A connection is made: Historical reenactors on ‘The Look Back’

June 23, 2025 Tawny Morrison Leave a Comment

PBS Wisconsin Education recently wrapped its second season of The Look Back, a series that features Wisconsin historians who examine historical eras through artifacts. In the final episode, viewers meet Dale and Paul Rogovich, historical reenactors dressed as a fur-trading couple from 1790. They talk about the 18th-century fur trade in the Great Lakes region and its global impacts.

Paul jokes they were only asked to be on the episode because there was no one else to do it, but the Rogoviches were a natural fit. They have decades of experience sharing history as reenactors, including volunteering at the Wisconsin Historical Museum in Madison.

“Paul’s very good with dates, the names of people,” Dale explained. “I’m terrible with the names. But I’m really well-versed at this point in what people ate during the fur trade, the social history of it.”

The self-proclaimed “armchair historians” met through a living history organization and eventually narrowed their focus to the fur trade era.

“I came here from New York, where we have everything. And I wondered why people came to the Midwest! What happened?” Paul teased. But his passion for history is genuine. “I was just interested in it. I tell a lot of stories at the museum, and they’re interesting because you can’t make this stuff up!”

“It’s cured him. He’s a Wisconsinite,” Dale added.

Paul and Dale also enjoy learning about and sharing how Native American and French cultures blended during this period. Dale pointed to jewelry as an example. “The [Native] women were decorating their things with porcupine quills and beads made of wood or stone, and the Europeans brought glass beads … Imagine what those glass beads sparkling in the sunlight meant to the women who had been making things out of shells. I contend that there are beautiful jeweled things in Europe … but none of them, I think, is equal to the Ojibwe beadwork that’s been done right here.”

  
Dale emphasized the importance of not just telling stories, but connecting them to our lives today. When explaining the ways jewelry and clothing were changed by the blending of French and Ojibwe cultures, Dale connects it to the clothes kids wear today.

“One thing that really unites people is that human beings decorate [themselves] and always have … it’s a human trait. And it’s fun sharing that with the kids because they realize that they’re wearing cool t-shirts and so on.”

She appreciates how The Look Back illustrates similar connections.

“I really like [The Look Back] because kids should have pride in where they came from physically and grew up … And this is a way to carry that on. I think [about] the episode they did on Dungeons and Dragons (D&D). People don’t realize cheeseheads and Badger boys and girls made it up! They can say they’re from Wisconsin, ‘Did you know that’s where D&D came from?’ It’s a big deal. And they’ll never forget that.”

It’s the same excitement she tries to ignite in learners.

“I always felt as though my job was done if I instilled the feeling that it was fun to come to the museum, not that they were learning about history, because if you tell a kid you’re learning great stuff, they’re going to walk right out. And so would grown-ups! … But even if they never go on to have much interest in, you know, social history, from then on, the connection is made. And I think that’s really important.”

You can watch all episodes of The Look Back on PBS Wisconsin Education, PBS Wisconsin and the PBS Wisconsin Education YouTube channel. Season three will launch later in 2025.

Wisconsin Historical Society Wisconsin history PBS Wisconsin Education