MUSEUM REGISTRAR

Sarah says, “I appreciate not being limited to a single collection or focus area. I also like the challenge that sometimes comes with determining the best way to present an item to the public; cleaning and preparing items for exhibit while maintaining the history of a piece.”

As the Wisconsin Veterans Museum Registrar, Sarah Kapellusch oversees all the potential donations that are offered to the museum. This oversight includes recording paperwork, shooting photographs, writing condition reports, and making recommendations to the museum collection committee. Sarah is devoted to preserving the objects that tell our veterans’ stories from managing the object conservation program to handling the collections database.

Although she is not a veteran herself, she enjoys working with veterans and their families to help them tell their stories and share their experiences during service. She particularly enjoys the Civil War diaries in the collection and learning about the Civil War through the eyes of the veterans that served.

Sarah thinks her position is unique in that she gets to work with everything that comes into the museum collections.

On the downside, Sarah says, “While we appreciate every item and every story that is offered to us, we cannot accept everything. I may contact a donor to turn down a donation offer because something is out of scope, lacks a Wisconsin connection, is already represented in the collection, or because sometimes we recognize that we may not be able to care for something because of its condition or inherent vice. It is not easy to tell someone that we can’t accept their donation to the collection because we truly do value the veteran, their story, and the items that are offered to us, and we are grateful for the opportunity to hear the stories.”

If you stop in to visit Sarah, be sure to make a racket before entering the room, she’s a huge fan of true-crime podcasts. We don’t recommend startling her.

By: Jennifer Stevenson Sr. Marketing Specialist