling. Jay and I discuss the reasons why New Riff should be on every Bourbon lover’s itinerary and highlight three new products New Riff now offers. We discuss Silver Grove Bourbon, a product currently only sold at the distillery, along with New Riff’s new 8-Year-Old Bourbon and 6-Year-Old Malted Rye Whiskey. To find out additional information on any of the products showcased in this episode or to schedule a tour, visit their website.

Stephen Yates
Community & Corporate Sales Manager

Highlights of 120: Oldham County: Yew Dell Botanical Gardens

In each issue of Frazier Weekly, we bring you a text story or video featured in our 120: Cool KY Counties exhibit, which opened March 15.—Simon Meiners, Communications & Research Specialist

Spring is in the air! And for me, that means it’s about time to visit one of my favorite places in Oldham County, Yew Dell Botanical Gardens. I first became a member at Yew Dell during 2020 because I was searching for fun outdoor activities that I could do that were COVID-safe. After visiting the gardens that year, I fell in love. With many of their plants and tress in bloom, spring is, of course, the perfect time to visit. After walking through the gardens, I recommend stopping at Third Turn Brewery’s Oldham Gardens location right next door to enjoy a beer set inside a former greenhouse and nursery. It’s the perfect day for a plant lover like me!

Yew Dell Botanical Gardens is our featured story for Oldham County in 120: Cool KY Counties. I am excited to share their story and shed a little light on the history of the garden.

In 1941, Theodore and Martha Klein bought thirty-four acres of Kentucky farmland in Oldham County, Kentucky. They built a home, a nursery, a greenhouse, a farm, a family, and a castle. As part of a joke, Theodore Klein built their pool house to look like a castle. The Kleins had one of the most successful ornamental plant nurseries in Kentucky. Following Theodore’s death in 1998, developers attempted to buy the land. The community rallied, bought the property, and turned it into a public space. The gardens were supported by the Garden Conservancy, who named it the Yew Dell Preservation Project. It was one of only nine similar projects in the nation at that time. Today, the Yew Dell Botanical Gardens is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has received several other awards for architecture and sustainability. The castle is now an iconic part of Yew Dell Botanical Gardens.

Amanda Briede
Sr. Curator of Exhibitions

Introducing the Frazier’s Social Media Star Brylea Peach

“I’ve loved your social media content lately!” is a compliment I’ve received quite a bit this spring. But each time I hear it, I reply: “Tell Brylea!” Yes, I’m the thirty-five-year-old publicist who plots out the Frazier’s social media content; however, the near-viral content we’ve posted lately has been the handiwork of the Frazier’s latest hire, a twenty-one-year-old former marketing intern. Before we met, I—like many Louisvillians—recognized Brylea from the hilarious viral content she long produced for Caufield’s Novelty. Now, once a week, she and I meet, monitor social trends, and write and film content for the upcoming week at the museum. So we asked her to introduce herself to you, our Frazier Weekly readers!—Simon Meiners, Communications & Research Specialist

Hey there! I’m Brylea, a twenty-one-year-old marketing student at Indiana University Southeast (IUS). You just might recognize me from my time at Caufield's Novelty, the iconic local Halloween retail store—located just a block west of the Frazier!—where I worked from ages sixteen to twenty-one.

Here’s the kicker: During my time at Caufield’s, I played a large part in growing their social media pages. I dabbled in everything from hilarious skits to slick product marketing. Before you knew it, the TikTok account I managed had over 120,000 followers eating up our content faster than candy on Halloween night! For example, the “we can take my hearse” skit I filmed now has 15 million views on TikTok.

Leaving Caufield’s behind, in January, I jumped into an exciting marketing internship at the Frazier, where they put me in the driver’s seat with their social media accounts. With my love for crafting snappy, attention-grabbing content, I decided to tackle a unique challenge: making history interesting for the younger crowd. Some of our recent social posts—for example, the “Kentuckian takes English lessons” skit (modeled after the “what do you call this in English?” trend)—demonstrate that.

