Browse Exhibits (24 total)

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  The Path to the Polls: Presidential Elections in Kentucky

  Since Kentucky became a state in 1792, its citizens have rallied around presidential candidates, run for president themselves, and fought continuously for the basic right to participate in the selection of their Commander-in-Chief.

  This exhibit uses items in the Filson's collections to share hightlight from over two centuries of presidential campaigns in Kentucky.

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  Violins of Hope in the Ohio Valley

  In October 2019, the Filson Historical Society joined with 30 community partners and venues to host a two-week visit in Louisville from the Violins of Hope. Created by Israeli father and son violin makers Amnon and Avshalom Weinstein, Violins of Hope  restores violins orphaned or confiscated from Jews throughout Europe during World War II and the Shoah (the Hebrew term for the Holocaust, meaning "catastrophe"). The instruments now travel the world, played and displayed in concerts, exhibits, and programs fostering education, and shared humanity through music appreciation. Now, in June 2022, the Filson is proud to host a new chapter of the story: free public screenings of a new documentary on the Violins of Hope  in Louisville.  

  Connecting the history of Kentucky and the Ohio Valley with the history of the Violins of Hope is challenging for one simple reason: while American Jews in this region have experienced antisemitism and exclusion, never have we experienced nearly the degree of dispossession and agony of Jews and other minority groups in Nazi Europe. Instead, our Violins of Hope stories offer a counternarrative to the grief and loss inherent in their European counterparts. These stories enable us to appreciate how classical music has brought comfort and cohesion to our communities.

  Two stories from the Filson’s collections (one organizational and one personal) illuminate how in the same historical moment, Jewish musicians could be simultaneously suffering in one part of the world and thriving in another.

   

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  Women at Work: Venturing into the Public Sphere

  Women have been working side by side with each other and with men – fathers, brothers, partners, husbands, sons – throughout human existence. The theme “women at work” should therefore cover millennia. Being not so ambitious, this exhibit seeks to illuminate women's professional roles in only a snippet of American history: the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

  During this time, women of the Ohio Valley region – mostly upper-class whites – stepped outside their homes to seek new roles as professionals and advocates in business, art, education, and the club movement. They were predecessors, colleagues, compatriots, and sometimes opponents of their sisters agitating for women’s rights and women’s suffrage. Nevertheless, they all ventured into the public sphere, redefining the roles women were expected to play. Whether working to affect social change, realize their creative potential, or simply provide for their families, these pioneers changed what it meant to be a woman at work.

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  Women's Suffrage: The Movement in Louisville

  Only 100 years ago, in 1920, the 19th Amendment was ratified, granting women the right to vote in the United States.

  The fight for ratification was long and difficult for suffragists across the country, but it wasn't just a battle of national organizations and well-known leaders. Suffrage was gained through the hard work of women from every community and every walk of life. Suffragists were not all wealthy or influential, but they were all determined to make their voices heard. The long-term results of their struggle are clear a century later: their efforts led to a breakdown of barriers that once barred women from realizing their potential as politicians, professionals, leaders, and human beings. 

  This exhibit shares items from the Filson's collections that document the suffrage movement in Louisville.