BOGO Beer Fest Tickets, Trolley de ’Ville Starts at Frazier, Camp Nelson National Monument, and More
Happy Father’s Day (week) to all of you fellow fathers out there.
After working in sports, news, tourism, and museum management, I can tell you the only thing I knew I always wanted to be was a dad. It’s my jam!
Andy’s father Tom Treinen, 1990.
2025 Frazier Summer Beer Fest BOGO graphic.
Trolley de ’Ville parked outside the Frazier History Museum, June 4, 2025.
I lost my own dad relatively early in life when he was only forty-seven years old. But thirty-five years later, the roots and the wings that he inspired still inform me every day.
If you’re fortunate enough to still have a Dad in your phone contacts, I encourage you to share something special with him this week. The greatest gift you can give might just be your time. Do something special together.
In honor of Daddios everywhere, we’re offering a buy-one-get-one-free Frazier Summer Beer Fest ticket for a limited time. Just go to our website and type in FATHERSBOGO when it asks for a promo code. The Frazier Summer Beer Fest is not only one of our biggest fundraisers of the year—it’s also a blast. Why not take your dad?
The Frazier is also proud to announce another new partnership with our friends running Lou City Tours. Trolley de ’Ville is now operating out of the Frazier with multiple daily tours throughout the city. If Dad is more of a “sit back and relax” guy, the Trolley de ’Ville tour offers great history about Louisville and stops at all the prime spots along the way, including Waterfront Park, Old Louisville, Churchill Downs, Whiskey Row, Museum Row, and more. Museums will enjoy discounts for the tours and Trolley guests get discounts at the Frazier.
In today’s Frazier Weekly, the Chairman of our board writes about his grandmother’s 1913 wedding dress, featured in our Davis Jewelers’ Love & Marriage exhibition. Camp Frazier is underway featuring our great team of educators and camp counselors. Check out the lineup here and get your kiddo signed up today. Three Frazier staff members visit Camp Nelson National Monument in Jessamine County. And, yes, we’ve got Father’s Day gifts in our Museum Shop.
Andy Treinen
President & CEO
Frazier History Museum
This Week in the Museum
Curator’s Corner: Road Trip to Camp Nelson in Jessamine County
From left, Amanda Briede, Megan Schanie, and Mick Sullivan pose with a reproduction cannon at Camp Nelson in Nicholasville, Jessamine County, Kentucky, 2025.
A couple Fridays ago, a few of us from the Frazier—Mick Sullivan, Megan Schanie, and I—took a field trip to visit Camp Nelson in Nicholasville, Jessamine County, Kentucky. Camp Nelson was the largest recruitment center for African American troops in the Civil War and a camp for African American refugees. It is somewhere we had always wanted to visit, especially after it was made a National Monument in 2018, becoming the 418th unit of the National Park Service. With no exhibition openings looming and summer camps not yet started, we found the perfect time to make a road trip to conduct some in-person research for an upcoming episode of our new podcast, Kentucky Wide.
While visiting, we were lucky enough to have the Chief of Interpretation, Education, and Visitor Services, Steve Phan, show us around the park. We watched the park’s educational video and visited their museum space and reproduction barracks. We walked around the walking trails, able to see the original earthworks built by impressed enslaved people during the Civil War. We walked to the memorial for all the soldiers and white and Black refugees that died at the Camp. We saw a reproduction Civil War fort and Steve told us about the new cannons they just got in at the park. We drove to the Camp Nelson National Cemetery and saw the graves of African American Civil War soldiers. All in all, it was an incredibly moving experience to be on the land where so many soldiers and refugees lived and died and see the Kentucky Palisades that offered natural protection for the Camp. There was so much more to do at Camp Nelson than any of us expected. Unanimously, our favorite part was the barracks, which utilized the space to tell the stories of those that lived, worked, and served at the camp.
