Storytelling is at the heart of what we do at the Frazier. We’re always looking for new ways to reach guests with an important, relevant, and interesting look at people and moments that have made an impact—whether in Kentucky, the US, or the world. From our field trips and camps to our Bridging the Divide programs and exhibitions like The Commonwealth and West of Ninth, we’re excited to share so much with our curious audience.

Since last year, when we revamped our gallery tour program, it’s been so exciting to see so much of the public getting up close and personal with the rich stories our objects can help tell. I’m excited to report that this summer we’re developing a new virtual tour that will help people engage with our collection and beyond—whether they’re here in our galleries or anywhere else in the world.

Frazier+ uses the web-based application CultureConnect to provide guests access to extra content in a gallery without downloading anything. It also allows people unable to visit the museum to see and hear some of the incredible stories we have to share. We’re still learning the platform, but we’ve built a library of content for our Cool Kentucky exhibition and are continuing to add to it. Soon, we will expand to The Commonwealth and The Spirit of Kentucky®—and, from there, who knows where else!

We should be launching the first version later this summer—but first, we want to give you an example of what you can expect to see in the near future. As soon you walk into the museum, you see a tiara and a dress 2000 Miss America titleholder Heather French Henry wore. Many know she is the first Miss Kentucky to win the national crown, but she’s not the only Kentuckian to win. With videos like this one, featuring our own Hayley Rankin, you’ll learn fascinating extra information not included in the galleries—all through a simple platform.

In the meantime, if you’d like to get a taste, here’s a video we made for Cool Kentucky. As always, we’d love you to join us for one of our daily tours! They run (with very few exceptions) Monday–Saturday, 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m., and Sunday, 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.

Mick Sullivan
Curator of Guest Experience
Frazier History Museum

This Week in the Museum

Curator’s Corner: Medal of Honor–awarded Union Army Surgeon Mary Edwards Walker

With our new exhibition The Commonwealth: Divided We Fall, our goal is for everyone who tours it to be able to see themselves in Kentucky’s history. To accomplish this goal, we’ve included the profiles of as many diverse Kentuckians as possible. Comprising one important group represented in The Commonwealth are members of the LGBTQ+ community. Though most of Kentucky’s well-known LGBTQ+ figures are from the twentieth century, examples of their stories can be found throughout our state’s history. One of my favorite stories is that of Mary Edwards Walker.

Born in upstate New York, Mary Edwards Walker attended college to become a teacher but realized shortly after that she wanted to become a doctor. She graduated from Syracuse University Medical School in 1855, becoming the second female doctor in the history of the United States.

An avid feminist, Walker defied gender roles, wearing top hats, suits, and pants instead of the skirts and corsets that were popular for women at the time. For this, she was arrested on several occasions for “impersonating a man.” Throughout her life, she advocated for all people to be able to wear what clothing they wanted.

After the outbreak of the Civil War in 1860, Dr. Walker attempted to enlist in the Union Army as a surgeon. Unable to enlist because she was a woman, Walker served as an unpaid volunteer surgeon. She continued to petition to serve as an Army surgeon throughout the war and eventually was granted the position in 1863.

While Walker was working as a surgeon, Confederate troops captured her and accused her of being a spy. She was detained as a prisoner of war for the next four months and suffered from muscular atrophy, a condition that would leave her disabled for the rest of her life. After being released in a prisoner exchange, she went on to serve as the head of the Women’s Military Prison Hospital in Louisville.

For her service, she was personally awarded the Medal of Honor by President Andrew Johnson. As of today, she is the only woman in American history to receive the Medal of Honor. She wore the award every day for the rest of her life.

Though the sexual orientation of Mary Edwards Walker is not known, she tended to favor female companionship and her work for female dress reform led to rumors and accusations of lesbianism. As stated in the “Kentucky LGBTQ Historic Context Narrative 2016” prepared by the University of Louisville Anne Braden Institute for Social Justice Research, “It is also fair to speculate that, had she lived in a later period of history, Walker may well have embraced a transgender or gender-queer identity, so great was her consistency and determination in defying norms of female dress.”

I hope that you will make plans to come see our new exhibition The Commonwealth: Divided We Fall to learn more about Kentucky’s history and the many diverse Kentuckians that make the Commonwealth so unique.

