2018 Annual Meeting

Part social, part business, part education, the annual meeting has something for all members. Highlights of the evening include a World War I display from a private collection and program on World War I by Richard Pifer. 

RSVP: Let us know you're planning to attend by calling the museum at (715) 864-7871, or email Angela at a.allred@cvmuseum.com

evening schedule

4:30  Social Hour with complimentary beverages and appetizers
5:30  Program: Lessons and Legacy of World War I , by Richard Pifer
6:30  Annual Business meeting – all members are invited to attend

Program description

On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month the great holocaust of World War I came to a bloody end. Even to the last hour men died as generals maneuvered for advantage in case the peace failed. The world gave a great sigh of relief. Troops began to coming home immediately; communities hailed their returning heroes and life slowly returned to normal. Dr. Richard L. Pifer will reflect on the end of the war, what it meant to local communities to welcome their “boys” home, and the future those soldiers faced. The war lasted a scant eighteen months for the United States but ravaged Europe for over four years. Its legacies can still be felt today and its lessons provide poignant cautionaries for our time.

About the Speaker

Rick Pifer has spent most of his life studying and teaching Wisconsin history, particularly the home front experience during World War I and World War II. Dr. Pifer received his doctorate in history from UW-Madison, worked as the Archivist at UW-Eau Claire for ten years and then spent twenty-five years in several positions at the Wisconsin Historical Society. He retired in 2015 as the Director of Public Services for the Library-Archives Division. During his career, he taught Wisconsin history at the college level and presented numerous workshops, classes and presentations on local history and genealogy. In November 2017, the Wisconsin Historical Society Press published his most recent book: The Great War Comes to Wisconsin: Sacrifice, Patriotism, and Free Speech in a Time of Crisis, written in cooperation with Marge Hannon Pifer. The Independent Publishers Association awarded The Great War its silver medal as one of the best works of non-fiction published in the Midwest during 2017, and the Wisconsin Historical Society called it one of the most significant recent contributions to Wisconsin history. Dr. Pifer is also the author of A City at War: Milwaukee Labor During World War II.