Wisconsin 101

OBJECT HISTORY: Sterling Safety Bicycle

What did a bicycle rider in 1890 look for in a new bike? Safety and comfort, of course, but also beautiful construction—many of the same qualities that contemporary bicycle riders also seek. Sterling Bicycle advertisement featuring Annie Oakley on the safety bicycle, 1890s. The bicycle pictured here was donated to the Wisconsin Historical Museum, where it…

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April 10, 2017

Industry / Hamburg / Related Stories / Marathon County / Manufacturing & Trade / Nature & Environment / 1918-1945 / Region 4 - Center / Fromm Fox Fur Coat

The Fromm Fur Farm

The land that became the Fromm Fur Farm was first settled by Joachim Nieman, a forester who came to Wisconsin as part of the mass immigration from Germany after 1848. He gave his daughter Alwina a quarter section of undeveloped wilderness near…

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January 1, 2017

Industry / Clothing, Apparel & Fashion / Related Stories / Hamburg / Everyday Life / Marathon County / Manufacturing & Trade / Nature & Environment / 1918-1945 / Region 4 - Center / Fromm Fox Fur Coat

The Fromm Brand and the Hamburg Fur Auction

Probably the biggest reason for the success of the Fromm Brothers’ fur farm was the particular color of fur that they bred. As fashions shifted to favor the trademark Fromm “bright with silver” color, the Fromms were in a position to capitalize on their control of…

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January 1, 2017

Prairie du Chien / Brown County / Columbia County / Crawford County / Broad History / Green Bay / Milwaukee County / Industry / Milwaukee / Hamburg / Related Stories / Clothing, Apparel & Fashion / Everyday Life / Global Connections / Marathon County / Manufacturing & Trade / Nature & Environment / Region 4 - Center / Region 5 - Center East / Region 6 - South West / Region 7 - South Center / Region 8 - South East / Fromm Fox Fur Coat / Fur Trade

Fashion and Fur

The End of the Old Fur Trade The development of fur farms at the close of the 19th century was perhaps the most revolutionary change in North America’s fur industry, and fashion played a significant role in that change. Beaver pelts had been…

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January 1, 2017

Brown County / Green Bay / Pre-1787 / Industry / Related Stories / Global Connections / Manufacturing & Trade / Politics & Government / Society & Religion / Region 5 - Center East / Fur Trade / Le Maire Sundial

French Wisconsin at Fort la Baye

French explorers, voyageurs (fur traders), Jesuit priests, and other settlers began arriving in the Upper Great Lakes region of North America in the mid-1600s. Jean Nicolet supposedly landed near present-day Green Bay, Wisconsin in 1634, naming the waterway La Baye des Puants, literally “Bay of…

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December 24, 2016

Wausau / Industry / Related Stories / Marathon County / 1900-1918 / Manufacturing & Trade / Society & Religion / Science & Medicine / Region 4 - Center / Employers Mutual Audiometer

The 1911 Workman’s Compensation Act and the Birth of an Industry

Wisconsin passed the nation’s first constitutionally upheld worker’s compensation law in 1911. It is one of the great successes of Progressive-era social legislation and a triumph of the Wisconsin Idea.1Previously, American workers toiling in industrialized workplaces had often faced the threat of…

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November 24, 2016