BROOKFIELD 鈥 Last month, PBS Wisconsin Education released a new 11episode series about state history. Titled "The Look Back", the series is geared toward fourth- to sixth-graders and explores Wisconsin鈥檚 different eras, starting with pre-1620 and ending with modern times. The fourth episode features a familiar location in SM天地论坛 County: Brookfield鈥檚 Dousman Stagecoach Inn Museum, 1075 Pilgrim Parkway.
PBS Wisconsin Education Producer David Boffa says the series is centered around artifacts, and that the Dousman Stagecoach Inn Museum was the perfect place for the "Territory to Statehood" era, spanning 1787-1848, thanks to its well-preserved cross-stitch sampler.
The episode 鈥 appropriately titled "A Stitch in Time" 鈥 features a sampler created in 1845 by 12-year-old Margaret Miekel. Boffa says that the sampler can provide background about the life of the person who made it, as well as some broader historical context.
"They can tell us a lot about what life was like, what was important to them. Some of them, like the one we look at in the episode, have little personal details like who made it and the year and their age and their family," the producer explained. "It seemed like a really great entry point into the era in a way that maybe isn鈥檛 studied so often in more mainstream history."
Dousman Stagecoach Inn Museum Curator Lynda Thayer plays a prominent role in the episode, providing hosts Kacie Lucchini Butcher and Cat Phan with information about the uses for cross-stitch samplers.
"One of the things Lynda really pointed out was samplers were a way for women and young girls to learn both things like the alphabet and numbers, writing, as well as practical skills that every woman, young girl would have needed to know to survive," Boffa noted.
The producer mentioned that sewing, mending, and repairing clothing were an "essential part" of domestic life, but unfortunately, intact samplers like the one at the Dousman Stagecoach Inn Museum aren鈥檛 too common.
"Many of them survive, but many, many, many, many more probably don't survive because they were not considered important enough to preserve," Boffa said. "...They have a lot to say about the history of women and young girls, which is often overlooked. They have a lot to say about the history of domestic life which is, again, overlooked."
After watching "A Stitch In Time", Boffa hopes that viewers take away important lessons about what it means to "do history."
"History is really accessible to anyone. It is the stuff of everyday life, anything you find interesting can be a compelling object of study for history. 鈥nyone can be a historian," the producer said. "For this episode, I hope it reinforces all those ideas that history can be fun, that it means visiting and seeing cool spaces, and we have a lot to learn from these items that were made 150 years ago."
The series "The Look Back", along with all of PBS Wisconsin Education鈥檚 content, is Wisconsin-focused, aligned with state standards, and free to use. Visit for more information.