While you are on your Kentucky road trip this summer, we highly recommend a stop at Camp Nelson. Be on the lookout for an upcoming episode of Kentucky Wide about Camp Nelson and its connection to Frank X Walker, his ancestors, and the poems we have on display in our Commonwealth: Divided We Fall exhibition.
Amanda Briede
Sr. Curator of Exhibitions
First Annual Freedom Day Festival at Camp Nelson National Monument
Camp Nelson National Monument 2025 Freedom Day Festival flyer.
Steve T. Phan leads an engagement at Camp Nelson National Monument in Jessamine County, Kentucky, May 2022.
If you haven’t visited Camp Nelson, June 21 may be the day to do it with a special event, the First Annual Freedom Day Festival. You’re invited to this free event that includes special guests like sculptor Ed Hamilton. Public shuttles are being organized from Louisville, so if you are interested in taking a shuttle email JoAnn Orr at orrja@yahoo.com. Keep reading to hear from our friend Steve T. Phan, who lays out the special day and the history of Camp Nelson.—Rachel Platt, VP of Mission
The National Park Service at Camp Nelson National Monument, in partnership with the Camp Nelson Foundation, Huntertown Community Interpretive Park, National Coalition of Black Veteran Organizations, Kentucky Center for African American Heritage, African American Genealogy Group of Kentucky, Jessamine County Public Library, Visit Jessamine, and Kentucky Historical Society, are organizing the First Annual Freedom Day Festival on Saturday, June 21, 2025, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The special event commemorates the Independence Day celebration organized by US Colored Troops [USCT] and their families and refugees at Camp Nelson on July 4, 1865, at the end of the Civil War. It featured military parades and music, food, and other activities that celebrated the nation’s independence, emancipation, and the Union.
The Freedom Day Festival also celebrates the Brigadier General Charles Young Memorial Historical Corridor—the 170-mile route from Camp Nelson National Monument in Jessamine County to Mays Lick—and concludes at the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument in Wilberforce, Ohio. Born to enslaved parents in 1864 in Mays Lick, Kentucky, including a USCT soldier, Young became the third African American to graduate from the US Military Academy at West Point, the first African American superintendent of a national park, and the highest ranking African American US Army officer at the time of his death in 1922. Young was posthumously promoted to the rank of brigadier general in the Regular Army on February 1, 2022.
The festival features live music performed by the Marshall Law Band, food trucks, arts and crafts, children’s activities, guided talks and walks, and a keynote presentation by sculptor Ed Hamilton, creator of the Spirit of Freedom African American Civil War Monument in Washington, DC.
It’s free and open to the public.
Camp Nelson National Monument, the 418th unit of the National Park Service, is located six miles south of Nicholasville, Kentucky, on Highway 27 and directly north of the Camp Nelson National Cemetery. Its address is 6614 Danville Loop 2 Road, Nicholasville, Kentucky, 40356.
For more information, visit the park’s website or the park’s Facebook page.
Steve T. Phan
Chief of Interpretation, Education, and Visitor Services, Camp Nelson National Monument
Guest Contributor
Object in Focus: Mary Rogers Lyons’s Wedding Dress, 1913
Mary Rogers Lyons wears her wedding dress, June 10, 1913. Credit: Brown family.
Robinson S Brown and Mary Rogers Lyons pose on their wedding day, June 10, 1913. Credit: Brown family.
As you know, we recently opened our Davis Jewelers’ Love & Marriage exhibition. It was my task and joy to dress fifty historical and modern dresses for this exhibition. One of the dresses belonged to our board chairman Mac Brown’s grandmother, who wore it in 1913. Needing a little help from a textile conservator, it was recently conserved by professionals at the Cincinnati Art Museum just so we could display it. We’ve asked Mac to share more about his grandmother and her dress. Come tour the exhibition and see it in person!—Tish Boyer, Registrar & Manager of Collections Engagement
Historical artifacts truly allow history to come alive. And having moved into my senior years, I noticed the artifacts have become more familiar, as they are coming from the days of my youth. Artifacts tell important stories, inspiring us to learn the past and understand the values and philosophies of all those involved in the story.
