The Neville Blog

One of the things we are excited about for the Generations Gallery going forward is that the space allows us to make changes and rotate artifacts.  The exhibit opened in August 2020, and we are excited to share we opened our first new rotation last week!  The first rendition of the Art section featured Nature in Art.   Now we are rotating in Portraits.   These depictions of people from all different time periods and backgrounds are all from the Neville Public Museum’s collection.   You might even recognize a few artist or sitters.   Here are 5 things you want to look for!   Fear George Catlin George Catlin (1796-1872), well-known for his paintings of Native Americans, drew a series of self-portraits in 1821. They found their way to Green Bay through his nephew, Theodore Burr Catlin. George Catlin did the self-portraits at night, before a mirror, simulating facial expressions of various emotions. The drawings all have similar facial outlines...

“December 7, 1941 A Date Which Will Live in Infamy” – President Franklin D. Roosevelt The United States entered World War II after a devastating attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese on December 7, 1941. The war affected everyday life in the United States, this wedding dress is one example. Katherin Pierick Williams wore this dress when she married U.S. Navy photographer Alan North Williams just three weeks after the attack.   Williams was at Pearl Harbor during the attacks. He survived and even took photographs of the events. The dress is part of the Neville Public Museum’s collection and the photographs are cared for by the Wisconsin Historical Society. You can see the two together and more stories like this in “Guns and Gowns” open through February 2021. This war changed the entire structure of the fashion industry.   Paris fell to the Germans in 1940 and no longer inspired American and British designers.   Britain, feeling the harsh effects of the war, struggle...

Each year the museum puts together holiday displays from our collection of figurines that once decorated the windows at H.C. Prange Co. in downtown Green Bay. Dolls of Christmas Past are displayed in vignettes on our stage and Snow Babies play outside our gift shop.  One thing you may have noticed in recent years is that the museum decided not to have our dolls move.  After extensive review of the dolls’ conditions the decision as made to not plug them in for a variety of reasons.  As with all our exhibits, when they are completed we inventory and do condition reports before returning the artifacts back to storage. After Holiday Memories in 2016, we did an extensive condition report of the artifacts. In looking closely we discovered evidence of stress. Piles of rust at the feet of some of the figures are a clue that something was happening internally that we cannot see on the outside. Rust is caused by corrosion, a natural process where metal is gradually destroyed....

Last year the museum debuted its exhibit “Guns and Gowns: 200 Years of Fashion and Firearms.” Our women’s fashion collection is expansive dating back to the late 1700s (you can see these dresses in the exhibit too).   While we have a lot of pieces representing fashion in the late 19th century and 20th century, pieces representing the rest of the 19th century are selective.   We do not have many dresses in this mid-19th century style with the hoop skirt.  When we came across the dress with the signature silhouette, plaid silk, and puffy sleeve design, we knew we wanted to find a way to exhibit it.  The dress was donated by Josephine Buchanan Lenfestey in the 1990s. Because of its condition it has not been exhibited since its donation.  The decision was made to send this dress off for conservation to the Midwest Arts Conservation Center in Minneapolis.  Due to the amount of work the dress needed we were aware the dress wouldn’t be ready for the open...

1. He’s not a Woolly Mammoth Stompy is a mastodon, but what’s the difference?   For starters mastodon tusks were less curved than a mammoth's. Mastodon teeth were different from a mammoth’s as well.   Why was that?   Because Mastodons lived in swampy areas and chewed on branches and shrubs.   Mammoths grazed on grasses in open plains. You can see the difference between the two species teeth just behind Stompy in the exhibit!   2. His fur is made of cow tails Stompy is covered in 1,500 cow tails!   The cow tails were washed, bleached, and colored before being adhered to his body.   This was done by the artist to achieve the look of shaggy curly hair which would’ve helped him stay warm at the end of the last Ice Age. Photo taken in 1983 right after the diorama was installed for the new museum.   3. He sheds… so please don’t pet the mastodon   Stompy is now 37 years old!   Over the years he lost some of his hair but who would...