OBJECT HISTORY: Madison-Style Ice Boat Model

This miniature ice boat was originally built in Madison, Wisconsin about 1916-1917 by a member of the Bernard family. Carl Bernard grew up in the culture of ice boating and began making models of them at a young age. Creating models helped the Bernards try new innovative building techniques and were also raced for fun.

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Ice Boating in Madison: A Bernard Family Tradition

Ice boating for sport began along New York's upper Hudson River around the Civil War and soon spread to other cold weather locations. An 1878 article in Harper's Weekly includes an engraving of ice boating in Madison. The city quickly became a center for ice boating in North America, a distinction held for over a century.

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OBJECT HISTORY: A Dam Tower in the Kickapoo Valley Reserve

This concrete obelisk stands near the Kickapoo River and is located a mile north of the village of La Farge.  It rises nearly a hundred feet above the river valley floor. The tower was constructed more than forty years ago as part…

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The Works Projects Administration – An Answer to the Great Depression

In 1929, the United States fell into the deepest economic hole the country has known: the Great Depression. Over the three years following the economy’s collapse in 1929, 3,392 banks across the country closed their doors and over $1 billion in deposits…

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OBJECT HISTORY: Norwegian Trunk

In the 1800s, European immigrants coming to America had to find a way to preserve the objects indispensable to their lives, bringing their most precious belongings on an ocean voyage to a far-away new home. Most families were only able to bring…

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