Good Monday morning,

What a week we enjoyed opening our new permanent exhibition The Commonwealth: Divided We Fall. With summer travel season kicking into high gear this week, it’s the perfect opportunity for us to share some honest history with a pinch of Kentucky pride! Our Simon Meiners leads readers on a step-by-step tour of The Commonwealth below.

With crowds picking up, the Frazier is also launching some new Bourbon tasting opportunities for guests starting on Thursday, June 9, including a Craft Your Own Old Fashioned Cocktail Class and a Flight Club (test-your-pallet tasting) to go along with our already successful Ready, Set, Go! Bourbon Experience. Our team has been working hard, and we’re excited to provide new experiences to the growing crowds on Main Street.

We’re also just over two weeks out from our June 23 Michter’s Speakeasy at the Frazier party, the first Speakeasy here at the Frazier since 2018. Billy Goat Strut Revue is taking care of the music, Michter’s is managing cocktails and tastings, Bristol Catering is dishing up the food, and we’re taking care of everything else.

Also in this Frazier Weekly, collections manager Tish Boyer writes about an awesome “Into the Vault” Father’s Day experience featuring behind-the-scenes access to the Frazier’s collections area. Our Museum Store offers some great gift ideas for fathers, Megan Schanie shares details about a Teacher Appreciation Day, and Simon sets up the Frazier’s latest tornado relief efforts in Western Kentucky.

Toss in a new take on the Old Fashioned from Vickie Yates Brown Glisson and a Sippin’ With Stephen featuring  Old Forester’s Jackie Zykan and June is off to a smokin’ hot start!

I hope you enjoy.

Andy Treinen
President & CEO
Frazier History Museum

This Week in the Museum

Subscribe to LOUtoday for Chance to Win Michter’s Speakeasy Tickets

Didn’t buy your tickets to Michter’s Speakeasy at the Frazier yet? Here’s your chance to get tickets for free!

We’ve partnered with LOUtoday, a local media company, to give one lucky winner two tickets to the Friday, June 23, Michter’s Speakeasy event! When you subscribe to their free daily newsletter focused on positive Louisville news and events, you’ll be entered for a chance to win.

To enter, subscribe to LOUtoday from now until Thursday, June 16. Two winners will be announced on Friday, June 10, and Friday, June 17, in LOUtoday’s daily newsletter.

Woodford Reserve Master Distiller Chris Morris on New Twists on Old Fashioneds

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. For today’s issue of Frazier Weekly, guest contributor Vickie Yates Brown Glisson asks Woodford Reserve master distiller Chris Morris about variations on a timeless cocktail: the Old Fashioned.—Simon Meiners, Communications & Research Specialist

Louisville is currently celebrating the official cocktail of the city: the Old Fashioned. The celebration, known as the Old Fashioned Fortnight, occurs annually during the first two weeks of June and culminates on National Bourbon Day on June 14. The Old Fashioned Fortnight consists of a series of Bourbon-related events that occur throughout the city.

The Old Fashioned has a special place in the history of Louisville because it was created at the Pendennis Club, a local business club founded in 1881. Col. James Pepper, a Kentucky master distiller and member of the Club, shared the recipe for the cocktail with the bartender at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City and the drink quickly became popular. You can read more about the history of the Old Fashioned in the June 14, 2021, issue of Frazier Weekly.

Although the Old Fashioned has a long and interesting history, the drink itself is a straightforward concoction of Bourbon, a sweetener of simple syrup made from granulated sugar, a couple of dashes of Angostura bitters, a splash of water, a muddled cherry, a slice of orange, and an orange peel garnish. The Pendennis Club uses Old Forester as the Bourbon of choice for the drink.

Currently, almost every drinking establishment in Louisville and throughout the country has its own take or twist on this simple drink. At times, it is almost impossible to identify an Old Fashioned as such. I reached out to Chris Morris, the master distiller for Old Forester and Woodford Reserve at Brown-Forman Corporation, to discuss the trend and ask for his suggestions on how to add a new twist to the traditional Old Fashioned.

Interestingly, Chris is developing a flavor wheel for the Old Fashioned based on the traditional Bourbon of choice, Old Forester, and how different combinations of the basic ingredients in the cocktail can bring out or highlight certain flavors in the Old Forester Bourbon. As Chris advised, don’t be afraid to be creative and have fun with the ingredients.

