Robert Burns Wilson (1850 – 1916) An artist and poet, Wilson was born in Pennsylvania. He lived in Louisville for a time and then came to Frankfort at the behest of newspaperman S. I. M. Major. His poem “Remember the Maine,” commemorating the battleship USS Maine that sank in Havana harbor, was set to music and became the anthem to the 1898 Spanish American War. His 1900 novel Until the Day Break was based on the residents of the Vest-Lindsey house at 401 Wapping Street. An accomplished painter, his works rival those of Paul Sawyier and are often confused.

Robert Burns Wilson
(1850 – 1916)