Now that my internship has ended, you can find me working in the Frazier’s guest services department. However, I also work part-time in the marketing department, where I create content for the Frazier’s social pages! Keep an eye out for us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Brylea Peach
Guest Services

20th Anniversary Photo: Frazier Museum Website, 2010

As we tease the future of the Frazier’s social media content, I thought it would be nice to look back at our digital footprint at a random point in the past. I captured this screengrab of the Frazier’s homepage on January 16, 2010—before we had any social media pages. A lot at the Frazier has changed since that day: We’ve got a new name, a new slogan, and new colors! But, judging by the promotional content pictured in the screengrab, a lot of our activities in the community—camps, school programs, veterans’ stories, Louisville history exhibits—remain the same. Here’s to another twenty years as the place where the world meets Kentucky!

Simon Meiners
Communications & Research Specialist

Frazier-Featured Artist S.G. Goodman to Play Waterfront Wednesday May 29

Warm weather has arrived in Louisville, which signals the return of our favorite seasonal migration to the waterfront. Yes, of course, I am talking about the traveling musicians and hordes of music lovers who flock to Waterfront Park on the last Wednesday of every month from April through September—Waterfront Wednesday!

This free concert series, presented by 91.9 WFPK and Waterfront Park, is a true gem of Louisville’s cultural landscape and a brilliant example of collaboration between local organizations, artists, and the city for the benefit of the public. The Big Four Lawn transforms into a prismatic canvas of brilliant picnic blankets, flashing flying frisbees, and bouquets of brightly colored bicycles with bike parking provided by another cherished Louisville business, Parkside Bikes. Each concert is carefully curated to deliver a diverse yet cohesive musical selection featuring local musicians and major national acts alike, blending regional flavor with familiar favorites.

If you are unfamiliar with Waterfront Wednesday, I am sorry to tell you that the first edition of 2024 has already come and gone. It was a dynamic musical journey opening with the pared down and bluesy Tyrone Cotton, himself a longstanding Louisville icon, warming the crowd with his impressively accurate and tasteful guitar playing and his characteristic voice, clear and articulate with a rasp he can turn on at just the right moment to enhance his nostalgic lyrics. Chicago-based trio Dehd brought the tempo up with vocal heavy arrangements and catchy melodies atop simplistic guitar and drum accompaniment that never got in the way of their dialed-in harmonies.

The ethereal indie folk singer Phosphorescent closed the evening with eclectic and cerebral poetry-forward selections that I mostly had to miss to get my two-year-old in bed. Maybe I’ll consider a babysitter for May 29 when local violinist Ellie Ruth opens the show that also features Fulton County native S.G. Goodman (whose song “Tender Kind” visitors can listen to in the Frazier’s 120: Cool KY Counties exhibit) and Waterfront Wednesday’s favorite troubador, Pokey LaFarge, in his third appearance. LaFarge previously shared the bill with Béla Fleck & Abigail Washburn in 2015 (which is still my personal favorite Waterfront Wednesday ever) and with friend-of-the-Frazier Carly Johnson in 2017.

The inclusion of local artists on every program is what makes these concerts special. The “big names” draw a big crowd, but the local bands connect to the audience in meaningful ways that traveling acts can’t always achieve. For example, in August 2022, Mark Charles Heidinger (of Vandaveer, but in this case performing solo as Mark Charles) invited his son onstage to play piano on a song with him. Personal moments like that happen all the time at Waterfront Wednesday.

If you plan to attend, consider this humble unsolicited advice: Arrive early, and, if possible, by means other than a car. Music starts promptly at 6 p.m., and parking can be a nightmare. Bring a lawn chair or picnic blanket. Don’t forget sunscreen! And in the immortal words of Laura Shine, “no outside alcohol, no glass, no coolers, and no pets in the event area, please!”

Kent Klarer
Grant Manager & Writer