Green Bay is a city with many claims to fame. It’s the home of a certain professional football team you may have heard of. It’s the birthplace of yours truly (although my family relocated to southwest Wisconsin when I was a toddler). And as the oldest city in Wisconsin, it has a long and varied history: French explorer Jean Nicolet landed at “La Baie Verte” in 1634, and the settlement operated as a major regional fur trade post for two centuries, first in the hands of the French, then the British, and then the United States.
It was in Green Bay in 1837 that Morgan L. Martin, an influential leader in the early days of the Wisconsin Territory, built his home–a Greek Revival mansion he dubbed “Hazelwood.” Preserved as a historic house museum, Hazelwood is now operated by the Brown County Historical Society. Last week I worked with BCHS volunteer Duane Ebert to photograph artifacts at Hazelwood for the database–some of which belong to the Society, and some of which are the property of the Green Bay-DePere Antiquarian Society. Highlights included a ca. 1880s sideboard and corner cupboard refashioned from a black walnut bedroom suite belonging to the Martin family and a large array of porcelain hand-painted by Frederika Crane, a prolific china painter and a friend of the Martins. Look for these artifacts, and more, online later this spring.
Posted by Emily Pfotenhauer.