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

Wooden Curling Stone / Lodi / Sports & Games / Broad History / Art, Sport & Entertainment / Columbia County / Milwaukee / Dane County / Milwaukee County / Madison / Ethnicity & Identity / Related Stories / Global Connections / Region 7 - South Center / Region 8 - South East

Curling’s Growth in Wisconsin

When the Scottish migrated to the United States in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, they brought more with them then just bagpipes; they brought the growth of curling, a winter sport in which the players slide heavy granite blocks across icy terrain…

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June 20, 2024

Broad History / Sports & Games / Lodi / Wooden Curling Stone / Columbia County / Art, Sport & Entertainment / Related Stories / Ethnicity & Identity / Global Connections / Society & Religion / Region 7 - South Center

The Lodi Curling Club: 150 Years of Curling

How do you bring leisure and fun to a newly founded city? Build a curling club of course! At least that’s what James Otis Eaton did just over a decade after the small Wisconsin town of Lodi was officially founded in 1869.…

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June 20, 2024

Beetown / Home Furnishings / Grant County / Food & Cooking / Object Histories / Ethnicity & Identity / Everyday Life / Pleasant Ridge / 1900-1918 / Region 6 - South West

OBJECT HISTORY: Sanitary Metal Kitchen Cabinet

Kitchens form a central part of the American experience. The Sanitary Metal Kitchen Cabinet, also known as the Mound City Kitchen Safe (circa 1906), fits into the history of American cookery, American kitchens, and American consumerism. Originally owned by members of the…

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January 23, 2024

Eau Claire / Education / Ethnicity & Identity / Related Stories / 602 Club / Eau Claire County / Society & Religion / Region 3 - Center West / 1965-1987

GLO: UW-Eau Claire’s First Gay Student Organization

Gay history in Wisconsin, while often focused on major cities like Madison and Milwaukee, was also being made in the often-overlooked rural parts of the state. One such place is the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire, where a coalition of gay students founded…

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November 2, 2023

Education / Dane County / Madison / Related Stories / Ethnicity & Identity / 602 Club / Politics & Government / Society & Religion / 1945-1965 / Region 7 - South Center

The Gay Purge of University of Wisconsin – Madison, 1962-63

Gay students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have not always received the protection they do today; in fact, from 1962-1963 the university attempted to systematically identify and expel gay students. The Dean of Men, in collaboration with Student Health Services and the…

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November 2, 2023