Chris suggests you consider a twist on each of the basic ingredients of an Old Fashioned, beginning with the sweetener. Instead of the traditional cube of white granulated sugar, try using brown sugar or demerara sugar, which is less processed and retains more of the smoky caramel molasses taste of the cane juice. You can also try a sweetener of honey mixed with water. This will give your cocktail a brighter, lighter taste. Chris personally enjoys using sorghum, a popular Kentucky sweetener, which adds a more complex taste to the drink. If you really want to try a bolder sweetener, you can use maple syrup instead. Each of these sweeteners will intensify different notes or aspects of the Old Forester Bourbon, he says.

Next, he suggests trying different bitters. Of course, Angostura bitters are traditionally used in an Old Fashioned—an ingredient whose taste Chris and I both really like. However, today there are many different options for bitters. Chris suggests trying orange bitters instead of Angostura to bring out or intensify the orange used in the cocktail. He also says chocolate bitters are a great choice because Old Forester has notes of chocolate, which means it will make that flavor in the Bourbon shine. Another interesting choice is spiced cherry bitters, which will intensify the taste of the cherry. Chris suggests perusing the liquor store counter shelf, and cautions not to be afraid to try new bitters.

Lastly, Chris says it can be fun and creative to rethink the traditional garnish of an orange peel. He suggests trying other citrus, such as lemon or fresh fruits like blackberries, which will add a rich dark flavor to the drink. He also enjoys using dried fruits, such as figs, mango, cherries, or apples, as a garnish. He notes the dried fruits are pretty in the glass and bring out different flavors in the Bourbon. Interestingly, Chris says one of his favorite garnishes is grapefruit peel.

Of course, for Chris, the Bourbon of choice for a traditional Old Fashioned is Brown-Forman’s Old Forester. Old Forester Bourbon continues to be a popular choice because it has notes of each of the basic ingredients of an Old Fashioned in its flavor wheel. Whatever Bourbon you choose, though, consider its flavor notes or tones so you can mix and match different and complimentary flavors for each of the basic ingredients of the cocktail.

Chris suggests that a fun way to try different combinations is to host a cocktail party, place different combinations in a bowl, and ask each guest to draw out a combination to make and try. The key is to be creative, have fun, and enjoy the different flavors that make up the Bourbon!

Vickie Yates Brown Glisson
Board Member, Frazier History Museum
Guest Contributor

Sippin’ With Stephen: Old Forester Old Fashioneds With Jackie Zykan

This month’s episode of Sippin’ With Stephen spotlights Old Forester’s Whiskey Row series of Bourbon through the expert analysis of Jackie Zykan. Jackie is Old Forester’s master taster and she will lend her expertise by breaking down the Whiskey Row series and the varied historical and taste components of these four spectacular products. In keeping with Sippin’ With Stephen tradition, we also create a fabulous cocktail: Jackie demonstrated how to make the perfect Old Forester Old Fashioned.

This episode is particularly timely as June 14 is National Bourbon Day. What better way to celebrate than to make Louisville’s signature cocktail in honor of this momentous occasion!

Old Forester Old Fashioned

Ingredients:

• 2 oz. Old Forester Signature 100 proof

• 1 oz. Old Forester Simple Syrup

• 2 dashes Angostura bitters

• Orange peel

• Ice

Directions:

Enjoy the Classic Old Fashioned cocktail by Old Forester. Old Forester Simple Syrup, bitters, and Bourbon, stirred to perfection.

Stir with ice, then strain into a double Old Fashioned glass with fresh ice. Garnish with wide orange peel, oils expressed over the cocktail.

Stephen Yates
Community & Corporate Sales Manager

Step-by-step Walkthrough of The Commonwealth: Divided We Fall

As you may have noticed, in recent months, my “Curator’s Corner” column was replaced by a “Countdown to the Commonwealth” series. But the countdown has ended! On Wednesday, June 1, we opened The Commonwealth: Divided We Fall, our permanent exhibition about Kentuckians dating from pre-statehood to the early 1900s. Governor Andy Beshear and First Lady Britainy Beshear were the first to tour it. In the press release announcing the opening, communications and research specialist Simon Meiners included a detailed, step-by-step walkthrough of the exhibition. If you’re planning to tour The Commonwealth, this serves as a great primer.—Amanda Briede, Curator

Featuring an array of objects, replicas, and walk-in installations, The Commonwealth takes visitors on a winding journey through the lives of everyday Kentuckians, from pre-settlement to the early 1900s.

