Kentucky’s ‘cool’ history, celebrities featured in collaborative new Louisville collection
New Frazier History Museum exhibit attracts historic mementos from across the state.
New Frazier History Museum exhibit attracts historic mementos from across the state.
New Frazier History Museum exhibit attracts historic mementos from across the state.
The team at Frazier History Museum is putting the finishing touches on a new one-stop exhibit that will take visitors on a trip through the state’s history.
The “Cool Kentucky” exhibit features everything from Heather French Henry’s Miss America crown to bones of extinct Kentucky animals.
With latex gloves on, Collections Manager Tish Boyer carefully gave WLKY’s Marvis Herring an early look at some of the items she’s preparing for display in the new exhibit.
Boyer showed multiple styles of the former Kentucky Colonel basketball team’s jerseys. The team won the American Basketball Association 1975 championship title, she shared.
Artis Gilmore, an athlete who is more than 7 feet tall, was on the team. He’ll be featured, too.
And so will his size 18 shoes.
“He's much taller than this mannequin, so we're working on a solution to be able to show you his full height,” Boyer said.
Museum President and CEO Andy Treinen calls the exhibit a “launching pad for tourism.”
All of the items included the exhibit are loaned to the museum from other Kentucky attractions, business and individuals.
“The number of stories are countless and the exciting thing about this is the more we put up, the more [we] present -- the more people are coming to us to say hey you got to tell this story. So this is going to be a permanent exhibit. It's going to be here forever,” Treinan said.
The contents within the exhibit will change over the years, he explained. Some items are loaned for shorter periods of time.
Given the economic impacts of the novel coronavirus pandemic on the tourism industry, Treinan said he hopes people learn something new and then explore more of the state, supporting many of the museums featured within “Cool Kentucky.”
“I like to think that it is creating ah-ha moments for people,” Treinan told WLKY News Tuesday.
Some Kentucky connections featured in “Cool Kentucky” include Rosemary Clooney, Jack Harlow, Bryson Tiller and Tori Murden Mcclure.
Visitors will learn about the University of Louisville student who was snubbed by her business partner for what eventually became the Cabbage Patch doll.
Treinan said that the pandemic affected the museum in more ways than one. Some of the displays for the showcase were delayed, but the show will go on.
A few additional items may be trickled into the exhibition over the first few weeks, he said.
The official opening date is Oct. 22.