Welcome, everybody, to Midday magazine for this Tuesday, April 15th, 2025.
Have your host, James J. May Laugh here.
In part two at 430 today, we're going to talk with CEO of your Knightaway of South
Williams County's Terry Johns.
Right now with us in studio is Alison Bruner.
She is a museum curator over at the South of County Historical Museum.
Alison, thank you so much for being here.
Thanks for having me.
One of the more important questions I'm going to ask you, Alison, did I say your last name
right?
You did.
I did.
I never get these right.
That's awesome.
Alison, we appreciate you joining us as we do, Phil, joining us whenever he gets a chance
to from the museum.
Say hi to him for us and everything.
We appreciate the work that you guys and your team over there does, preserving our history,
keeping our history alive in this area, along with giving people in this community something
fun to check out and enjoy.
And speaking of fun and enjoyable things, we're going to get into something in a second.
But, everybody, I did something a little mean to Alison here, and I apologize to her
and you guys.
I didn't start with this, Alison, whenever we have somebody join us for the first time,
we like to get to know them a little bit.
So can you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got involved with the remains
of society?
Or I'm sorry, with the Historical Museum?
Yeah, absolutely, James.
So actually this year marks my 10th year with the Historical Museum.
In 2015, I came on as an intern from Northland College.
I was born and raised here in this community, though, into school and port edwards.
New that the museum was always there, but hadn't been too involved.
But in 2015, I came along.
They knew that they wanted to help digitize some of their archives.
So I came in, helped scan, helped do some interviews, helped Dave Angle with our Historical
Magazine Artifacts.
So kind of started from there.
They very graciously allowed me to stay on, and I've been there since.
And now with our previous administrators' retirements, I've now moved into the curator
role.
So it's kind of been some new changes, but we're excited for the future.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
And they got somebody good in that position.
It's great to, first off, the work that you and the team there have been doing.
I've enjoyed for many years.
I'm a history nerd.
I love history.
But I know that this area really loves history, too.
There's a pride that comes from it.
There's a, along with, I think, just a natural curiosity sometimes, too.
But being able to have something like that in town that's so well done and so well
preserved and everything is really unique for this area, and it really adds to the luxury,
the beauty, the culture of this area.
But I am curious, too, especially since, you know, I'm usually, when I'm talking to
Phil about this, one of the things that's always interesting to me is the stuff that they're
able to find in the history we've been able to preserve.
For you, immediately think of, well, the modern tech that we're able to use to preserve
this history is got to be really, like, game-changing, and really help with, like, the
what you and the team over there trying to do.
Absolutely.
Yeah, you're right on there.
So the Historical Society formed in 1955.
We weren't in our building until 1970, and the exhibit's opened in 1972.
But with the use of our scanners, all things digital these days, we really can kind of
preserve and protect all of the items that have been donated to us over the years.
And specifically, in recent years, it's been really fun coordinating with schools.
We're, like, we're looking for primary sources.
Can you help us out?
And it's always a really good day when you can help them out that way.
One of my first field trips when I moved out here was to the museum, and I'll never
forget it.
Yeah.
It's a great one.
I encourage any schools out there, any teachers, anybody left, they're listening, ball
with schools.
Please reach out to the Historical Museum and get the kids over there.
Let's talk about the Lara Ingalls Wilder exhibit that is going on right now over at the
museum.
It's going till April 30th.
We've got some other parts that this will want to touch on later with the speaker presentation.
But for the exhibit itself, who is this about, tell the audience who it's about necessarily
and what is a part of the exhibit.
And I admit that I'm saying this and I imagine 90 some percent of the audience knows who
Lara Ingalls is.
But for those that might not.
Right.
So Lara Ingalls holds a very special place in a lot of people's hearts.
She was born in Peppin, Wisconsin, which is on the border of the Mississippi River.
She and her family traveled from here to, let me double check my notes here, to Kansas,
Minnesota, Iowa, and she eventually ended up in South Dakota.
But this was also the same time frame she was born in 1867, where with her family traveling
westward, it's the story of Western expansion, families pioneer spirit, very, very integral
moment in our country's history.
And it's very integral.
Students are still learning about it in school today.
We just had a second grade tour from Hunky Elementary and Nekusa Cummins.
So it's been fun having people come through.
We've already had over 700 people.
So it comes to us courtesy of the Lara Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum and the
Missouri Humanities Council from Mansfield, Missouri.
Very cool.
