The Milwaukee County Historical Society received the 2021 Reuben Gold Thwaites Trophy for Local History from the Wisconsin Historical Society. The award recognizes the impact of the Milwaukee County Historical Society's services and the role it has played in preserving and sharing the unique history of this community.

About the Milwaukee County Historical Society

The Reuben Gold Thwaites Trophy recognizes an affiliated historical organization for continued excellence and overall service to its community over a period of at least five years. The Milwaukee County Historical Society (MCHS) has demonstrated excellence in collecting, preserving and sharing history since 1935. Through education programs, exhibitions, the research library, historic sites, and special events, MCHS offers Milwaukeeans and visitors to Milwaukee a chance to connect with the heritage of Milwaukee.

MCHS is headquartered in a historic bank building along the Milwaukee River in downtown Milwaukee. In addition to this main location, MCHS also operates Kilbourntown House in Shorewood’s Estabrook Park and Trimborn Farm and Jeremiah Curtin House in Greendale. More than one million documents and photographs and more than 60,000 artifacts are preserved by MCHS.

Over the past five years, MCHS has continually expanded and enhanced its program offerings and service to Milwaukee County. These programs have included weekly digital discussions, virtual video series, and a podcast; innovative partnerships with local beer historians and brewers to open a pop-up beer history museum and launch a beer collaboration; hands-on history classroom visits, developed in partnership with the Wisconsin Historical Society; and kayak history tours. In August 2020, MCHS also launched a new and innovative program called Viewaukee, presented by CG Schmidt, inviting residents and visitors walking along the streets of Milwaukee to literally "take a look into the past" through ten five-foot-tall streetside binoculars, modified to show a historic photo of the same location they are placed. While developing new programming, MCHS has continued to offer field trips, group tours, speakers, and a slate of ambitious yearly exhibits, the most recent of which is entitled, "Milwaukee: Where the Waters Meet."

About the Award

Named for the Wisconsin Historical Society's second director, the Reuben Gold Thwaites Trophy recognizes one local historical society each year that has demonstrated a commitment to excellence and a record of success in collecting and preserving local history in its various forms.

Learn More

• Learn about the Reuben Gold Thwaites Trophy for Local History

  See past winners and learn more about how to nominate local historical societies for the trophy.

• Learn about the Board of Curators Awards