Need a break this weekend? Visit the Hoard Historical Museum in Fort Atkinson (401 Whitewater Avenue)! It’s open Tues through Sat, 9:30am-4:30pm. It’s free, but of course a modest donation would be most welcome.
There’s something there for nearly everyone, including the National Dairy Shrine collection and exhibits; an exhibit on the poet Lorine Niedecker; information about Lincoln, Black Hawk, and Hoard (founder of the Hoard’s Dairyman); the “Bird Room” containing birds mounted by naturalist Thure Kumlein and taxidermist Walter Pelzerand; and a new exhibit, “Mysteries of the Mounds.” You can read a description of the Hoard on page 7 of the Jan./Feb. 2012 issue of Columns: The Newsletter of the Wisconsin Historical Society. The web site can tell you when events are taking place, such as garden education programs, art exhibitions, and programs on historical topics.
Also available during museum hours is the Knox Research Library and Archive, which contains “primary documents, personal and business records, photographs, maps, newspapers, and published materials that are of historical significance to the Fort Atkinson area.” Consult the web site for restrictions on the use of these materials and costs.
This can spark your interest in local history and whet your appetite for additional information!
For example, you can read more about Thure Kumlien in the Wisconsin Magazine of History by searching for his name on the publication’s web site. Andersen Library also has this magazine in the 1st-floor Bound Periodicals collection. The Library also has his biography, Thure Kumlien, Koshkonong: Naturalist, in Special Collections (1st-floor, call no. QH31 .K85 M34x), which is open M-F from 9am-4:30pm. You can always ask a librarian for help finding materials on taxidermy, Black Hawk’s War, Lorine Niedecker, and more!
Andersen Library is a federal and Wisconsin depository library with many federal and state government documents on a variety of current and relevant issues available to you. Columns, the bimonthly newsletter of the Wisconsin Historical Society, is available in print in the 2nd-floor Wisconsin Documents Collection at Wis HIS 4/3:. Come check out your government at Andersen Library!
