14 May 2026
Lower East Side (Home)
55 degrees, Evening
When I accepted the residency, one of the things I looked forward to most was experiencing The Pfister from the other side, as a guest.
When I arrived, I took the stairs up from the lobby, and somewhere around the sixth floor I started to hear string music and voices floating down. As I reached the seventh floor and walked through the gallery, past the plants and paintings, I was greeted with a sign welcoming me to The Milwaukee Historical Society’s 73rd Annual Awards Dinner — being held in the Grand Ballroom, part of the hotel’s 1960s expansion.
I’ll be honest, I mostly knew the Milwaukee Historical Society from their book sales, where they sell books, ephemera, photographs, and other pieces of history. Last year I walked home exhausted with a huge pile of old Harper’s newspapers from the 1800s — and found a few Civil War era gems in that pile too. All for $25. So I was excited to attend this event and learn more about the Society itself and the people who make it all happen.
The dinner itself was wonderful — the food, the table settings, the service. Speeches were made honoring Milwaukee institutions that have been around for 50 or more years, and hearing those stories was the highlight for me. The one that stopped me was the Milwaukee Women’s Club. It was founded before women could vote, and it’s the oldest continually operating women’s club in the country. I walk by it all the time and had no idea.
Spread across the tables were cards featuring historic Milwaukee landmarks, designed by the Historical Society. I took a few with me, along with my name tag. You know how I am about ephemera. It was a genuinely good evening, and a meaningful first for me at this hotel.
— Megan