History Museum at the Castle

History Museum at the Castle

The front entrance to the History Museum at the Castle
Established	1985
Location	333 East College Avenue, Appleton, Wisconsin
Public transit access	Valley Transit
Website	www.myhistorymuseum.org
Masonic Temple
U.S. National Register of Historic Places
Coordinates	44°15′44″N 88°24′5″W / 44.26222°N 88.40139°W / 44.26222; -88.40139
Built	1923
Architect	Leenhouts & Gutherie
Architectural style	Tudor Revival
NRHP reference No.	85002330[1]
Added to NRHP	September 12, 1985

The History Museum at the Castle is a local history museum located in downtown Appleton, Wisconsin across College Avenue from Lawrence University. Owned and operated by the Outagamie County Historical Society (OCHS), the museum has previously operated under the names The Outagamie Museum and The Houdini Historic Center. The building was earlier known as Masonic Temple. In 2018 the museum was a recipient of the 2018 National Medal for Museum and Library Service, the highest honor given to a museum or library in the United States.^[2]

The building in which the museum is housed was formerly a Masonic temple, built in 1923, and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as "Masonic Temple". Appleton's Waverly Masonic Lodge sold the building to the OCHS in 1985.

The museum's collections focus on the history of the Fox River Valley, containing artifacts from the 1840s onward. The History Museum at the Castle also has a large collection of original Harry Houdini personal documents and performance paraphernalia, including a selection of his picks, locks, keys, and handcuffs. The museum also holds a collection of artifacts from the life of Senator Joe McCarthy, who was from the Appleton area. The museum owns 35,000 photographs dating back as far as 1857, including ones of Houdini, McCarthy, and Edna Ferber.

• American Museum of Magic
• David Copperfield's International Museum and Library of the Conjuring Arts, which is closed to the public
• Houdini Museum (Scranton, Pennsylvania)
• The House of Houdini
• Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin houses Houdini ephemera and a large collection of Houdini letters and manuscripts.^[3]
• Houdini Museum of New York

• List of magic museums

• The History Museum at the Castle
• Waverly Masonic Lodge