This Racine Belles costume was worn in the 1992 film “A League of Their Own.” The film focused on the Rockford (Illinois) Peaches, tracking a season in the All-American Girls’ Professional Baseball League. The Peaches played the Belles several times during the film.
apparel
OBJECT HISTORY: Potawatomi Beaded ‘Soldier Coat’
An elder spokesman for the Potawatomi Indians, Chief Simon Onanguisse Kahquados made a number of trips to Washington, D.C. in the early twentieth century in an effort to regain land that his people had lost through treaties with the United States government in the 1800s. Kahquados wore this coat on his last trip to Washington and also wore it on other important occasions, such as trips to the state capital in Madison where he often spent time researching and presenting information about his ancestry.
OBJECT HISTORY: Peshtigo Fire Breastpin
This breastpin was used to identify a victim of the destructive Peshtigo fire of 1871.
OBJECT HISTORY: A Hudson’s Bay Company Point Blanket Coat
This wool coat was constructed from a ‘point blanket’ made by the Hudson’s Bay Company, likely during the early 1920s. A Wausau businessman wore it at one of the town’s early Winter Frolics, an annual winter sports festival that attracted tourists from as far as Chicago. The businessman belonged to a group of local business…
OBJECT HISTORY: A Hmong Baby Sash
We are surrounded by objects that seem very ordinary, but once we look closer, they often reveal deep connections to the history of our state and our communities. In this Object History, Pao Vue writes about the thread-bare baby sash he found in his mother’s room that, it turns out, once saved his life and…
OBJECT HISTORY: Happy Days Bowling Shirt Costume
This bowling shirt costume from the television series Happy Day speaks to Wisconsin’s association with bowling. Milwaukee, where the show was set, was known as the bowling capital of America.
OBJECT HISTORY: X-Ray Shoe Fitting Machine
Intended to help customers get the perfect pair of shoes, X-Ray shoe fitting machines like this one from Sturgeon Bay were popular in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.
OBJECT HISTORY: Fromm Fox Fur Coat
This coat was made from the fur of foxes raised on the Fromm Fur Farm in Hamburg, Wisconsin. The jacket is covered in light-silver fox fur and lined with a taupe fabric. Straps allow the coat to also be worn as a cape. In the early decades of the 20th century, it was fashionable to use…