Keeping the Homeland Safe

By Megan Kautz

Catalog Number: 2016.fic.183

“Alert today, alive tomorrow.” This warden’s helmet serves as a reminder of a time of fallout shelters, air raid drills, and the once active Civil Defense.  Civil Defense was first established one hundred years ago, in 1916, as a response to European bombing in WWI. This non-military, auxiliary effort was created to educate Americans, and prepare them for enemy attacks.  Since there was little threat to the American homeland, the organization was used to encourage men to join the armed forces, support Liberty Bonds, and keep up the morale of soldiers.  

In 1941, when the Office of Civilian Defense was created in response to bombing campaigns in Europe, Americans feared that the U.S would soon be under attack. They continued the same activities as they had in the previous war. However, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, volunteers were also trained in first aid, and how to respond to chemical attacks and other emergencies.

At the end of WWII, the need for a civilian defense program dwindled-- until the Soviet Union began to test their nuclear weapons. With the threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union, the need for Civil Defense arose once again. It was organized and administered by state and local governments; this helmet has a “La Cross” badge on the front and despite the embarrassing misspelling, it confirms that the Civil Defense was indeed active here.

Civil Defense began a nationwide campaign in the 1950’s dedicated to air raid warnings, bomb shelters, and the stockpiling of supplies. All of this was preparation for an anticipated nuclear attack by the Soviet Union. Many of these campaigns were implemented in the schools through drills, movies, and pamphlets. This fiberglass helmet probably dates from that era.

Over time the public’s interest in civil defense waned, and many of the organization’s efforts were shifted from nuclear to natural disaster preparedness. In 1979 the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was created to deal with disaster relief on a national level, and the blue FEMA tarp became as recognizable a symbol as this Civil Defense helmet once was. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Civil Defense fell into disuse and was entirely replaced by FEMA.

 FEMA itself was absorbed by the Department of Homeland Security in 2003. 

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on November 12, 2016.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.

Old Courthouse Bell

By Peggy Derrick

This bell hung in the third La Crosse County Courthouse, also known as the old courthouse. The old courthouse was dedicated 111 years ago, in 1905.  That was only 65 years after the first white trader built a cabin at Prairie La Crosse, and in that time this bend in the river went from western wilderness to a small city, with grand public works like the courthouse to claim their place within the traditions of European culture and history.

The five names engraved on the bell represent the members of the building committee that oversaw the work on the 1905 courthouse. They were:  J.L. Pettingill, chairman, Fred Dittman, George Macmillan, William E. McEldowney, and J.K. Johnson.  Also cast into the bell is its maker, Meneely Bell Company of Troy, New York, and its date of manufacture, 1904.

The old courthouse was an elegant French Renaissance building, with a large central tower that boasted a clock, facing the river. This bell chimed automatically, on the hour and half hour, and was originally powered by water. A 1905 article in the La Crosse Tribune about the construction of the handsome new courthouse boasted: “This is the largest and finest bell in this section of the country, and aside from being a work of art, is rich in tone and of a very penetrating quality.”

Neighbors got a chance to appreciate that penetrating quality when there was a glitch in the new system. An earlier issue of the newspaper included a tiny article titled “New Bell Goes on a Tear.” It read: “The bell in the new courthouse went on a rampage the first day, striking until it had run down. The trouble occurred last evening at 10:30 when instead of striking just once for the half hour, the gong continued until the power had run out.”

I’m sure the people living nearby weren’t very impressed by the bell’s “penetrating quality” that night!

Sixty three years later, in 1968, the bell had its second dedication, when it was mounted on a pedestal in front of the then new county building on 4th Street. This was the result of the combined efforts of the La Crosse Rotary Club and the La Crosse County Historical Society, who raised funds for a 10’ tall pedestal, plaque and a new electronically operated striker so the bell could be rung on special occasions. The Rotary Club and the Historical Society went to this effort because they believed the bell represented a part of local history they did not want to see forgotten.

Now 48 years later, the bell has been dedicated again, on the site of its original location. A lot has changed over what is really a very short time span.  A mere 175 years ago this was open prairie. Until sixty five years ago a large public building inspired by historic European architectural styles, stood on this site. After that a mid-twentieth century department store was part of a new way of living—a way that has itself changed and disappeared, only to be recreated in the form of this latest commercial development.

Before long, there will be no one left living who remembers the elegant court house that stood here in its own park-like setting. To quote La Crosse’s own local historian, Les Crocker, “The past is never past. It remains with us, often unrecognized, but present nevertheless.”

As we move inevitably toward a future La Crosse, this bell serves as a talisman, or reminder, of the region’s past.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on November 4, 2016.

Rare French Couture located in La Crosse

By Callie O’Connor

Catalog Number: 1988.001.01                                         

Within the La Crosse County Historical Society's Costume and Textile Collection lies a late nineteenth-century French couture gown. I discovered it during an internship in the fall of 2015. The two piece garment, which is missing its waistband and underskirt, features exquisitely hand-embroidered green silk taffeta in a style highly reminiscent of the court gowns of eighteenth century France. The couture label, stitched into the dress’s bodice, reads “Jeanne Hallée; 3, Rue de la Ville-l'Évêque, Paris”.

The little known, but widely successful design house of Jeanne Hallée was popular among wealthy Americans from the 1880’s through the 1920’s.  Known mostly for its fine French lingerie, Jeanne Hallée was one of the places for a wealthy and aristocratic woman to go for her wedding trousseau. However, as of yet there has been almost nothing published on Jeanne Hallée, and almost all that is left of the design house are the few surviving garments held in museums worldwide. The largest collection of Jeanne Hallée garments lives at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, while the rest are scattered in various European and American collections, and only one known garment remains in France at the Palais Galliera, the Museum of Fashion in Paris.

So how did this rare garment end up in the Costume and Textile Collection of the La Crosse County Historical Society? The donation record of the gown listed only the donor’s name, Mrs. Grace Wurtz. Through research via local archives as well as the Internet, I discovered that she was from La Crosse but eventually moved to California. From this information I was able to locate and contact Mrs. Wurtz, now 96, and her daughter and thus hear the complete history of the dress and its donation.

The gown was made for Sara Alice Spang, the daughter of a wealthy steel and banking family in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. The family had strong European connections, spending a great deal of time abroad. Sara eventually met and married a British man, Alfred Frederick Joseph Sang, whom she met in an alphabetized French conversation class: Mr. Sang and Miss Spang were seated next to each other. The two married in London in February 1899. The dress itself can be dated to within a year of their marriage, and was most likely part of her wedding trousseau. The couple lived alternately in France and Pennsylvania, and had three children before Alfred Sang died in service in France during the First World War. The dress was passed down from Sara to her daughter Elizabeth Sang and then to her daughter-in-law, Grace Sang, later Grace Wurtz, who grew up in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Grace, recognizing the significance of the dress, donated it in 1988 to the La Crosse County Historical Society which had been growing its textile collection at the time.

Discovered again in the collection after more than 20 years, the gown is now serving a new purpose. I chose to research the mystery of the forgotten designer Jeanne Hallée for my History Research Seminar, at UWL. Since graduation, I am moving forward with research to publish the first chronological account of the design house’s history and its contribution to the Haute Couture industry.

This article was originally published in the La Crosse Tribune on October 22, 2016.

This object can be viewed in our online collections database by clicking here.