FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACT:
Jenni Tetzlaff, Director of Marketing & Communications
414-278-2784, tetzlaff@mpm.edu
Meet the Watson Family on Kohl’s Thank You Thursday
MILWAUKEE, Wisc. (February 3, 2012) —Visitors to the Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) will learn about the city’s black heritage at the turn of the 20th century for free on Thursday, February 6, as part of Kohl’s Thank You Thursday.
In honor of Black History Month, the public will enjoy Meet the Watson Family, a program on the Streets of Old Milwaukee that shares the story of the Watson family, spotlighting their influence on Milwaukee’s history. The program will showcase artifacts and objects that belonged to the family.
Sully and Susanna Watson took their family from the oppressive conditions of antebellum Virginia in 1834 and, after several years in Ohio, arrived in Milwaukee in 1850. Through skilled labor and business entrepreneurship, the couple played a vital role in establishing Milwaukee’s black middle class.
The Watson family photos and papers came into MPM’s collections in 1992, and the Museum added the Watson Family Home into the Streets of Old Milwaukee in 2000. Watson Family programming will run from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Kohl’s Thank You Thursday, and from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. during weekdays in February.
As part of MPM’s partnership with Kohl’s, the Museum offers free admission to permanent exhibits and one Planetarium program on the first Thursday of every month. For more information, visit www.mpm.edu/ktyt.
About the Milwaukee Public Museum
The Milwaukee Public Museum (MPM) is Wisconsin’s natural history museum, welcoming over half a million visitors annually. Located in downtown Milwaukee, the Museum was chartered in 1882, opened to the public in 1884, and currently houses more than 4 million objects in its collections. MPM has three floors of exhibits that encompass life-size dioramas, walk-through villages, world cultures, dinosaurs, a rainforest, and a live butterfly garden, as well as the Daniel M. Soref Dome Theater & Planetarium.
MPM is operated by Milwaukee Public Museum, Inc., a private, non-profit company, and its facilities and collections are held in trust and supported by Milwaukee County for the benefit of the public.
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