At the beginning, visitors enter an immersive space that simulates the sights and sounds of nature in pre-settlement Kentucky, with lush foliage overhead and touch-screen water underfoot. Populating the water are creatures central to Shawnee, Cherokee, and Chickasaw myths and origin stories.

Arrowheads, spearheads, scrapers, awls, drills, fishhooks, and tattoo needles loaned by Corn Island Archaeology illustrate the lives of indigenous residents dating to the Archaic, Paleoindian, Woodland, and Pre-contact eras. Wall panels offer insights into Native-European contact, domestic life on the frontier, and combat during the Revolutionary War; others define foundational concepts such as “extractive” versus “settler colonialism” and profile settlers such as William Croghan, Robert Craddock, and Pierre Tardiveau.

Boarding a replica early 1800s riverboat modeled on Enterprise, the first steamboat to ascend the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers, visitors learn how Louisville became a port town and logistics hub long before the days of UPS cargo planes. Objects that belonged to settler George Rogers Clark, Gov. Isaac Shelby, Congressman Henry Clay, and emancipationist Cassius Marcellus Clay appear in “Architects of the Commonwealth.”

Topics explored include the road to statehood, the Constitution of Kentucky, the formation of villages at Louisville, Lexington, and Maysville; the War of 1812, the rise of the Whig Party, the emergence of the middle class; the evolution of industry, trade, and transportation; slave revolts, free black communities, and abolitionism. A replica Choctaw Academy diploma represents the Indian boarding school that operated in Scott County from 1818 to 1842.

Mounted opposite the boat is an original clock face and columns from the Town Clock Church, an Underground Railroad stop in New Albany whose congregation was actively engaged in the hiding, feeding, medical care, and transport of enslaved persons from areas of danger to freedom.

Past the clock, visitors traverse a replica Slave Cabin furnished with hundreds of blown glass replicas created from 3D scans of two artifacts—a spoon and a cowbell—that belonged to enslaved persons. Designed and created by artist Ché Rhodes in partnership with the (Un)Known Project, the Slave Cabin provides visitors an immersive environment in which they can reflect on the stories of enslaved Kentuckians.

In the Civil War room, artifacts of battle include a Confederate flag likely carried into the Battle of Seven Pines, a Union snare drum and complete infantry soldier’s uniform, and a Virgin Mary amulet a Christian soldier would have carried. Also on display is the Bloedner Monument, a limestone memorial honoring the German-American Union infantry soldiers who died in the Battle of Rowlett’s Station in December 1861. Carved in January 1862, the Bloedner Monument is the oldest surviving memorial to the American Civil War. An original telegraph table and letters, including a letter Clinton County–born Confederate guerilla and war criminal Champ Ferguson wrote three days before his execution, are on display.

Additional topics include life after the Civil War, the Lost Cause mythology, the G. A. R. (Grand Army of the Republic), whose members were Union Army, Navy, and Marines veterans; and the Freedmen’s Bureau. A corn cutter and tobacco cutters are on display with information about agriculture, labor unions, citizen uprisings, the Tollgate Wars, and the Black Patch Tobacco Wars. On display is a ribbon from the 1900 funeral wreath of assassinated Gov. William Goebel and an early 1900s souvenir hatchet emblazoned with the likeness of temperance movement leader Carrie Nation.

After passing through Murphy’s General Store, an 1890s-style country store replica stocked with faux-vegetable crops, spices, elixirs, toy soldiers, and household products, visitors enter a 1910s bar named The Knight’s Owl where they can post up on a stool and read about immigrants to Kentucky.

Replica portraits of Kentucky immigrants include Serur Dawahare, a Syrian-American who peddled wares at coal camps in Appalachia in 1907, and Chin Ming, the first Chinese-American to operate a restaurant in Kentucky in 1920. Wall panels touch on the impact of anti-immigrant sentiment, including 1855’s Bloody Monday, when Protestant mobs attacked Irish and German Catholic neighborhoods in Louisville.

