Author: Jane Albright

The International Wizard of Oz Club is pleased to offer outstanding presenters on our 2025 convention program–all with unparalleled expertise in L. Frank Baum and his Aberdeen years.  Michael Patrick Hearn rose to the forefront of Oz research as his book, The Annotated Wizard of Oz climbed the New York Times list of bestsellers in 1973. Today considered the world’s leading Oz scholar, Michael’s early research into Baum and Oz placed him face-to-face with Baum’s descendants. He was given full access to primary research materials in libraries and private collections in what became a lifetime of study. Subsequent Oz projects include editing the Critical Heritage Series edition of The Wizard of Oz, providing the introduction to the publication of the MGM screenplay, co-writing W.W. Denslow’s biography, a revision of The Annotated Wizard of Oz in 2000, as well as innumerable articles, checklists, presentations, and interviews. Fifty years after that first Annotated Wizard, he continues to discover new information and share new insights. Nancy Tystad Koupal’s first book specific to Baum’s Aberdeen years, Our Landlady, looks at a humor column found in his newspaper, The Aberdeen Saturday Pioneer. Rich with humor, parody, and puns, Baum used the characters in his “Our Landlady” column to voice his opinions about topics of the day. Nancy’s Baum’s Road to Oz, the Dakota Years followed in 2000 exploring how his experiences there later surfaced in his children’s writing. A native of South Dakota, Nancy is director and editor-in-chief of the Pioneer Girl Project and founder of the South Dakota Historical Society Press. She was inducted into the South Dakota Hall of Fame in 2009. An authority on the history of woman suffrage in South Dakota and author Laura Ingalls Wilder, she has worked with the Western History Association, the South Dakota Center for the Book, and others. In 2002, she participated in a symposium on “Women of the West” at the White House. Dr. Sally Roesch Wagner was born in Aberdeen and befriended Baum’s niece Matilda Jewel Gage more than 50 years ago. She recorded their annual interviews and regularly unearthed from Matilda’s home correspondence, photos, and ephemera tied to the Baum and Gage families—most particularly to Matilda Joslyn Gage, whose leadership of the Woman’s Suffrage movement had been largely lost to history. Describing what followed, Sally says she “fell in love with a dead woman.” It was a love that would change her life, leading Sally to receive one of the first doctorates in the country for work in women’s studies, to find and restore the Matilda Joslyn Gage Home in Fayetteville, NY, and to create the Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation that works for social justice to this day. Sally is a nationally recognized lecturer, author, and storyteller of the history of women’s rights  who has taught women’s history for more than 50 years.  Follow our blog to meet additional presenters in the weeks ahead, and to learn more about what you can expect when you join us in Aberdeen. Ready to register for the convention? Sign up online here, or use the flier mailing now with The Baum Bugle.

Matilda Jewel Gage was born April 22nd, 1886, making her not yet three years old when her father’s sister, Maud Baum, Maud’s husband Frank, and their two sons moved to Aberdeen. Unlike the Baum boys who would grow to travel far from the Dakotah prairies, Matilda remained in Aberdeen until her death at age 99. Matilda quickly became a favorite of Frank and Maud. As a college student she was a frequent visitor to their Chicago home and to their “Sign of the Goose” summer cottage in Macatawa, Michigan. She later spent a year at their home in California. Through all her years she kept letters, news clippings, programs, and photos. She saved copies of the Saturday Evening Pioneer and put post cards the Baums sent from Europe in an album. It was Matilda who shared the heartbreaking memory of her baby sister Dorothy; she was only 12 when Dorothy died at five months. She had a old grade school assignment tucked away—a short story she wrote from memory based on one her Uncle Frank once told her.  Matilda’s attachment to Aberdeen, her vivid memories, and her penchant for saving ephemera led to her donating material to the Alexander Mitchel Library (now the K.O. Lee Library). That material became the foundation of the library’s L. Frank Baum Collection. It contains unique correspondence and the only known copies of many documents. In addition to preserving much about the Baums, Matilda also kept things associated with her grandmother, suffragist leader Matilda Joslyn Gage, enriching research into the legacies of both the Baum and Gage families. She received the L. Frank Baum Memorial Award from the International Wizard of Oz Club in 1972.  While the library has grown the collection since Matilda’s death in 1986, the opportunity to see material personally retained within the Baum family makes this collection especially valued by fans and researchers. Join us in Aberdeen; this collection can be seen nowhere else! We also have 25 copies of Oz in Aberdeen (1997), the booklet cataloging the collection. The first 25 registrants for the collection will receive a copy with our thanks for signing up promptly! 