Amanda Briede
Curator

Frazier to Bring Beer Fest to Main Street for First Time in 25 Years

If you still haven’t purchased your tickets to the Frazier’s August 6 Summer Beer Fest, you’re in luck: Frazier staff will be at Hi-Wire Brewing in Phoenix Hill tonight, 7 to 9 p.m., to host a trivia competition—and the winner will receive two General Admission tickets to our beer fest! The questions cover a few topics, including the Frazier Museum, Kentucky history, beer, and Bourbon. See you there!

If you’ve been reading Frazier Weekly, then you already know our much-ballyhooed Summer Beer Fest at Frazier is moving to Main Street!

But there’s still more exciting news to share. At a press conference in front of the museum Wednesday morning, marking one month out from the August 6 beer fest, the Frazier made six announcements.

First, this will be the first beer festival on Main Street in over 25 years. “Some of you may remember between 1987 and 1996 the very popular Strassenfest was just down the street, right here on Main,” Frazier president and CEO Andy Treinen said. “This year, we are blocking off the area between Eighth and Ninth and Main and Washington to throw a party right here on Main Street.”

Second, a “Buy 3, Get 1 Free” discount tickets package is being offered this week. The discount is being offered July 6 through July 16. The discount package applies to General Admission tickets only. As for VIP tickets, they sold out in 2021 and will again this year—so grab a group and secure your tickets today! A VIP Ticket includes an extra hour, access to the museum—with exhibitions, not to mention air conditioning and indoor plumbing—plus exclusive beers.

Third, downtown partners are working with the Frazier to make it a success. “We’re working with our partner attractions here on Main Street, including Louisville Slugger Museum and Factory and Michter’s Distillery, to ensure a great experience for their guests and offer an incentive to stay here on Main,” Treinen said. Other speakers included Louisville Downtown Partnership executive director Rebecca Fleischaker, Shippingport Brewing Co. founder Amelia Pillow, Louisville Ale Trail co-founder David Satterly, and Summit Media president/marketing manager Steve Fehder. Fat Head’s Brewery head bro of hops Patrick Stratton and Great Lakes Brewing Co. area sales manager Jack Wilson led a toast.

Fourth, Shippingport Brewing will host the official afterparty. Opened last summer at 1221 West Main Street, Shippingport Brewing Company and Sallyforth Taproom has agreed to host the official afterparty. Founder and brewmaster Amelia Pillow said festivalgoers can attend the beer fest from 5 to 8 p.m. then walk over to Shippingport to keep the good times going. If you attended the beer fest, and are still wearing your wristband, you get free hot dogs and $1 off all beers! There will also be a Special Taproom-only beer release. A DJ will perform from 7:30 to 10 p.m. Admission is free.

Fifth, Squeezebot and Nervous Melvin and the Mistakes comprise the music lineup. First, Louisville quartet Squeezebot will perform their speakeasy-style tunes, incorporating tuba, banjo, and accordion. Then, legendary Louisville group Nervous Melvin and the Mistakes will perform! And it won’t be their first Main Street beer fest gig: They played Strassenfest back in August 1990.

And sixth, the bands will perform from a rooftop balcony! Opened in 2018, the Frazier’s Gateway Garden—the courtyard between the museum and the building to its east—includes a second-story rooftop garden. Its balcony juts a few feet out over the sidewalk—providing a one-of-a-kind view of historic West Main Street. Both bands will perform on the balcony facing Main Street, so festivalgoers can enjoy the music while visiting beer vendors and food trucks.

For more details or to purchase tickets, visit fraziermuseum.org/beer-fest.

Simon Meiners
Communications & Research Specialist

Museum Store: Beer Fest Supplies!

Pre-gaming for our August 6 Summer Beer Fest at Frazier? We’ve got some great beer-themed goodies in our store, including this nifty leather coaster and Craft Beer Adult Mad Libs book! You can purchase them online at the Frazier’s Museum Store.

Louisville Western Branch Library—the First Library by and for Black America

On Saturday, July 16, you are invited to Eastern Cemetery for a gravestone dedication to remember Thomas Fountain Blue and his wife, Cornelia. Blue broke barriers in the library field in 1905 right here in Louisville at the Western Branch. The Frazier has partnered with several organizations for this commemoration. You can click here to learn more.  And now I’ve learned there will soon be a children’s book about Blue and Rachel Davis Harris. Keep reading to learn more, and we hope to see you July 16 at 1:30 at Eastern Cemetery.—Rachel Platt, Director of Community Engagement

It was six years ago that I walked along West Chestnut Street to meet my grandmother for lunch when I came across a historical marker. I paused to read the sign that depicted the significance of the Western Branch Library, the first library in the United States created by and for Black citizens. My reaction to what I read began with fascination and amazement, but eventually led me to seek more information. I was born and raised in Louisville, but this library and its history was never part of my textbooks.

