Mount Rushmore of Kentuckians, Loretta Lynn’s Red Dress, Teddy Roosevelt’s Big Stick, and More
Check the calendar folks, because this Wednesday is your chance to contribute to the Frazier Kentucky History Museum’s next live program. We’re not telling you the Top 10 Kentuckians of all time—we’re asking you to help create the list.
Please join Rachel Platt and me as we co-host the great debate while leaning on a group of influencers who will frame the conversation on the topics of history, law, music, literature, and sports. It will be like watching mornings on WHAS11 from 2006 to 2015—without the traffic and weather : ) And you get to join the show!
Joining us on stage will be historian Tom Owen, sportswriter Eric Crawford, music aficionado John Timmons, judge Denise Clayton, and bestselling author Kim Michele Richardson. So, bring your opinions, have a take, and prepare to name the top 10 Kentuckians!
We’ll also explore the top four. If Kentucky had its own Mount Rushmore, who would be carved in stone? Lincoln is a layup, since he is on the original in South Dakota, with George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt. Wednesday night guests will be invited to weigh in and encouraged to defend their argument. Sounds fun, right?
Also, this week, some Frazier artifacts from Top 10 Kentuckian candidates, our 120 team is heading to Spencer and Harrison counties, and a partnership with Kentucky Kingdom celebrating its Jack O’Lantern Spectacular.
And finally, the band is ready, the spooky scene is set, and the candy and whiskey pairings are out—make sure you secure your tickets to our October 29 Michter’s Spookeasy at the Frazier.
I hope you enjoy!
Andy Treinen
President & CEO
Frazier Kentucky History Museum
This Week in the Museum
Curator’s Corner: Why Loretta Lynn is a Top 10 Kentuckian
Billy Reed column about Loretta Lynn’s song “The Pill” published in the March 10, 1975, Courier Journal.
Dress worn by Loretta Lynn on display in the Frazier’s I Too Am a Kentuckian exhibition, October 15, 2026.
As the Top 10 Kentuckians program approaches, I have been thinking a lot about who would make my list. For me, this is a seemingly impossible task, to narrow down my favorite and most influential Kentuckians to such a short list. After all, there are SO MANY amazing Kentuckians both past and present. When I start to think about the Kentuckians whom I admire most, many different types of people come to mind, including artists, writers, and musicians. One thing many of the Kentuckians I admire most have in common is that they have in some way become a voice for Kentucky—people like Silas House, Tyler Childers, Frank X Walker, bell hooks, John Prine, and Loretta Lynn. It is probably no surprise that all these people are featured somewhere in the museum. But today I would like to focus on Loretta Lynn, who appears in the I Too Am a Kentuckian exhibition.
Loretta Lynn is featured in the Liberty section of I Too Am a Kentuckian in a part that focuses on the Freedom of Speech. For this section, I wanted to focus on Kentucky’s deep history of protest songs, and I included Loretta because of her 1975 song “The Pill.” The song addressed the topic of birth control and a woman’s ability to choose when she becomes pregnant. At the time, it was considered a controversial subject and many radio stations refused to play it. “The Pill” was one of Loretta’s most popular songs and helped to highlight the availability of birth control in rural areas.
For the exhibition, we borrowed Loretta’s beautiful red chiffon gown with attached cape from the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum. Loretta wore this dress on stage and at award shows during the 1970s, and on the cover of the album Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn Sing Their Biggest Hits.
The dress is a must-see in person, if only to get a sense of how tiny this larger-than-life Kentuckian really was. I hope you’ll stop by and see it the next time you visit the Frazier, and I hope you’ll consider Loretta for your own list of top Kentuckians at Wednesday’s program!
Amanda Briede
Sr. Curator of Exhibitions
Captain Billie J. Farrell Returning to Kentucky for Special Program at the Frazier
Meet Captain Billie J. Farrell, who made history when she became the first female commander of the USS Constitution. The ship, nicknamed “Old Ironsides,” is the oldest commissioned warship in the US Navy, and now one of Boston’s most popular tourist attractions. Did we mention Farrell hails from Kentucky?
She’ll join us at the Frazier for a special program on Sunday, November 8, at 2:30 p.m. Her “aha” moment to join the Navy came in the sixth grade while watching a Naval Academy graduation. She was fascinated with the tradition and ceremony, which began her journey to get to Annapolis. That wasn’t exactly commonplace for a young girl in Paducah at the time, but she did it, and then some!
We can’t wait to hear about her journey, advice, lessons, and what she is doing now since her historic tour of the USS Constitution ended in 2024.
Help us “salute” Captain Billie J. Farrell the Sunday before Veterans Day. Click here to purchase tickets to the program that will allow you access to the entire museum. Some of Farrell’s items from her time as Commander of the USS Constitution are on display in the I Too Am a Kentuckian exhibition.
Rachel Platt
VP of Mission
Frazier’s 120 on the Road Heads to Spencer and Harrison Counties this Week!
The Frazier’s Megan Sleeper tables at the Logan County Tobacco and Heritage Festival, October 10, 2026.
