Wisconsin Mansion Houses A Museum Of Beautiful Paper Weights

A child's fascination with paper weights has turned into a Wisconsin museum filled with beautiful examples of the office desk accessory.

I never collected anything as a child. Baseball cards didn't do anything for me. I think there was an attempt to collect stamps for about 2 weeks before I realized that was stupid. Maybe it was because I never found anything I was truly passionate about as a kid or maybe I'm missing a gene that other's have to make them want to collect things.

Evangeline Bergstrom either had that gene or was lucky enough to find her passion at an early age: paperweights.

BMMGlass.com - Evangeline Bergstrom began her love of paperweights as a child. She was born in Ithaca, NY on May 23, 1872 and was the only child of Dr. and Mrs. George W. Hoysradt. During frequent summer visits to her grandmother’s home, she became captivated by a paperweight kept on a table in the parlor. Being able to look at the weight served as young Evangeline’s reward for practicing her piano or reciting a poem.

She would eventually lose this cherished paperweight of her grandmother's and began a collection of her own that grew throughout her life.

When she and her husband moved from New York to Wisconsin, the collection came with her and eventually became the Bergstrom-Mahler Museum in Neenah, Wisconsin.

The Bergstroms had no children and were very generous to their community while they were alive. When they passed, they arranged for their mansion to be turned into a museum for paperweights and other glassworks.

The museum attracts thousands of visitors a year, from people just curious about a paperweight museum to respected glass workers visiting a center that celebrates their art.

This would be a great little cold weather road trip north of the border this winter. When else will you be able to check "Visit a paperweight museum" off your bucket list?