Wisconsin 101

OBJECT HISTORY: A Hudson’s Bay Company Point Blanket Coat

This wool coat was constructed from a ‘point blanket’ made by the Hudson’s Bay Company, likely during the early 1920s. A Wausau businessman wore it at one of the town’s early Winter Frolics, an annual winter sports festival that attracted tourists from as far as Chicago. The businessman belonged to a group of local business…

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September 9, 2020

Wausau / Object Histories / Marathon County / Society & Religion / Employers Mutual Audiometer / Region 4 - Center / 1945-1965 / Science & Medicine

OBJECT HISTORY: Employers Mutual Audiometer

This Maico Audiometer was one of many devices used by health and safety consultants of the Employers Mutual Liability Insurance Company of Wisconsin throughout the mid-to-late 1960s. Employers Mutual was the very first workers compensation insurance company in the United States. The company was founded in Wausau, Wisconsin, in 1911 shortly after the nation’s first workers compensation law was…

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March 9, 2019

Read more about the article Emelie Manthei’s Point Blanket Coat

A Point Blanket Coat

Wausau / Clothing, Apparel & Fashion / Related Stories / Everyday Life / Marathon County / 1918-1945 / Region 4 - Center / A Hudson's Bay Company Point Blanket Coat

Emelie Manthei’s Point Blanket Coat

When the Great Depression hit Wausau in the 1930s, Emelie Manthei (now Emelie Borth) was a high school student from a working-class family. Her father lost his job before finding employment with the Works Progress Administration (WPA), where he helped construct the…

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June 19, 2018

Industry / Wausau / Related Stories / Marathon County / Manufacturing & Trade / Nature & Environment / 1900-1918 / 1918-1945 / Region 4 - Center / Transportation & Tourism / A Hudson's Bay Company Point Blanket Coat

The Wausau Group: The Businessmen Who Revived Wausau’s Economy

Located on the Wisconsin River, Wausau developed as a logging town in the 1830s. George Stevens chose the site because of the waterfall that spanned the river, which provided power for sawmills used to turn the felled trees into lumber. The waterfall,…

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June 15, 2018

Sports & Games / Art, Sport & Entertainment / Wausau / Related Stories / Marathon County / 1918-1945 / Region 4 - Center / Transportation & Tourism / A Hudson's Bay Company Point Blanket Coat

The Wausau Winter Frolic: Wausau’s History as a Sports Capital

In 1929 a teacher in Waupaca asked her pupils what Wisconsinites did for winter sports. According to one newspaper, the children “with one accord all exclaimed: ‘They go to Wausau!’” In the 1920s, when Wisconsinites thought of winter sports, they thought of…

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June 15, 2018

Read more about the article What is a Point Blanket Coat?

In 1818 Anna Maria von Phul painted this picture of a Native American woman wearing a white wool trade blanket. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Broad History / Fur Trade / Industry / Wausau / Clothing, Apparel & Fashion / Related Stories / Everyday Life / Marathon County / Global Connections / Manufacturing & Trade / Region 4 - Center / A Hudson's Bay Company Point Blanket Coat

What is a Point Blanket Coat?

The practice of converting Hudson’s Bay Company blankets into coats began years before the company began mass-manufacturing point blanket coats in the twentieth century. During the fur trade, Native Americans hunters traded beaver pelts for wool point blankets. Point blankets were waterproof…

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June 7, 2018