Good Monday morning,

Truth be told, I Googled “Kentucky 4th of July traditions” as I prepared to write this Independence Day open letter. I’m not sure what I expected, but the Frazier is where the world meets Kentucky, and I wanted to make sure I wasn’t missing any bluegrass customs. It turns out, I was.

Right there among the fireworks, parades, and concerts around the Commonwealth, under the title of the weirdest 4th of July celebrations, sat the Kentucky Computer Trap Shoot. No kidding, a group of South Central Kentucky friends collect obsolete electronic devices all year then launch them into the air on Independence Day, partly for target practice, but mainly to vent frustration over workplace annoyances. See for yourself — it’s worth the laughs!

Six days before Independence Day, Mick Sullivan kicks off our Virtual Frazier Magazine with several artifacts from the Frazier collection with connections to the founding of the U.S.A. Another Bingham shows up in Cool Kentucky, Rachel Platt writes about a day of inspiration, and our new Education and Engagement Specialist Shelby Durbin recounts being evacuated from the Philippines at the onset of the global pandemic last year.

You’ll meet our Accounting Manager Alias Broner in Megaphone Monday, Hayley Rankin writes about two Lexington breweries who will make an appearance at our Summer Beer Fest, and Heather Gotlib highlights the Henry Clay Hotel’s early significance to the LGBTQ+ community.

I hope you enjoy,

Andy Treinen
President & CEO
Frazier History Museum

This Week in the Museum

Video: Fourth of July Objects at the Frazier

Our daily tours have been a lot of fun so far this summer! In this last of the video sneak peeks, we’re highlighting some objects that relate to the 4th of July. This video series is just a glimpse at what you might see on a tour, so we hope you’ll join us in person soon!

Mick Sullivan
Curator of Guest Experience

Curator’s Corner: Bookstore Proprietor Henrietta Bingham

This month, our curatorial team installed a new section of the “Cool Kentucky” exhibition called “LGBTQ+ Kentucky.” The section highlights four Kentuckians who’ve made an impact on LGBTQ+ rights, both nationally and in Kentucky. Each Monday in June, Curator Amanda Briede will share the story of one of these four figures. Be sure to stop by the Frazier to see the artifacts and wall panels of this section in person.

If you happened to see our exhibition Spirits of the Bluegrass: Prohibition and Kentucky, which was open from October 2015 to January 2018, you might be familiar with the story of Henrietta Bingham. For that show, we were able to borrow some of Henrietta’s possessions from her great-niece and biographer, Emily Bingham. We were lucky enough to be able to borrow a few of those items again, this time to feature Henrietta in the LGBTQ+ section of Cool Kentucky.

Henrietta Bingham was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1901. Her father was “Judge” Robert Worth Bingham, who not only served as judge, Louisville Mayor, and United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, but also owned both the Courier-Journal and the Louisville Times. While attending the elite, all-female Smith College, Henrietta became lovers with one of her professors, Mina Kirstein. The two traveled together to England where they socialized with the Bloomsbury Group, a group of English writers, intellectuals, philosophers, and artists. Upon returning to Kentucky, Henrietta ran a bookstore called Wilderness Road Bookshop with childhood friend and lesbian Edie Callahan. The store carried avant-garde and risqué titles and became a gathering spot for open-minded Louisvillians. Henrietta often visited her father while he served as the Ambassador to the United Kingdom where she lived openly with her partner, progressive tennis star Helen Hull Jacobs. Though the wealth and influence of her family was able to afford her more sexual flexibility than many LGBTQ+ people of the time, after the death of her father, Henrietta ended her life in isolation, suffering from an addition to painkillers.

Since learning more about Henrietta for this exhibition, all of us here in the Frazier’s Collections Department have become fascinated by her story. Collections Manager Tish Boyer and I picked up a couple copies of Emily’s book, Irrepressible: The Jazz Age Life of Henrietta Bingham. So far, it is an incredible read! I recommend reading the book to learn more about Henrietta and then stopping by the Frazier to see her hat, gloves, and impressively large double flask, which could hold two different liquors at once.