Find us as we hit the road visiting all 120 counties in our Commonwealth! Our next stops will be:
· Trunk or Treat in Honor of Hunter. 100 Water Street. Taylorsville, Spencer County, Kentucky. Wednesday, October 21, 6–8 p.m. (Eastern). Activities include spooky What the What? game and candy giveaway.
· Maiden Moon Market. Walking Dead mural. Cynthiana, Harrison County, Kentucky. Saturday, October 24, 6–10 p.m. (Eastern). Activities include 120 exhibit and a spooky What the What? game.
Look for our 120: Cool KY Counties on the Road exhibit as we share stories and songs from each county—and listen to your stories, too! Come greet 120 on the Road managers Jason Berkowitz and Megan Sleeper.
Cool Kentucky Shop: Speak Softly and Carry a Big Sticker
Teddy Roosevelt merchandise sold in the Frazier’s Cool Kentucky Shop.
Theodore Roosevelt Day is coming up on October 27—Teddy’s birthday. Our twenty-sixth president, Teddy was known for his bold approach to foreign policy, famously summed up in the phrase, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” We love a good sticker—and this one is perfect for us since the Frazier Kentucky History Museum is home to Teddy Roosevelt’s Big Stick! Get yours in the Frazier’s Cool Kentucky Shop, along with some Teddy candles and tree ornaments.
Object in Focus: Teddy Roosevelt’s Big Stick, 1908
Teddy Roosevelt on his favorite horse Tranquility in Nairobi, Kenya, July 26, 1909. Credit: Paul Thompson, Theodore Roosevelt Collection, Houghton Library, Harvard University.
The “Big Stick” on display in the Frazier’s Founder’s Gallery, November 5, 2024. Credit: Clay Cook.
id you know US President Teddy Roosevelt’s Big Stick hunting rifle is at the Frazier?
In 1908, Roosevelt, whose presidency was set to end in March 1909, began planning a safari to Africa with his son, Kermit. The Smithsonian, emphasizing the trip’s scientific goals, agreed to fund it through anonymous private donations.
A double-barreled rifle was built for Teddy Roosevelt in London by the firm Holland & Holland, Ltd., and in January 1909, Edward North Buxton, a well-known hunter who was friends with Roosevelt, together with a group of fifty-five British zoologists and hunting enthusiasts, presented it to him. (It later acquired the modern, unofficial nickname of “the Big Stick,” from Roosevelt’s famous quote “speak softly and carry a big stick,” itself derived from a West African proverb.)
On April 21, 1909, the members of the Smithsonian-Roosevelt African Expedition disembarked in Mombasa, British East Africa. With the assistance of some 250 local guides and porters, the party spent the next eleven months traveling by train, horse, camel, and riverboat down the waterways and through the mountains and plains of Kenya, the Belgian Congo, and Sudan, stopping periodically to hunt, trap, and collect specimens for the Smithsonian and the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
One day on the slopes of Mt. Kenya, Teddy Roosevelt writes in African Game Trails (1910), he crept “stealthily along” for half an hour stalking a bull elephant with the Holland & Holland in hand. “Wherever possible, as I followed the trail, I stepped in the huge footprints of the elephant, for where such a weight had pressed there were no sticks left to crack under my feet.” Once he was deep in the jungle, Roosevelt opened fire; the resulting blast was so intense, it gave the hunter standing next to him a nosebleed.
By the end of the trip, the Roosevelt duo had killed over 500 animals, including elephants, rhinoceroses, and water buffalo. A voluminous cache of live and preserved natural specimens and artifacts amassed on the journey—some 5,000 mammal skins, 10,000 plant specimens, and a variety of ethnological objects—was sent to the United States National Museum, known today the National Museum of American History, in Washington, DC.
Of the rifle, Roosevelt writes in his book: “I do not believe there exists a better weapon for heavy game.”
In 2001, Owsley Brown Frazier obtained the rifle for display in the Frazier Historical Arms Museum, which opened in 2004. Although the Frazier is no longer an arms museum, the rifle remains in the museum’s collection and on public display in the Founder’s Gallery.
Simon Meiners
Communications & Research Specialist
Pumpkins at Kentucky Kingdom: Featuring the Original Jack O’Lantern Spectacular! 🎃🍂
Pumpkins at Kentucky Kingdom.
We’ve asked our friends at Kentucky Kingdom to tell you about this year’s Pumpkins at Kentucky Kingdom, which now features the original Jack O’Lantern Spectacular! You can visit Wednesday through Sunday, now through November 1, for as low as $24.99. If you visit this Thursday, October 22, 5–9 p.m., come say hello to the Frazier folks tabling at the front gate!—Simon Meiners, Communications & Research Specialist
Play all day and glow into the night during Pumpkins at Kentucky Kingdom, now featuring the original Jack O' Lantern Spectacular. This year’s trail invites guests to travel the world without leaving Louisville, with over 5,000 hand-carved pumpkins that showcase global landmarks, traditions, and cultural icons.
Plus, enjoy world-class rides and explore fall-themed fun like games, street performances, and colorful characters. After sundown, the park will transform into a whimsical wonderland of glow featuring larger-than-life pumpkin sculptures!
