DCHS RECEIVES STATE AWARD

On August 26th Wisconsin Historical Society President, Ellsworth Brown visited DCHS to present this year’s exhibit award for “Superior: The Making of a Labor Town.”  Exhibit scholars, Richard Hudelson and Joel Sipress were in attendance and also acknowledged as Dr. Brown stressed the importance of telling historic stories, “I am just struck by a community that has such a powerful and difficult labor history and has been willing to do this kind of thing that I am sure engenders discussions and thoughts and stories.”  This is DCHS’ second award for the exhibit, the first given last April from the Wisconsin Labor History Society. 

From l-r: DCHS Pres., Valerie Burke, WHS Pres., Ellsworth Brown, DCHS Director, Kathy Laakso

The award was given for DCHS' exhibit on Superior's labor movement. With the help of labor experts, including Dick Huddelson and Joel Sipress, the exhibit focuses on major labor strikes and the people who instigated them. Among them, many Finns and Jews who lived in the North End of Superior lead the cause, with the Finnish newspaper, Tyomies serving as a means to promote the ideas of the working class and advocating socialism, cooperatives and labor unions. The Tyomies Society founded the newspaper in 1903 in Worcester, Massachusetts, moving to Hancock, Michigan in 1904 and to Superior in 1914, where it remained until 1998. Archival material and photos from the Superior office are now held in the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. If anyone in Superior has any more photos or information about labor strikes or from Tyomies, we'd appreciate your sharing them with us. If you feel you cannot donate them, please consider letting us scan them for our archives. This exhibit is a permanent exhibit at the museum on 1101 John Ave.

This exhibit inspired an original theatrical production called, "The Strike," which is based on a 1913 labor strike at the Great Northern Railway ore docks in Allouez in Superior.  The headlines of the Superior Telegram's front page screamed, "Ore Dock Men Quit Work When Fellow Laborers Are Crushed Beneath Cars."  Two men were killed;  others were injured.  Most of the men were of Finnish descent.  A two week strike began, which involved the controversial International Workers of the World.  When the strike ended, the newspaper headlines read, "Great Northern Bars Finn Laborers from Ore Docks in Future."  At the time of this strike, laborers had no protection against the industrial giants who took advantage of the thousands of immigrants arriving in America to make a new life for themselves.  The Industrial Workers of the World, an industrial union that was founded in 1905 and was opposed to the craft unionism of the American Federation of Labor, provided guidance and organization to this segment of workers.  The Finns identified with its fight for human rights and socialistic leanings.  However, the I.W.W.'s radical anti-capitalist politics created an atmosphere of fear and animosity among the large corporations, and the Finns' continued involvement with it gave them a reputation for causing trouble.  The Wagner Act of 1935 finally guaranteed workers the right to form unions and bargain collectively.

 "The Strike" was performed when the exhibit opened in September, 2007 and again in July, 2008 during FinnFest.

l-r: Tom House,Len Joyal, Gary Reed, Paul Colby

Wes Cowan at DCHS!

If you watch our PBS TV station on Channel 8, you probably have seen this guy's face on Antique's Roadshow and the History Detectives.  We had a chance to see him in person here at DCHS in September 2006 when Wes presented "The Adventures of a Real-Life History Detective."  Offering his unique perspective on the evolving role of archival institutions and the role they play in maintaining historical records, Cowan also shared some of his interesting adventures.  A question and answer session followed his speech.

Wes Cowan is founder and owner of Cowan's Auctions, Inc. in Cincinnati, Ohio.  An internationally recognized expert in Historic Americana, Wes is licensed as an auctioneer in Ohio and holds a BA and MA in anthropology from the University of Kentucky, with a PhD in anthropology from the University of Michigan.

We met Wes last year when we asked him to come and take a look at our David Barry photo and artifact collection of North Dakota Sioux Indians, which he evaluated.  This visit from Wes left us wondering about the state of public history.  With programs like Antiques Roadshow and marketing tools like Ebay, is our history going into the hands of wealthy people?  On the other hand, museums of all sizes are feeling the pinch of funding cuts and face the difficulty of caring for our historic artifacts.  For these reasons Wes strongly emphasized the importance of supporting your local historical society.