Wisconsin 101

The Settlement House Movement

Mass immigration from eastern and southern Europe dramatically altered America’s ethnic and religious composition around the turn of the twentieth century. Unlike earlier immigrants, who had largely come from western European countries like Britain, Germany, Ireland, and Scandinavia, the new immigrants came…

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May 1, 2017

Milwaukee County / Milwaukee / Related Stories / Ethnicity & Identity / 1877-1900 / Global Connections / 1900-1918 / Society & Religion / Region 8 - South East / Settlement Cook Book

Elizabeth “Lizzie” Black Kander

The first generation of women—largely white and middle- or upper-class—to graduate from college in large numbers left school full of promise and enthusiasm, but were largely denied employment in medicine, law, or business. Rejected by the professional world, many focused their energies…

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May 1, 2017

Milwaukee County / Milwaukee / Education / Related Stories / Ethnicity & Identity / Global Connections / 1900-1918 / Society & Religion / Region 8 - South East / Settlement Cook Book

The Settlement

Having outgrown the basement of Temple B’ne Jeshurun, the mission moved to an old house at 507 Fifth Street in 1900. It was simply called “The Settlement.” Programs expanded as space and resources did—the building was busy from 9:00 a.m. to 11:00…

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May 1, 2017

Milwaukee / Milwaukee County / Education / Related Stories / Ethnicity & Identity / Global Connections / 1877-1900 / Society & Religion / Region 8 - South East / Settlement Cook Book

Roots of Milwaukee’s Settlement House

By 1890, the majority of Milwaukee’s Russian and Polish Jews lived in the city’s Second Ward, also known as the Haymarket District. Lizzie Black Kander worked as a truancy officer from 1890 to 1893, which gave her a front-row view of conditions…

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May 1, 2017

Wisconsin Bicycle Tourism

M.C. Rotier, the publisher and editor of The Pneumatic, a Wisconsin periodical and trade journal dedicated to bicycles in the 1890s, called bicycling “the most independent, healthful, rapid, and convenient mode of travel” in the nineteenth century.[1] Rotier, a leading bicycle advocate…

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April 10, 2017

The 1890s Bicycle Craze in Wisconsin

Bicycles entered the United States on the East Coast from Europe in 1869. By 1880, bicycling in the U.S. had become so popular that the League of American Wheelmen (LAW) was founded. One of LAW’s objectives was “to promote the general interests…

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April 10, 2017