Otto Stiller photos at Neville Public Museum, February 28, 2025. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — With decades of experience, and years of images to match, Brown County’s Neville Public Museum is kicking off a new exhibit.
“Lens Legends” celebrates history and the legacy of the Green Bay Packers.
“We decided that in advance of the draft, that we would display some of the really important images that go back from 1919, all the way up until the 1980s,” said Beth Kowalski, Neville Public Museum Executive Director.
Known in the business as a trailblazer with a camera, Otto Stiller may be the original lens legend.
“Otto Stiller was a very early photographer in our community, and he was on the ground in 1919, photographing the very beginning of the Packers, said Kowalski.
In the center of one photo is a very young Curly Lambeau.
“We’re looking at when it was the Acme Packers. The Acme Packing Company sponsored the Green Bay Packers,” said Kowalski.
Along the next wall is space reserved for Hank Lefebvre, who captured a lot of images from the 1960s, including one shot from the sideline of the 1967 NFL Championship Game, also known as the Ice Bowl.
“What’s really interesting is, obviously the technology through time. Being able to have the camera technology, the clarity, the negatives, that original, that first source. Really give high detail to what some of those were happening on the field, or in the community,” said Kowalski.
In addition to about one million photographs at the museum, Kowalski says the Neville also digitized about four million feet of local news film recorded from 1953-1980.
“We have a specialized climate for that. We have a freezer. A film freezer and a film refrigerator. So film of a certain time period, it needs to be cold and frozen to protect its color, and make sure it doesn’t basically self-destruct,” she said.
The Green Bay Press Gazette display features Packers players interacting with the public, including a young Johnnie Gray at a charity jump rope event.
“As a news reporter or a photographer, you’re always trying to capture that action moment, or that special moment. I don’t know if Otto Stiller going back to 1919 knew exactly the importance or the significance of the work that he was doing, but it is our baseline,” said Kowalski.
“Lens Legends: The Green Bay Packers Legacy Through Photos and Film” opens Saturday.
Museum leaders say they hope to have expanded hours at the Neville during spring break month, and the weeks leading up to the draft in April.
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