With most things I am curious about, I decide to write. At the beginning of 2020, I sat down to research what would become my first non-fiction picture book. The First Library: The True Story of the First Library by and for Black America is illustrated by award-winning illustrator Cozbi Cabrera and will be published by HarperCollins in 2024. But the quest to draft this story came with stops and pauses. After I toured the African American Archives within the Western Branch Library, collecting research through taking notes, snapping photos, and sending emails, the world shut down. I could no longer go into the Western Branch to write the story. But this did not deter me from getting to ‘the end.’

The First Library: The True Story of the First Library by and for Black America begins when Albert Meyzeek, principal of Central High School, demanded from Louisville’s library board that Black residents have a library of their own. Initially the Western Branch, then called the Western Colored Branch, was run out of a local home until the Carnegie-endowed building was built. Thomas Fountain Blue and Rachel Davis Harris were two Louisville residents placed in charge. Thomas and Rachel had no background in librarianship, but they trained themselves in how to run a library, turned the Western Branch into a community center, and expanded their knowledge by inviting future Black librarians from across the country to learn from them. In 1,200 words, I have told this history, and more.

As an author, my goal is to honestly depict our world through story. I hope The First Library: The True Story of the First Library by and for Black America respectfully uplifts the legacy of Thomas Fountain Blue, Rachel Davis Harris, and the nuanced history that makes up the Western Branch and our city.

Brittany Thurman
Author, The First Library: The True Story of the First Library by and for Black America
Guest Contributor

Kentucky Bourbon Distillery Spotlight: Luca Mariano Distillery

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

Luca Mariano Distillery is proud to offer a comprehensive line of Bourbon and rye whiskeys that are sure to delight the seasoned drinker and new palates alike. Starting out in 2010 as a hobbyist working in his garage, founder Francesco S. Viola quickly discovered his love for distilling spirits, whether soft and smooth or bold and complex. This summer, Luca Mariano has exciting things in store—from the ribbon cutting ceremony at our first rickhouse to the addition of a new product to our line of whiskeys.

On May 14, Luca Mariano Distillery hosted the ribbon cutting ceremony for our first rickhouse, the Dan Campbell Rickhouse. Over the past twelve years, we have extensively researched the best solutions to age whiskey. That research has led us to a custom-designed, state-of-the-art rickhouse. We call it “Torta A Tre”—a three-layered cake design. The first three floors of the rickhouse can hold thirteen barrels on each rick; floors four through six can hold seven barrels on each rick; and the seventh floor serves as an attic, pushing airflow throughout the entire rickhouse. The design comes from the effectiveness that smaller three-floor rickhouses play in aging whiskey: With the Torta A Tre, we have a pair of small three-floor rickhouses in one.

Distilled and aged in Danville, Kentucky, the Gianna Lorèn Single Barrel Rye is the first whiskey to be named after a female. Francesco S. Viola named this product after his daughter with the release being just in time for her birthday in July. The Gianna Lorèn Single Barrel Rye was scheduled to come out last summer, but Francesco and I decided this rye needed to age for one more year before it was released. For those who have had the standard Luca Mariano Single Barrel Rye, the new offering is a different mash bill. The Gianna Lorèn Single Barrel Rye features just fifty-six percent rye in the mash bill with the remainder being a balance of corn and malted barley, compared to the ninety-five percent rye in the standard Rye offering.

To learn more about Luca Mariano Distillery, visit LucaMariano.com.

Jennifer Brandt
Master Blender, Luca Mariano Distillery
Guest Contributor

Color-coded Poison and Medicine Bottles From Russell, c. Early 1900s

Ever wonder why, when you go to an exhibition like West of Ninth and see a slew of blue and green bottles, they’re always in the pharmaceutical section instead of mixed in among the other bottles? Well, there’s a reason for that: Pharmacists and bottle manufacturers in the late 1800s and early 1900s used color-coded glass bottles to signify the contents within. Blue, green, and in rare cases amber were the colors assigned to bottles of poison and hazardous medical substances. The bottles also had some odd shapes: They were often triangular or hexagonal (also known as coffin shaped). Most had some sort of ridging or bumps which, combined with the color and shape, alerted the handler of the contents.