The name “Knight’s Owl” is a nod to the medieval armor the Frazier originally displayed—a cornerstone exhibition from 2004 to 2015—and the name of the museum’s founder, Owsley Brown Frazier.

Simon Meiners
Communications & Research Specialist

Collections Tour, Cocktail Tasting Part of “Into the Vault: Father’s Day at the Frazier”

Wondering what to get dad for Father’s Day this year? Try an experience neither of you will ever forget: an exclusive, behind-the-scenes tour at the Frazier. Celebrate Father’s Day this year with our Into the Vault: Father’s Day at the Frazier experience, Saturday, June 18.

First, you’ll get to see the permanent collection—currently not on view to the public—up close and in person. Then, you’ll get a personal tour of our sprawling permanent exhibition The Commonwealth: Divided We Fall, which opened June 1. Finally, you’ll finish your journey through Kentucky by making an Old Fashioned cocktail in our 1900s bar, the Knight’s Owl.

Sign up today for this unique and special Father’s Day gift!

Tish Boyer
Collections Manager

Museum Store: Barrel Stave Tasting Flight for Father’s Day

Father’s Day is just around the corner! Set Dad up to take his best shot with this Bourbon barrel stave shot flight set. Purchase from our online store for easy gifting.

Inaugural “Refresh at the Frazier: Teacher Appreciation Day” Offered June 18

If anyone deserves a day of fun, relaxation, learning, and self-care, it’s our local educators. The Frazier Museum has a deep sense of gratitude for the time, commitment, and unique skill set of our community’s educators—so we are busy making plans for a day full of tours, prize drawings, refreshments, chair massages, restorative music sessions, and more!

On June 18, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., local teachers, administrators, and school support staff will receive FREE admission, along with one guest of their choice. Reservations are not required. Please direct any additional questions to education@fraziermuseum.org.

Help us spread the love by sharing this link with all the educators in your circle!

Lastly, we would like to thank Louisville Metro Government for its support through an External Agency Grant, as well as an anonymous donor, for making this program possible.

Megan Schanie
Manager of School & Teacher Programs

2022 Cultural Pass Offers Access to Frazier, Fifty-six Other Cultural Experiences

We are all about fun facts at the Frazier Museum, so here is an extra-fun fact for you: Did you know that every child in Greater Louisville (including Jefferson, Bullitt, Harrison, Floyd, and Clark counties) has free one-time access to fifty-seven different cultural experiences in our city through the Cultural Pass program?

The program officially started June 1 and runs through September 4, so you have plenty of time to check as many venues off your list as you can! The Frazier is proud to be part of the Cultural Pass, and you can visit us on Sundays using yours. Our hours of operation on Sundays are 12 to 5 p.m.

You are eligible for the Cultural Pass through age twenty-one, so this is a great opportunity for high school and college students to explore the city!

The video above is a great explainer on how to sign up for your Cultural Pass and check in at the various venues. You can get your Cultural Pass at your local branch of the Louisville Free Public Library, and then the fun begins! There is more information here.

Heather Gotlib
Manager of Youth & Family Programs

Frazier Provides Storage Containers to Families Displaced by 2021 Western Kentucky Tornado

Friday marks the six-month anniversary of the December 10, 2021, tornado that ravaged much of Western Kentucky. Thanks to a generous donation from a local foundation, the Frazier History Museum has arranged for twelve storage containers and ten (ten-by-twelve) storage units to be delivered to twenty-two affected families.

“The container has been a blessing to my family and me,” one of the recipients, Barry K. Brown, told me over the phone Friday.

“I’m a Caldwell County resident and my home was completely destroyed. We couldn’t even find the refrigerator. When the winds hit the home, it took the house seven miles high and pulverized it. I, my wife, my daughter, my son-in-law, and their two children, ages two and five, went to a bathroom in the walk-in basement. The house caved in a foot from where I stood. We walked out, without a scratch, looking for shelter. But there was no shelter to be found.”

The Frazier is providing the families the containers—rented from Louisville-based full service leasing company Moon Leasing—for twelve months each, December 2021 to December 2022, free of charge. Moon Leasing generously offered to discount the rate, charging the Frazier for just nine months each instead of twelve.

Director of HR Ministries Pastor Howard Riley has been arranging the provision of containers to the families in need, all of whose homes suffered total destruction in the tornado. The families are using the containers to store household furniture and goods during their transition.

