The first exhibit we went to in the Milwaukee Public Museum was the “Streets of Old Milwaukee” which is meant to look like oldie-timey Milwaukee circa late 1800s and early 1900s. We always like looking at these kinds of things since it tugs at our “sad that hipsters have taken steampunk from us” heartstrings. Also, they have a candy store in the middle of the exhibit that had Bottlecaps candy which was awesome. Right next to this was the “European Village,” which displays these rooms that represent the different European ethnic groups that immigrated to Milwaukee back in the day.
My father is Czechoslovakian, from back when Czechoslovakia was a country and not two countries. I suppose I’ve mostly considered myself Slovak rather than Czech, but I really have no idea how that kind of thing is supposed to work, so whatevs, I took pictures of both!
The wall hanging translates to something along the lines of “if you want to keep your man learn how to cook.”
Also, I happen to have tons of that painted wooden utensil/plate/stuff at my house from the old country, including a shot glass set, so it was cool to see more of it.
The info thing for the Czech room said something about guys chasing girls around and hitting them with sticks, but we didn’t see any sticks in the room.
Also, Christmas tree? Maybe my deeply ingrained love for Christmas decorating isn’t a personality flaw but a CULTURAL TRADITION so stop judging me.
We went to the Irish room expecting to just see a dude passed out on the floor. Instead, just a grandma knitting, and a spinning wheel, not a whiskey bottle to be seen.
Seriously, there were five or six spinning wheels in this exhibit, but all the fake wool looked like synthetic wigs and distracted from the magic. The rooms also had lots of taxidermied cats for some reason.
Next up, BUTTERFLIES!