Wisconsin 101

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.[1]Previously, American workers toiling in industrialized workplaces had often faced the threat of injury at…

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May 24, 2018

Industry / Object Histories / Clothing, Apparel & Fashion / Hamburg / 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

Captive foxes on a pelting range. Date unknown. Photograph courtesy of the Marathon County Historical Society.

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

An advertisement for Fromm furs using their “bright with silver” slogan and printed on metallic silver paper, Women’s Wear Daily, March 11, 1936.

Industry / Wisconsin Made / Related Stories / Hamburg / Clothing, Apparel & Fashion / 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

Read more about the article Fashion and Fur

The history of fur and fashion runs deep in North America. October 1953 issue of Vogue.

Industry / Prairie du Chien / Fur Trade / Broad History / Columbia County / Brown County / Green Bay / Crawford County / Milwaukee / Milwaukee County / Related Stories / Hamburg / Clothing, Apparel & Fashion / Everyday Life / Marathon County / Global Connections / 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

Fashion and Fur

The End of the Old Fur TradeThe 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 the…

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January 1, 2017

After the Fromm’s successfully supported development of a distemper vaccine in foxes, they started Fromm Laboratories as a commercial venture on their second property between Grafton and Thiensville, c. 1940s. Photograph courtesy of the Oazaukee County Historical Society.

Canine Distemper and the Fromm Vaccine

One of the most formidable problems that fur farmers faced in in the early twentieth century were the epidemic diseases that would strike their herds each year. Many fur farmers had come to see losses to distemper and other diseases as a…

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January 1, 2017