A wedding dress is more than just a gown in a ceremony, but a symbol of commitment two people make to each other. Seeing my grandmother’s 1913 wedding dress in the Frazier’s Davis Jewelers’ Love & Marriage exhibition brought me back to my childhood, remembering the closeness and love my grandparents had for each other. They laid the foundation where we learned there is nothing more important than family.
My grandmother, Mary Rogers Lyons, and my grandfather, Robinson S Brown, were married on June 10, 1913, at the home of Owsley and Laura Lee Brown, who happened to be his brother and her sister. They started their lives as farmers; then in 1927 he became a banker, and she ran the travel agency for First National Bank. When he went to Brown-Forman in 1934, she remained at the bank to earn money to send my father to college.
Grandmother was a historian focused on our family, its origins, and life’s circumstances. She wrote multiple articles, as well as a book on the Owsley family, and collected many artifacts over the years. Born in 1890, she went to schools in Europe between 1905 and 1908 then was educated at Miss Wright’s school outside Philadelphia where she graduated in 1910. After her father died in 1911, she traveled Europe with her mother and cousin, eventually returning to Louisville. It is said that when Robinson went to ask her mother for Mary Rogers’s hand, he was so nervous that when her mother opened the door, he said, “I will give you these flowers if you give me your daughter.” Obviously, she said yes, and the wedding was on.
One of the very special aspects of Grandmother’s wedding was her dress made by Madame Glover, Louisville’s most renowned fashion designer. Born Anna Casey in 1861 in Ireland, she came to Louisville with her parents in 1876 and married Walter E. Glover on June 3, 1886. Having established her name before she became Glover, Miss Casey operated a reputable business specializing in bridal wardrobes. With her eye for design and her husband’s knack for business, Madame Glover became the most sought-after dressmaker during Louisville’s Gilded Age.
Madame Glover operated her store in Louisville for nearly three decades until her husband passed away in 1912 when she retired. Like many artifacts, my grandmother’s dress was discovered under a bed in a flimsy box where she had written, “Mary Rogers Lyons (Mrs. R.S. Brown Sr.) wedding dress (last one made by Madame Glover) June 10, 1913.” By sharing this dress, we can all appreciate the importance of family and the very special traits of my grandparents.
Mac Brown
Board Chairman, Frazier History Museum
Guest Contributor
Museum Shop: Hats off to Dad!
“Bourbon Drinking” hat sold in the Frazier’s Museum Shop and online.
When he’s ready to sip Bourbon in style, we’ve got just the thing—a “Bourbon Drinking” hat. Find it online or in the Frazier’s Museum Shop!
Camp Frazier Still has Room for your Kiddos!
Frazier summer campers gather in the second-floor classroom, June 4, 2025.
A Frazier summer camper models DIY stilts, June 4, 2025.
Summer camp season is upon us, and here at the Frazier we kicked things off last week by jumping in a time machine and blasting back through the decades. Our first day of camp was Wednesday and it was all about the 1970s.
We started by learning all about Secretariat, who became the ninth Triple Crown–winning racehorse in 1973. We then used a surveyor’s chain to set a one-hundred-foot racetrack and timed ourselves to see how close we could get to Secretariat’s legendary top speed of 37.5 miles per hour. In short, none of us came close. Star Wars was next on our tour of iconic history. We created our own characters from a galaxy far, far away, then wrote the stories of their exploits. But in true Lucasian storytelling fashion, we wrote the middle first, then traded characters to write the beginning, then traded again to write the end.
Through the ’80s and ’90s, we played real-life Oregon Trail and recorded music videos straight from the MTV generation, experiencing all the quirky highlights of some of our (older) staff’s childhoods. We’ve had a blast so far, and we have seven weeks of camps left to go!
There are still spots available in most weeks of camp. Learn more and secure your spot today!
Kent Klarer
Sr. Manager of Youth Programs & Education Advancement
On the Trail with Abby: Buzzard’s Roost on Whiskey Row
On the Trail with Abby graphic.