Amanda Briede
Curator

Museum Store: Summertime and the Living is Easy

Grilling is easy with Barrel Proof chips, perfect for your next cookout. We love these chips, made from production Bourbon barrels — they’re easy to use and they level up your grill game. Pair them with a Bloody Mary made with Bourbon Barrel Foods mix and enjoy the summer.

Summer Camps: Page to Stage 2021

After a hiatus in 2020, an all-star camp favorite was back last week: Page to Stage, an in-depth drama camp in which participants stage their own historical interpretations on the topic of their choice. And what a week it was! After learning an improv game, theater skills, and the art of staging and costuming with professional actor V. Reibel, our campers took to the stage and put on an extravaganza. Topics explored included the discovery of King Tut’s tomb, the Gros Michel banana blight (the creativity this week was boundless!), Queens Elizabeth and Marie Antoinette, and a star-studded finale from our volunteers.

Shout out to our amazing staff this week and the hard work they put in, starting with seeds of ideas on Monday and turning them into full-blown productions by Friday. Although this camp has passed for the year, there is still room in our other weeks — you can find out more and sign up here.

Heather Gotlib
Manager of Youth and Family Programs

Brews From the Bluegrass: Fusion and Blue Stallion

The inaugural Summer Beer Fest at Frazier on August 7 will feature over 200 beers, including some from our friends in Lexington, Fusion Brewing and Blue Stallion Brewing Co. If you’ve been to Lexington and enjoy a good brew, you’ll know the city has a great local craft beer scene. Whether you are in the center of Downtown Lexington or the Distillery District, home to the former James E. Pepper Distillery that’s now a vibrant food and drink spot, you have a plethora of unique, thoughtfully crafted choices before you.

Fusion Brewing, co-owned by head brewer Dr. Chris Paumi, brings out the science behind the end result. Fusion lives up to its name not only by experimenting with unique flavors, but also in fusing together community spirit with a fun and creative micro-brewing process. When I make my next trip there, their Triple Crown Farmhouse Ale-Saison will be first on my list to try!

Five minutes away and a few streets over, Blue Stallion Brewing Co. has been serving a fresh take on traditional beers since 2011. When they say they specialize in authentic German lagers and British ales, I have to say they’re speaking my language. I’d still consider myself somewhat of a craft beer newbie, but having been introduced to the culture during my days at the University of Kentucky, I quickly found my go-to order in a well-crafted lager.

Regardless of your preferred flavor profiles, Fusion and Blue Stallion are bringing a variety of great brews to the pop-up Frazier Beer Garden including an IPA, a Pilsner, a Hefeweizen, and a Whitbier. Make sure to stop by their tents at the fest, because you’ll want to try all of them.

To purchase tickets to the Summer Beer Fest at Frazier, click here.

Hayley Harlow Rankin
Administrative Chief of Engagement

Megaphone Monday: Alias Broner, Accounting Manager

Want to know more about the folks who make the Frazier tick? Tune in to Megaphone Monday! In each episode, Curator of Guest Experience Mick Sullivan interviews one of the Frazier’s staff members — across the room, through megaphones. It’s a fun and silly way to learn about the good folks who work here at the museum.

Today’s episode features Accounting Manager Alias Broner.

Showing a skillset that extends beyond just balancing the books, Alias sings some country music, tells Mick about her favorite number, and recounts the low point of her cornhole game.

Mick Sullivan
Curator of Guest Experience

Bridging the Divide

Dr. Sunana Sohi on Medical Disparities

Here I go again sharing stories about my colonoscopy.

The first time I did was in a very personal way while working for WHAS-TV.

I shared my colonoscopy by Dr. John Horlander with the Louisville Endoscopy Center with our TV audience in hopes of convincing folks to get one as a preventative tool for colon cancer.

My screening turned up pre-cancerous polyps, which I subsequently had removed — an experience that made me vigilant about all further tests.