“The container has allowed us to bring materials in from our home in dry storage,” Brown told me. “We can remove them and bring them to the house as we need. We’re getting ready to transfer some cabinets and vanities into it. It’s plenty big for what we need it for. It’s secure.”

Based in Princeton in Western Kentucky, HR Ministries, which serves the entire state, is leading on-the-ground efforts in the tornado-affected areas.

As of April, 2,300 volunteers from all over the US have contributed over 2.5 million total man hours of volunteer labor. The volunteers have distributed about $3 million worth of product.

“Seventy-seven percent of the homes in Dawson Springs were destroyed,” Pastor Riley told me over the phone. “In Caldwell County, there were at least 167 homes completely destroyed. Those are the families using the twelve storage containers.”

For more information, or to get involved, contact Pastor Howard Riley at hrministriesorg@gmail.com.

“God blessed us,” Brown told me. “It’s a God thing.”

About Moon Trailer Leasing

Moon Trailer Leasing is locally owned and operated in Louisville, Kentucky. It is one of Kentucky’s largest full service leasing companies. Moon prides itself on its expert customer service and competitive rates. Moon Trailer Leasing has been in business since 1992. The company’s motto is “Ask for the moon, and get it!” They offer a broad range of products available for rent or purchasing, including portable moving and storage containers, portable offices, refrigerated containers, walk-in coolers, standard and handicap portable restrooms, luxury portable restroom trailers, shower trailers, and roll-off dumpsters. For more information, visit moontrailerleasing.com or contact Moon Leasing storage leasing general manager (Kentucky region) Paula Keltner aat psk_moon@hotmail.com.

About the Frazier’s Previous Tornado Relief Efforts

On December 16, the Frazier announced a fundraising campaign: From December 16 to 19, museum visitors could make cash or check donations, with all proceeds going to the Western Kentucky Red Cross Tornado Relief Effort to assist those affected by the December 10 tornado; in turn, the Frazier’s staff and board would collectively match the total amount raised. By the end of those four days, visitors and the Frazier had combined for $4,145.

But the biggest impact occurred when a local foundation took notice, and decided to pitch in. For more information on those tornado relief efforts, click here.

Bridging the Divide

LACE Co-director Joseph Bowens on Louisville Community Grocery

There’s a new store called Louisville Community Grocery coming to town, with the big announcement coming later this month.

It will be located in a food desert in Louisville, an area that has been all but abandoned by large supermarket chains.

The groundwork for this grocery store has been underway for a while, and when it opens it will be a community-owned grocery store, a cooperative.

The group behind it is LACE, or Louisville Association for Community Economics.

So what does a cooperative mean, exactly?

I did learn the largest retail cooperative outside the grocery store sector is Ace Hardware. Did you know that?

Joseph Bowens of LACE certainly did.

Listen to our interview about how LACE is bridging the divide with food insecurity. After the interview, I have some links for you to learn more and how you can support this Louisville Community Grocery.

We can’t wait to see this vision come to life.

Organizations and companies that want to donate toward the capital campaign can contact Joseph at josephoa.bowens@lace.coop. Individuals who want to donate can do so here. Individuals who want to become an owner can do so here.

Rachel Platt
Director of Community Engagement

Community Survey to Inform First West Louisville Hospital in 150 Years

It was an historic announcement: Louisville’s West End is slated to get its first hospital in more than 150 years. And now, one of the partners in that investment is asking for your input as part of a survey. Take a look at what Norton Healthcare sent us, and please take the survey if it applies to you.—Rachel Platt, Director of Community Engagement

A campus of opportunity is coming to West Louisville. Goodwill Industries of Kentucky will build an Opportunity Campus at Twenty-eighth and Broadway that will be a hub of resources and support for the community. This includes access to healthcare.

Norton Healthcare is building a hospital on the campus to open in 2024. It will be the first hospital built in more than 150 years in West Louisville. To make this campus as successful as it can be, Norton Healthcare wants to hear from community members on the services and features they would like provided at the hospital. Feedback from residents, and those who work in or visit the area frequently, will help ensure the new hospital has what the community needs. The community survey is available online. For organizations or individuals in need of a paper copies of the survey, please send an email to westlouisvillehospital@nortonhealthcare.org.

Let’s build the hospital together!