Plan your fall family adventure at Louisville’s Family Theme Park!
Holy Cross High School Intern Jayden Jackson Joins the Education Team
Holy Cross High School senior Jayden Jackson, who is interning for the Frazier’s Education Team, October 10, 2026.
Working on the education team at a nonprofit museum goes a million miles a minute! We are constantly juggling field trips, family days, camps, family history nights, teacher trainings, and much more. That’s why we are super grateful for the unique high school internship program offered through Holy Cross High School. It allows us to host a student one day per week for a full year to assist us with day-to-day programming and for them to learn some things along the way. Keep reading to meet this year’s fantastic intern, Jayden Jackson.—Megan Schanie, Sr. Manager of Educational Programs
My name is Jayden Jackson, and I am an intern here at Frazier thanks to my school internship program at Holy Cross High School. At Holy Cross, juniors and seniors intern at jobs once per week for a full school year. This is my senior year and last year I worked at St. Paul to help them out with their STEM classes.
The work I’ve been doing at the Frazier Museum is helping with the field trips, framing and hanging up America250-inspired artworks from Western Middle School for the Arts, and maintaining the exhibits. My favorite thing here at the museum is the Corvette near the entrance of the Cool Kentucky exhibition. It gives facts about Corvettes that I didn’t know, like that all Corvettes are made in Bowling Green, Kentucky. If you’re coming to visit the museum, then you should be sure to check it out.
Jayden Jackson
Education Team Intern from Holy Cross High School
Bridging the Divide
Ribbon-cutting ceremony for the Jubilation! Ambassadors on a Sacred Journey exhibition opening at KCAAH, September 18, 2026.
It’s called Jubilation! and we wanted to make sure you knew about this traveling exhibit at the Kentucky Center for African American Heritage in Louisville. It features the Fisk Jubilee Singers from Fisk University in Nashville who in 1871 hit the road to raise money for the school. Louisville has ties to at least one of those singers, Roland Hayes, who broke major racial barriers in classical music. There’s a whole lot to learn, and Aukram Burton, the CEO of KCAAH, invites you to visit and do just that.—Rachel Platt, VP of Mission
This fall, Louisville has an opportunity to do more than learn about African American history. It has an opportunity to hear it.
The Kentucky Center for African American Heritage (KCAAH) presents Jubilation! Ambassadors on a Sacred Journey, a nationally touring exhibition organized by the National Museum of African American Music in Nashville. On view through February 28, 2027, the exhibition traces the evolution of African American sacred music from African musical traditions and Negro spirituals through gospel music and freedom songs.
At the heart of Jubilation! is the remarkable story of the Fisk Jubilee Singers, the pioneering student ensemble that left Fisk University in Nashville in 1871 to raise desperately needed funds for the young institution.
Performing spirituals born from the experiences of enslaved African Americans, the Jubilee Singers traveled throughout the United States and Europe. Their performances introduced international audiences to the spirituals, helped sustain Fisk University, and challenged prevailing stereotypes about Black intellectual and artistic achievement.
But Jubilation! asks visitors to consider an even larger story: How did African-descended people preserve their cultural memory across generations, and how did the music they created ultimately transform the sound of America and the world?
Bringing Jubilation! Into the Classroom
Education is an important part of the Jubilation! experience. KCAAH will host a series of professional development sessions for Jefferson County Public Schools music and social studies teachers.
Educators will be introduced to the Jubilation! Educator Guide and explore ways to use the exhibition as an extension of classroom learning. The workshop will help teachers prepare students to examine the connections among African American history, music, culture, faith, resistance, and social change—and continue those conversations after their visit.
From Africa to Hip Hop
The educational journey continues through the Jubilation! Listening Room Series: Tracing the Sacred Journey of African American Music. Through guided listening, storytelling, archival recordings, live demonstrations, and conversation, programs will trace a musical continuum from Africa to Hip Hop.
Upcoming program include the following:
Author and music historian Michael Jones explores the blues on November 14, followed by musician and author Gary Falk examining jazz on December 5.
The journey continues January 9 as Dr. Kevin O. Davenport, Chair of the Department of Music at Simmons College of Kentucky, explores Rhythm & Blues, Soul, and Funk. The series concludes January 23 with Louisville musician and educator Jecorey Arthur exploring Hip Hop as the new griot tradition. All Listening Rooms begin at 1 p.m.
Together, Jubilation! and the Listening Rooms reveal that African American music is not a collection of disconnected genres, but a powerful continuum. Each generation inherited rhythms, stories, and spiritual wisdom from those who came before, transforming them to meet new realities while preserving cultural memory.
KCAAH invites educators to bring their students—and encourages students to return with their families. Churches, civic organizations, fraternities, sororities, and community groups are also invited to make the journey.
From the African drum to the spiritual, from gospel to blues and jazz, and from soul and funk to hip-hop, the beat continues.
Come listen. Come remember. Come experience the sacred journey.
Aukram Burton
Executive Director, Kentucky Center for African American Heritage
Guest Contributor
