The Filson Historical Society Digital Projects

Browse Items (27 total)

  • 8mm color film clip of two medical professionals administering vaccines to children at Camp Tall Trees in Meade County, Kentucky. The Jewish Community Center of Louisville hosted the 2-3 week long summer camp in Otter Creek. The children in this film are receiving what was likely the Salk polio vaccine, introduced just five years earlier in 1955. Before this point, many parents dreaded the late summer months when polio cases peaked, and swimming pools were often shut down to try to curb transmission through contaminated water. The year 1952 marked the worst outbreak of polio in the nation’s history, with nearly 58,000 reported cases of paralytic poliomyelitis. The number of cases dropped to just under 3,200 in 1960 and fell to the single digits by the 1980s.

  • 8mm color film clip of field day competitions at Camp Tall Trees in Meade County, Kentucky, as shot by a camp counselor. The Jewish Community Center of Louisville hosted the 2-3 week long summer camp in Otter Creek.

  • 8mm color film clip of the merchandise in the camp store at Camp Tall Trees in Meade County, Kentucky, as shot by a camp counselor. The Jewish Community Center of Louisville hosted the 2-3 week long summer camp in Otter Creek.

  • 8mm color film clip of a milkman delivering and removing milk churns for Camp Tall Trees, and children dispensing milk. The Jewish Community Center of Louisville hosted the 2-3 week long summer camp in Otter Creek Recreation Area, Meade County, Kentucky.

  • 8mm color film clip of Camp Tall Trees visiting a farm in Meade County, Kentucky, as shot by a camp counselor in 1966. The Jewish Community Center of Louisville hosted the 2-3 week long summer camp in Otter Creek Recreation Area.

  • 8mm color film clip of Camp Tall Trees visiting a farm in Meade County, Kentucky, as shot by a camp counselor in 1966. Farm workers are demonstrating the use of a tractor-pulled combine harvester in a field.

  • 8mm color film clip of the grounds and facilities of Camp Ben F. Washer in Meade County, Kentucky, as shot by a camp staff member. The Jewish Community Center of Louisville worked with Otter Creek Park to open the new camp grounds by the 1967 camp season.

  • Advertisement poster for the Jewish Community of Louisville's new summer boarding camp in Meade County, Kentucky, named Camp Ben F. Washer. The brochure explains the camp's purpose: "Camp Ben F. Washer offers your child an opportunity to learn how to work together with youngsters and adults, learn good sportsmanship, and make new friends. / The camp program stresses activities which can only be enjoyed in a rural atmosphere. / Camp aims are achieved through supervised programs, including hiking, camp crafts, arts and crafts, cookouts, overnight trips, swimming, boating, archery, sports, games, cabin activities, special programs, and horseback riding."

  • Brochure for the Jewish Community Center of Louisville's 1968 summer camps: Camp Ben F. Washer, Camp Ricarree, and Junior Camp.

  • Content note: some imagery and language that stereotypes Indigenous people. Brochure for the Jewish Community Center of Louisville's summer boarding camp called Camp Tall Trees in Meade County, Kentucky. The brochure explains the camp's purpose: "Camp Tall Trees offers your child an opportunity to learn how to work together with youngsters and adults, learn good sportsmanship, and make new friends. / The camp program stresses activities which normally are not available to children in the city. / Camp aims are achieved through supervised programs, including hiking, camp-craft, arts and crafts, cookouts, overnight trips, swimming, archery, sports, games, cabin activities, special programs, and horseback riding."

  • Cream colored cloth banner with appliqued blue letters reading "Tall Trees JCC." Images of a male figure, a star of David with a tree inside of it, and a female figure--all made of blue cloth--are also appliqued on the front of the banner. The Louisville Young Men's Hebrew Association and its successor the Jewish Community Center held 2-3 week overnight summer camps at Camp Tall Trees in Meade County, Kentucky, about 35 miles from Louisville. In 1966, a section of Otter Creek Park was renovated and opened as Camp Ben F. Washer, the successor to Camp Tall Trees.


  • Clipping of William Mootz's review of A Time to Remember performance pasted in the Louisville Ballet scrapbook for 1994-1995.

  • A two-page press release for an artistic performance of Domy Reiter-Soffer's A Time to Remember at the Kentucky Center for the Arts in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 25, 1995. The Holocaust Remembrance event featured the Louisville Ballet, Louisville Orchestra, and children's and men's choirs.

  • An invitation to the artistic performance of Domy Reiter-Soffer's A Time to Remember at the Kentucky Center for the Arts in Louisville, Kentucky, on May 25, 1995. The Holocaust Remembrance event featured the Louisville Ballet, Louisville Orchestra, and children's and men's choirs.

  • Invitation to the "Voices of the Shoah" Holocaust remembrance event held on April 26, 1995, at the Jewish Community Center in Louisville, Kentucky. The invitation includes the agenda for the evening.

  • 22-page script written for the 1993 Yom HaShoah commemoration program on the Holocaust titled "Voices of the Shoah" and held in Louisville, Kentucky. The program included a timeline of events, the experiences of survivors with connections to Louisville, Kentucky, and performing arts works.

  • Photograph of the Jewish Community Center Little League baseball team The Yankees, taken sometime in the mid-1950s.

  • Photograph of the local chapter of the B'nai B'rith organization, one of many programs at the Jewish Community Center in Louisville, KY. Jerry Abramson was involved in the local chapter during his teenage years.

  • Digital rendering by GBBN Architects for the new Trager Family Jewish Community Center on Dutchmans Lane, Louisville, Kentucky.

    This item is included in the Bricks and Mortar, Soul and Heart: The Evolution of Louisville's Young Men's Hebrew Association and Jewish Community Center 1890-2022 digital exhibit at: https://filsonhistorical.omeka.net/exhibits/show/ymha-jcc-louisville/looking-to-the-future

  • Photograph of renovations of the new main entrance of the Jewish Community Center in Louisville, Kentucky.
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