Current Exhibits
Featured Exhibit
Through Their Lens:
Unseen Photographs from the EHF Archives
Curator: Jeff O’Keeffe
Through Their Lens features photographs from three separate negative collections in the Ephraim Historical Foundation Archives: the Watson/Wolf Family Photographic Collection, the Anderson Family Negative Collection, and the Frieda M. Brenner Photographic Collection. These collections offer a variety of perspectives of Ephraim spanning from the late 1800s to 1970, highlighting both local and visitor experiences throughout Ephraim’s history. The three featured collections in Through Their Lens focus on three particular photographers, Frank Gordon Watson, Frieda M. Brenner, and Frank Anderson.
Location: Anderson Barn Museum
Special Exhibit
Sponsored by Northern Door Pride
Northern Door Pride and the Ephraim Historical Foundation are excited to announce the Foundation's Anderson Barn Museum will be hosting the Wisconsin Historical Society's traveling exhibit, We Will Always Be Here: Wisconsin's LGBTQ+ Historymakers in the month of June to celebrate Pride Month. We Will Always Be Here explores the stories of Wisconsin's LGBTQ+ historymakers through profiles of eight individuals across a wide spectrum of identities who have helped to empower others and to make a positive change in the world.
Past Exhibits
2023
Smorgasbord:
Foodways That Defined Ephraim
Curator: Jeff O’Keeffe
Few things carry more cultural weight than food. Experiences around food are deeply emotional and personal—tied to daily life, family life, and community. Smörgåsbord examines the history of the Village of Ephraim through the foodways which defined its unique culture. From the Scandinavian and German immigrants who shaped production and formed Ephraim’s tourist industry, to their descendants and new arrivals who ushered in a golden age of tourism—the medley of what Ephraim grew, ate, and served made the Village what it is today.
Founded in 1853 by a contingent of Scandinavian immigrants, Ephraim was a particularly remote location on a rapidly developing Door Peninsula. Their struggles in surviving harsh winters and brutal summers in the first years cemented a sense of community bound together by their faith and food. Where settlers were not rich in possessions, a communal focus of neighbor-helping-neighbor has underpinned Ephraim’s history to the present day. When passing steamships brought the first tourists to Ephraim in the 1890s, they set in motion a new industry. One which still revolves around food, hospitality, and celebration of heritage.
2022
RESUME III
Creative pursuits In Northern Door County —Mid Century to the present
Guest curator: Alicia Wilson Mulliken
The walls of the iconic Iverson House will come alive with fabric and fashion, explaining tourism in Ephraim and Northern Door County.
From the 1950s to the 1970s, Ephraim was home to unique expressions of fashion, wearable art and accessories which reflected the social circumstances of the time and left a lasting influence on the local art scene and community at large.
The title of the exhibit, Resume III, is inspired by the collaboration of Madeline Tourtelot and photographer Jim Legault, which produced two collections of artists and their work, Resume and Resume 1. Tourtelot, a long-time Ephraim summer resident and founder of the Peninsula Art School, was a tireless promoter of young artists. There wasn't a medium she wasn't eager to pursue - from pottery, jewelry design, fiber, film, painting and sculpture. She loved clothes and parties and playing ragtime piano.
Participating artists will include: Peter Ciesla, Bazyli Studio; Gloria Hardiman; Mary Ellen Sisulak,Turtle Ridge Gallery; and from the archives: Amanda DeWitt and Doris Heise Miller.
Wrecked:
Ephraim’s Maritime Triumphs and Tragedies
Curator: Cody Schreck
Nestled against a harbor shoreline on one of the world’s largest bodies of fresh water, the area that is now the Village of Ephraim has been part of maritime networks for thousands of years. From Indigenous Peoples to Euro-Americans, humans on these shores have depended on the lake as a means of transportation and commerce. It is no surprise then, given the amount of maritime traffic over the years, that accidents and tragedies occurred. Maritime disasters inspired the name ‘Door County’ and have had a continued impact on people's lives on the peninsula and beyond. Shipwrecks tell us stories about the environment, the economy, and the daily lives of people. Through the tales of the ships that have sailed Eagle Harbor, including the ones that sank below the water’s surface, we find a deeper connection to the human history of the place where we currently stand.