My most recent colonoscopy, in May, revealed more polyps, which led to an illuminating conversation with the doctor who performed the procedure this time, Dr. Sunana Sohi, a gastroenterologist.

We started talking about medical disparities. I told her I would follow up when I wasn’t so groggy, and we could do an interview for Virtual Frazier Magazine about the impact of those inequities on so many vulnerable communities.

So here is our conversation, and why words like “access” are so critical to the well-being of everyone.

Rachel Platt
Director of Community Engagement

History All Around Us

The Henry Clay’s Early Significance to the LGBTQ+ Community

Historic buildings must have a reason to be rescued, which means research into their origins provides work for historians who are looking to save them.

Built in 1924 at the corner of Third and Chestnut Streets in downtown Louisville, the Henry Clay was originally an Elks Lodge. In 1979, it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places — not because of its role as an Elks Lodge, but because of the significance and beauty of its architecture. However, in 2016, its listing on the National Register was updated: it turns out, the building had played a crucial role in the history of Louisville’s LGBTQ community.

Before LGBTQ people could be out openly, they would communicate subtly with one another in order to find places where they could establish a community. When young gay men who had served overseas and in bigger cities saw gay communities there and realized they didn’t have to hide who they loved, they started to find places where they could be themselves. The Beaux Arts Lounge in the Henry Clay Hotel became one such place in the 1950s and ‘60s. In the years before Stonewall brought the ongoing struggle for LGBTQ rights to the forefront, the Henry Clay was a place where gay men in Louisville could find community and be accepted.

The very fact the Henry Clay was saved over 40 years ago means we could preserve this untold historical story — then share it! Maybe if more people become passionate about the stories buildings can tell, then we’ll have fewer parking lots that attest to what once was; instead, there will be more buildings in which you can see firsthand where history unfolded.

Heather Gotlib
Manager of Youth and Family Programs

Forthcoming Notre Dame Press Title Gay, Catholic, and American

As we celebrate Pride Month, we reached out to Louisvillian Greg Bourke to talk about his upcoming book that is being released September 1, with a book launch event that Wednesday evening at 7 p.m. at Carmichael’s Bookstore, 2720 Frankfort Avenue. Pre-orders of the book can be purchased here.

In December 2019, I submitted a manuscript to the University of Notre Dame Press. The publication was essentially a memoir detailing my life with my husband, Michael DeLeon, over the last 39 years during which we were openly gay and remained faithful, practicing Roman Catholics.

The book details our experiences as plaintiffs in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Obergefell v. Hodges, which resulted in a ruling in favor of nationwide marriage equality. In the process, we and the other plaintiff couples became poster-children for gay marriage. Given the strong position of the Catholic Church that still today denounces same-sex marriage, and Notre Dame’s position as a very conservative institution, I really did not think that ND Press would even give my book a chance.

As I am an alumnus of Notre Dame, there are many story lines in the book that relate to the university and other accounts that are particularly poignant regarding our dealings with the Catholic Church. When Notre Dame swiftly and enthusiastically informed me they wanted to publish my book, I was stunned. Many people in the Notre Dame community and the Catholic Church have expressed to me how important this is and that it signals one more step by the Church to be more welcoming and inclusive of the LGBTQ community.

When I was growing up in Louisville in the 1960s and ‘70s, there were no books in the libraries at my Catholic schools or at the Louisville Free Public Library that dealt with LGBTQ history, or portrayed queer people in any positive way. It is important to have books like mine available that capture and preserve LGBTQ history.

“Gay, Catholic, and American: My Legal Battle for Marriage Equality and Inclusion” hits shelves September 1, 2021. That evening at 7 p.m., Carmichael’s Bookstore in Louisville will host a book launch featuring Bourke in conversation with radio personality Terry Meiners. For more information or to pre-order a copy of the book, visit Notre Dame Press.

Greg Bourke
Author, Gay, Catholic, and American
Guest Contributor

The (Un)Known Project Dedication: A Day of Inspiration

If you weren’t able to attend the dedication for “On the Banks of Freedom” on Juneteenth, I highly recommend you take time to visit the reconciliation benches between 9th and 10th Streets on the Ohio River.

