The Wisconsin Veterans Museum, a fixture on Madison’s Capitol Square, is marking its 125th anniversary, celebrating more than a century of preserving the stories and sacrifices of the state’s service members.
Museum Director Chris Kolakowski says the mission has remained steady since the museum’s founding. “Our mission is to preserve, interpret, and affirm the role of Wisconsin veterans in America’s military history,” he said. “And we do that from the Civil War right up to the present day. All branches, all services, all time periods.”
Kolakowski says the museum serves three purposes. “We try and teach that every veteran is a story. No matter who you are, no matter when you served, it’s worthy of remembrance, it’s worthy of respect. Second, that Wisconsin was there. There’s a lot of historical events that most people don’t realize have a Wisconsin connection. And then the third is this still matters. This is still very much with us today,” he said.
Kolakowski says the museum’s reach extends far beyond Madison. With visitors coming from every corner of the state, he believes everyone can find a personal connection within its walls. “Whether you’re from Superior, Milwaukee, Madison, Green Bay, Eau Claire, Prairie du Chien—anywhere in between—you’re going to find somebody or something here that connects with you,” he said. “We want everybody who walks through our doors to connect with our stories in some way.”
The museum’s collection is vast—so vast, in fact, that only a small fraction is currently on display. Kolakowski says that’s one of the reasons they’re planning for a larger facility. “What you see on display is only about 3% of our collection,” he explained. “We have 27,000 objects, ranging from collar insignia to aircraft. A museum of our size should have about 20% on display at any given time.”
The goal is to expand into a new, larger space by 2030, allowing more of Wisconsin’s military history to be shared with the public. The Wisconsin Veterans Museum is free to visit and open every day except Monday.