From the corn fields of her home state of Iowa to the field of museum work, Jennifer Van Haaften has dedicated the past 30 years to creating a positive visitor experience through museum education and programming. As the Assistant Director of the Wisconsin Veterans Museum, she has a hand in everything from supervising the collections section, store and budget, managing facilities and security, to serving on communications and interpretation committees.

Although she is not a veteran herself, the call to military service was answered by several of her family members. Her maternal uncle, Andrew H. Higgins (who says he took President Kennedy’s words to heart, Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country) worked as an aircraft electrician on the USS Enterprise in the Gulf of Tonkin during Vietnam.

Van Haaften’s maternal grandfather Lt. Laurence B. Higgins, served with the 168th Infantry, 34th Division during World War II. This February marks eighty years since Lt. Higgins was wounded and captured in action in North Africa. He was transferred to a hospital in Italy to recover and then transferred to Oflag 64, a POW camp for Allied officers. He was a POW from 1943 until he was sent on a prisoner exchange in February 1945, traveling from Sweden to the U.S.

Van Haaften shared that although her grandfather didn’t talk about his war experiences with the grandkids, she learned his story from her parents, his letters home, and reading about the history of the places he was in during that time. This curiosity about a story so close to her may have influenced her to spend the past seven plus years at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum. Van Haaften says, “I am a historian first, and I have always loved the complexity of history, which reflects the complexity of humanity across the ages. Discovering more stories and giving them voice to a wider audience is why I work in museums.”

As her mission continues, Van Haaften is passionate about creating a rich visitor experience for museum guests. Explaining that collections and visitor experience are tightly entwined, she says, “In order to make a richer visitor experience that touches upon all types of military service members from all backgrounds, our collections also need to reflect all the types of military service members from all backgrounds. I’ve discovered that me working in all these areas helps to facilitate our best ways for finding and sharing stories that resonate with a wider audience.”

Touching Virtually Everything That Happens in the Museum: This Is Jennifer Van Haaften was written by Jen Stevenson, Marketing Manager at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum.

The article was first published in the Winter 2022 issue of The Bugle.