Founded in 2004 as a museum of historical arms and armor, the Frazier History Museum sits on Museum Row in the West Main District of downtown Louisville. Founded in 2004 as a museum of historical arms and armor, it has since broadened its reach as an affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution. Inside, the museum preserves and presents Kentucky history through artifacts, exhibitions, educational programs, Bourbon tastings, and guided tours.
Permanent exhibitions range from Kentucky history and Kentucky pop culture to Kentucky bourbon whiskey, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, and the Stewart Historic Miniatures Collection. The museum operates as a non-profit organization funded by private donations, and in 2018 it became the official starting point of the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. The story of the museum itself is rooted in local lives: Owsley Brown Frazier, a Louisville businessman and philanthropist, lost his home and a rare Kentucky long rifle in the 1974 tornado of the Super Outbreak; that rifle had been made for his great-great-grandfather in Bardstown in the 1820s.
Notice Museum Row and the West Main streetscapes stretching beyond this entrance.