Statistics can be shocking, especially when you read “A study from 1920 found that the average housewife spent 44 hours a week preparing and cleaning up after the family meal.” Family life was a full-time job indeed! This is one of the many bits of information shared throughout the exhibits at the Chudnow Museum of Yesteryear, and the special elements on the theme “Celebrating the Role of Women in History.”
The museum flows through two floors of an 1869 house just off of the Marquette University campus. It was the real estate and law office of founder Avrum “Abe” Chudnow, and became a showplace for the various goods he collected, which included just about every antique item you can think of. Moving through the museum you’ll find recreations of a small family run grocery store, pharmacy, physician’s office, even a movie theater showing old reels. The museum is chock-full of artifacts of the everyday—things like tins for cocoa powder or flour, Victrolas and vintage sheet music, the accouterments of a barber shop or a farmer’s workbench.
The inclusion of wall text to tell the stories of where things came from, or notes on the context of earlier time periods, makes it all the more worthwhile. For example, a small panel describing clothing prices from the 1920s states that a woman’s blouse cost $4.95, while a man’s shirt would run $2.75. Today this would be about $63.37 and $32.11 respectively, putting a distinct number on the relative cheapness of outfitting ourselves today.
Stay on top of the news of the day
Subscribe to our free, daily e-newsletter to get Milwaukee's latest local news, restaurants, music, arts and entertainment and events delivered right to your inbox every weekday, plus a bonus Week in Review email on Saturdays.
Particularly fascinating are the many significant women noted in small text panels throughout the museum. Some, like the actress Mary Pickford, still enjoy celebrity today. Others, like Alice Guy-Blaché, are perhaps only known to specialists in their field, but could be inspirational to all. Guy-Blaché was a filmmaker who wrote, produced and directed her first film in 1896, and by 1907, ran her own studio that had made more than 1,000 films. Her story, and many other inspiring anecdotes, offer additional facets to the wealth of artifacts in the Chudnow collection.
Through March at the Chudnow Museum of Yesteryear, 839 N. 11th St.
