Good Monday morning!

It’s June and you know what that means: HAPPY PRIDE! While I am not a member of the LGBTQ+ community, I have many friends and loved ones who are. It is because of them that I work hard to be an active ally for the community.

For me, that means many things: first, attending Pride events that support local LGBTQ+ organizations such as the Queer Climber’s Network; second, staying informed on legislation that effects the LGBTQ+ community by following organizations like the Fairness Campaign (who are celebrating their twenty-fifth anniversary this year!) and contacting my representatives to let them know that I oppose these bills; third, volunteering to assist with LGBTQ+-led projects, such as the creation of a guide for museums and cultural institutions on how to deal with anti-LGBTQ+ backlash for the American Alliance of Museums; and fourth, and perhaps most importantly for me, educating myself about LGBTQ+ history so that I can include it in our permanent and temporary exhibitions.

There are many members of the LGBTQ+ community represented in our exhibitions, but especially in Cool Kentucky. Silas House, who gave a wonderful presentation at the Frazier on May 30, is featured in the Literary Kentucky section. While at the Frazier, Silas talked about many things, but I was fascinated to hear about his experience growing up gay in a very religious community in Appalachian Kentucky. You can spot Silas and other members of the LGBTQ+ community in Cool Kentucky by looking for a Kentucky Pride symbol on their text panels.

There are many Pride events happening around the state this month, but in Louisville, the Kentuckiana Pride Parade and Festival are the big ones, and both are happening this weekend! The parade and festival are both this Saturday, June 15. The parade kicks off at noon in NuLu. Be sure to look for a few Frazier folks in the parade walking with Louisville Tourism! The parade ends at the festival, located on the Big Four Lawn. The festival is open from noon to 10 p.m. and tickets are $10. We hope to see you there!

In today’s issue of Frazier Weekly, Fairness Campaign executive director Chris Hartman teaches us about the history of Fairness in Kentucky and Tish and Mick gear up for Father’s Day.

Let’s make it a great week!

This Week in the Museum

Fairness Campaign Marks Silver Anniversary of Kentucky’s Fairness Ordinances

As we talk about Pride Month, we need to talk about an important milestone in our community as well—celebrating twenty-five years of the Fairness Ordinance in Louisville. I asked Chris Hartman, the first executive director of the Fairness Campaign, to write about it for Frazier Weekly. He pours his heart and soul into everything, most notably, injustice.—Rachel Platt, VP of Mission

Louisville Fairness Ordinance silver anniversary graphic. Credit: Fairness Campaign.

On January 26, 1999, Louisville became the first city in Kentucky—and among the first in the nation—to protect LGBTQ people from discrimination when the Louisville Board of Aldermen voted in favor of the original Fairness Ordinance, which added sexual orientation and gender identity to local employment discrimination protections. The victory came after nearly a decade of grassroots, intersectional organizing by the Fairness Campaign and its allies, and it kicked off a banner year for Fairness movements all across the state.

Lexington Fairness Campaign supporters march in Lexington’s Fourth of July parade, July 3, 1999. The city would pass a fairness ordinance five days later. Credit: Faulkner Morgan Archive.

Lexington then adopted Kentucky’s first comprehensive Fairness Ordinance on July 8, which added LGBTQ discrimination protections to all three areas of its civil rights law—employment, housing, and public accommodations. On September 28, Henderson passed a comprehensive Fairness Ordinance, followed on October 12 by Jefferson County. Just a few months later, the first Statewide Fairness Law was introduced in the Kentucky General Assembly on January 4, 2000.

The work of the Fairness Campaign continues on throughout the state. Now there are twenty-four Kentucky communities that have adopted local LGBTQ Fairness Ordinances, which cover nearly a third of our commonwealth’s population.

The silver anniversary of Louisville’s Fairness Ordinance will be celebrated through the end of the year with an exhibit at University of Louisville Ekstrom Library Archives and Special Collections called Fairness Does a City Good: A 25 Year Retrospective. The exhibit features photographs and materials from the Fairness Campaign records and Williams-Nichols Collection at University of Louisville Archives and Special Collections.

