myhistorymuseum

We are what we eat

myhistorymuseum — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 21:54:15 +0000

At the History Museum, the curatorial team is starting to think about food and how it has shaped our local history. Our goal is to create an exhibit that outlines how immigration, politics, technology, and regionalisms have influenced our collective palate. In many ways, the museum’s research is a history of immigration and how new arrivals have continued and preserved their cultural traditions through food. From German beer to Greek Saganaki, each ethnic group has added dishes to our local menu and created our identity by sharing these recipes with the community.

We will be delving deep into regional food customs and politics, too. From supper clubs to sturgeon spear fishing, the Midwest and Fox Valley are home to many definitive traditions with each season and social group. Few parts of my job are more exciting than researching the origins of the brandy old fashioned or Appleton’s custard scene in the 1950s. Politics also played a big role in shaping food prices, availability, and family farming. From the Milk Strikes in 1933 to the Grange Movement after the American Civil War, Appleton has played an important role in farmers’ movements to preserve their livelihood and offer safe fresh foods.

Most importantly, as we begin researching this topic, we want to know your stories! While you are out enjoying dinner at one of the area’s great restaurants or cafes, be sure to look for our new traveling survey kiosk about family food traditions. Completing the survey only takes a few minutes and is a great conversation starter while you are waiting in line or after being seated. The kiosk is currently at Harmony Cafe on College Avenue in Appleton until March 5 when it moves to a new location in the Fox Valley.

If you don’t have time to complete the survey at the kiosk, you can answer the questions below in the comment section at the bottom of this blog or by email to nick @ myhistorymuseum.org.

What was your favorite place to eat as a child?
What is your favorite place to eat today?
What foods do you consider as “traditional” in your family?
Do you have any memories or traditions which are centered around food?

I look forward to learning about your food memories and incorporating these experiences into the museum’s future exhibit. In the meantime, the blog will continue to offer a variety of local history topics, but occasionally take a culinary glimpse into the past.

Cheers!

Nick Hoffman, Curator

Appleton and Race in the early 1900s

myhistorymuseum — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 22:04:27 +0000

Fresh research projects for exhibits and programs have uncovered interesting stories about Appleton’s early black population. Appleton was on the periphery of Antebellum free settlement and early migrations, but that doesn’t mean the community’s historically small black population is insignificant. Although it is difficult to find information that sheds light on their experiences in Appleton, collectively, the recent glimpses we’ve uncovered can provide a broader understanding of blacks who resided and visited the city in the early 1900s.

Despite local folklore, no known primary sources confirm that the city had a “sundown town” ordinance or signs. But, at the same time, Appleton wasn’t very welcoming to blacks who visited for entertainment or employment. P.H. Smith, a black male who traveled to Appleton by train in 1915, was met at the “Junction” with racial slurs hurled by young white children. Because of Appleton’s tough anti-vagrancy position, two itinerant workers who were found near the Junction were arrested, as well as Smith who said he was falsely accused as a vagrant. Through his experiences, Smith said Appleton wasn’t a friendly place for blacks.

In 1901, the famous Chicago Unions baseball team visited Appleton to play a local white team. During this period, the Unions were independent, but later on became a dynasty in the Negro Baseball League. An altercation between two black teammates over a poor play was characterized in local newspapers as evidence to reinforce violent stereotypes. Another black ballplayer entered a carriage with three white women and was asked by bystanders to remove himself from their presence.

Blacks were occasionally barred from staying in local hotels. In 1915, when the male double quartet from the Tuskegee Institute visited the Congregational Church, the choir members were excluded from staying in Appleton. Three downtown hotels united to refuse any vacancies to the singers. Church members offered the quartet extra rooms in their homes, but the chorus decided instead to stay overnight in “Neenah or Menasha.” Genially, the chorus leader said, “there were a lot worse places than Appleton” compared to stricter segregationist cities.

Only a few black families resided in Appleton, but they made a good living and were accepted into the community. In the 1860s, William Cleggett (b. 1833 – d. 1916) relocated from the east to Appleton and operated a longstanding barbershop below the Commercial Bank building. Several of his family members also worked in the barber and beauty trades, including his daughter Emma Hollensworth (b. 1860 – d. 1905). For supplemental income, Emma served as Matron of the city’s Children’s Home for orphans and destitute young women. The Home offered medical care, education, and a safe location for its residents. Ex-slave Horace Artis(t) (b. 1842 – d. 1910) moved to Appleton after serving in the Civil War, and worked as a scavenger and day laborer, became a member of the Congregational Church, and the Grand Army of the Republic. Appleton’s integrated G.A.R. chapter was rare in Wisconsin as most chapters distinctly excluded black membership.

