Wisconsin 101

OBJECT HISTORY: Sanitary Metal Kitchen Cabinet

Kitchens form a central part of the American experience. The Sanitary Metal Kitchen Cabinet, also known as the Mound City Kitchen Safe (circa 1906), fits into the history of American cookery, American kitchens, and American consumerism. Originally owned by members of the…

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January 23, 2024

Read more about the article Platteville’s Mining History

The Great Seal of the State of Wisconsin, showing a Cornish miner right of the shield, circa 1881. Image ID: 91654. Wisconsin Historical Society

Broad History / Mining Industry / Industry / Education / Grant County / Related Stories / Platteville / Manufacturing & Trade / Nature & Environment / Region 6 - South West / Ingersoll-Sergeant Pneumatic Rock Drill

Platteville’s Mining History

The Great Seal of the State of Wisconsin, showing a Cornish miner right of the shield, circa 1881. Image ID: 91654. Wisconsin Historical Society The Platteville lead boom spanned from 1827 to 1849, bringing diverse groups of people and the mining industry…

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December 21, 2022

Read more about the article Pleasant Ridge: Southwest Wisconsin’s Integrated Pioneer Community

Schoolhouse of District #5 in Pleasant Ridge. Both Blacks and whites built, attended, and taught at the school, circa 1890. Image ID: 4239, WI Historical Society.

Beetown / Grant County / Related Stories / Iowa County / Ethnicity & Identity / Pleasant Ridge / 1848-1877 / 1877-1900 / 1900-1918 / Society & Religion / 1918-1945 / Region 6 - South West / Ingersoll-Sergeant Pneumatic Rock Drill

Pleasant Ridge: Southwest Wisconsin’s Integrated Pioneer Community

Schoolhouse of District #5 in Pleasant Ridge. Both Blacks and whites built, attended, and taught at the school, circa 1890. Image ID: 4239, WI Historical Society. Pleasant Ridge was a rural agricultural community located near present-day Beetown in central Grant County that…

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December 21, 2022

Industry / Mining Industry / Grant County / Education / Object Histories / Platteville / Manufacturing & Trade / 1877-1900 / Region 6 - South West / Ingersoll-Sergeant Pneumatic Rock Drill

OBJECT HISTORY: Ingersoll-Sergeant Pneumatic Rock Drill

Picture of Ingersoll-Sergeant Pneumatic Rock Drill, courtesy of Liam Reinicke. The Ingersoll-Sergeant pneumatic rock drill stands in front of the Rountree Hall Apartments in Platteville, serving as an important symbol of Platteville’s mining history. The drill was manufactured by the Ingersoll-Sergeant Rock…

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December 13, 2022

Slavery in Wisconsin

Industry / Grant County / Ethnicity & Identity / Platteville / Related Stories / Iowa County / Pleasant Ridge / 1787-1848 / 1848-1877 / Manufacturing & Trade / Society & Religion / Region 6 - South West / James D. Williams' Windlass

Slavery in Wisconsin

It may come as a surprise to learn that during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries slavery existed in the region that would become the state of Wisconsin. Over this period, thousands of enslaved African Americans or enslaved American Indians lived and…

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September 11, 2018

Mining Industry / Industry / Grant County / Object Histories / Ethnicity & Identity / Platteville / Manufacturing & Trade / 1877-1900 / Region 6 - South West / James D. Williams' Windlass

OBJECT HISTORY: James D. Williams’ Windlass

This is a machine used to lower and raise miners and materials through mine shafts in the lead mining region around Platteville, Wisconsin. Made from wooden supports with a wooden barrel shaft and crank attached to a rope with a bucket, a…

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January 9, 2018