Above, clockwise starting from top left: JoAnn Hallquist shakes the hand of then-president Lyndon Baines Johnson; JoAnn Hallquist takes a portrait in her living room in Amery, WI; A smattering of historical photos waits to be archived at Polk County History Museum; a historical photo of the museum adorns its own walls; two students admire the museum's vintage hat collection; the physical archives at Polk County History Museum.
"You have to look at the past in order to help guide you for the future, to make decisions today.”
That deep respect for history has been a throughline in Jo Ann Hallquist’s long life. She has always found value in learning about her ancestors’ journeys from Sweden and Denmark to rural Amery, Wisconsin. In her career, too, understanding history was a core competency. A true groundbreaker, Jo Ann was among the first women to serve as a Foreign Service Officer (FSO), living all over the world in the late ‘50s and ‘60s.
“History is very much a part of foreign affairs,” said Jo Ann. “You can’t separate it. Anyone in the Foreign Service is very much involved in the history of the area in which they’re working, because history has so much to do with what’s currently going on.”
After an illustrious career as an FSO, Jo Ann spent many years in Washington D.C., working in international trade before eventually retiring to Amery. In retirement, she has actively helped preserve local history as a volunteer archivist for the Polk County History Museum in Balsam Lake.
“It’s really important to me that history museums have good archives,” said Jo Ann, who sees great promise in utilizing technology to help organize the museum’s archive and make them more available to the public.
Fortunately, Brenna Weston, Polk County History Museum’s new director, shares Jo Ann’s vision. When Brenna joined the Polk County Museum, Jo Ann felt it was time to invest more than volunteer hours in the museum. This year, she established the Hallquist History Fund, an endowed donor designated fund that will forever benefit the Polk County Museum through annual, automatic grants. Working closely with SCVF, Jo Ann was able to ensure that her gift will specifically support the archival work she values so highly.
“My main goal with the archives is making sure that everything is organized in a way that somebody can find the information they want – whether that’s me, a researcher, a teacher, or eventually, a member of the public who wants to come in and do research on their own,” said Brenna, whose background in anthropology, dual master’s degrees and interest in education made her the ideal fit for the museum director position. She plans to start by purchasing a large-scale scanner that can capture plat maps and other larger items.
“My next goal is to have an intern that’s able to come in and start working through the actual digitization process – that's the whole process of taking pictures, including all the metadata, putting it on the storage hard drive, and if time allows, starting to put it online.”
Digitizing the archive could also impact the next generation of potential history lovers: students. By making historical photos and records available online, Jo Ann and Brenna hope students will access primary sources more readily and understand the foundations of quality research – all while learning about Polk County history.
“Human history is important,” said Brenna. “It’s preserving people’s lives, especially when someone documents in the form of a journal or correspondence the everyday goings-on in their life. I want to find ways to continue to keep this relevant and exciting for the kids that come here.”
As for Jo Ann, a love of history doesn’t stop her from thinking about the future. She plans to add to the Hallquist History Fund through her estate, sealing her legacy as a protector of history.
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