The Fairness Campaign is also celebrating this year’s Pride Month with the dedication of Louisville’s first LGBTQ Kentucky Historical Highway Marker. The plaque will commemorate two important events in Louisville's LGBTQ history from 1970: the founding of the Louisville Gay Liberation Front, the first public-facing LGBTQ advocacy organization in Kentucky, in Belgravia Court; and the nation’s first lesbian marriage trial, Jones v. Hallahan.

The highway marker is the culmination of almost a decade of work by the Fairness Campaign and Dr. Cate Fosl, who authored the Kentucky LGBTQ Historic Context Narrative, the nation’s first LGBTQ state historic context narrative produced in partnership with the National Park Service. You can read more about Kentucky’s LGBTQ history at fairness.org/heritage.

From the Collections: US Navy Shaving Kit, 1860s

This week from the collection, we wanted to look at something to celebrate Father’s Day. In 1908, Spokane, Washington, native Sonora Smart Dodd tried to establish an official holiday for fathers in honor of her own father, a single parent to six children. However, unlike Mother’s Day, Father’s Day took a long time to catch on. The lack of enthusiasm for the holiday was often chalked up to the idea that fathers were less sentimental than mothers.

By World War II, however, efforts were renewed by advertisers who argued that celebrating Father’s Day was a way to honor the troops and support the war effort. While this still did not make the day a federal holiday, it did solidify it as a national institution. In 1972, President Richard Nixon signed a proclamation making Father’s Day a federal holiday which we now celebrate ever year in June.

In honor of Father’s Day, I thought it would be fun to share a memory I had of my dad that related to an object in our collection.

Most of my life, my father wore a full beard. He preferred the beard and I have only one memory of ever seeing him without it. When I was roughly five years old, my father was still in the Navy and regulations had changed, meaning he had to shave his beard. Since we were just small children, my dad didn’t want me and my brother and sister to fear him or not know who he was—so he let us “help” him shave. We got to use our scissors and help cut off the hair. We got to hand him the shaving cream can, and I remember sitting on the sink watching him as he shaved off his beard. Of course, once he was done, my sister grabbed her small Elmer’s glue bottle and a handful of the hair and asked him to put it back on. What a hard lesson to learn that hair takes time to grow, and you can’t just glue it back on!

From our collection, we would like to show off our 1860s US Navy shaving kit—complete with a small mirror, a shaving cream brush, soap, a lather cup, and a straight razor. These cool objects are currently on view in the Civil War gallery in our Commonwealth: Divided we Fall exhibition.

Come on down on Father’s Day and have a look at it.

Highlights of 120: Ohio County: Grandfather of Bluegrass Arnold Shultz

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

I’ll probably spend some of my Father’s Day playing mandolin on the porch while my kids play in the yard. I’ll certainly play a Bill Monroe tune or two. As the “Father of Bluegrass Music,” he makes sense for Father’s Day. But if he’s the father, who is the Grandfather?

Many people would say it’s Ohio County’s Arnold Shultz, a Black musician whose influence extended directly to Monroe, but also many others like Merle Travis and Ike Everly.

We’re grateful for the assistance from the IBMA Foundation and their Trustee, Dr. Richard Brown, in telling Arnold’s story. I hope you enjoy it.

You can learn more about the Arnold Shultz Fund at bluegrassfoundation.org.

Museum Shop: Father’s Day Grill-out Goodies

Get ready to fire up the grill this Father’s Day! Celebrate in style with our prime grilling weather and explore our selection of Bourbon bark and sauces, now available in the Frazier’s Museum Shop.

Step into History with Monday Morning Walking Tours led by Patty Morris!

Starting Monday, June 17, we’re excited to offer Step into History Walking Tours with Hall of Fame teacher Patty Morris. Tours begin at 10:30 a.m. at the Frazier History Museum. They will cover roughly a mile over a ten-block area and last a little over an hour.

