Wisconsin 101

Janesville General Motors Assembly Plant

The Janesville Assembly Plant’s near ninety-year run helped define both the city and its workers and the General Motors Company as one of the most successful automakers in the world. The history of the plant is deeply rooted in Janesville’s agricultural past.…

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February 17, 2025

Greendale / Milwaukee County / Related Stories / 1918-1945 / Politics & Government / Society & Religion / Region 8 - South East / Slaske's Tools

The New Deal in Wisconsin (and Beyond)

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…

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August 14, 2024

Greendale / Milwaukee County / Related Stories / Nature & Environment / 1918-1945 / Politics & Government / Society & Religion / Region 8 - South East / Slaske's Tools

Greendale, Greenhills, and Greenbelt: The Government’s “Green” Towns

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…

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August 14, 2024

Greendale / New Object Histories / Object Histories / Milwaukee County / Manufacturing & Trade / 1918-1945 / Politics & Government / Society & Religion / Region 8 - South East / Slaske's Tools

OBJECT HISTORY: Jack Slaske’s Tool Set

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…

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August 14, 2024

Baraboo / Art, Sport & Entertainment / Music, Theatre & Cinema / Related Stories / 1918-1945 / Sauk County / Region 7 - South Center / Usher Uniform

Stars of Silent Film

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…

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July 18, 2024

Milwaukee County / Related Stories / Wauwatosa / Everyday Life / 1900-1918 / 1918-1945 / Region 8 - South East / Lefeber Glass Plate Negatives

Images of a Treasured Childhood: At Home in Wauwatosa with the Lefebers

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…

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February 21, 2024