Museum Exhibits

Numerous exhibits are continually updated and refreshed at the Wabasha County Historical Society Museum in Reads Landing. In addition, many new exhibits have been built and designed. If you have not been to the museum in years, you will experience something new. Even if you visited the museum last year there are new exhibits and numerous artifacts on display that have not been exhibited for several years.

New Vignettes

The second-floor north classroom has several new vignettes which opened for the first time this season. They include a small parlor, a rustic kitchen, and a vintage bedroom.

The small parlor contains a small pump organ, fainting couch, recliner, as well as numerous portraits of the first settlers from Wabasha County. The small bedroom contains a dresser with rotating top which exposes a marble sink and a Jenny Lind Bed, named after the "Swedish Nightingale", an opera singer from the 1800's. The rustic kitchen exhibit (shown in photo) includes a small cast iron cooking/heating stove, collapsible cupboard, copper boiler, wooden bowls, as well as numerous vintage utensils from days gone by.

These cozy room vignettes are bound to show a time in the life of Wabasha County residents in which life was simpler and moved oh so much more slowly.

Community Church Exhibit

Although there were 27 hotels, 21 saloons, and 15 mercantile stores in Reads Landing during the later part of the 19th century, there was only one lowly Methodist Church.

In this exhibit, the pulpit and pump organ from that church are on display. Also, in the genealogical records on the second floor, the hand-written history and records of the first members of the Reads Landing Church can be researched.

This exhibit also showcases a pew from the Congregational Church in Lake City, a baptismal font, numerous vintage bibles, and records of parishioner donations from a Wabasha County Church

from the mid-20th century.

Kuhfuss Music Exhibit

The newly designed music exhibit, located in the north classroom on the second level, is loaded with artifacts which interprets the musical heritage of Wabasha County.

Of special note is the huge oleo curtain which served as the state curtain in the community hall of St. Patrick's Church in West Albany. The oleo was designed and painted by Twin Cities Scenic.

In addition, the exhibit includes the pump organ from Wabasha's Princess Movie House, an Edison Phonograph with morning glory horn, numerous vintage instruments, and hand-written music which was penned by the founder of the Kuhfuss Brothers Band who had emigrated from Germany to the West Albany area.