And thank you to them and I love these traveling exhibits.
They're always really interesting, but they don't always have the local ties that this
one does.
Right.
It's really unique that her life is incredible unique.
And the lives of people at that time are so interesting and unique and I find inspiring.
I don't know how you almost can't be inspired by reading about her or reading about some
of the things that she did and others did at that time.
Absolutely.
And it's noteworthy too.
This exhibit took a little bit to get here and we appreciate the extra work that the
delivery people did and everything to get it here to hear the success of it is really
rewarding.
That's really nice to hear.
Yeah.
It's been really fun with an nostalgia of her.
We've had older people, children, middle, she's really someone for every age group and
that's been really fun to see.
It's brought in a lot of people who maybe didn't even know the museum is there and available
to the public.
So it's been a really nice outreach for us.
Allison, I can tell you and Phil have worked together for a while because this is something
that Phil touches on and I always appreciate the acknowledgement of this.
We don't do anybody any favors by using kid gloves with some of these things.
People don't go to museums enough and especially on a local level.
We want to get people to them.
These exhibits are a huge way of doing that.
I hope it also encourages people to visit even when there isn't an exhibit there or something
like that.
Doing this is preserving your history.
It's preserving all of it and it's helping them keep the museum around and alive and everything.
You're a part of that when you take in these exhibits.
And part of that is also on social media sharing these things on your page.
You just don't know who might see these things otherwise and some of that.
There's lots of ways that you can help out the library.
We'll give you other opportunities maybe a little bit later, but spreading the word about
this stuff goes so far.
And her book was gigantic and obviously created the show.
A little house in the big woods was her book and turned into a little house on the prairie.
So that part of it is really fun for people too, I would imagine just checking that out.
What kind of items are there as a part of this exhibit?
Yeah, so it's a panel display that's tabletop so it's a little smaller but very good information.
If you have little ones with you, there's some activity sheets that you can fill your
wagon.
You're covered wagon.
What are you taking out west with them?
Is there an age limit on that?
Just asking for a friend.
No, no, no.
We got plenty.
So you bring in everyone.
We got them.
Excellent.
It's a really fun idea too, especially as much as we have fun and we love learning about
these things, it really on the kid level.
It's great for them to register this stuff, remember it and those little quizzes that
they fill out oftentimes can do a lot of that.
So it's fun and it helps them learn.
Which they don't necessarily really realize, but that's awesome.
That's great.
Yeah.
Are there any photographs or things like that that are there as well as part of this?
So there's some photos that are also involved with the panels, but it's all pretty self-contained
in there.
A little fun bit that we added to bring a little bit more to the exhibit is we have an extensive
quilt collection at the museum and there's that other nostalgic nod about quilts and
home-stepping pioneer history.
So a couple of names on there that some people have noticed.
Very cool.
Along with all of this and it is already amazing in a fun time.
But then coming up in next week, we're going to have a special presentation over there.
Yes.
So the last Sunday of April, the 27th at 2 p.m., we have a Lynn Urban coming to the South
Wood County Historical Museum.
Her and her husband live in Racine, Wisconsin, but she has been a lifelong fan of all things.
For our Ingalls, she volunteers a lot of her time at the Ingalls Museum in Peppin, Wisconsin.
So she's given presentations for many a year and we're very gracious and happy that she'll
be joining us.
She really knows your stuff.
I was reading a little bit about her and her husband and the work that they do there.
You can very similar to, I would say to the audience, meeting you right away.
Just in seeing some of the little bit of footage that I did of her and everything right away,
you can see she has a passion and a love for this and something else that it occurred
to me talking to her and even talking with you right now, Ellsson, is the pride that
you're taking this, the genuine curiosity and pride at the same time that you're taking
these things, whether when you're learning them or you're telling people about them.
Lynn has got a really great way of doing that too.
She's a good presenter, she's a good talker and that's going to be a really fun one.
Nice of her to do this.
Yeah, absolutely.
And is this something that people need to register for or anything like that?
Is there a charge or anything?
No, so this is open to any and everybody.
No charge, we just ask that you arrive a little bit early so Lynn can get started right
away at two.
That's a good idea.
Yeah.
And you get a good seat.
Absolutely.
And again, thank you to her for coming to town here and doing this because this is one
of the things that I learned moving to Wisconsin is how the pride that Wisconsinites take
in Wisconsin.
And most states have that and everything, but it's different here.
And there's a different level of that pride.