When David Eckerd of the Aberdeen Recreation and Cultural Center mentioned an art gallery we could use for a convention exhibit, I was intrigued. I’ve lost count of the Oz exhibits I’ve supported through the years. Sharing my Oz collection in ways that allow the public to appreciate a wide picture of Oz is one of my favorite things. But Oz art? Never.  My first question was “can I fill a gallery?” It turned out I had more original art and signed prints than I had dreamed. (I stopped counting at 70.) As I ruled out 3-dimensional pieces that would require space-consuming boxes to transport safely, I realized I actually could fill the car with pieces give us an art-filled gallery for our opening reception. I’d just have to frame about 40 of them first. So I agreed, and David offered to co-host our reception with the center’s own patrons as our opening event.  But what an eclectic variety I have! With exactly one published John R. Neill piece from Wonder City of Oz, and one original W.W. Denslow Scarecrow, my published original art proved to be quite a mix. Barry Moser, Evan Dahm, Libico Maraja, Wes Lowe, Michael McCurdy, Anna Maria Cool, and signed prints from Graham Rawle. There’s comic art from Giorgio Trevisan to Skottie Young. Add a magazine cover, a rejected MGM VHS packaging design, and a Rick Wicks political cartoon…  Continuing to dig I discover wonderful oversized pieces from the proposed Wonderful World of Oz theme park once planned for the Kansas City area. Not only wonderful, but drawn by William Stout! And then there’s the fan art. Oz Club favorites like Irene Fisher, Bill Eubank, Dick Martin, Eric Shanower, and Rob Roy McVeigh. Pieces I’ve purchased from my friends John Coulter, and Joe Shipbaugh, as well as gifts and auction wins from artist names that were new to me. I did commission a portrait of L. Frank Baum from Joe, and Otis Frampton is making an exception to his usual all-digital creation for his new Patchwork Girl of Oz graphic novel work to create one piece by hand for me to frame and share. But for the most part, I just need to frame and frame and frame some more! I’ll be filling the car in June to set up the gallery in Aberdeen, then bringing it home with me at the close of the convention. I love unloading drawers and portfolios to fill walls with art that’s seldom seen. I hope you’ll enjoy seeing it in Aberdeen as much as I’m enjoying putting it together for you. Jane Albright Chairman, Oz the National Convention 2025

Set your course for Aberdeen, South Dakota, for Oz the National Convention 2025! Registration is open and plans are in place to fill July 17-20 with an unforgettable weekend.  As a Club, we’ve visited Baum’s New York birthplace, the home where he and Maud married, the Chicago area where he wrote The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, even the site of his Michigan “Sign of the Goose” vacation home. This year we add Aberdeen, his home from 1888-1891. Here Baum experienced the prairie, honed his skills as a writer, and grew his reputation as a children’s storyteller. Our program will make the most of this destination—with plenty of more general Oz fun for fans. The $290 registration fee covers events beginning with a Thursday evening reception and running through 4pm Sunday. Friday lunch and dinner, Saturday dinner, and Sunday lunch are included.bWrite us at [email protected] to register children (12 and younger) at half price.  We have a group rate of $129 The Quality Inn Aberdeen 2923 6th Ave SE, Aberdeen, SD 57401-5403 For reservations call (605) 226-0097 or visit the hotel website at: https://www.choicehotels.com/south-dakota/aberdeen/quality-inn-hotels/sd022 While camaraderie (and carpooling!) is generally considered a fun part of an Oz Club convention, no programming will be held at the hotel should you prefer to make other housing arrangements.  Need to fly in? There are two flights a day into Aberdeen from Minneapolis arriving at 12:45 and 8:10 pm. Departure times are daily at 6:39 am and 2:41 pm; if you plan to participate in Sunday afternoon activities, you’ll want to fly out Monday. Other airports within a four-hour drive include Sioux Falls, Fargo, Bismarck, and Watertown, SD. If you planned to rent a car in Aberdeen anyway, compare fares and times; driving a last leg of the trip from Sioux Falls, for example, might prove to be a more economical choice. Even more so if you drive it with a friend.