This Saturday is National Bourbon Day! Bourbon tourism is booming—and the Kentucky Bourbon Trail® is growing faster than ever. Each week, the Frazier’s Abby Flanders takes readers on a digital stop-by-stop tour of this expanding adventure, spotlighting the distilleries, stories, and expressions behind America’s native spirit. Ready to hit the trail in real life? Start your journey at the Frazier History Museum, the Official Starting Point of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail®.
Buzzard’s Roost co-founders Jason Brauner and Judy Hollis Jones stand next to their seventy-five-gallon pot still, “Buzz Cauldron.” Credit: Fred Minnick.
Just a stone’s throw from the Frazier History Museum, right on historic Whiskey Row, sits Buzzard’s Roost Distillery. The concept of Buzzard’s Roost Sipping Whiskeys was brought to life by co-founders Judy Hollis Jones and Jason Brauner in 2022. The brand stands out for their exceptional flavors, created using a breakthrough approach to secondary maturation. This includes using eighteen-month-seasoned oak barrels for intensified flavors and exclusive use of char #1 across their products.
Their micro-distillery and tasting room on Main Street offers visitors an up-close glimpse into this innovative process. Here, the focus is on small-batch releases, each meticulously crafted to highlight the nuanced flavors imparted by their unique barrel finishes.
When you visit, you’ll get a behind-the-scenes peek at the process and their seventy-five-gallon pot still “Buzz Cauldron,” plus a chance to sample fan favorites like the Barrel Strength Rye or Toasted American Oak Bourbon. It’s cozy, intimate, and just a touch rebellious—kind of like the buzzard in their name!
So next time you’re on Whiskey Row (perhaps after a visit to the Frazier!), check out Buzzard’s Roost, where the Bourbon is bold, the vibe is relaxed, and birds of a feather definitely sip together!
Abby Flanders
Administrative Chief of Engagement
Bridging the Divide
Kentucky Civil Rights Figure John Johnson Releases Memoir Come Walk with Me
John Johnson speaks at the Frazier’s March on Frankfort: The 60th Anniversary program, February 22, 2024. Credit: Sam Upshaw, Courier Journal.
My job at the Frazier gives me the privilege of meeting so many impactful people who are part of our history. A case in point is John Johnson, who took part in our March on Frankfort 60th Anniversary program in February of last year.
Before our program, he invited me to his home to talk and share pictures and memorabilia that he has collected to help document the Civil Rights Movement.
Mr. Johnson was crucial in getting people to attend that march. At seventeen, he became the youngest NAACP Chapter President in Kentucky history. He would later serve as the state president of the organization for fourteen years and become the Executive Director of the Kentucky Commission on Human Rights.
He’s recently released his autobiography called Come Walk with Me, a deeply personal memoir that chronicles his journey during the Civil Rights Movement.
He’ll speak and sign copies of his book on June 14 from 1 p.m. until 3 p.m. at the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage, located at 1701 West Muhammad Ali Boulevard.
He says it highlights how ordinary individuals can spark extraordinary change.
Thank you Mr. Johnson for your impact.
Rachel Platt
VP of Mission
History All Around Us
Navigating History, Building Strong: A Look at the US Army Corps of Engineers’ Legacy in Louisville
Construction on the Louisville and Portland Canal, now called the McAlpine Locks and Dam, near Louisville, Kentucky, undated. Credit: US Army Corps of Engineers.
On June 16, 1775, the Continental Congress organized the Corps of Engineers. Three years later, patriot George Rogers Clark led about ten to twenty families on flatboats to settle Corn Island, laying the foundation for what is now the city of Louisville, Kentucky. Since 1874, the canal between Louisville and another nearby island has been operated by the Corps of Engineers. We’ve asked Army Corps of Engineers (Louisville District) publicist Kelsie Hall to discuss the long legacy of the Corps in this community.—Simon Meiners, Communications & Research Specialist
This year, the US Army and the US Army Corps of Engineers celebrate 250 years of service to the nation.
