2009 events:

Fashion USA: The Birth of the American Fashion Industry

Date: June 2, 2009
Location: Oshkosh Public Library, Under the Dome

With a style show featuring featuring dozens of vintage dresses, suits and gowns from his collection, clothing historian Scott Jorgenson traced the fascinating story of the early years of American fashion, showcasing many of the most prominent designers of the 1940s through the 1970s.

Program sponsored by the Winnebago County Historical and Archaeological Society and the Oshkosh Public Library. Over 120 people enjoyed this free program.

March 26, 2009
Oshkosh Public Library, Under the Dome

WCHAS members & guests and the Public welcome to attend!

Celebrate Women's History Month with a special program held under the historic Dome of the Oshkosh Public Library. The Winnebago County Historical and Archaeological Society has partnered with the Library to host

Dr. Helen Bannan, retired director of  UW-O Women's Studies.  Dr. Bannan will bring to life Oshkosh's Jessie Jack Hooper who moved  to Oshkosh when she married Ben Hooper and lived on Algoma Street for the rest of her life.  The Hooper home was graciously opened for one of the Society's Annual Historic House Tours. Jessie Jack Hooper rose to prominence in Wisconsin civic reform groups and women's organizations. Jessie Jack Hooper, born in 1865, may have visited both the Library and Morgan House on numerous occasions!  Enjoy Dr. Bannan's lively interpretation and learn more about this fascinating Oshkosh woman at this free program.  For more information about the program, call 236-5214 or visit www.oshkoshpubliclibrary.org

Victorian Tea at the Morgan House

Saturday, October 25 and Sunday, October 26, 2008

Picture yourself seated at a tea table with friends in the perfect surroundings of an historic 1884 Victorian home on a lovely fall afternoon.  Enjoy the carefully-planned three course luncheon featuring delightful Victorian fare - complete with several choices of hot-brewed tea. Our theme for the event is Victorian Weddings and you'll learn about the Morgan daughters' house weddings during the 1880s. Dress any way you like - period style, vintage, contemporary -- with or without a hat!

Summer 2008 Events

New this summer -  Pie on the Porch

Fresh, homemade pie and coffee made by Society members and served on the Morgan House porch.  Nominal price.

New this summer - Private bottle collection on exhibit

Featured Morgan House exhibit beginning June 7th and continuing through the summer is the fascinating old bottle collection belonging to Matt Hostak.  Matt has unearthed hundreds of bottles including advertising bottles buried for more than one hundred years.  An intriguing medicine and tonic bottles collection, other vintage bottles, as well as marbles, china doll parts, doll dishes and spittoons, all excavated from Oshkosh sites. Many are beatifully colored and are in amazingly good condition.

Annual Historic Oshkosh Tour

Annual Historic Oshkosh Tour on Sunday, June 29, 2008 from Noon until 4:00 pm. Visit The Waters, located at the foot of Washington Avenue and known to many as the Legion on the Lake, which is undergoing historic restoration this spring.  Our two other fascinating tour stops are Washington Avenue homes:  1361 Washington Avenue, currently owned by Stephen and Anne Hintz, and 1222 Washington Avenue, currently owned by Hugh and Kat Hughes.   Cost is $15.00 for all 3 sites.   

Memorable 2007 Events:

"A Victorian Christmas at the Morgan House"
	Held Dec. 1, 2007 & Dec. 2, 2007

Originals By George, a Vintage Fashion Show

One of the Society's most exciting and well-attended programs, Originals By George, a Vintage Fashion Show, was held in March 2007.  This was the Society's retrospective tribute to the fashion design genious of Oshkosh's Geroge Procknow.gorgeous gowns and dresses designed "By George" for Sharon Singstock Bury, former Miss Oshkosh and Miss Wisconsin, were part of the fashion show held at the Grand Opera House.

