In the 1940s, it was rare for young women like Marge Engelman to pursue higher education. Having grown up in Illinois on her parents’ farm, Engelman was pressured by her father to stay on the …
Government
OBJECT HISTORY: The Land of the Freed-up Woman
Marge Engelman’s The Land of the Freed-Up Woman materializes the progressive thinking of the women’s liberation movement of the 1970s. Engelman’s decision to use two symbols of womanhood—birth control pills and bras—as the medium for …
Wisconsin’s Feminist Leaders and the National Organization for Women
In the early nineteen sixties, American women organized in pursuit of socio-political change and gender equality. Wisconsin women challenged inequitable customs by organizing the Wisconsin Commission on the Status for Women and participating in the …
Kechewaishke
Kechewaishke (1759 – 1855), also known as Chief Buffalo, Peezhickee, and Le Boeuf, led the Lake Superior Ojibwe people of La Pointe, the location of Madeline Island today. Kechewaishke was instrumental to signing treaty agreements …
James Duane Doty
As settlers continued moving westward during the nineteenth century, the United States was a mix of states and large territories. From 1805-1837, Wisconsin was part of the Michigan territory. James Duane Doty spearheaded the movement …
OBJECT HISTORY: Ojibwe Presentation Pipe
This Ojibwe presentation pipe consists of two pieces: a pipe bowl and a pipe stem. It was most likely for spiritual ceremonies. According to the Wisconsin Historical Society, the pipe bowl is carved from heavy …
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 …
Wisconsin’s Ancient History in the Kickapoo Valley
If you look closely, the landscapes around us tell stories about the past. Sometimes in the curve of a road, a line of trees, or stretch of prairie careful observers can find evidence of the …
OBJECT HISTORY: Old Abe, the Live War Eagle
A bald eagle stands guard over the State Assembly Chamber in Wisconsin’s Capitol building. Between two and three feet tall, the raptor has the characteristic white head and tail feathers, a brown body, and a yellow beak and talons. He sits atop a tree stump in front of a large mural called Wisconsin that represents the state’s…
OBJECT HISTORY: CCC Pillow Sham
Created in 1933, this commemorative pillow sham was just one of a number of textiles created by second-generation Hungarian immigrant Rose Mary Drab to honor her brother Edward’s service in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Rose Mary appliquéd the black cotton sateen sham with a small cotton tent, a blue eagle and two small stars, and hills, pine…