April 21 - History Center - 7pm

2022 Canfield Award Recipient - Mary Orlowski

Presentation - William Canfield’s Treehouse

The Canfield Award is given in memory of William H. Canfield. William Canfield was born on April 9, 1819. Sauk County was set apart in 1840 to become a county of the Wisconsin Territory, and only two years later William H. Canfield arrived in the Baraboo Valley, destined to become its first historian. Like many of us today, he was struck by the beauty of Sauk County but knew that its history was changing fast and that it needed to be recorded. Much of what we know about Sauk County’s early history was shared by William Canfield through his meticulously detailed notes and maps.

Each year since 2002 the Sauk County Historical Society Board of Directors chooses an individual to receive the Canfield History Award. Each Canfield Award recipient has contributed to forwarding the mission of the Sauk County Historical Society and furthering an understanding and appreciation for history with passion and dedication. This year’s award goes to Mary Orlowski.

When Mary Orlowski attended the SCHS Sunday in the Cemetery Living History Tour in 2009 she had no idea the experience would lead to a volunteer project that would last more than 12 years. But that is exactly what happened. After Orlowski was impressed with the tour she decided to join the Society and begin volunteering. At the time, the history center was still under renovation and Orlowski began volunteering at the Van Orden Mansion deciding to work on the Society’s vast collection of family files. Almost since its inception in 1905 the Society has collected newspaper clippings of obituaries, birth and wedding announcements and other documents related to Sauk County residents. In the last thirty years or so this collection has grown to include over 3,000 file folders each with a different surname. This invaluable collection has helped countless researchers over the years connect with their own families or individuals of interest. However, a collection is only as good as its accessibility..

When Orlowski started volunteering, her first job was to alphabetize and file thousands of previously unfiled newspaper articles that other volunteers had clipped out of area newspapers. After this was finished, she began methodically going through every file to weed out duplicates. As Orlowski did this she also found clippings that were misfiled and took care of fragile articles by either making copies of them or piecing them back together with archival tape. Orlowksi’s work has been a labor of love and a way to “pay it forward” for the help she received years ago on her own genealogical work at the Allen County Public Library in her hometown of Fort Wayne, Indiana. This amazing resource is now one of the pillars of research materials available at the history center. For years, Orlowski has also helped label and sort tens of thousands of SCHS newsletters and has helped out at numerous events like Christmas at the Mansion.