And then when you add on top of that, people like it made good, like Laura Ingalls or somebody
like that that has local ties to the state or something, that pride that enjoyment just
times 50, you know, it just really increases.
So to have somebody an exhibit like this in town is really cool and I'm thinking about
this from an adult perspective a lot.
But when you brought up the kids, it brought up something else to me.
And one of the other reasons why we encourage people in kids to attend museums and stuff.
And my grandfather was really good about history and have me read books and I was way too
young to be reading, but was reading them.
But the thing that really hit home got me to love history forever for the rest of my
life was going to the Chicago Museum and the Natural History Museum and checking that out
as a little kid and getting to see that and everything.
It set a spark off in me that the rest of my life, I'm chasing history and wanting
to learn more and more about it.
I go down rabbit holes every weekend when it comes to some finding across this little
kernel of information that go all the way down on us.
It's something that the kids attending the lower Ingalls exhibit or just having them
attend the museum.
You just don't know what spark might happen in them and they could end up being somebody
like Allison or I or somebody like that that falls in love with history and maybe a whole
new career path or something.
We can always use more people in this industry, more people to care about our history and
to keep it alive.
Absolutely.
It takes a lot of passion.
So we always enjoy when students come through and especially if there are little ones in
particular, if they've never been there before, you know, that we're in the 1907 winter
mansion right on the Wisconsin River.
It's a beautiful old building so to see their expressions as they first come through
that they're wowed not only by the building, but then Phil Brown is our tour guide and
as he takes them through when they see the names and things that have happened in their
community and they can take some pride in that.
What I wouldn't give for Phil's voice.
God he's got a good voice.
He does.
He does.
He does.
I wish I was half as good as he was.
One of the things that is really cool about all these things that Ells and I are talking
about all that on top of it, it's two minutes away.
Wherever your listening to us, everybody, it's two minutes away from you.
So I mean, that part is really nice too and something that happens to me and I don't
feel it all the time, but this happens a lot when I'm reading American history is there's
something that like I get down with an article or something like that and there's a pride
that I feel.
There's also an inspiration like what these individuals went through or what have you
and everything.
And here I am in 2025 and I'm frustrated with this and it kind of sets things in perspective
a little bit.
I always appreciate any time in life we get that opportunity to have some perspective.
And I bring up with this in part because I wanted to touch on another exhibit that's
coming up in May with you and it involves, well, I love world history and I think it's
really interesting.
There's nothing that pulls me in like American history.
I'm a homer.
I admit it.
But it's fascinating and there's nothing like it in the whole world and we're going
to be talking about that a little bit in May as you guys have this great exhibit coming
up in May.
Yeah.
So in May we have becoming the United States colonial America to reconstruction.
This display is a panel exhibit provided by the Gilder Learment Institute of American
History.
We've had a few displays from them in the past and we've had wonderful feedback.
So this exhibit in particular is geared especially for a younger audience.
So it's getting a first taste of American history from our early colonial days to a little
bit after the Civil War and our reconstruction.
Again, this is how you get them.
You get them young.
You get them interested young and everything.
But it's also something that they're going to be able to really take some pride in and
also enjoy men in and find interesting.
I think that not only is it good and beneficial for them, this is such an angolan things that
we don't always get.
That's where I think a lot of museums really come into play.
People have a lot on their plate.
They're trying to get so much information to you, especially when it comes to history.
There's going to be stuff that gets kind of missed or not missed, but it can't be included
because it's time-sensitive.
You only have so much time with these kids and everything.
I think museums are really good at covering those bases and the things that weren't able
to maybe come up in school or maybe even a college course or something.
Right.
You're able to really get and cover those and this exhibit is such a really focus on that
and giving you stories and angles on this that you might not have heard otherwise about
this important time in our history.
Absolutely.
And a unique person about this display is its use of primary sources.
So when we're talking all things, history, primary sources are your letters, your diaries,
your photographs, the things that happen in the moment that document it.
So it's always fun to talk history.
It's always changing, but when you have those primary documents that kind of set the
scene, you examine who wrote this, what's their background, everyone has a little bit of
a different take.
So it's kind of bringing in all those sides and teaching our young ones how to delve
into history in that manner.
And the more unique perspectives we have, the more we really get an understanding and hopefully
an empathy of what it was like and what it is, while also again being inspired and having
some perspective of, wow, they can do this, I can do this, whatever that might be.
And just interesting.
Yeah.
That's really cool.
