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...

This military coat dates back to the 1840s and belonged to Morgan L. Martin.  Martin held several different posts in Green Bay including Indian Agent, Judge, and Captain of the Green Bay Rangers.  This is Martin’s Green Bay Ranger jacket. The preservation of this artifact is important not only because it belonged to Morgan L. Martin (1805-1887) but also because of its association with the Green Bay Rangers.   Martin came to Wisconsin in 1827 and became a prominent civic leader in the area.   In 1836, Governor of the Wisconsin Territory, Henry Dodge, created an organized militia.   Gov. Dodge claimed that there was danger in the defenseless borders of the territory and that there were threats of armed conflicts with natives.    He proposed that there should be one company of cavalry troops in each territorial county.    March 5, 1837 may have been the first commissioning of a Wisconsin militia field commander as Dodge designated Morgan L. Ma...

In the Generations Gallery, you can get lost in all the stories and artifacts between the mastodon and the 1908 Holsman Car. But the stories untold in the exhibit are even more remarkable. There is one storied blue military coat tucked in a drawer in the Exposed Collections wall. The story of the coat owner's fate is captivating.   Painting of Fort Howard from 1889 by B. Ostertac 189 years ago, Lt. Amos Foster was shot and killed by one of his own soldiers, Private Patrick Doyle.    In February 1832, Doyle was detained in the guardhouse for being drunk and disorderly.    Alcohol consumption was a real problem at Fort Howard, especially since part of the soldier’s rations included two gills of whiskey or rum (the equivalent of four shots today).    After a few days, on February 7, 1832, Doyle persuaded a guard to escort him to Lt. Foster’s quarters to talk to him.   After harsh words and a scuffle, Doyle stole the guard’s musket and killed Lt. Fo...

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....