Wisconsin 101

The Wisconsin Milk Strikes of 1933

As the effects of the 1929 Wall Street Crash and the Great Depression rippled through the United States, many working-class Americans felt the economic impacts, including Wisconsin’s farmers. Midwestern farmers were already suffering even before the Depression, and since Wisconsin served as…

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June 27, 2023

New Glarus / Dairy Industry / Food & Cooking / Industry / Related Stories / Green County / 1848-1877 / 1877-1900 / Manufacturing & Trade / 1900-1918 / Region 7 - South Center / Swiss Cheese Kettle

Early Cheese Factories in New Glarus

Green County has long been known for its cheese factories, particularly ones making Swiss cheese. However, when the first Swiss immigrants arrived it wasn’t at all clear that they would go into cheesemaking at all. New Glarus’s rise to prominence as a…

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April 17, 2023

New Glarus / Dairy Industry / Object Histories / Food & Cooking / Industry / Ethnicity & Identity / 1848-1877 / Green County / Everyday Life / Global Connections / Manufacturing & Trade / Region 7 - South Center / Swiss Cheese Kettle

OBJECT HISTORY: Swiss Cheese Kettle

This cheese kettle, now held at the Swiss Historical Village in New Glarus, reflects Green County’s cheesemaking past. Made out of copper because of its ability to retain heat well and to be heated easily on an open fire, this cheese kettle…

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April 17, 2023

Dairy Industry / Industry / Madison / Dane County / Food & Cooking / Object Histories / Wisconsin Made / Everyday Life / Manufacturing & Trade / Babcock Butterfat Tester / 1945-1965 / Transportation & Tourism / Region 7 - South Center

OBJECT HISTORY: Babcock Ice Cream Carton

Ice cream has been a delicacy for hundreds of years, but in the last century, Wisconsin has come to be considered home to some of the world’s best ice cream. Babcock Hall, established in 1951, has contributed to this reputation, establishing ice cream as a symbol both of Wisconsin’s dairy farming past and its appeal…

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October 15, 2018

Agriculture / Dairy Industry / New Glarus / Industry / Related Stories / Ethnicity & Identity / 1848-1877 / Green County / Global Connections / 1877-1900 / Manufacturing & Trade / 1900-1918 / Region 7 - South Center / The Hefty-Blum White Barn

The Swiss Roots of America’s “Dairyland”

When the wheat crop failures of the late nineteenth century jeopardized the incomes of many of Wisconsin’s immigrant farmers, the region’s Swiss population transitioned to a trade that they knew from the Old World: dairying and cheesemaking. To do this, Swiss farmers…

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September 10, 2018

Health & Medicine / Dairy Industry / Food & Cooking / Industry / Related Stories / Everyday Life / 1877-1900 / 1900-1918 / Manufacturing & Trade / 1918-1945 / Science & Medicine / Horlick's Malted Milk

Malted Milk and Infant Nutrition

Although known today mostly as a flavoring for milk shakes and chocolate-covered malt balls, malted milk made its first appearance in the 1880s as a substitute for human breast milk. At that time, breastfeeding babies began to lose its appeal among both…

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October 3, 2016