Mark Louden, a member of our group and professor of German studies and Director of the Max Kade Institute at University of Wisconsin in Madison, will present the process of making of “Neighbors Past and Present The Wisconsin German Experience.”  This display, which is traveling throughout the Midwest, is a series of fourteen panels that draw largely on images and resources from the MKI Library and Archives. The exhibit covers German migration and settlement in Wisconsin, questions of ethnicity and identity in newly forged communities, and the cohesiveness of these communities over the decades, especially in times of economic crisis or war. Specific topics include language; print culture; religion; Amish and Mennonites; traditions and social clubs, education; rural and urban life; business; political and civic engagement; times of war; and immigrants and their descendants in the global world, past and present.   The display will be on exhibit locally at the Trinity-Freistadt Historical Site during the summer of 2020.

Dan Boehlke, horticulturalist, will return to present a second installment to the talk we began in the fall of 2018.  We will explore further the foods and recipes that were popular when our forefathers came to America. While most of the food, chemicals, herbs and spices, and flavor additives that we know today were known by the mid 1800, some of the uses may have been quite different based on economics or just prevailing tastes of the time. Historical recipes will be explored and techniques will be discussed.