Upcoming Events

Add Our Events to Your Calendar

Please see below for details and descriptions of upcoming events at the Filson. All event times are in EST or EDT depending on the season. Click here to register and pay for programs, tickets are required. Filson members will need to log in to access the member pricing for events. Many of our past events can be viewed on the Filson YouTube Channel. If you have any issues with registering via our ticketing solution please call (502) 635-5083.

Recent Filson events have regularly been reaching our capacity limits. If members or non-members wish to attend an event please register beforehand. We cannot guarantee a space for walk ups on the day of the lecture.

The Gertrude Polk Brown Lecture Series – Red Scare: Blacklists, McCarthyism, and the Making of Modern America

Date: September 25, 2025

Time: 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Location: The Kentucky Center - Bomhard Theater, 501 W. Main St., Louisville

Risen Author Pic_hr — Photo credit: Kate Milford

As relevant as it is comprehensive, Red Scare tells the story of McCarthyism and the Red Scare—based in part on newly declassified sources—by an award-winning writer of history and New York Times reporter Clay Risen.

The film Oppenheimer has awakened interest in this vital period of American history. Now, for the first time in a generation, Red Scare presents a narrative history of the anti-Communist witch hunt that gripped America in the decade following World War II. The cultural phenomenon, most often referred to as McCarthyism, was an outgrowth of the conflict between social conservatives and New Deal progressives, coupled with the terrifying onset of the Cold War. This defining moment in American history, unlike any that preceded it, was marked by an unprecedented degree of political hysteria. Drawing upon newly declassified documents, journalist Clay Risen recounts how politicians like Joseph McCarthy, with the help of an extended network of other government officials and organizations, systematically ruined thousands of lives in their deluded pursuit of alleged Communist conspiracies.

Clay Risen, a reporter and editor at The New York Times, is the author of The Crowded Hour, a New York Times Notable Book of 2019 and a finalist for the Gilder-Lehrman Prize in Military History.

The Theodore Sedgwick Distinguished Lecture Series – The Last Decade of Life and How to Spend it Outside of the Hospital

Date: September 30, 2025

Time: 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm

Location: The Filson Historical Society (In Person

Free (Registration requested)

AruniBhatnagar_MRW02808_credit_MikeWilkinson

Presented by the University of Louisville’s Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute in collaboration with the Filson Historical Society. A reception will be held from 4:30-5:25 p.m., followed by the lecture at 5:30 p.m.

This lecture offers a timely and important exploration of how we can live healthier, disease-free lives. Centered around the concept of healthspan—the portion of life spent in good health, as distinct from total lifespan—the session will challenge us to think differently about what it means to pursue health, rather than merely reduce disease risk. Leaders from the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute will reflect on their multiyear journey shaping a research agenda that reframes medicine around the foundations of well-being. Drawing from robust scientific evidence, the talk will highlight key building blocks of health—including nature, nutrition, and community—and why these require renewed attention in medical research and health systems. The presentation will also offer practical insights into what individuals can do now to promote their own healthspan. Local examples, especially in nature-based interventions and the possibilities of diet, will help ground these ideas in real-world impact.

Dr. Aruni Bhatnagar is the Smith & Lucille Gibson Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of Environmental Medicine, and Director of the Christina Lee Brown Envirome Institute at the University of Louisville. A Fellow of the American Heart Association, he is recognized as a pioneer in the field of environmental cardiology. His research explores how oxidative stress from internal and environmental sources contributes to cardiovascular disease. Dr. Bhatnagar leads major initiatives such as the Green Heart Louisville Project and has authored hundreds of scientific publications while mentoring a large research team. He will be joined by colleagues from the Envirome Institute as part of the presentation and discussion.

Field Trip to Lower Howard’s Creek Nature Preserve

Date: October 4, 2025

Time: 9:30 am - 1:30 pm

Location: Lower Howard's Creek Nature and Heritage Preserve, 1225 Athens Boonesboro Rd, Winchester, KY 40371 (In Person)

Lower Howards Creek copy — Photo Credit: Lower Howard's Creek Nature and Heritage Preserve

A portion of registration fees will be donated to support the Nature Preserve. Thank you for helping us support another Kentucky institution!

This historic hike will walk in the footsteps of the Boonesboro settlers 250 years after the founding the fort. Owned by Clark County (Kentucky), the nature preserve holds the original Athens-Boonesboro roadbed, hundreds of yards of dry-stone fencing, early 19^th century houses and mill foundations, and a rich array of plant and animal life native to the Kentucky River valley. The Dry Stone Conservancy will be on-site preserving the artisanal techniques that transformed the Bluegrass region through their National Walling Competition and Festival. No transportation to the site will be provided. Participants will meet at the site, approximately a 90-minute drive from downtown Louisville. This is a strenuous hike over uneven historic trails with significant elevation change. Guests must be able to traverse difficult terrain, during the walk. All participants must sign waivers affirming their physical capacity to undertake this strenuous outing. An optional BBQ lunch will be available for purchase at the venue.

Filson Day at Oxmoor | Members Only

Date: October 11, 2025

Time: 1:00 pm - 4:00 pm

Location: Oxmoor Farm, 720 Oxmoor Ave., Louisville (In Person Only)

Free - Register

Join the Filson Historical Society for an immersive experience into the long-lasting relationship between Oxmoor Farm and The Filson Historical Society. This unique opportunity serves as an open house for Filson members to tour the rooms of the Bullitt family home and grounds that are not normally open to the public. Visitors will be able to learn about Kentucky bourbon history and sample the Oxmoor bourbon. The Oxmoor Library will showcase documents from the Bullitt family collection that are normally stored at the Filson.

