DCHS sets History Sundays, wins award

Our History Sundays are back for another season. Our 2011-2012 series’ programs will celebrate Tower Avenue, complementing our new museum exhibit, “Open ‘til 9:00: Thursday Nights on Tower.”

Our first ever “Liquid History Pub Crawl,” an offshoot of the first History Sunday talk of the year, takes place in downtown Superior this Sunday. Join us for a walking tour of some of our downtown favorites: VIP, Capri, Who’s Bar, The Main, Norm’s, Third Base and Mr. Lucky’s. Many of the buildings that house these bars actually began with other careers and hold wonderful history, which will be featured on the walking tour along with a sample at each pub. Tours begin at DCHS, 1101 John Ave. Choose your favorite time slot: 4 p.m., 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets are $20 and are available at DCHS and at all VIP locations: 1201 Tower Ave., 1830 East 8th Street, Duluth, and 3901 Grand Avenue, Duluth.

Continuing the theme of Tower Avenue, future History Sundays will feature “Guenard’s Candy Store” by Greg Guenard on Oct. 9, a panel of mayors past and present, discussing “Issues of Revitalizing Downtown Superior” on Nov. 13, “Fires on Tower Avenue” by Dave Johnson on Jan. 8, “Mrs. Morgan Murphy and the Evening Telegram” by Mary Murdoch on Feb. 12, and rounding out the series will be “Take a Trolley Downtown,” by Aaron Isaacs on March 11. All History Sundays begin at 2 p.m. on the second Sunday of the month, at the DCHS Building, 1101 John Ave. Admission is $3, free to DCHS members. The November Mayor’s panel will have free admission. Refreshments will be served at all programs.

DCHS is proud to announce that it has been awarded the Wisconsin Historical Society’s annual Public Program award for last year’s exhibit, “Central High: What in the James J. Hill was Going On Here?” The exhibit, which was partially funded by the Wisconsin Humanities Council, celebrated the historical high school in time for the all-school Central High reunion with a nod to the large statue of Great Northern Railway president, James J. Hill that stood in front of it. Complementing the exhibit was a play based on Central High’s beloved teacher Lulu Dickinson called “Strike for Dickie: The People vs the Board of Education,” and the book, “Central A to Z: The History of a Superior School.” Ellsworth Brown, the Ruth and Hartley Barker Director of the Wisconsin Historical Society, will be presenting the award on Nov. 13, before the History Sunday program begins.

Donations for our July and August Adopt-A-Day program came from Alma Sandahl on July 25 in memory of her 48 years – 1934-1982 - with her husband Leonard Carlson, and Edwin Johnson on Aug. 28. For $100. you can “adopt a day” in your name, as tribute to or memorial for a loved one, or in honor of an event. This will help DCHS continue its mission and ensure that we are here to serve citizens of Douglas County.

When DCHS hosted two Upward Bound intern students, Bri Maranell from St. Scholastica and Jennifer O’Reilly from Lake Superior College had the opportunity to see the day-to-day operations of a historical society and museum. Of great help to our organization and to their intern experience was their involvement with our downtown exhibit. They searched for photos and helped with preparing the cases for the exhibit. Their primary project was to create a video piece called “The Wonders of Douglas County,” to play on a TV monitor in the downtown exhibit. They picked 10 “wonders”, including the Davidson Windmill and the waterfront grain elevators, researched information about them and found photos. They wrote a letter and made follow-up calls to several businesses asking for support to purchase a TV monitor. Murphy Oil donated funds to purchase the TV and DCHS member JoAnn Stack donated money to buy a DVD player. DCHS thanks the Upward Bound program, Bri and Jen, JoAnn Stack and Murphy Oil for their part in this wonderful project that will go on to educate students and the public about Douglas County.

The Douglas County Historical Society is located at 1101 John Ave. To contact us, please email us at dchs@douglashistory.org or call us at 715-392-8449.

Tags: community, books, family