Memorable 2006 & 2005 Events:

Celebrate the Holiday Season at the Morgan House

The Morgan House, the Queen Anne style Victorian home built in 1884 and headquarters of the Winnebago County Historical and Archaeological Society, will be open in December for tours of the home.  This year's theme for holiday decorations found throughout the home:  "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"

September 23, 2006

The Winnebago County Historical and Archaeological Society organized a day trip to Chicago via chartered coach.  Destination:  the new Millennium Park area of downtown Chicago.

Annual Historic Tour of Oshkosh
June 25, 2006

Visit the Lutz Home at 1449 Knapp Street.  This is an outstanding example of Richardsonian Romanesque architecture that was built in 1904.

Visit the Osborn House at 840 Osborn Avenue, which was built in 1844 and is the oldest home in Winnebago County.  You will see the original log cabin home encapsulated within the modern-day exterior.

Visit the Star Theater at 1124-28 Oregon Street, which has been completely restored to its 1894 origins.  The Theater is only one of two Oshkosh commercial structures that is Queen Anne in design. 

May 6, 2006

Downtown May Gallery Walk

All 50 photographs, matted and framed, for the "Our Town: scavenger hunt through downtown, will be on display at the Morgan House tonight, 234 Church Avenue. For more information on the the Gallery Walk or to participate in the contest, call 426-1970.  The Oshkosh Northwestern will feature clues every day for 50 days to coincide with the contest.  If you miss a clue, check the online Our Town gallery at www.thenorthwestern.com.

Tea is served at the Morgan House
By Sarah Owen
of The Northwestern, Posted April 22, 2006

     Tea is served. Gathered at a low table in the drawing room, ladies gossip and sip primly at their teas, dabbing red lips with crisp white linen. The table, clad in elaborate silver and the finest china, is a meeting place for high society, especially its women. Women such as Oshkosh's Mrs. Morgan. 

     Along with the Sawyers and the Paines, hers was part of the well-to-do upper class families in town. "This is the way they entertained," said Jane Westphal, vice president of the Winnebago County Historical Society. However, "there probably hasn't been a Victorian tea party in the house for a hundred years."

     That's about to change, though, as the Morgan House and the Historical Society invite Oshkosh to tea once again, Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 3 p.m. Says Westphal, it will be a very sophisticated tea, just like Morgans would've held, or the English hundreds of years earlier, when teatime first began.

     "The idea began amongst the aristocracy" in the early 1800s, said Christine Roth, UW-Oshkosh English professor. Anna Maria Stanhope would get hungry between meals, so the famished seventh duchess of Bedford began holding "low teas," a term coined from the low coffee tables they sat at that allowed for easy conversation. It's not to be confused with "high tea," which developed as teatime trickled down to working class citizens. High tea "was really indistinguishable from what we would call dinner," Roth said.

Sites of the Season:  December 3 & 4, 2005

The 7th Annual Sites of the Season in Oshkosh!  Sponsors included the Oshkosh Northwestern, Theda Care and site sponsors Citizens First Credit Union, VanVreede's, Festival Foods and a special thank you to Ben Franklin Crafts for sponsoring the Morgan House site for this special event!

"An Historic Cake Walk:"  Area pastry shops and bakeries dazzled and delighted visitors with their original cake creations made for this event -- Tamara's, Schoenbergers, Lasure's, Festival Foods and Copps provided visitors with delightful surprises. And, if that isn't enough, we also had:Refreshments! Guided Tours!  Our Popular Christmas Raffle! Decorated Trees - Including a Teddy Bear and Doll Theme Tree! First Public Showing of the Newly-Restored Upper Parlor -- Dedicated to Lynne Webster and the parlor was enhanced by Lynne's own collection of Christmas ornaments.

Special Event held September 10, 2005.  Over 400 people attended.

Concert was held in memory of local historians Lee & Eileen Weigert

1st Brigade Band  ~ free concert ~ September 10, 2005

The Winnebago County Historical and Archaeological Society proudly presented:

The 1st Brigade Band is the oldest re-created Civil War brass band, playing original music from the band books of the period on original antique instruments.

Leach Amphitheater, 303 Ceape Avenue, Oshkosh, WI
Find out more about the 1st Brigade Band at their web site

View our poster with all the details (pdf format)