Wisconsin 101

Elsa Ulbricht: A Pioneer for Women’s Work

Due to its longevity and the number of women employed, historians consider the Milwaukee Handicraft Project to be one of the most successful programs sponsored by the Works Project Administration (WPA). The WPA funded many public works projects during the Great Depression as a…

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April 23, 2025

Milwaukee Handicraft Project Portfolio / Art & Design / New Object Histories / Milwaukee / Milwaukee County / Object Histories / Society & Religion / 1918-1945 / Region 8 - South East

OBJECT HISTORY: Milwaukee Handicraft Project Portfolio

A seagull is eating fish for lunch, disrupting the regularity of the water’s waves as it splashes around. This is a scene so common on the Milwaukee shores of Lake Michigan that it served as design inspiration for local craftsmen, and in…

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April 23, 2025

Recital Poster / Music, Theatre & Cinema / Milwaukee / Art, Sport & Entertainment / Milwaukee County / Related Stories / 1848-1877 / 1877-1900 / Region 8 - South East

Milwaukee’s Music Scene in the Late Nineteenth Century

The Wisconsin music industry experienced a dramatic growth in the second half of the nineteenth century, as Milwaukee became a national leader in musical performances and a manufacturing center for the production of musical instruments. The city was home to a vibrant…

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April 23, 2025

Recital Poster / Milwaukee / Milwaukee County / Related Stories / Ethnicity & Identity / 1900-1918 / 1918-1945 / Region 8 - South East

Milwaukee’s Early Mexican Community

Milwaukee’s Mexican community began in 1920, when the Pfister and Vogel Tannery recruited a handful of men from the midwestern states of Mexico to work in their Menominee and Bay View plants on the city’s near south side. Unaware that they had been…

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April 23, 2025

Recital Poster / Music, Theatre & Cinema / Art, Sport & Entertainment / Milwaukee / Milwaukee County / 1877-1900 / Society & Religion / Region 8 - South East

The Milwaukee Athenaeum

Built in 1887, the Athenaeum has been home to the Women’s Club of Wisconsin since its founding. Situated in Milwaukee’s East Town at 813 Kilbourn Ave., the building and the organization that calls it home can lay claim to a number of…

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April 23, 2025

John Potter's Monster Knife / Milwaukee / Milwaukee County / Ethnicity & Identity / Related Stories / 1848-1877 / Politics & Government / Region 8 - South East

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