Since opening in 1904, the Neenah Foundry has earned a worldwide reputation for producing manhole covers. Manhole covers are removable lids fitted for tunnels large enough for people to access underground sewer and storm water …
Economics
The Marathon Brewery’s Chain of Calamities
In the early 1880s, Franz Sindermann, who was trained as a brewer in Germany, opened a brewery in Marathon (near Wausau), with his brother, August, along with a third partner, Charles Klein. The brewery got …
OBJECT HISTORY: King Gambrinus Statues of LaCrosse
The King Gambrinus statue located in La Crosse, Wisconsin depicts the king of beer and brewing.[1] The origins of the statue, specifically its sculptor and construction date are unknown. Weighing in at approximately 2,000 pounds, …
OBJECT HISTORY: World’s Largest Six-Pack
Located in La Crosse, Wisconsin, the “World’s Largest Six-Pack” is a popular tourist attraction and landmark structure representative of the city’s renowned brewing history. At 54 feet tall, the six steel storage tanks, shaped and …
OBJECT HISTORY: Beaver Felt Hat
The beaver felt hat was one of the main reasons for the success of the fur trade in northern states, such as Wisconsin, and Canada. But why was this hat more popular than others? Clothing …
Wisconsin Bicycle Tourism
M.C. Rotier, the publisher and editor of The Pneumatic, a Wisconsin periodical and trade journal dedicated to bicycles in the 1890s, called bicycling “the most independent, healthful, rapid, and convenient mode of travel” in the …
OBJECT HISTORY: Pasty
The lead mining industry of the 1830s and 1840s brought miners from Cornwall, England to southwestern Wisconsin. The miners brought Cornish traditions like the pasty, a filling food for hungry miners. The availability of pasties today demonstrates the lasting traditions of early European immigrants in Wisconsin. Pasties are folded pastries filled with meat and vegetables.…
OBJECT HISTORY: Log-Marking Hammer
Between the 1840s and the 1890s, logs meant money. Wisconsin had a large supply of trees. Lumber mills made money by cutting down trees. Logging was one of the largest industries in Wisconsin. There were more than 450 lumber camps across Wisconsin. If we study this log-marking hammer and think about the people that used…
OBJECT HISTORY: Fiddle
As the lumber industry flourished in Wisconsin beginning in the 1840s, immigrants from all over Europe and Canada came to live and work in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. All winter, men called lumberjacks would cut down pine trees, preparing the timber to be used as building material, or sometimes to be turned into pulp or…
OBJECT HISTORY: Bark Spud
The bark spud is an iron tool used to remove bark from cut timber. Most bark spuds have a steel head with a hard wooden handle. The head is rounded or dish-shaped and has one cutting edge. The sharp wedge on the end of the bark spud slides between bark and wood on a log…