Wisconsin 101

OBJECT HISTORY: James D. Williams’ Windlass

This is a machine used to lower and raise miners and materials through mine shafts in the lead mining region around Platteville, Wisconsin. Made from wooden supports with a wooden barrel shaft and crank attached to a rope with a bucket, a…

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August 1, 2018

Grant County / Industry / Ethnicity & Identity / 1787-1848 / Iowa County / Related Stories / Platteville / 1848-1877 / Pleasant Ridge / Manufacturing & Trade / Society & Religion / Region 6 - South West / James D. Williams' Windlass

Slavery in Wisconsin

It may come as a surprise to learn that during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries slavery existed in the region that would become the state of Wisconsin. Over this period, thousands of enslaved African Americans or enslaved American Indians lived and…

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August 1, 2018

Broad History / Pre-1787 / Lake Koshkonong / Industry / Ethnicity & Identity / 1787-1848 / Related Stories / 1848-1877 / A Duck Decoy / 1877-1900 / Jefferson County / Manufacturing & Trade / 1900-1918 / Nature & Environment / 1918-1945 / Region 7 - South Center

When Lake Koshkonong was a Marsh

Maintaining practices like an annual visit to Lake Koshkanong to hunt and harvest food is an important way for indigenous knowledge and culture to be passed-on to the next generation.

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July 1, 2018

Wausau / Broad History / Industry / Clothing, Apparel & Fashion / Related Stories / Everyday Life / Global Connections / Marathon County / Manufacturing & Trade / A Hudson's Bay Company Point Blanket Coat / Region 4 - Center / Fur Trade

What is a Point Blanket Coat?

The practice of converting Hudson’s Bay Company blankets into coats began years before the company began mass-manufacturing point blanket coats in the twentieth century. During the fur trade, Native Americans hunters traded beaver pelts for wool point blankets. Point blankets were waterproof…

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February 1, 2018

Wausau / Industry / Related Stories / Marathon County / Manufacturing & Trade / 1900-1918 / A Hudson's Bay Company Point Blanket Coat / Nature & Environment / 1918-1945 / Region 4 - Center / Transportation & Tourism

The Wausau Group: The Businessmen Who Revived Wausau’s Economy

Located on the Wisconsin River, Wausau developed as a logging town in the 1830s. George Stevens chose the site because of the waterfall that spanned the river, which provided power for sawmills used to turn the felled trees into lumber. The waterfall,…

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February 1, 2018

Object Histories / Industry / Clothing, Apparel & Fashion / Hamburg / Everyday Life / Marathon County / Manufacturing & Trade / 1918-1945 / Region 4 - Center / Fromm Fox Fur Coat

OBJECT HISTORY: Fromm Fox Fur Coat

This coat was made from the fur of foxes raised on the Fromm Fur Farm in Hamburg, Wisconsin. The jacket is covered in light-silver fox fur and lined with a taupe fabric. Straps allow the coat to also be worn as a cape. In the early decades of the 20th century, it was fashionable to use…

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December 9, 2017