It’s a big week here in the Bluegrass State!

The last Monday in May each year is a federal holiday set aside for honoring and mourning US military personnel who have died while serving in the armed forces. Originally known as Decoration Day, Memorial Day has been observed since 1868.

Over the years, the day has also become the unofficial kickoff to summer and a day spent cooking out and hanging out with family and friends. I hope you are spending the day with someone who loves you.

It’s also a happy birthday week for the Commonwealth—and we are throwing a party!

We’re hosting a news conference on Thursday to share the details. But, I’ll give you a little hint: thanks to an incredible partner on Main Street, our Kentucky collection of artifacts and objects is growing by the hundreds. It would be an understatement to describe the new items as anything other than awesome!

We’re planning a happy 231st birthday party for Kentucky on Saturday, June 3, and you’re invited. Pay what you wish for admission. Our resident musician, curator of guest experience Mick Sullivan, will have a special song and storytelling program. We’ll have a scavenger hunt, Casey Harden will lead updated tours of Cool Kentucky, then Simon Meiners (as roving reporter “Ken Tucky”) will dish out prizes to guests who correctly answer Kentucky history trivia questions throughout the day.

Also, for your reading pleasure this week, we’ve got guest contributions from Cave Hill Cemetery’s Michael Higgs and Frazier board member Penny Peavler. We’ve got ten new Kentucky counties featured in Musical Kentucky, the Brohm family is headed to the Frazier, and you’ve got one last shot to vote for the best museum in Kentucky.

I hope to see you here this Saturday!

Until then, enjoy this happy birthday message from the Frazier and some of our partners around the state.

This Week in the Museum

Curator’s Corner: New Gallery Entertaining Kentucky to Open this Week

We’re making some really exciting changes to Cool Kentucky just in time for the birthday celebration!

This spring, we decided to update our permanent exhibition Cool Kentucky with new objects, stories, and interactives—content that will enhance this already-fun experience.

The largest addition will be Entertaining Kentucky, a new gallery that will feature music, movies, magic, and nightlife! When you enter the gallery, you’ll see the ear X-tacy sign illuminating the cases. We will have an interactive album stand where you can peruse albums by artists from Kentucky and imagine what it was like to shop in a record store. Some new cases will showcase items from the Louisville Orchestra and the Bluegrass Hall of Fame. There will also be a case completely dedicated to Jack Harlow as well as a section that highlights objects from nightclubs around Louisville.

Entertaining Kentucky isn’t the only area of Cool Kentucky we’re updating. On display in the Great Hall will be the Bain generator that powered the inaugural Southern Exposition in Louisville in 1883! By illuminating thousands of the incandescent light bulbs Thomas Edison had recently invented, this generator powered what was at that time the largest display of lights in the country.

Already on display are shoes from Kentucky environmental attorney Tom FitzGerald, who in 1984 founded the Kentucky Resources Council then led it for thirty-seven years.

Come by Saturday to celebrate Kentucky’s birthday! I’ll be leading tours around the new Entertaining Kentucky gallery at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

Museum Shop: Gold Cardinal License Plate

Gold cardinal license plate sold in the Frazier’s Museum Shop and online. Credit: Frazier History Museum.

They see you rolling—and they know you’re from Kentucky! Represent with this vintage metal license plate that showcases our state bird, the cardinal. Get one in the Frazier’s Museum Shop or online.

Mick Sullivan to Perform Kentucky Stories and Song Saturday

Back in April, I was invited by WBUR to perform for a kids podcast festival in Boston. It was an honor to say the least and rewarding to know that my creation, the podcast The Past and the Curious, would earn such an invitation. It was important to me to represent the Commonwealth of Kentucky by sharing Kentucky stories to a great audience in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Much of my performance was built around two of my favorite Kentuckians, banjoist Lily May Ledford and inventor Garrett Morgan—each of whom is featured in our Cool Kentucky exhibition.

As part of our Happy Birthday, Kentucky! celebration on June 3, I’ll be performing a version of that very same program at 11:30 a.m. and again at 2:30 p.m. Join us and we’ll learn, laugh, and sing our way through some of Kentucky’s best under-told stories.

Musical Kentucky: A Song from each County, Grant–Hart

Musical Kentucky graphic. Credit: Frazier History Museum.

As a supplement to the Musical Kentucky section of our Cool Kentucky exhibition, we’re curating a Spotify playlist of 120 songs: one song from each county in Kentucky. In 2023, once a month, we’ll share songs from ten counties, completing the playlist in December. For May, we’re sharing songs from these counties: Grant, Graves, Grayson, Green, Greenup, Hancock, Hardin, Harlan, Harrison, and Hart.

