Wisconsin 101

Ezekiel Gillespie, Black Suffrage, and the Wisconsin Idea

The Wisconsin Idea can be a lofty political goal, and it’s one that the state it is named after hasn’t always lived up to. Like so many other places in the United States, Wisconsin has a history of discriminating against its citizens…

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October 30, 2024

East Troy / John Potter's Monster Knife / New Object Histories / Object Histories / Walworth County / 1848-1877 / Politics & Government / Region 8 - South East

OBJECT HISTORY: John Fox Potter’s “Monster Knife”

Measuring over six feet in length and weighing thirty-two pounds, this gigantic folding knife belonged to Wisconsin representative John Fox “Bowie Knife” Potter who was famous as a dedicated abolitionist and infamous for his willingness to use physical force on the United…

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October 29, 2024

Hawks Inn / Delafield / Related Stories / 1787-1848 / 1848-1877 / Waukesha County / Politics & Government / Transportation & Tourism / Region 8 - South East

Nelson Hawks and Delafield’s Beginnings

When Nelson P. Hawks first arrived in the area that is now Delafield, there were no hotels, no mills, churches, or stores of any kind—only a few cabins and the pioneers that occupied them. This would greatly change in the twenty-three years…

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September 25, 2024

Hawks Inn / New Object Histories / Delafield / Object Histories / 1787-1848 / 1848-1877 / Waukesha County / Politics & Government / Transportation & Tourism / Region 8 - South East

OBJECT HISTORY: Hawks Inn

Standing at two-and-a-half stories, with a side-gabled roof and paired end chimneys, and painted white with black shutters, the image of Hawks Inn would have filled travelers with hope and relief during their trek along the stagecoach route from Milwaukee to Madison,…

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September 25, 2024

Greendale / Slaske's Tools / Milwaukee County / Related Stories / Politics & Government / 1918-1945 / Society & Religion / Region 8 - South East

The New Deal in Wisconsin (and Beyond)

In October of 1929, the United States suffered a stock market crash that would alter the course of history. The American economy came to a screeching halt, with economic impacts that came to reverberate around the world. In Wisconsin, particularly in the…

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August 14, 2024

Greendale / Slaske's Tools / Milwaukee County / Related Stories / Nature & Environment / Politics & Government / 1918-1945 / Society & Religion / Region 8 - South East

Greendale, Greenhills, and Greenbelt: The Government’s “Green” Towns

The Greenbelt towns were the brainchild of Rexford Guy Tugwell, an economist who served as President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Undersecretary of Agriculture in 1934 and 1935. A policy advisor to President Roosevelt, Tugwell believed that he could effectively combat the Depression-era issues…

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August 14, 2024