COLLECTION RESIDES

Currently in the conservation lab, contracted conservator, Craig Deller, is cleaning and restoring six chromolithographs from the 1870s that were rescued from the basement of a private home in Milwaukee. Here, Deller is cleaning an oxidized linseed oil layer to brighten the chromolithographs of Admiral David Farragut. In the background is a restored portrait of General William T. Sherman. The restored pieces will be installed in the G.A.R. hearing room at the Wisconsin State Capitol, which is the original location of the Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Hall, the precursor to the Wisconsin Veterans Museum.

As time marches on and the gallery space at 30 W. Mifflin St. remains the same size as it was in 1993, the space at the SAPF becomes increasingly important to the future of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum. Most museums of our size exhibit about 20% of their total collection. The Wisconsin Veterans Museum currently exhibits just 3%. Without the space at the SAPF to house its collections, the museum would run out of room to properly care for the items entrusted to it, let alone continue to have the ability to bring in the collections of recent service members.

A visit to the current Wisconsin Veterans Museum impresses visitors for certain. Behind these exhibits are hundreds of additional stories locked away in the SAPF. The SAPF enables the museum staff to continue to collect stories of our veterans and care for their historic archival pieces and artifacts. Being able to publicly tell the stories of a wider array of our veterans in a new purpose-built museum is the next logical step to honoring the service of all our veterans and encouraging an intelligent love of country for the next generation.