“Tally Ho!” by Blanche Coldiron. (Released 1999.) Dubbed “Blanche the Mountain Girl,” clawhammer banjoist Blanche Coldiron (1922–2005) traveled Eastern Kentucky in the 1930s and `40s performing at schoolhouses; then she retired to care for her sick daughter. After a fifty-year hiatus, the Dry Ridge, Grant County, resident recorded several songs for the 1999 compilation Kentucky Old-Time Banjo.

“STEAL YOUR DAD” by Dallas Remington. (Released September 23, 2022.) A fifth-generation farm kid from Mayfield, Graves County, country musician Dallas Remington has many hobbies, like yoga, hunting, and four-wheeling. But on “STEAL YOUR DAD,” the moxy and confidence she exudes—“You stole my man so I’m’a steal your dad”—probably has more to do with the black belt she’s earned in Tae Kwon Do.

“You Gotta Have a Duck Tail” by Billy Adams and the Rock-a-Teers. (Released 1958.) In 1948, eight-year-old Billy Adams (1940–2019) came to Greenup County where his father took up sharecropping to support his fourteen kids. Inspired by hillbilly music they heard on a battery-powered radio, Billy and his brother banged rhythms on lard bucket lids until eventually a friend loaned them a Harmony guitar.

“Comeback” by Ssion. (Released November 20, 2017.) In 1998, Lewisport, Hancock County’s Cody Critcheloe, the child of a draftsman and a paper mill maintenance manager, became the first visual arts student from Hancock County High School to attend the Governor’s School for the Arts. Now a prolific artist, he makes multimedia alt-pop and queercore music under the name Ssion (pronounced “Shun”).

“Future Street” by Martha Redbone. (Released 2004.) With Choctaw and Cherokee on her mother’s side, roots musician Martha Redbone says “[my family] has been in Harlan County since the beginning of time. Everyone has come from everywhere to feed their families in those hills and those mountains. There are Irish people. There are Portuguese people. There are lots of African American people.”

Get Tickets for June 6 Program with Brohm Family

It’s almost game time with the Brohms!

Here’s a fun scenario: imagine a family gathering and a game of touch football is introduced.

Now comes the tough decision of who plays quarterback.

Now, imagine it’s a gathering of the Brohm family where you have the patriarch Oscar who played that position at U of L, as did two of his sons, Jeff and Brian.

His third son, Greg, is safe at wide receiver, the position he played at U of L!

Not to mention the matriarch of the family, Donna, who was a multi-sport athlete, as was their lone daughter, Kim.

So who ends up playing the position?

Ha! You’ll have to join us on June 6 for A Family Affair at the Frazier: The Brohms to find out.

I have visions of the Wedding Crashers football scene in my head with the competitiveness!

This was one of the stories Oscar and Greg told on the radio with me recently: we had the good fortune of being guests on The V Show with Bob Valvano on ESPN Louisville to promote our program.

A whole bunch of other stories will be shared here at the Frazier.

Yes, we’ll talk the X’s and O’s of the upcoming U of L football season with Jeff Brohm at the helm as head coach, but we’ll also talk about this family dynasty and the inner workings of three brothers forming their own team to lead programs like WKU, Purdue, and now Louisville.

We promise to give the audience a chance to ask their questions, as well.

Dynasties like this are rare—other names like Manning, Harbaugh, and Stoops come to mind. But are there any others with brothers at the same place, the same time, leading a team, and now in their hometown?

We’ve got the entire family, or close to it, to make it a real “family affair” at the Frazier. Now, all we need is you!

Buy your ticket before it’s too late. We need to pack the house and show the Brohms your Louisville love!

From the Collections: Air Force Col. Garnett C. Brown’s Flight Equipment

Every Memorial Day we honor those who have given their life in service to our nation. Here at the Frazier History Museum, we aim to honor and tell the stories of Kentuckians who served in the armed forces as we continue to shift from a focus on historic weaponry to artifacts that tell stories of Kentucky people and places. Colonel Brown’s story is one of these.

Garnett Cecil Brown (1939–2021) was born and raised in Louisville before pursuing a career in the United States Air Force. A graduate of the National War College in Washington, DC, Brown logged nearly 6,000 flying hours as a Command Pilot and flew sixty-eight combat missions in Vietnam. He later served at the Pentagon and the State Department, specializing in arms control and disarmament.

