Wisconsin 101

Read more about the article Marge Engelman and Equal Opportunity at UW-Green Bay

Engelman talks with peers at the University of Green Bay. Courtesy of UW-Green Bay Archives.

Marge Engelman and Equal Opportunity at UW-Green Bay

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 family farm and to marry a farmer. In…

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August 19, 2021

Read more about the article OBJECT HISTORY: The Land of the Freed-up Woman

Marge Engelman, "The Land of the Freed-up Woman," 1971. Courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society, object 2000.79.1

Art & Design / Art, Sport & Entertainment / Brown County / Green Bay / Object Histories / Ethnicity & Identity / Society & Religion / Region 5 - Center East / 1965-1987 / The Land of the Freed-up Woman

OBJECT HISTORY: The Land of the Freed-up Woman

Marge Engelman’s The Land of the Freed-Up Woman embodies 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 her artwork transformed the recognizable flag into a message…

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August 19, 2021

Read more about the article OBJECT HISTORY: Beaver Felt Hat

Image courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Fur Trade / Prairie du Chien / Industry / Crawford County / Brown County / Columbia County / Green Bay / Object Histories / Clothing, Apparel & Fashion / 1787-1848 / Everyday Life / Curators' Favorites / Global Connections / Manufacturing & Trade / Nature & Environment / Region 5 - Center East / Region 6 - South West / Region 7 - South Center

OBJECT HISTORY: Beaver Felt Hat

The beaver felt hat was one of the main reasons for the success of the fur trade in northern states, such as Wisconsin, and in Canada. But why was this hat more popular than others? Clothing allows for people to choose their…

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October 6, 2020

Pre-1787 / Green Bay / Brown County / Object Histories / Le Maire Sundial / Global Connections / Science & Medicine / Region 5 - Center East

OBJECT HISTORY: Le Maire Sundial

The Le Maire Sundial is a rare example of a mid-18th century French sundial (cadran solaire) compass (boussole). It was found near Green Bay in 1902 by a local antiquities collector, Frank Duchateau. The sundial is broken, missing its glass compass cover as well as the back of its gnomon holder. Located on the front surface,…

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March 9, 2019

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

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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May 24, 2018

Brown County / Green Bay / Pre-1787 / Le Maire Sundial / Related Stories / Global Connections / Nature & Environment / Transportation & Tourism / Region 5 - Center East

French Cartography in the Great Lakes

French mariners and explorers using the Le Maire Sundial Compass depended on both their own specialized navigational expertise and maps produced by French cartographers. Many such maps were created based on explorer accounts of the navigable waterways between the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi…

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May 21, 2018