Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMINUTES_WWI Commemoration Committee_05-01-17 Oshkosh WWI Commemoration Committee 5/1/17 Oshkosh Public Museum Present: Bob Campbell, EAA Museum; Steve Cummings; Gabe Loiacono; Brad Larson; Karla Szekeres; Scott Cross; Becky Matzke NOTES Bob Campbell— EAA museum director— introduced himself; he is a new member of the committee. Reports on events so far and what's planned next: • Becky reported on her WWI presentation at the Oshkosh Public Library and the Oshkosh Northwestern article on WWI that was published April 9. • Gabe reported on his UWO students' progress researching Oshkosh people to create 'standees'; the students did an on-campus presentation on their research. They should have about 10 possible standees ready by early June and will approach businesses to host the standees. Brad will investigate placing one at City Hall. • Gabe also reported that UWO archivist Joshua Ranger has a photo of WWI SATC training at the university. It may be enlarged and displayed. • Brad reported having a source for WWI reenactors from Madison. They might stage an event on the museum grounds. • Scott reported researching some Oshkosh industry at the time of the war but has found nothing really helpful that could be publicized. • Karla reported on an AASLH social media campaign about "history relevance." Invites people to take a selfie at favorite historical spot and use#historyrelevance when posting it. We could do a campaign for people to take selfies with a standee. Use Facebook and Twitter. • Bob reported that the EAA museum has a WWI exhibit up now with lots of script and some artifacts. It will probably be taken down to make way for a new exhibit and some pieces will be available for a traveling exhibit to the Oshkosh Public Museum. Items for future: • Becky will continue to try to place small stories about WWI in the Northwestern or do Facebook posts for the museum. • Becky will work with Oshkosh West, North, and Lourdes high school choir directors to plan a performance of WWI music. The performance could be scheduled near Veterans' Day, possibly the week between Nov. 11 and Nov. 18. Perhaps students could perform at other venues as well—the farmer's market, etc. • Brad and Karla proposed that the OPM may be able to mount a temporary exhibit for summer 2018 on WWI, using artifacts from the museum's collections and from EAA. A reenactment could be linked to this exhibit sometime that summer. Brad will contact the reenactors. • Austin Frederick (via e-mail) proposed that someone on the committee talk with Winnebago County about possibly moving the memorial plaques from their current location on the Court House and putting them somewhere noticeable. • Austin proposed creating short webcasts on WWI-related topics. Karla could link to these from the OPM site. • WWI movie nights—Austin will ask the Parks Department about adding WWI movies to its summer movie night schedule. Other possible locations for showing films might be the public library or the senior center.