Emma Hollensworth's hair-dressing advertisement was included on this redwork quilt of Appleton area businesses, circa 1900.

Today, as Appleton’s demographics become increasingly diverse, it is important to remember these stories. Black History Month provides a time to pause and reflect on Appleton’s paradoxical position on race in the early 1900s. For the few blacks who lived in Appleton, the city was a good place to settle, but for visitors, the community was at times an unwelcoming place. We still have a lot of work ahead to continue uncovering local black history and provide a better picture of the past. Appleton has certainly come a long way, but only by looking into the past and learning equally from injustices and progressive positions, can we learn how to move forward into a better future.

Back to the archives,

Nick Hoffman, Curator

“Cap-Man” Kromer: Catcher, Train Engineer, and Innovator

myhistorymuseum — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:05:31 +0000

The “Stormy Kromer” is a funny looking, but practical cap that has become an icon of the Upper Great Lakes for outdoorsmen and the working-class. Invented by George J. Kromer of Kaukauna in 1903, the story of how the cap was born is lost somewhere between memory and reality. It has become a north woods symbol, often held in esteem equal to Paul Bunyan and Rhinelander’s Hodag.

Kromer’s recollections on the cap’s origins may seem like an urban legend. Born in Kaukauna in 1876, by his teenage years, Kromer became a catcher on Kaukauna’s semi-professional baseball team in the Northern Baseball League. As a player, Kromer had a temper which he said contributed to the nickname of “Stormy.” Needing additional income, he became a train engineer on the Chicago-Northwestern Railroad. On long winter train excursions, Kromer would stick his head out the engine window to better see through the blowing snow, and sometimes his cap would fly off in the blustery wind.

Tired of losing his caps, Stormy asked his wife Ida to sew flaps around the base of a cloth cap that could be tied and tightened on the front for a snug fit. The flaps could also be lowered to cover ears in cold winds. In his patent application, Kromer said the most important design was that, using only one hand, the “wearer may pull the flap over the ears without taking off his cap.” His coworkers soon requested the cap. Kromer began operating a small sewing operation inside his home in Kaukauna and officially organized as a company by 1909.

Looking for a bigger market, Stormy permanently moved the Kromer Cap Company to Milwaukee in 1919. The business grew so quickly that he purchased a larger factory and finally applied for a United States patent in 1922. Three years later it was approved as patent number 1,540,405, a number that today is proudly embroidered on the cap’s interior label.

Stormy briefly considered relocating his plant back to Kaukauna, but the looming Depression kept him in Milwaukee, where he began to explore other cap designs and business ventures to keep afloat. He launched a new line of suspenders and a summer lightweight cotton version of his cap in 1937. Kromer continued working as an engineer for the Chicago-Northwestern Railroad making runs between Kaukauna and Antigo. In his spare time, Kromer also managed baseball teams in Arkansas, Indiana, and Milwaukee, but his reputation as a manager was hurt during a 36 game losing streak with the Blytheville (Arkansas) Nine. His baseball passion continued by developing players in the farm system.

The company stayed in Milwaukee after Kromer’s death in 1970. His caps, including his original 1903 design and his cotton summer version, are still manufactured and sold today. When the business ceased production in 2001, Bob Jacquart, owner of Jacquart Fabric Products in Ironwood, Michigan, purchased the brand and moved the plant just across the state border to Michigan. Still sold with a “Made in the U.S.A.” label, you can find the caps in local sporting goods stores, at the company’s website, or travel to Ironwood to visit the plant and a large monument to the Kromer cap.

Proudly wearing my new “Stormy Kromer,”

Nick Hoffman, Curator

Polka and Cosmic Connectedness at the Cinderella Ballroom

myhistorymuseum — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:18:38 +0000

One thing’s for sure — there’s a whole lot of history goin’ on.

A recent “water cooler” history conversation was spurred by Nick’s blog post on Polka in the Fox Valley. The conversation reminds me that history is more than the documented stories of princes, presidents and wars of antiquity. History is the big or small stories each of us are waiting to tell. In the “potentiality of history” there is a kind of cosmic connectedness. Sometimes our stories come to full potential. When that happens our story might connect to someone else’s story. A sort of six degrees of separation of human experience or history with a small “h.”

So, Nick asked Terry if she knew anyone who can list all of the bands that played at the Cinderella Ballroom. Of course Terry knew a guy and she called him. But, before Terry did, she recounted her one and only Cinderella Ballroom concert — Frank Zappa. “Frank Zappa?” Nick was impressed with what he heard and imagined this iconclast of 1970s rock and roll playing on the same stage as local polka legend Dick Metko and his Komets.