Looking forward to that when it gets closer, we'll be talking about it and making sure
that people hear about it and attend.
I do want to, real quickly, just mention working warriors, military life beyond combat, that
is coming up in July, you're going to have to come back, Alison, you're going to have
to come back and talk about this.
All right, we can do that.
Just warning about that.
But yeah, because that's another great exhibit and it will tell you how you can find out
more about these in a moment, but we did want to mention a couple of things real quick
before we let Alison go.
And for those that don't know out there, there's a membership available with our Historical
Museum.
They not only can really help the Historical Museum, but give you some fun plans I had.
Yeah, absolutely.
I want to touch on that a little bit.
Yeah, so we have our membership for the Southwood County Historical Museum.
You can either stop in person or we now have payments online option.
So it's $50 a year.
We receive issues of our Historical Magazine artifacts where we dive into some individuals,
some place history, a little bit of everything.
We also give you, we have, we just started this year.
Members only reception for our opening of our exhibit season.
We're also going to be doing a reception for the Christmas tree walk.
So we're always looking to add some more things, some more benefits, but we really enjoy
everyone who can support us and we're always looking for ways to grow our community.
It's, those are all really nice bonuses.
Those are pluses right there.
When you, when you're, do something like this everybody, you're not just helping the Historical
Museum and everything, but you're, you're making an investment, you're, you're making an
investment in our community in the future of our community while preserving the past.
And it's something that not only for us to enjoy, but for our kids, kids to enjoy and
keep around and everything, I'm, I encourage you to do that and also encourage you to sign
up for their newsletter.
It's another great way to talk about a, a read up on some of the things that Ellison and
I have been talking about and even other future things that they have coming up, do a really
nice deep dive into some of this stuff as well.
So it's a really fun and interesting newsletter.
You can become a member.
You can sign up for the newsletter.
All of this at SW, SWCH dot museum dot com, that's SWCH dash museum dot com.
And Ellison, um, before we let you go, is there anything else you wanted to touch on
the, uh, but, uh, wrap it up.
Um, I just, as we were talking speaker presentations, another one for people to keep in mind, uh,
we just finalized this.
So this is the first time it's kind of being shared.
We love breaking.
Yes.
So it's going to be Sunday, June 1st.
We have Brett Barker, a professor at UW SP, who's also the chair of the history department
there.
Uh, I contacted him and this is his area of expertise.
So he's loves all things, uh, civil war and the Wisconsin experience.
So we're very fortunate to have him.
We're finalizing some details about the presentation, but we know it'll be on June 1st at 2 p.m.
Wonderful.
Um, another one that we'll have to promote and talk about and we'll be doing that on
our morning show and that and maybe have even back, uh, he, uh, I, I don't know him
or anything, but knowing a little bit about him and in that department over there, they're,
they got some great brains over there.
They do.
They're real get.
That's a really nice, uh, presentation.
That's somebody really fun to be able to bring in and again, really knows the stuff in
a great speaker I imagine to, you know, you don't get that position not being good at
it.
So that's really cool.
Thank you for sharing that.
Absolutely.
When is that day to that again?
June 1st.
Okay.
June 1st.
We will be talking about it, leading it up to it and make sure that you guys get a good
crowd.
Um, Alison, really fun hanging out with you, getting to know you a little bit and, uh,
you're joining us.
I, I do apologize.
You did too good of a job that means you have to come back.
That's all right.
It's been a pleasure and we look forward to being back.
If people have follow up questions, if they'd like to know more about some of the things
we talked about, is there a way to reach you?
Yes.
So my email is Alison, ALI, S-O-N, at southwoodcountyhistory.org.
It's a long one, but it's also on our website.
It's worth it.
Yes.
You can go to the website and, uh, be able to find it.
That's a little bit easier for you, everybody.
Again, that is SWCH-museum.com SWCH-museum.com.
Be sure to follow the historical museum on social media as well, as I was saying earlier,
as these events come up and they've got a lot of great stuff lined up, everybody.
You're able to share it on your page and you just never know who might see that stuff
that wouldn't have otherwise.
So we encourage you to do that.
Keep, uh, keep supporting our, uh, wonderful friends over the south of the county historical
museum.
Alison, thanks again for the time.
Thank you.
Say hi to Phil and the game for us, all right?
I will.
Uh, we will take a time out.
We'll come back and we'll have some more fun right here on 97-5 FM, 13-20 AM, WF-8
chart.
We are locally grown radio.