Copies of books authored by Col. Garnett C. Brown. Credit: Frazier History Museum.

At the end of this extremely successful career, Colonel Brown retired to a quiet life back in Kentucky where he dedicated time to writing. In addition to a weekly column in the Bourbon County Citizen, Brown published Here We Go! Recollections from the Golden Age of Airlift in 2015.

“Transport aviation is seldom seen as glamorous, therefore this book hopes to give voice to an era and an Air Force that no longer exists, and to the unique men who crewed the C-124s, the airlift giants of a different time,” Brown writes in the book’s foreword. “This recollection marks our passage through the peak of the piston-powered years. So, please strap in.”

Fortunately for us as an institution committed to preserving historical artifacts, Colonel Brown was also someone who kept absolutely everything—and in quite good condition, at that! His donation was like receiving a time capsule. We have multiple uniforms, boots, gloves, and the treasure trove that was his pilot’s bag full of gear. A personal favorite might be his helmet with characters from the Peanuts (he was known by crewmates as “Charlie” Brown). So by sharing a few artifacts with you, we hope to share in the recognition of an everyday Kentuckian’s service to our country.

Colonel Brown’s life story is one of many we can reflect upon on this day dedicated to remembering those who sacrificed their time and lives in service to our nation.

Cave Hill Cemetery Introduces Fifty-Plus Programs on History, Art, and More

On this Memorial Day, many will head to cemeteries to honor those who died in military service for the country. Many will pay tribute at Cave Hill Cemetery. Beyond Memorial Day, Cave Hill has just announced its schedule of programs designed to share more about those buried at the cemetery, people who shaped our city’s history in so many ways. Keep reading to learn more.—Rachel Platt, Director of Community Engagement

Celebrating 175 years in 2023, the Cave Hill Heritage Foundation is pleased to present more opportunities than ever before to learn about one the world’s greatest cemeteries.

Over fifty programs—including four new tour topics and a new lecture series with the Kentucky Humanities Council—present the history of our wonderful city and its citizens. This year, as you explore the meandering roadways that span the 296-acre cemetery, you can learn about the leaders who shaped the history of suffrage, law, art, literature, and much more in our new program series. Specialized topics in steamboat captains, military figures, civil rights leaders, sculpture, Bourbon distillers, symbolism, and horticulture are awaiting you as you journey through historic Cave Hill Cemetery with one of our docents. All programs are family-friendly.

Learn more and register today by visiting our website.

Last Call to RSVP to June 9 Lunch and Learn on Biodiversity!

All of us lawn enthusiasts have been hard at work in our yards and gardens, getting everything ready for the summer. How about we take a step back and analyze: Have I created a welcoming environment for native species? Find out for yourself!

Join us as we step out of the sun for a moment, enjoying a summertime lunch-and-learn all about biodiversity in your backyard and what we can do to encourage the best opportunities for our region’s environment and biodiversity!

We invite all of you to support a healthy ecosystem starting right at home.

Visit us Friday, June 9, 11:30 a.m.–1 p.m., to learn which plants and gardening choices can support the local environment. Discover ways you can support native plants, trees, birds, butterflies, bees, and more.

Dr. Kate Bulinski, associate professor of environmental studies and Farm Biodiversity Steward in the Bellarmine University’s Department of Environmental Studies, will lead the presentation.

Doors will open at 11 and the program will begin at 11:30.

What’s on the menu? Attendees can click here to select a lunch from the menu. RSVP by purchasing your tickets today. Seating is limited!

Become a member or upgrade your membership in order to unlock an additional discount!

Best in Kentucky 2023 graphic. Credit: Frazier History Museum.

Bridging the Divide

Kentucky Bourbon Raffle Launches with Opportunity to Win a Barrel of Bourbon

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

It’s true the Frazier History Museum is the place where the world meets Kentucky—and is there anything more Kentucky than Kentucky Bourbon?

Our good friends at Educational Justice, a nearly-10-year-old 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that strives to end educational inequity, have launched Kentucky Bourbon Raffle to raise much-needed funds for their important work. Educational Justice pairs fifth- through eighth-grade students with high-achieving high school peers for long-term one-on-one tutoring and mentorship to improve their academic performance and social development. As the official starting point of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail®, we at the Frazier thought it was important to let our readers know of this stellar opportunity!