I told Nick that my first introduction to the Cinderella was when documentary film maker, Ken Burns’ assistant contacted me for a photo of the Cinderella. Sadly, in those days, we didn’t have such a photo in the collection, so Appleton missed its 15 seconds of fame on that PBS documentary. I followed up with the second-hand stories of Buddy Holly’s cancelled concert the night before “the day that music died.”

Then came my fuzzy recollection that the Fugs played at the Cinderella as well as at the Lawrence Memorial Chapel. It’s alleged they, along with Allen Ginsberg, performed an exorcism at Joe McCarthy’s grave in 1968.

Mike piped in with an animated recollection of a Tommy James and the Shondells concert at the Cinderella in 1966. Do you remember “Hanky Panky?” But, it wasn’t just the Cinderella that offered big name or lesser known performances. In the 1950s and 1960s there was live music and dancing every night of the week in the Fox Valley. Mike remembered the Country Aire was hugely popular, and on a smaller scale, Retson’s Shack in the basement of Retson’s Restaurant.

A quick Google search led us to the knowledge that the Raspberries played at the Cinderella on December 28, 1974. “Who?” we each asked. A couple more mouse clicks away and it all became clear when the figurative light bulb went off in Patty’s head. “Go all the Way!” We all knew the lyrics but not the name of that 1970s pop star powerhouse.

Finally, as the conversation wound down, Dave told of the meteoric fall of the Cinderella. Dave’s Mom coordinated the cash raising bingo operation held there in the early 1980s after the Cinderella was sold to the Americanos Drum and Bugle Corps. The old ballroom had seen better days. ”G 79, Bingo! We have a bingo.”

Ashes to ashes, dust to dust, and a certain cosmic connectedness that is history with a small “h.”

Cosmically speaking,

Matthew Carpenter, Deputy Director and Curator of Collections

What concerts do you remember at the Cinderella Ballroom, Country Aire, or elsewhere in the Fox Valley? Share your favorite stories in the comment section below.

Let’s Polka!

myhistorymuseum — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:26:10 +0000

While shopping in downtown Appleton, I happened to notice the cover of Scene newspaper declaring January as National Polka Month. Be sure to read Tom Schneider’s column about today’s polka scene in Northeast Wisconsin, including the upcoming Heatwave Polka Fest in Kewaskum on January 13-15 and Appleton’s WRJQ “Goodtime Radio,” an internet polka radio station. As Wisconsin’s official dance, its residents are well-acquainted with polka, but what about the dance and music genre’s history in the state, particularly the Fox Cities?

Polka’s local popularity began to surge in the 1930s following the success of Lawrence Duchow. Duchow began his career as a young man in 1932 as a member of Hal’s Bluebirds from Chilton. A year later he took over the band and renamed it the Red Raven Orchestra after their regular performances at Hilbert’s Red Raven Inn. By 1938, Duchow and his band signed a contract with RCA Victor and toured in the Midwest.

By the 1940s, the Red Ravens were frequent guests on local radio stations like Appleton’s WHBY and scored several national hits. After the Second World War, Duchow invited a young local accordion prodigy, Dick Metko, to join the band. Metko began accordion lessons in Appleton when he was just seven years old. As a young teenager, he played routinely on WHBY and by his sophomore year in high school he started touring with Duchow. Often missing school to tour, Metko decided to return to Appleton and form his own band, the Komets, but later rejoined the Red Ravens after high school to record his most popular songs such as “Dick’s Polka.”

Most of the local polka scene ensued outside Appleton in rural communities that were heavily settled by European immigrants. Dance halls like Red Raven Inn and Romy’s Nitingale became popular destinations for concerts on Friday and Saturday nights. In Appleton, a popular dance hall was the Cinderella Ballroom, formerly located near the intersection of South Oneida and Calumet Streets. Of course, community festivals and church picnics were also popular polka venues.

What are your favorite memories of polka in the Fox Cities? Share your thoughts in the comment section. Join Tom Schneider and Scene newspaper in celebrating the area’s polka tradition by tuning in to WRJQ and visiting Dick Metko’s Fan Page on Facebook.

Let’s Polka!

Nick Hoffman, Curator

The History Museum is always looking to expand its collection to include the area’s polka history. Please consider donating dance costumes, band uniforms, and recordings, as well as memorabilia from local dance halls and supper clubs.

Image Studios Presents: “Progressive Appleton”

myhistorymuseum — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 23:10:02 +0000

The History Museum was alive last week with lights and cameras for a short film produced by Image Studios to help advertise the museum’s new exhibit, “Progressive Appleton: Through the Lens of W.D. Schlafer.” Please take a few moments to watch the video and then head down to the museum to see the exhibit in person.