From the architecture of Main Street and City Hall to Abraham Lincoln and Lewis and Clark along the river, Patty will share key moments and uncover hidden details in the landscape perfect for both visitors and lifelong residents. Many of the stories covered, including key Underground Railroad sites, are closely related to objects and stories exhibited at the Frazier, so after the tour you’ll want to visit the galleries for an even more complete picture.

RSVPs are required but the tours are included with admission (free for members and Cultural Pass holders).

We encourage all Cultural Pass holders to take advantage of this and the museum galleries! Students and Senior Pass holders can enjoy free admission to the Frazier on Sundays, when we’ve got photo scavenger hunts, and Mondays, when we have tours at 11 a.m. and 3 p.m.—as well as hands-on touch stations at 1 p.m. that are perfect for families.

Mick Sullivan
Curator of Guest Experience

Frazier to Screen Courier Journal Photography Doc Fleeting Reality with Panel Discussion July 21

Fleeting Reality program flyer. Credit: Frazier History Museum.

It’s the line in the news release that to me captured the essence of the documentary Fleeting Reality: the power of a photograph. Yes. I may not be able to describe it, but I know the power when I see it. When I feel it.

We hope you’ll join us for a screening of the documentary Sunday, July 21, at 1 p.m., here at the Frazier History Museum. It features multiple Pulitzer Prize–winning photographers of the Louisville Courier Journal. Many of those photographers will join us for a discussion after the screening, to talk about what it took to get the picture and the story behind it.

The film’s director Richard Van Kleeck will also be part of that panel as well as co-producer Pat McDonogh. The documentary is compelling, just like the photographs and photographers it features. The screening and discussion are free with the cost of admission to the museum, but seating in the Brown-Forman Theatre is limited so purchase your ticket today. You’ll also be able to tour our newest exhibition, Flashback: Louisville Media Through the Years, opening in July.

The power of a photograph. You’ll see it and feel it.

20th Anniversary Photo: Courier Journal Photography Exhibition, 2017

Selection of photos on display at the private opening of *100 Great Courier-Journal Photographs* at the Frazier, January 26, 2017. Credit: Pat McDonogh.

On January 27, 2017, the Frazier opened 100 Great Courier-Journal Photographs, a temporary exhibition featuring works captured by Keith Williams, C. Thomas Hardin, Charles Fentress, Michael Coers, Dan Dry, Pat McDonogh, and dozens of other staff photographers. The photos dated from 1920 to 2015, capturing subjects from a Charles Lindbergh flight to a James Brown concert, a Ku Klux Klan rally, open housing demonstrations, the 1974 tornado outbreak, and racehorse American Pharaoh.

Phonies, Fakes, and Flops Galore in Frazier’s Camp Epic Fail, June 17–21!

Hi everyone!

We are having a blast at camp this year!

I wanted to tell you about an especially fun week of camp, June 17–21, which is Camp Epic Fail. I hope you’ll join us—or bring a friend and help spread the word!

Camp Epic Fail preview. Credit: Frazier History Museum.

We’ve got talented guest artists coming, great field trips planned, and a lot of summertime fun on the schedule. Pictured here are musical magicians Rhythm Science Sound, illustrator Randy Gray, “snake” books courtesy of Claire Krueger, plus Baird Sports Park and the Kentucky Science Center.

As to the theme, well . . . success doesn’t happen out of the blue. Its path is paved with failure because failure is a natural part of success. Failure is part of every great thing I’ve ever done. It’s a record of the hard work it takes to be good at what we want to do—and I think it’s good for kids to know that.

Failure also encourages us to laugh at ourselves. Failure is surprising and silly and has its own elusive appeal (funniest home videos, anyone?). We’ll look at some historic failures, phonies, fakes, and flops. And we’ll try for some of our own! And when we inevitably feel like we are failing, we will ask for help and try to laugh it off.

Learn more or register today at fraziermuseum.org/camps.

