Door County Historical Museum and Archives

05/11/2026

Found in the archives, glued to the lid of a cigar box. We have the original photo in the collection also.

“[Baseball] breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall all alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.”

― A. Bartlett Giamatti, Take Time for Paradise: Americans and Their Games

05/08/2026

How about we take glasses and put them ON your eyes. That was the basic idea behind early contact lenses in the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Doctors would take an impression cast of the open eye, then send the mold to specialized glass makers who ground a custom glass lens (called a scleral lens). These early lenses were large glass shells that covered most of the eye and held saline over the cornea. The issue, however, was oxygen. The cornea depends on oxygen diffusing through tears, and glass blocked that completely, causing corneal hypoxia, meaning these lenses could only be worn for 1-3 hours at most before pain and blurred vision set in. Oh, and did we mention they were also extremely expensive?

While these horribly uncomfortable contacts were used by some for appearance, most used them as a last resort for deformed corneas (keratoconus) and other conditions that couldn’t be easily solved with glasses.

If you want to see these contacts for yourself, stop by our street scene at the Door County Museum & Archives!

The photos are:
1: Our curator Peter showing off the contact lens next to his eye.
2: A shot of a man getting an eye impression done from a 1938 educational film on contact lenses (full video can be found online at The Contact Lens Museum website).
3: An old contact roughly the size of a quarter in diameter (for reference, modern contacts are smaller than a dime on average).
4: A profile shot of the contact, the depth of the contact lens about equal to the thickness of a pencil
5: A shot of finished contact molds that were used to make the glass contacts in our street scene.
6: A shot of the contacts in their original case.

05/06/2026

Ever wondered what it’s like behind the scenes at the museum?

From discovering an interesting story to helping visitors connect with the past, our volunteers are a huge part of what makes this place come alive. Whether you love history, enjoy meeting people, or just want to try something new, we’d love to have you here.

To volunteer, just send your name and available days/hours to [email protected] or call us at (920) 743-5809.

Come be part of the Door Peninsula’s rich history.

05/03/2026

In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the Independent Order of Good Templars offered a compelling mix: the ritual and symbolism of fraternal orders like the Freemasons and Odd Fellows with the strict moral code of the temperance movement. Members pledged to give up alcohol, to***co, and even swearing in pursuit of moral purity.

But here in Door County, that ideal didn’t always stick. A local Juvenile Good Templars ritual book in our collection shows some unofficial edits: passages condemning to***co and swearing are mysteriously crossed out, suggesting local members may have put up with getting rid of alcohol but thought giving up smoking and swearing was too much to ask.

05/01/2026

We recently received a collection of photos, including a really cool transparency showing Buzz Aldrin collecting samples while Neil Armstrong photographs the scene. This photo was not taken on the Moon, however, but during EVA training at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. We confirmed this after spotting hangar beams and lighting overhead, which are easier to see in the high-exposure shot, as well as a NASA letter in the donation that explains the situation in more detail.

04/30/2026

Who knows where the most recent addition to the museum's collection is from? Hint: this is just a very small piece of it.

04/27/2026

Skunk cabbage is blooming! This unusual plant can generate its own heat, allowing it to emerge early in spring, even when patches of snow and ice remain. The warmth, combined with its strong odor, helps attract pollinators. You can spot it at the Door County Land Trust’s Canal Preserve or other areas where it is wet and forested. The blooms will probably only last for another week, so get out there before they are gone!

04/25/2026

Let the games begin! We’ll have several retro video game consoles up and running today until 4 PM. Stop by, play a few classics, and see if you can claim the high score.

04/23/2026

For Coffee with the Curators this Friday (April 24 from 10:00 AM to 12:00 PM, our final Coffee with the Curators for the year), we have a slight change of plans as Nyla has a scheduling conflict and cannot run a discussion on Door County schools. We will have our school research binders out and open to look through. As for the topic this week, that’s up to you all! We will be holding an open discussion on whatever historical topics people are interested in. A nice bonus: there may or may not be donuts…

Also, this Saturday from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM, we will be hosting a retro video games day where people are welcome to stop by and play games from the Atari 2600, the SEGA Genesis, the NES, and the PS1. The event will be a perfect opportunity for anyone to either discover or rediscover some of the classic video games from the 1970s to the 1990s. Please stop by, pick up a controller, and play some of the classic games that paved the way for video games today

04/20/2026

Are you detail-oriented and comfortable with technology? We’re hiring a summer intern (June–August) to help digitize our archives collection and make it accessible online.

Interested? Click the link to apply!

Find your next adventure

04/14/2026

Do you like video games? On Saturday, April 25th, the Door County Museum is hosting a Retro Video Game Day. Guests of all ages are invited to learn about and play games on classic consoles from the 1970s through the 1990s. While it may be a little surprising to some that the games of their childhood are now considered “retro,” this event offers a chance to walk down memory lane or discover the titles that helped shape the video games we play today.

Stop by the Door County Museum, settle in, and experience the classic consoles that pioneered modern gaming!