Wisconsin 101

Ice Boating in Madison: A Bernard Family Tradition

Ice boating for sport began along New York's upper Hudson River around the Civil War and soon spread to other cold weather locations. An 1878 article in Harper's Weekly includes an engraving of ice boating in Madison. The city quickly became a center for ice boating in North America, a distinction held for over a century.

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October 1, 2020

Pre-1787 / Education / La Farge / Related Stories / A Dam Tower in the Kickapoo Valley Reserve / Ethnicity & Identity / Vernon County / Nature & Environment / Region 6 - South West

Wisconsin’s Ancient History in the Kickapoo Valley

If you look closely, the landscapes around us tell stories about the past. Sometimes in the curve of a road, a line of trees, or stretch of prairie careful observers can find evidence of the people and animals that used to call…

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September 24, 2020

Home Furnishings / Art, Sport & Entertainment / Art & Design / Industry / Related Stories / Ethnicity & Identity / Curators' Favorites / Everyday Life / 1877-1900 / Manufacturing & Trade / Pauline Pottery Covered Jar

Women in the American Art Pottery Movement

Women played a central role in the American Art Pottery movement, both as leaders like Pauline Jacobus and as workers like Lulu Deveraux Dixon.

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September 10, 2020

Art, Sport & Entertainment / Home Furnishings / Edgerton / Art & Design / Industry / Dane County / Related Stories / Curators' Favorites / Everyday Life / 1877-1900 / Manufacturing & Trade / Region 7 - South Center / Pauline Pottery Covered Jar

The Pauline Pottery

Chicago-born artist and entrepreneur Pauline Jacobus was the central figure of Edgerton, Wisconsin's art pottery movement. In 1888, Jacobus and her husband Oscar relocated the Pauline Pottery from Chicago to Edgerton to take advantage of the area's quality clay.

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September 10, 2020

Delafield / Science & Technology / Related Stories / 1848-1877 / Waukesha County / Nature & Environment / Politics & Government / Science & Medicine / Region 8 - South East / Lapham Peak Observation Tower

Increase Lapham and the Founding of the United States Weather Bureau

As immigration to Wisconsin swelled in the 1840s, so, too, did the state’s scientific and technological community, with innovations across industries ranging from agriculture and manufacturing to geology and environmental studies. Among Wisconsin’s first “pioneer scientists” was Increase A. Lapham, a young…

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September 8, 2020

The Works Projects Administration – An Answer to the Great Depression

In 1929, the United States fell into the deepest economic hole the country has known: the Great Depression. Over the three years following the economy’s collapse in 1929, 3,392 banks across the country closed their doors and over $1 billion in deposits…

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September 8, 2020