Wisconsin 101

French Wisconsin at Fort la Baye

French explorers, voyageurs (fur traders), Jesuit priests, and other settlers began arriving in the Upper Great Lakes region of North America in the mid-1600s. Jean Nicolet supposedly landed near present-day Green Bay, Wisconsin in 1634, naming the waterway La Baye des Puants, literally “Bay of…

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December 24, 2016

Wausau / Industry / Related Stories / Marathon County / 1900-1918 / Manufacturing & Trade / Society & Religion / Region 4 - Center / Science & Medicine / Employers Mutual Audiometer

The 1911 Workman’s Compensation Act and the Birth of an Industry

Wisconsin passed the nation’s first constitutionally upheld worker’s compensation law in 1911. It is one of the great successes of Progressive-era social legislation and a triumph of the Wisconsin Idea.1Previously, American workers toiling in industrialized workplaces had often faced the threat of…

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November 24, 2016

Dairy Industry / Health & Medicine / 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

Health & Medicine / Dairy Industry / Racine / Industry / Object Histories / Food & Cooking / Wisconsin Made / Everyday Life / 1848-1877 / Racine County / Manufacturing & Trade / Science & Medicine / Region 8 - South East / Horlick's Malted Milk

OBJECT HISTORY: Horlick’s Malted Milk

Invented in 1873 by British food manufacturer William Horlick, malted milk is made from wheat and malted barley extract mixed with reduced, dry whole milk.

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October 1, 2016

Health & Medicine / Racine / Dairy Industry / Food & Cooking / Industry / Related Stories / 1848-1877 / Racine County / 1877-1900 / Manufacturing & Trade / 1900-1918 / Science & Medicine / Region 8 - South East / Horlick's Malted Milk

Horlick’s Malted Milk Company

Founded in 1873, under the name “J & W Horlick Company,” the Horlick’s Malted Milk Company was the creation of brothers William and James Horlick. The company specialized in producing malted milk as a nutritional supplement in a variety of forms: from…

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October 1, 2016

Industry / Lumber Industry / Related Stories / Langlade County / 1848-1877 / 1877-1900 / 1900-1918 / Manufacturing & Trade / Nature & Environment / Region 2 - North East / Bark Spud

The Lumber Industry in Northern Wisconsin

Prior to the Civil War, most of northern Wisconsin was inhabited by the Menominee and Ojibwe Indians and transient fur traders of European origin. Demand for wood in Chicago and Milwaukee after the Civil War brought lumbermen to the north woods. Initially,…

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February 1, 2016