In October of 1929, the United States suffered a stock market crash that would alter the course of history. The American economy came to a screeching halt, with economic impacts that came to reverberate around the world. In Wisconsin, particularly in the…
The Greenbelt towns were the brainchild of Rexford Guy Tugwell, an economist who served as President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Undersecretary of Agriculture in 1934 and 1935. A policy advisor to President Roosevelt, Tugwell believed that he could effectively combat the Depression-era issues…
In the holdings of the Greendale Historical Society is an unassuming set of tools, comprised of hand saws, planes, braces and drill bits, among other items. Though these were mass manufactured and similar tools exist all across the country, these particular tools…
The Ringling Theatre featured many forms of entertainment throughout the years, including live theatrical performances as well as silent films. At the time when the theatre was built in 1915, silent films were becoming more popular because advancements in film technology allowed…
In the first decades of the 20th century, Wauwatosa was well on its way to becoming a bedroom suburb of Milwaukee. Families were moving into newly developed subdivisions built on land that once grew grain, fruit, and vegetables for the large Milwaukee…
“A clerk had to show Mother each item. She retrieved a pair of folded silk stockings and carefully inserted her hand to show how the color looked against the skin.”--Jean Lobe, from her memoir recounting her experiences growing up in Wauwatosa in…