Art & Design

Art & Design / Art, Sport & Entertainment / New Object Histories / Object Histories / Milwaukee County / Wauwatosa / Everyday Life / 1900-1918 / Region 8 - South East / Lefeber Glass Plate Negatives

OBJECT HISTORY: Lefebers’ Glass Plate Negatives

Kodachrome? Fujifilm? Ektachrome? All too modern! We're stepping back more than a century to an era when photographers used glass plates – not film – to capture an image. Glass plate negatives can be professionally restored and digitally scanned. These before-and-after images are…

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January 25, 2024

“SMART” Banner by Dennis Nechvatal, Madison, WI, 1983. Courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society ID #2011.63.2

Art & Design / Music, Theatre & Cinema / Art, Sport & Entertainment / Object Histories / Dane County / Madison / 1965-1987 / Region 7 - South Center / Smart Banner

OBJECT HISTORY: “SMART” Banner by Dennis Nechvatal

Not many people would expect that some of the most legendary music of the late twentieth and early twenty first century was made right here in Wisconsin. During its twenty-seven years of operation, Madison’s Smart Studios was a cornerstone of the music…

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June 24, 2022

City of Madison Manhole Cover. Photo courtesy of Keith Kaziak, 2020.

Art & Design / Industry / Art, Sport & Entertainment / Neenah / Related Stories / Everyday Life / 1848-1877 / Manufacturing & Trade / Winnebago County / Region 5 - Center East / 1965-1987 / 1987-2011 / 2011-Today / Neenah Foundry Manhole Cover

Manhole Cover Designs and Contemporary Aesthetics

Over the past 45 years, there has been a growing worldwide fascination and appreciation for the beauty and craftsmanship of manhole covers. Some enthusiasts even created a subreddit aptly titled, Manhole Porn: Sewer covers in all their glory!, celebrating this ubiquitous iron…

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September 29, 2021

Delonge Studio, Portrait of Frank Lloyd Wright, c. 1930. Courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society, Image ID 26555.

Art & Design / Art, Sport & Entertainment / Home Furnishings / Iowa County / Related Stories / Everyday Life / Nature & Environment / 1900-1918 / 1918-1945 / Region 6 - South West / Frank Lloyd Wright Pew/Bench

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Organic Architecture

Born in 1867 in Richland City, WI, Frank Lloyd Wright designed nearly 150 buildings in Wisconsin alone, as well as numerous homes and churches across the United States. Wright’s philosophy of matching an architectural structure to its natural environment, along with his…

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August 19, 2021

Art & Design / Art, Sport & Entertainment / Madison / Dane County / Related Stories / 1918-1945 / Society & Religion / 1945-1965 / Region 7 - South Center / Frank Lloyd Wright Pew/Bench

Unitarianism and the Madison Meeting House

Once enjoying unobstructed views of Lake Mendota and sharing its land with the University of Wisconsin’s experimental fields, the First Unitarian Society Meeting House now sits on UW-Madison’s Medical campus. Designed in 1947 by Frank Lloyd Wright to embody the mission of…

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August 19, 2021

Engelman talks with peers at the University of Green Bay. Courtesy of UW-Green Bay Archives.

Art & Design / Art, Sport & Entertainment / Brown County / Green Bay / Education / Ethnicity & Identity / Related Stories / Politics & Government / Society & Religion / 1965-1987 / Region 5 - Center East / The Land of the Freed-up Woman

Marge Engelman and Equal Opportunity at UW-Green Bay

In the 1940s, it was rare for young women like Marge Engelman to pursue higher education. Having grown up in Illinois on her parents’ farm, Engelman was pressured by her father to stay on the family farm and to marry a farmer. In…

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August 19, 2021