Wisconsin 101

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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February 1, 2018

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

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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February 1, 2018

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

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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February 1, 2018

Art, Sport & Entertainment / Wausau / Object Histories / Clothing, Apparel & Fashion / Sports & Games / Everyday Life / Marathon County / A Hudson's Bay Company Point Blanket Coat / 1918-1945 / Region 4 - Center

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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February 1, 2018

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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February 1, 2018

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

OBJECT HISTORY: Fromm Fox Fur Coat

This coat was made from the fur of foxes raised on the Fromm Fur Farm in Hamburg, Wisconsin. The jacket is covered in light-silver fox fur and lined with a taupe fabric. Straps allow the coat to also be worn as a cape. In the early decades of the 20th century, it was fashionable to use…

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December 9, 2017