The Frazier History Museum along with our partners IDEAS xLab, Roots 101, Louisville Metro, artists William M. Duffy and Dave Caudill, and so many others have been working on the (Un)Known Project and this art installation for two years — and we’re not done yet.

The benches include the names of enslaved Kentuckians, many of whom crossed the Ohio River to find freedom.

The poem “Finding Me” is also included in the installation, paying tribute to the courage and resilience of so many. You can hear Hannah reciting the poem in the video below.

Many of those names have been lost to history, but the (Un)Known Project is helping to change that.

Rachel Platt
Director of Community Engagement

From the Capsule

A Kentuckian’s Evacuation From the Philippines

In mid-March of 2020, over 7,000 Peace Corps Volunteers were evacuated from over 60 countries from around the world due to the threat of COVID-19. I was one of them. Our places of residence ranged from cool and rocky mountainous regions to large, metropolitan cities and small, rural villages.

I was serving as a Children, Youth, and Family volunteer on the island of Bohol, in the Central Visayas Region of the Philippines. I was working at a local government unit (LGU), where I primarily focused on youth-related activities. I often traveled between the high schools in the municipality and the LGU as a liaison for my office. At the time, I was aware of the threat of COVID-19, but I did not anticipate it would disrupt my service — at first.

The second week of March 2020, I began to receive emails from Manila stating volunteers should go into Phase One of our Emergency Action Plan. We were put on a Stand-Fast, which means we had to be ready for a possible consolidation or, worst case scenario, an evacuation. At this point, I realized the imminent possibility of evacuation and began to pack my things and say my goodbyes. I called my family and told them I was likely coming home. And then, on March 13, we got the email:

I was consolidated to Cebu City, and I stayed there for around five days until HQ was able to reserve a seat for me on a flight back to Louisville. I flew back to Louisville on March 18, mask on and luggage in tow. It was a bittersweet arrival. I was internally mourning my life in the Philippines while quietly celebrating my return to Louisville and my family. I felt guilty for it all.

The next few weeks (months, really) were a blur. I was incredibly disoriented from my journey and the shock of my untimely departure from service. I struggled to navigate interactions with my family and friends, and I felt a disheartening lack of purpose.

I struggled to process everything that had transpired, and I didn’t know what to do next. I was unemployed for a very long time. This was partially because I was afraid of spreading the virus to my loved ones, and also because I felt incredibly lost and uncertain (like most of the world during the early weeks and months of the pandemic).

I looked for full-time jobs and did some part-time work, considered Americorps, and applied (and even got accepted) to graduate school, but the timing never felt right for any of these opportunities.

Then, as I was scrolling through job boards, I saw the Frazier History Museum had an opening in the Education Department. I had interned at the Frazier when I was in college, and the job description aligned perfectly with my interests and skill set. I applied and I went through the interview process, and now, here I am.

So, what did I take away from all of this?

For a long time, I tried to force myself to process my feelings and experiences on a timeline that simply wasn’t mine. Healing and processing can (and should) be intentional, but I’ve learned it doesn’t happen overnight or in some grand moment of enlightenment. It is ongoing and occurs in the small moments of connection we have with loved ones and in the quest for work that aligns with our values.

During my service, I beamed with pride every time I talked about Kentucky with one of my work colleagues or fellow volunteers. I’m so proud to be from the Bluegrass State. And now, in a strange turn of events, I get to share that love with our guests that come into the Frazier.

I won’t say the pandemic happened for a reason; that would be callous of me. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost their lives, and even more have lost their loved ones. I come from a place of great privilege in being able to share my story with our readers. However, I do believe the pandemic has highlighted our ongoing need for critical dialogue, authentic storytelling, and compassionate leadership. As vaccines continue to roll out and businesses go back to post-pandemic capacity, I hope we all honor our own stories and how they have shaped us during these tumultuous times.

Shelby Durbin
Education and Engagement Specialist