Oxmoor resident Thomas W. Bullitt was one of the Filson’s ten charter members, and the relationship between Oxmoor and the Filson has remained close since 1884. The Filson holds the extensive Bullitt family manuscript and photo collections. Through collaborative partnerships, those papers have been used to reconnect descendants of people enslaved at Oxmoor to one another and their ancestors as well as to develop tour material for the Oxmoor Bourbon Company.

Jazz at the Filson: The Great Gatsby Era

Date: October 12, 2025

Time: 3:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Location: The Filson Historical Society (In Person)

This program is generously sponsored by Dinsmore.

Step back in time and experience the magic of the Jazz Age! Join us at the Filson on Sunday, October 12, for an unforgettable afternoon of music with Jazz at the Filson: The Great Gatsby Era. Renowned vibraphonist Dick Sisto and his talented ensemble will bring to life the timeless melodies of the 1920s and ’30s—featuring iconic works by Duke Ellington, Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, Hoagy Carmichael, Billy Strayhorn, and more.

This golden era of jazz not only defined a generation but also laid the foundation for the Great American Songbook, celebrated around the world for its emotional depth and lyrical beauty.

Light refreshments will be served. Come tap your feet, sway to the rhythm, and relive the spirit of a truly transformative musical era!

Film Screening – The Spirit of the People: a documentary film by James Hollenbaugh

Date: October 21, 2025

Time: 6:00 pm - 7:30 pm

Location: The Filson Historical Society (In Person Only)

Photographer Shelby Lee Adams reflects on his life-long journey to seek out identity by capturing portraits of Appalachia’s mountain people through the lens of his camera. Adams’ need to document the unseen self-providers creates a desire to keep alive a culture that is slowly disappearing. As Adams prepares his archive for future generations, he relives his childhood roots through annual visits to the hollers of Eastern Kentucky.

James Hollenbaugh is a Pennsylvania-based American Filmmaker predominantly working in small gauge film formats. Focusing primarily in the documentary, essay film, and experimental genres, his work has been exhibited internationally at prominent film festivals. He is the recipient of the 2015 Stellar Award in Documentary from the Black Maria Film Festival and two Best of Festival Awards at the U.S. Super 8mm Film Festival at Rutgers University. In Spring 2024 Hollenbaugh was awarded the Edison Innovation Award at Princeton University for his series of artist documentary portraits in conjunction with the Thomas Edison Film Festival. He has been the Program Director for over fifteen years at ‘Moviate’, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania’s only film cooperative where he programs monthly film screenings and the annual Moviate Underground Film Festival.

Fiber Arts Workshop with Marcos Morales

Date: October 25, 2025

Time: 10:00 am - 12:00 pm

Location: The Filson Historical Society (In Person)

In this hands-on workshop, artist Marcos Morales will guide participants to embellish copies of family photographs with embroidery. Drawing inspiration from family history, ancestral roots, oral history, and memory, participants will document their families’ stories using photographs and a unique style of hand-embroidery that Marcos has developed. Participants are asked to bring family photos, which will be photocopied to incorporate into their artwork. The Filson will provide a photocopier and hand-sewing supplies. The workshop has a limited capacity of 12 people. Pre-registration is required.

Marcos Gabriel Morales Gutiérrez is a Xicanx artist who was raised by people of Michoacán, Mexico, in Okolona, Louisville, Kentucky. Marcos’s work expresses their lived experience as a first-generation child of immigrant parents and their journey and practice of remembering their ancestral roots through story and fashion. Marcos’s art installation RUMB0 A CAZA features a technique called ropamemoria, or “clothingmemory.” The installation will be on display in the Filson’s Nash Gallery.

The Gertrude Polk Brown Lecture Series – Cassius Marcellus Clay: The Life of an Antislavery Slaveholder and the Paradox of American Reform

Date: December 4, 2025

Time: 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm

Location: The Kentucky Center – Bomhard Theater, 501 West Main St., Louisville

Marshall_Anne_Cropped_Credit Megan Bean — Photo Credit: Megan Bean

The nineteenth-century Kentucky antislavery reformer Cassius Marcellus Clay is generally remembered as a knife-wielding rabble-rouser who both inspired and enraged his contemporaries. Clay brawled with opponents while stumping for state constitutional changes to curtail the slave trade. He famously deployed cannons to protect the office of the antislavery newspaper he founded in Lexington. Despite attempts on his life, he helped found the national Republican party and positioned himself as a staunch border state ally of Abraham Lincoln. During the Civil War, he served as US minister to Russia, working to ensure that European allies would not recognize the Confederacy. And yet he was a slave owner until the end of the Civil War. Though often misremembered as an abolitionist, Clay was like many Americans of his time: interested in a gradual end to the institution of slavery but largely on grounds that it limited whites’ ability to profit from free labor and the South’s opportunity for economic advancement. In the end, Clay’s political positions were far more about protecting members of his own class than advancing the cause of Black freedom.

This vivid and insightful biography reveals Cassius Clay as he was: colorful, yes, but in many ways typical of white Americans who disliked slavery in principle but remained comfortable accommodating it. Reconsidering Clay as emblematic rather than exceptional, Anne E. Marshall shows today’s readers why it took a violent war to finally abolish slavery and why African Americans’ demands for equality struggled to gain white support after the Civil War.

Anne E. Marshall is associate professor of history and executive director of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library at Mississippi State University.

Visit the Filson

Open Monday through Friday, 9 am to 4:30 pm

The Filson is closed to the public the 3rd Friday of every month.

1310 S. 3rd St., Louisville, KY 40208
(502) 635-5083

Plan Your Visit to the Filson! To register or purchase tickets for our events, please visit our Events Page.

The Research Library is open Monday through Friday, 9 am to 4:30pm; we are closed on the third Friday of each month. Appointments are not required, but feel free to reserve a seat online – learn more here. We also provide remote research services; please complete our research request form online here.

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