The story of the USACE Louisville District flows from the Ohio River in the early 1800s. What began as efforts to improve navigation around the dangerous Falls of the Ohio to open the waterway for safe and efficient commerce, ultimately shaped the history of the city of Louisville, and resulted in the establishment of the USACE Louisville District in 1886. This navigation mission still drives the district today, expanding to a total of seven locks and dams on the Ohio River and two on the Green River, that are operated 365 days a year. More than 415 million tons of cargo pass through the district’s Ohio River locks annually, powering America’s economy with the most cost- and energy-efficient way to transport commodities.
But navigation was just the start for the Louisville District. The Great Flood of 1937 devastated the region with damages stretching across the length of the Ohio River, from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Cairo, Illinois, leaving 385 people dead and more than 70 percent of Louisville under water. Since then, the Louisville District’s mission has expanded to include flood risk management, resulting in the construction of a system of floodwalls, levees, and reservoirs that have helped to prevent more than $3.9 billion in flood damages and protect lives.
Today, the Louisville District’s mission reaches far beyond the river.
USACE delivers modern, mission-ready facilities for the Army and Air Force Reserves; supports warfighters, Veterans, and their families through military construction; protects the nation’s natural resources through Regulatory and Environmental Restoration missions; and, when disasters strike, is ready to respond, working side by side with local, state, and federal partners.
For 250 years, the US Army Corps of Engineers has built more than infrastructure: they’ve built a legacy of service, not just in Louisville, but across the region, across the nation, and around the world.
Kelsie Hall
Public Affairs Specialist, US Army Corps of Engineers Louisville District
Guest Contributor
Meet the Ticks: Our Tiny and Important Neighbors
Ticks in different stages of life.
This month, we’re embracing the great outdoors—and all the tiny creatures that come with it. In her fun and informative article, Carolyn Waters—an environmental educator with nearly two decades of experience, founder of Ranger Rabbit Consulting, and adjunct instructor of Environmental Studies at Bellarmine University—introduces us to the misunderstood world of ticks and offers practical tips for staying safe while enjoying nature.—Leslie Anderson, Sr. Manager of Grants & Community Development
As a seasoned outdoor educator, I’ve not only received training in tick bite prevention and treatment—I’ve also become good at removing embedded ticks. Is your skin crawling yet?
As summer begins, we spend more time outdoors where ticks are also actively searching for food and mates. What better time to become acquainted with these eight-legged neighbors?
Ticks might give you ick, but we need to understand them for health and ecological reasons. While they can transmit diseases like Lyme and Rocky Mountain spotted fever, we don’t need to avoid our favorite outdoor activities to evade tick bites. With a little information and preparation, we can feel confident about coexisting with ticks.
· Who are they? Ticks are arachnids, closely related to spiders. In Kentucky, several species of ticks exist. If you find a tick, use your phone to photograph and identify it with the help of experts using iNaturalist.
· Where do they hang out? Ticks are anywhere their food hosts go, but we are more likely to encounter them in brushy, tall grasses or wooded areas. If you find a tick in Louisville, you can submit your sighting or even the tick itself to Louisville Metro’s “Spot a Tick and Share” program.
· How do I avoid getting bit? Insect repellent and clothing that covers your skin are the first line of defense. A tick check after your outing will help to ensure that no unwanted critters made their way home with you.
· When should I be worried? Finding a tick on your body doesn’t mean you’ve been bitten. Even if you have, the tick may not transmit a disease. Keep track of swelling, redness, or any other symptoms and talk to a medical professional if you are concerned.
· Why do they exist? Ticks are a food source for many kinds of animals, supporting many parts of an ecosystem. They may also indicate overall ecosystem health. Ticks living in healthier environments are less likely to carry disease.
Ticks: we don’t want to live with them, but we can’t live without them. Feed your curiosity by getting to know them better and enjoy your time outside.
Carolyn Waters
Founder, Ranger Rabbit Consulting
Guest Contributor