We’ll see you soon!

History All Around Us

Kentucky’s Oldest Town Celebrates 250th Anniversary this Week

In 1774, Captain James Harrod and his party made up of Abram Hite, Jacob Sandusky, and other settlers founded “Harrodstown”—now Harrodsburg, Mercer County, Kentucky. Harrodstown thus became the first permanent English settlement west of the Allegheny Mountains.

In June 2024, the town of Harrodsburg is celebrating its 250th anniversary with a wide range of activities and engagements!

From now until Sunday, June 16, visitors can look forward to: a Broadway Street revival with Mercer Ministerial Association, a Harrodsburg Legacy: 250 Years in the Making documentary screening, an old-fashioned camp meeting with speaker Phil Yates, a Fort Harrod settlement and raid demonstration, tea with costumed historical characters, a book signing by Mercer County African American history author Anna White, children’s games of the nineteenth century, a Heart of Kentucky Juneteenth Festival, a living history presentation, a Broadway Street tour, a community chorus concert, a Pioneer Cemetery caretaker Iverson Wilson plaque dedication, a church service and tour, Grinning Possum stories and music, a Founder’s Day celebration, and closing ceremonies.

There will also be live music by Dillon Carmichael—whose song represents Mercer County in the Frazier’s 120: Cool KY Counties exhibit playlist!—as well as Hunter Flynn, Drew Baldridge, JD Shelburne, Noah Thompson, Runaway June, Chayse Abrams, Katie Colosimo, Daniel Cain, Femmes of Rock, Hogeye Navvy Tavern, and Journey from the Heart.

Learn more at harrodsburg250th.com.

Simon Meiners
Communications & Research Specialist

Flotsam River Circus to Perform Benefit Show in Old Louisville Saturday

For anyone who’s daydreamed of running away with the circus or drifting downstream on a care-free shanty boat, both dreams are coming true.

This Saturday, June 15, the Flotsam River Circus crew will make a stop in Louisville at the Chapel of St. Phillip Neri for an 8 p.m. all-ages benefit show. The sliding scale admission cost is $10–$25, and patrons can expect music and puppets and river tales. For the full line-up and show details, check the Facebook event.

Saturday’s show is a benefit and interest-building event ahead of an Ohio River tour that will float the circus right to the Great Lawn of our own Waterfront Park on September 13, 14, and 15. The full tour from Pittsburg to Paducah will include thirty-eight performances and cover 1,000 river miles.

To read about the Flotsam River Circus’s adventures feels out of time and yet thoroughly modern. And it should. The musicians, puppeteers, and circus performers who crew the circus are inspired by both modern floating art projects and the American Showboat tradition of the 1800s when floating theaters plied Midwestern river ways offering music, theater, and circus acts to the country’s river frontier families.

“The show takes place on our boat which also serves as our stage, while the audience gathers and watches from the shore,” Jason Webley says. Jason is the accordion troubadour who organizes the circus. “Our crew includes a live band, puppets, and world-class circus performers. Our show is meant to be enjoyed by people of all ages and tells a story with an ecological theme, which we communicate mostly without words. It’s all a bit silly and sometimes strange, but mostly just fun entertainment.”

Flotsam River Circus is a 501c3 nonprofit organization whose goal is to spread whimsy, wonder, and a spirit of possibility.

We’ll have to wait until September for the full circus performance, but Saturday will give us a hint of the whimsy and wonder that is to come. And, in my worldview, when the river circus docks anywhere close to your door, you go see their show.

Zach Bramel
Manager of Youth & Family Programs

1999 Fairness Ordinances, Butler County’s Grandfather of Bluegrass, Courier Journal Photography Doc, and More

5 Counties Win Free Membership, Juneteenth-Proclaiming Officer Buried in Kentucky, Tinashe Fact-Checks Frazier, and More

Lewis & Clark Exhibition Updates, Free Cultural Pass Admission Sundays & Mondays, Butler County’s Navy CINCUS, and More