Kentucky Bourbon Trail® Welcome Center
In 2018, the Frazier partnered with the Kentucky Distillers’ Association to build the Kentucky Bourbon Trail® Welcome Center. Located on the museum’s first floor and open to visitors free of charge, the KBT® Welcome Center is the official starting point of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail® tour. A professional concierge service is on hand to help visitors plan trips to Bourbon distilleries throughout the state and navigate the hot spots of Louisville’s burgeoning Bourbon, culinary, and nightlife scenes.
Education
The Frazier History Museum offers camps in the summer, fall, and winter seasons; youth, family, and homeschool programs, including Family Days, field trips (in-person and virtual), and the Great Louisville Hunt; Teacher Professional Development sessions, and more. In 2022, the Frazier’s education team introduced The Journey: Unsung Stories of the Underground Railroad—a free walkable and drivable audio tour of significant Underground Railroad locations and landmarks along both sides of the Ohio River in Kentuckiana.
Facilities for Rent
The museum rents out select spaces for weddings, meetings, and other private events. Spaces for rent include the Gateway Garden, a linear courtyard populated with native Kentucky plants; the First Floor Great Hall, an atrium with a sweeping terrazzo staircase; and the Rooftop Garden, which has seasonal blooming flowers and a view looking out across the Ohio River. Other rental spaces include the Classroom, the Speakeasy, the Order of the Writ, the Boardroom, and the Fourth Floor Loft.
Permanent Exhibitions
Opened in 2020, the pop culture–themed Cool Kentucky spotlights artists, craftsmen, scientists, chefs, musicians, and other notable figures from the Bluegrass State. On display are objects from such famous Kentuckians as frontiersman Daniel Boone, giant Jim Porter, trendsetter Mona Bismarck, inventor Garrett Morgan, mystery novelist Sue Grafton, explorer Tori Murden McClure, actor George Clooney, Paralympic athlete Oksana Masters, and rapper Jack Harlow.
Opened in 2022, The Commonwealth: Divided We Fall depicts the lives of everyday Kentuckians from the Ice Age to the present. Visitors learn from diverse figures about Shawnee storytellers, Choctaw students, trappers and frontierswomen, freedom seekers and abolitionists, Confederate and Union soldiers, trade unionists and women’s suffragists, Appalachian coal miners, and corn and tobacco farmers. Selected objects include the arrest warrant issued for Mary Todd Lincoln, an original clock face from the Town Clock Church, and the Bloedner Monument, the oldest surviving memorial to the American Civil War.
The Spirit of Kentucky® serves as a visual guide to the history, craft, and culture of Bourbon; its features include a covered bridge, a touch-screen library, and a bottle hall stocked with hundreds of different Bourbons. The Lewis and Clark Experience simulates the journey the US Army’s Corps of Discovery undertook from 1804 to 1806 to learn about the flora, fauna, and geography of the Louisiana Purchase. And, with over 30,000 figurines, vehicles, and accessories representing some 170 different toy soldier and miniature makers, The Stewart Collection at the Frazier constitutes “one of the finest collections of rare historic toy soldiers on permanent public display in the world today,” according to Old Toy Soldier.
Permanent Collection
The permanent collection features a wide array of historically significant arms and artifacts of American, American Indian, Asian, and European origin. Arms of notable provenance include Teddy Roosevelt’s “Big Stick,” Custer’s pistols, and Geronimo’s bow and arrows. Other rare and noteworthy objects include a surplus grave marker from the Battle of Little Bighorn and a first edition copy of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.
