Mere steps through glass doors of the former store where State Street meets Capitol Square sits a stunning white gown fashioned from a nylon parachute that saved the life of an Eau Claire native in World War II.
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The Wisconsin Veterans Museum at the top of Capitol Square offers stories of veterans from the Civil War through the present day. But the museum has outgrown its space and hopes to create a new facility on the same site.
Chris Kolakowski, director at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, left, and Kevin Hampton, curator of history, display the 24th Wisconsin’s flag from the Battle of Missionary Ridge in 1863, in storage at the State Archive Preservation Facility. The story of Lieutenant Arthur MacArthur's cry “On Wisconsin," who seized the flag and led the unit forward, inspired both the state song and the fight song of UW-Madison.
A rendering of the proposed $140 million Wisconsin Veterans Museum at 30 W. Mifflin St. The new facility would give the museum more room to display its collection.
The Grand Army of the Republic Memorial Hall located in the State Capitol Building, in 1903. Rosea Rood, Civil War veteran and the first caretaker of the GAR Memorial Hall is seated amid portraits of comrades, battle flags of Wisconsin regiments, the remains of Old Abe the eagle and other items.
The Wisconsin Veterans Museum has occupied the lower floors of this 10-story building for three decades.
A UH-1 Iroquois or “Huey” helicopter hangs over the Vietnam war exhibit space at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum.
The jacket of Russell C. Meartz, of Appleton, with the U.S. Army Air Forces from 1944. Each bomb represents a completed mission.
Craig Deller restores chromolithographs, prints from an oil painting, from the 1870s at the State Archive Preservation Facility. They were of Adm. David Farragut and Gen. William T. Sherman and are part of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum collection. They will be displayed at the State Capitol.
Brittany Strobel, processing archivist for the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, talks about the files from 1968 donated by Ray Stubbe, at the State Archive Preservation Facility.
Photos: Wisconsin Veterans Museum
A portrait of Majil Steiner, of Eau Claire, wearing a dress she made from a silk parachute that saved her husband Dick Steiner’s life after he was shot down in 1944 while serving with the 40th Bomb Group in the Pacific, is on display at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison, Wis., Monday, April 24, 2023. Majil Steiner sent the photo to her husband in India, and he carried it with him the rest of his tour. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
A UH-1 Iroquois or “Huey” helicopter hangs over the Vietnam war exhibit space at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum.
The Wisconsin Veterans Museum has occupied the lower floors of this 10-story building for three decades.
The jacket of Russell C. Meartz, of Appleton, with the U.S. Army Air Forces from 1944. Each bomb represents a completed mission.
Chris Kolakowski, director at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, gives a tour of the Civil War gallery, including a replica of “Old Abe,” at right, a bald eagle that was a mascot with the 8th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry during the Civil War in Madison, Wis., Monday, April 24, 2023. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
The Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Madison, Wis., Monday, April 24, 2023. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
The Wisconsin Veterans Museum at the top of Capitol Square offers stories of veterans from the Civil War through the present day. But the museum has outgrown its space and hopes to create a new facility on the same site.
Brittany Strobel, processing archivist for the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, talks about the files from 1968 donated by Ray Stubbe, at the State Archive Preservation Facility.
Kevin Hampton, curator of history at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, displays drawers of artifacts in storage at the State Archive Preservation Facility in Madison, Wis., Monday, May 1, 2023. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
Kevin Hampton, curator of history at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, shows a field desk used by Captain Jacob Roby of the 10th Wisconsin Infantry during the Civil War, in storage at the State Archive Preservation Facility in Madison, Wis., Monday, May 1, 2023. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
Chris Kolakowski, director at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, displays a WWII blood chit jacket in storage at the State Archive Preservation Facility in Madison, Wis., Monday, May 1, 2023. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
Chris Kolakowski, director at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, left, and Kevin Hampton, curator of history, display the 24th Wisconsin’s flag from the Battle of Missionary Ridge in 1863, in storage at the State Archive Preservation Facility. The story of Lieutenant Arthur MacArthur's cry “On Wisconsin," who seized the flag and led the unit forward, inspired both the state song and the fight song of UW-Madison.
Kevin Hampton, curator of history at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, points to the unit flag in a photograph of the color guard of the 2nd Wisconsin Infantry in July 1862 that is part of the museum’s collection in storage, at right, while the flag pole is displayed at the museum, at the State Archive Preservation Facility in Madison, Wis., Monday, May 1, 2023. The men pictured were either wounded or killed within weeks of the photo at battles such as the Battle of Antietam. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
Kevin Hampton, curator of history at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, displays a hat worn by Philander Wright, of Lancaster, from the Battle of Gettysburg that shows two bullet holes that passed through the crown of the hat on July 1, 1863, in storage at the State Archive Preservation Facility in Madison, Wis., Monday, May 1, 2023. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
Wisconsin Veterans Museum’s collection of military hats in storage at the State Archive Preservation Facility in Madison, Wis., Monday, May 1, 2023. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
Chris Kolakowski, director at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, shows a bronze cannon tube from the Spanish American War, one of the museum’s oldest pieces, in storage at the State Archive Preservation Facility in Madison, Wis., Monday, May 1, 2023. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
Wisconsin Veterans Museum artifacts in storage at the State Archive Preservation Facility in Madison, Wis., Monday, May 1, 2023. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Company brewed a beer for the Wisconsin National Guard in 1979 and the can is part of Wisconsin Veterans Museum’s collection in storage at the State Archive Preservation Facility in Madison, Wis., Monday, May 1, 2023. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
Kevin Hampton, curator of history at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, walks by the museum’s collection of flag poles in storage at the State Archive Preservation Facility in Madison, Wis., Monday, May 1, 2023. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
Kevin Hampton, curator of history at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, shows some of the museum’s artifacts in storage, including a display of feathers and items from “Old Abe,” a bald eagle that was a mascot for the 8th Wisconsin Volunteer Infantry in the Civil War, at the State Archive Preservation Facility in Madison, Wis., Monday, May 1, 2023. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
Kevin Hampton, curator of history at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, shows some of the museum’s artifacts in storage at the State Archive Preservation Facility in Madison, Wis., Monday, May 1, 2023. AMBER ARNOLD, STATE JOURNAL
The owners of the Capitol Square building that houses the Wisconsin Veterans Museum want to replace it with a 12-story apartment building and are challenging the state’s plan to construct a five-story museum at the site.