Museum staff appreciate all of the media support provided by Image Studios to help develop the exhibit.

Thank you, again!

Nick Hoffman, Curator

PS. January is National Polka Month! Watch for a blog post this week about the area’s polka scene during the 1940s – 1960s.

“Newter Gingrich, Re-elect Clinton”

myhistorymuseum — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 23:38:18 +0000

Even the tiniest artifacts, like a political campaign button, can provide insight into an impassioned and occasionally downright nasty election cycle.

On Tuesday, Thomas McMillan stopped by unannounced with an incredible gift of nearly 600 political campaign buttons, representing almost every presidential election from William McKinley to George W. Bush. Additionally, and perhaps the best part, his collection encompasses many third-party candidates from Communists to Prohibitionists. Sometimes humorous or thought provoking, the buttons provide a glimpse into United States politics during the 20th Century.

As McMillan and I looked over his vast collection, he shared stories about how he began collecting and where he gathered some of the buttons. During college, McMillan majored in history and political science. Combining his two passions into his button collecting hobby seemed like a natural evolution. Starting over thirty years ago, McMillan amassed his collection by visiting political rallies, flea markets, antique stores, and conventions of the American Political Items Collectors.

My favorite collecting story that McMillan shared was from the 1976 presidential campaign. He attended a rally for Socialist candidate Frank Zeidler, who had served as Milwaukee’s mayor from 1948-1960. Unable to find a button during the rally, after the crowd began to disperse, McMillan approached Zeidler and asked him directly for a campaign button. Zeidler, who was always known for his generosity, took his button off his jacket and personally handed it to McMillan. That button, albeit worn only briefly by a candidate from a national party, was included in the donation.

McMillan said his favorite button was from the Wisconsin Young Democrat’s Annual Convention in 1933 that featured candidate Franklin D. Roosevelt. I found that it was too difficult to pick just one favorite from the collection. Here is a brief sampling of the buttons that I considered were among the most interesting in the collection.

Enjoy these quick snapshots of the History Museum’s new McMillan Collection.

Nick Hoffman, Curator

Wilmer at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition

myhistorymuseum — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:45:50 +0000

In our final “Curator’s Favorite” video, Project Curator Sarah Kapellusch discusses one of Wilmer D. Schlafer’s photographs from the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in 1904. Held in St. Louis, the World’s Fair tried to recapture the spirit and popularity of the Chicago Columbian Exposition in 1893. The fair even recycled parts from Chicago’s grandiose exhibit buildings and its enormous Ferris wheel. St. Louis is perhaps best known for popularizing new foods like cotton candy and for exhibits that displayed living indigenous peoples. Native inhabitants from places like the Philippines were exhibited to demonstrate their lifestyles, and many were forced to live in traditional housing for the fair’s duration.

You can learn more about the St. Louis Exposition by visiting this terrific website sponsored by the St. Louis Public Library. Several original films of the fair can be found on YouTube. I especially enjoy this video showing a parade of boats through the main canals. The terrace and buildings in the background are recognizable in Wilmer’s photograph collection.

Be sure to visit “Progressive Appleton” to view many of Wilmer’s snapshots from St. Louis.

Enjoy!

Nick Hoffman, Curator

Appleton’s First Flight

myhistorymuseum — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 17:42:49 +0000

What is your favorite photograph in the History Museum’s latest exhibit, “Progressive Appleton: Through the Lens of W.D. Schlafer?” Deputy Director Matthew Carpenter’s favorite is a series of W.D.’s photographs that documented the first human-controlled flight in Appleton. Watch this video to learn more about the flight and why Matthew selected this image.

Enjoy!

Nick Hoffman, Curator

We can’t all agree, can we?

myhistorymuseum — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 17:40:12 +0000

Trying to select one favorite photograph from the museum’s extensive W.D. Schlafer Collection is a difficult task. Last month I challenged the museum’s curatorial staff to pick their favorite photograph and explain why they made the selection. Finding a consensus is hard when the collection includes over 3,000 images of Appleton, Lake Winnebago, and family vacations throughout the United States between the years 1899 to 1920.

We never came to a consensus, but the reason why each curator made their pick, and the stories behind each photograph, are worth sharing. Enjoy these two short videos of Curator of Education Patty Wagner and I describing the photographs we selected.

Before “Progressive Appleton: Through the Lens of W.D. Schlafer” opens, I will share two other selections made by Curator of Collections Sarah Kapellusch and Deputy Director Matthew Carpenter. Your chance to select a favorite from the W.D. Schlafer Collection will occur when the exhibit is unveiled on November 15.

Enjoy!

Nick Hoffman, Curator