“Bourbon Country has become a feeling that represents all that is special about Kentucky,” Educational Justice executive director Bryan Andres Azucena Warren said. “Collecting rare, unique, and important Bourbons is a fun pastime for many, and the distillery experiences the region offers make doing so lots of fun. This raffle is an exciting chance for folks to own some of the best Kentucky can offer. For Kentuckians, Bourbon embodies our culture of generosity, care for others, gracious hospitality, and focus on Kentucky’s people and natural resources that we share with others around the world. As a Kentucky organization that embraces these values, it is only natural to employ our native spirit’s popularity to raise support for our educational mission.”

The raffle runs through June 23 and only 2,000 tickets will be offered. Tickets are $100 each and 22 winners will be drawn. Kentucky Bourbon Raffle chose to procure a barrel of Bourbon from Kentucky Bourbon Trail® Craft Experiences member Whiskey Thief Distilling Company as the top prize. The owner of the winning ticket will hand-select their barrel among those resting at Whiskey Thief, tasting the various flavors in a private selection experience with Whiskey Thief’s distilling team, which includes Kelley Tennille, this season’s winner of the Discovery Channel popular television program Moonshiners: Master Distiller. After bottling, the winner of the top prize in Kentucky Bourbon Raffle will take home all the single barrel bottles.

A barrel of Bourbon generally yields 200 to 225 bottles of Bourbon at 750 mL each and has a retail value of between $8,000 and $15,000. Usually barrel pics are 5 to 7 years of age, and Whiskey Thief does their best to make sure the barrels are 6 years old.

“At Whiskey Thief, our goal is to blend our passion for Kentucky Bourbon with innovative technology and a great customer experience,” Whiskey Thief CEO Walter Zausch said. “We are excited to welcome the winner of the Kentucky Bourbon Raffle to Whiskey Thief to hand-select their very own barrel of Bourbon. The Bourbon industry is known for its generosity and we are eager to be part of supporting Educational Justice as it strives to end educational inequity.”

The popularity of single barrel selection inspired the Kentucky Bourbon Raffle team to bring this whole new level of personalization to the Bourbon raffle experience. The search for something truly unique also educates Bourbon fans on how nature shapes the whiskey during its journey through charring or toasting, resting in a rick house during fluctuations in temperature, wind, rain, and pressure. These factors alter the way the whiskey breathes in the barrel. No two barrels of whiskey are identical and the winning raffle ticket holder will enjoy this intimate experience of tasting and selection with a master distiller and their group of friends.

Shakespeare-themed Rabbit Hole Bourbon bottle series. Credit: Rabbit Hole.

Included among the other more than 100 special bottles in the offering is a set only offered at the Frazier by Rabbit Hole Distilling. The Shakespeare set pays homage to The Bard and the creativity and artistry he represents the world over. Kelvin Cooperage is offering a behind-the-scenes tour and 5 bottles of Bourbon aged in their barrels. The band Metallica donated a bottle of their popular Blackened Whiskey signed by all the band members and co-founder Dave Pickerell, one of the pioneers of the craft distilling movement. A full set of Weller expressions, Old Forester Birthday Bourbon, Michter’s Cask Strength Bourbon and Rye, and 17-year and 8-year Old Fitzgerald are also on the offering. The raffle is open to anyone over age 21 and is conducted online.

Educational Justice’s Charitable Gaming License Number is ORG0002805. The prize drawing is open to the public and will take place at Whiskey Thief Distilling Company, 283 Crab Orchard Road, Frankfort, Kentucky, 40601, on Friday, June 23, at 8 p.m. Food trucks and live music will lend a celebratory air to the drawing which will be conducted in accordance with Kentucky law.

Learn more at kentuckybourbonraffle.org.

Celebrate Greatness at Ali Center’s Seventh Annual Ali Festival

As we near the anniversary of Muhammad Ali’s passing on June 3, 2016, the celebration of his life is once again about to get underway. It will be a week full of events honoring the champ, his life, his legacy, and his love for his hometown of Louisville. The Muhammad Ali Center invites you to the Seventh Annual Ali Festival for a week of activities. Click here to learn more about how you can participate.

Rachel Platt
Director of Community Engagement

Pay-What-You-Wish Admission Saturday, New Gallery Entertaining Kentucky to Open, Musical Kentucky: Grant–Hart, and More

Science Center Gifts Frazier Huge Collection, Jack Harlow Case Installed, Sippin’ Old Forester Gold Rushes, and More

Beer Fest 4-Pack Sale, Kentucky’s 231st Birthday Party, Gov. Isaac Shelby’s 1810s Silver Pitcher, and More