Wisconsin 101

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.

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…

0 Comments

December 21, 2022

A Bulgarian miner operating a pneumatic rock drill at a zinc mine in Platteville, circa the early 1900s. Image courtesy of The Mining and Rollo Jamison Museums Platteville, WI.

Eastern European Immigration to Wisconsin

Between the 1880s to the 1920s, a new wave of immigrants from Southern and Eastern Europe began to arrive in Wisconsin. The Eastern European immigrants included Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Russians, Hungarians, and Bulgarians. Eastern European countries at this time struggled with overpopulation,…

0 Comments

December 20, 2022

Read more about the article The Whiskey War of 1854

The Wisconsin House (left) and Al Ringling Theatre (right). Before the theater was built, the Wisconsin House occupied the land. The Brick Tavern—located within the Wisconsin House—was the main target of the Baraboo Whiskey War, an event that would see its stock dumped. The Theatre was built in 1915 on the same site. Courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society ID # 29104 & 72938

Baraboo / Food & Cooking / Related Stories / 1840-1860 / Sauk County / Politics, Society & Government / Religion / Region 6 - South West / The Canfield Temperance Case

The Whiskey War of 1854

Alcohol consumption is an integral and often contentious facet of American life and has been for most of the nation’s history. In the 1800s, the public believed alcohol had medicinal properties and regulated health. However, the harmful effects of drunkenness on the…

0 Comments

October 4, 2022

The masthead from an 1849 issue of The Old Oaken Bucket. The masthead includes the icon of a trinity with the values of love, purity and fidelity surrounding each side. Above the trinity, the tagline “Sons of Temperance Organ” is visible. Courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society ID # 67985

The Temperance Movement’s Impact on Wisconsin’s Early Laws

Temperance was a defining and prominent movement in Wisconsin from the state’s admission to the union in 1848 until the mid 1850s. Temperance legislature, and the battles fought in favor of and against it, determined the state’s early legal trajectory.Temperance arrived in…

0 Comments

October 4, 2022

Read more about the article The History of Smart Studios

Exterior of Smart Studios at 1254 East Washington Avenue, Madison, WI. Courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society, image ID 243309.

Art, Sport & Entertainment / Dane County / Madison / Related Stories / 1960-1980 / 1980-2000 / 2000-2020 / Region 7 - South Center / Smart Banner

The History of Smart Studios

Smart Studios, founded by Butch Vig and Steve Marker, was a recording studio located on Madison’s east side. Over its twenty-seven years of operation, Smart Studios was responsible for producing music for both local acts and world-famous artists in the late twentieth…

0 Comments

July 13, 2022

Read more about the article Garbage’s Origins in Madison

Garbage band members (pictured left to right) Steve Marker, Butch Vig, Shirley Manson, and Duke Erikson. Courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society, image ID 93605.

Art, Sport & Entertainment / Dane County / Madison / Related Stories / 1980-2000 / Region 7 - South Center / Smart Banner

Garbage’s Origins in Madison

Out of all the bands and musicians who have roots in Wisconsin’s capitol city, Garbage is perhaps one of the most successful products of the Madison music scene, having sold more than seventeen million albums worldwide over the course of their career.Garbage…

0 Comments

July 13, 2022