Ethnicity & Identity

A pasty. Image via Flickr.

Food & Cooking / Object Histories / Ethnicity & Identity / 1787-1848 / Everyday Life / Global Connections / Region 6 - South West

OBJECT HISTORY: Pasty

The lead mining industry of the 1830s and 1840s brought miners from Cornwall, England to southwestern Wisconsin. The miners brought Cornish traditions like the pasty, a filling food for hungry miners. The availability of pasties today demonstrates the lasting traditions of early European immigrants in Wisconsin. Pasties are folded pastries filled with meat and vegetables.…

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September 10, 2020

A fiddle from a lumberjack camp. Image courtesy of Ron Dennis.

Music, Theatre & Cinema / Industry / Lumber Industry / Art, Sport & Entertainment / Object Histories / Ethnicity & Identity / Manufacturing & Trade / 1877-1900

OBJECT HISTORY: Fiddle

As the lumber industry flourished in Wisconsin beginning in the 1840s, immigrants from all over Europe and Canada came to live and work in the Northwoods of Wisconsin. All winter, men called lumberjacks would cut down pine trees, preparing the timber to be used as building material, or sometimes to be turned into pulp or…

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September 10, 2020

Photo by Jared Schmidt.

Norwegian Genealogical Plaque / Art & Design / Home Furnishings / Art, Sport & Entertainment / Lake Koshkonong / Object Histories / Ethnicity & Identity / Everyday Life / Global Connections / Jefferson County / 1877-1900 / Region 7 - South Center

OBJECT HISTORY: Norwegian Genealogical Plaque

Created in 1879, this beautiful plaque features the genealogy of Sara Magelssen's family, including the story of her and her husband's immigration to Wisconsin in the 1860s.

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September 10, 2020

Migrant Worker's Cabin

Agriculture / Home Furnishings / Oconto / Object Histories / Ethnicity & Identity / Everyday Life / Global Connections / Migrant Worker's Cabin / Manufacturing & Trade / Oconto County / Region 2 - North East / 1945-1965

OBJECT HISTORY: Migrant Worker’s Cabin

This cabin, once occupied by a family of migrant workers employed by the Bond Pickle Company, is located at the property of Thomas and Jamie Sobush of Pensaukee, Wisconsin. The cabin was originally one of many other small cabins, clustered together at the Bond Village Migrant Camp on Van Hecke Avenue in Oconto, Wisconsin. The…

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September 10, 2020

Art & Design / Art, Sport & Entertainment / Home Furnishings / Object Histories / Langlade County / Ethnicity & Identity / Everyday Life / Region 2 - North East / Society & Religion / 1918-1945 / CCC Pillow Sham

OBJECT HISTORY: CCC Pillow Sham

Created in 1933, this commemorative pillow sham was just one of a number of textiles created by second-generation Hungarian immigrant Rose Mary Drab to honor her brother Edward’s service in the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC). Rose Mary appliquéd the black cotton sateen sham with a small cotton tent, a blue eagle and two small stars, and hills, pine…

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September 9, 2020

A Cherokee weir similar to the one the people of Aztalan built, showing what it looked like 1000 years ago. Image courtesy of Western Carolina University's Digital Heritage Project.

Indigenous Wisconsin / Pre-1787 / Aztalan / Object Histories / Food & Cooking / Ethnicity & Identity / Jefferson County / Nature & Environment / Region 7 - South Center

OBJECT HISTORY: Aztalan Fishing Weir

Fishing can take a lot of patience. A person could sit with their fishing pole for hours before they get a bite! Fishing weirs are time-saving technologies built in the water to trap fish. This fishing weir was created by the people who lived in the Early Mississippian settlement, Aztalan, sometime between the 10th and…

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September 9, 2020