Tentative! If county guidelines permits, the Society will host the Annual Meeting at the New Berlin library with recommended protocols in place. Please check back for updates

The public is invited to the program, which will begin at 7:00 PM after the annual meeting. Matthew Prigee will discuss his book Damn the Old Tinderbox!

Damn the Old Tinderbox! is the gripping tale of one of the Gilded Age's forgotten calamities, a fire that remains among the deadliest unsolved arsons in American history, and a significant chapter in both the history of Milwaukee and the Midwest.

Matthew J. Prigge, author of Milwaukee Mayhem: Murder and Mystery in the Cream City’s First Century, is a freelance author and historian from Milwaukee and the host of "What Made Milwaukee Famous," a weekly local history segment on WMSE 91.7. His work has been featured in both local and national publications and has won multiple awards, including the 2013 William Best Hesseltine Award from the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. Since 2011, he has led sightseeing historical tours of Milwaukee's rivers and harbor for the Milwaukee Boat Line. In 2013, he created the Mondo Milwaukee Boat Tour, an evening historical tour of some of the city's most infamous sights. He writes a history blog for Milwaukee's "Shepherd Express" and has also authored several articles for the "Wisconsin Magazine of History."