Ever since the museum acquired the famous Apostles Clock in 1948, the 8 foot tall masterpiece has thrilled visitors with its hourly performance.

The recently produced DVD, The Story of Mathias Kitz and the Apostles Clock is available through the Museum Store for $14.95 It tells the fascinating story about the life of Apostles Clock maker, Mathias Kitz, interviews with Richard J. Kitz, great-grandson of the clock maker and a behind the scenes look inside the clock.

The Apostles Clock is a superb example of Wisconsin folk art. It was finished in 1895, after six years of work by Mathias Martin Kitz (1833–1922), a German immigrant from Duisdorf, Prussia.

Each hour a door at the top of the clock opens, and an angel is seen striking a gong. The music begins; decorative lights illuminate the clock, the door in the center opens, and a doll-like figure of Christ emerges. The Apostles pass before, and He raises his arms in blessing. Each of the eleven Apostles turns toward Christ and bows his head. The last in line, Judas, clutches his bag of silver and turns away. Two side doors open to display scenes of the Nativity and Crucifixion. Some fifty 30-inch music disks, which range from hymns to jigs, can be fitted to the clock’s Regina music box.

Large mechanical clocks such as this are called “monumental clocks” and were popular in America in the latter part of the 1800s. Monumental clocks were not only timepieces but also testaments to their makers’ skills and sources of entertainment. Perhaps 25 large, monumental clocks were built in the United States between 1875 and 1900. The Apostles Clock is one of the few still in existence.

Mathias Kitz made one other large clock. His first tall case clock, known as St. Peter Clock, was started in 1857 and finished in 1888. Perhaps Kitz may have seen the famous European clocks in Strasbourg, Germany, and Prague, Czechoslovakia. But it is more likely he saw examples of monumental clocks while in the United States.