Johanna Wickman, President of Wickman Historical Consultants, has spent over a decade managing and working in museums. While a museum director in the Palm Springs area, Ms. Wickman increased her museum’s attendance from approximately 650 guests for the month of January 2011, to over 2,900 visitors for the month of February 2011. She researched, planned and designed numerous exhibits from the ground up–many of which were of topics not included in the museum’s collection. She organized the first Civil War re-enactment in the Coachella Valley from the ground up recruiting sponsors and working closely with city, county, police and fire officials with over 3,000 guests in attendance. She currently offers contract services to museums and archives around the country.
She was a founding board member of the Desert Cities Museum Association, Coachella Valley Emergency Preparedness Network for museums, and a featured panelist at the 2011 California Association of Museums conference. She has been a board member of the Fort Caspar Museum Association since 2015 and is currently Vice Chair of the organization.
Since founding Wickman Historical Consultants in 2012, Ms. Wickman has presented at the Wyoming State Historical Society Annual Meeting, University of Wyoming, Wyoming Geological Association, and was a panelist on “Pop Culture in the Classroom and Museums” at Denver Comic Con. She was also interviewed as an 11th Kansas Cavalry expert for the 2022 documentary “The Battle of Red Buttes.”
She edited and wrote an updated version of the history of Casper College for the Casper College Foundation, entitled Spirit of the Thunderbird: 75th Anniversary Edition, published in 2020. Her master’s thesis was published as Lost Forts of Casper in 2016 by The History Press. She has also written articles for WyoHistory.org and the Casper College alumni magazine, Footprints. Her biography of Kansas Senator Preston B. Plumb, The Forgotten Senator, was released March 8, 2023.
She holds four college degrees in Foreign Language (German), Museum & Gallery Studies, Humanities & Fine Arts, and a master’s degree in History. She currently resides in Casper, Wyoming.