A major reason for the advent of the formalized poison identification system was the prevalence of accidental deaths. During the early nineteenth century, hundreds of individuals worldwide died after mistaking poison containers for standard food containers. It was an easy mix-up: A person could stroll into their local grocery with an emptied out food container, fill it with a hazardous substance such as rat poison, then take it home with the rest of their groceries and store it—an unlabeled poison bottle—in a cabinet. As you can see, this could cause harm—especially if you are trying to get medicine in the middle of the night by candlelight in the mid- to late-1800s.

The most common of all poison bottles found by archaeologists and wayward hikers alike is generally a cobalt blue hexagonal bottle, a design patented in 1859 by Savory and Barker. Many bottles found today—at archaeological dig sites, home renovation projects, or various other locations—are popular among collectors. Sizes of the bottles range from one to twenty ounces, with sample sizes as small as an eighth of an ounce. In rarer cases, eighty-ounce bottles can be found; but usually, those bottles are not found fully intact.

In the Beecher Terrace case in the Frazier’s West of Ninth exhibition, you’ll find bottles in a variety of shapes and sizes. (Constructed in 1939, Beecher Terrace was a housing project located in the Russell neighborhood of Louisville. However, people had been inhabiting that location—a span of twenty-eight acres bounded by Ninth, Thirteenth, Jefferson, and Muhammad Ali—for many decades). If you look closely at select bottles, you’ll even be able to read the name of the product or the pharmacist who prepared and dispensed it.

In some triangular bottles with identifying cobalt blue color and distinguishing bumps, there would most likely be bichloride tablets that contained some antiseptic solutions. In small cobalt blue bottles, there could be solutions that promised relief for upset stomachs, headaches, hangovers, and more. Believe it or not, Lysol has been around for quite some time and usually came in a brown glass bottle or aqua glass bottle to denote it’s toxicity.

Many other fascinating things can be discovered about these bottles as archaeologists continue to find more.

Sources

Lindsey, Bill. “Bottle Typing (Typology) & Diagnostic Shapes.” Historic Glass Bottle Identification & Information Website. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and Society for Historical Archaeology (SHA).

Eastman, Jane. “Dangerously Addictive Glass: Poison Bottles.” Beachcombing. October 5, 2021.

Sammie Holmes
Laboratory Manager, Corn Island Archaeology
Guest Contributor

Frazier to Screen KET Documentary The Pack Horse Librarians of Appalachia July 24

We are so excited to tie this KET documentary on the Pack Horse Librarians into our Book Club selection: The Book Woman’s Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson. Newly released in May, the book is available here in the Frazier’s Museum Store and all members receive ten percent off*! As a reminder, the RSVP deadline for this month’s book club is tomorrow! Make sure to send in your RSVP to aegan@fraziermuseum.org. To compliment the book discussion, a screening of the new KET documentary The Pack Horse Librarians of Appalachia will take place following the discussion at 3:30 p.m. on July 24. The screening will be open to the public with admission (but become a member today so you can visit all year round for free!)—Amanda Egan, Membership & Database Administrator

On July 24, the Frazier Museum will be showing The Pack Horse Librarians of Appalachia, a half-hour KET production that tells the courageous story of the women hired by President Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration (WPA) to travel on horseback to deliver library books and magazines to people in Eastern Kentucky, braving creeks, mountains, and inclement weather along the way.

In the 1930s, with the United States facing the Great Depression, President Roosevelt looked for ways to help Americans find work by creating jobs through the WPA. While many jobs were designed for men, Eleanor Roosevelt reminded policymakers that women were also in need of work. As a result, the WPA looked to widen culture and the arts in the country, often by encouraging the expansion of libraries. The WPA discovered a project that had originated in Kentucky in 1913, and the result was the formation of the Pack Horse Library.

While people across the nation were encouraged to send books and magazines to the WPA’s newly formed libraries, the heart of the program was the Pack Horse women, who were hired to ride horses with saddlebags loaded with these books, taking this traveling library to the people living in the remote areas of their communities.

The Pack Horse Librarians of Appalachia chronicles the strength and bravery of these women as they rode through dense forests and over creek beds where roads did not exist and where danger lurked around every corner, delivering the treasures they carried and bringing the world to the homes of fellow Kentuckians.

The Pack Horse Librarians of Appalachia is available for streaming anytime at KET.org.

The Pack Horse Librarians of Appalachia is funded in part by a grant from the Carolyn Tassie Memorial Fund.

KET
Guest Contributor