Postcards from Middleton Area Historical Society

More than 60 postcards illustrating the city of Middleton, Wisconsin in the early 20th century are now available online from the Middleton Area Historical Society. The postcards were collected by area residents and depict local businesses, residential neighborhoods, schools and churches. The digital project began in Summer 2012 when the Middleton Area Historical Society hosted… Read More…

Introducing our new website

Woman at computer, Madison, 1970-1980. UW-Madison Archives.

Wisconsin Heritage Online, the statewide digital collaborative, has a new name—Recollection Wisconsin—and a new look. Our newly redesigned website, recollectionwisconsin.org, provides free access to a growing set of historical resources from the collections of libraries, archives, museums and historical societies across the state. Anyone can use the site to explore historic photographs, postcards, maps, letters,… Read More…

The story behind our new name

If you’re familiar with our former website, wisconsinheritage.org, the first thing you’ll probably notice about the new site is a new name: Recollection Wisconsin. As part of the process of refreshing our identity, we chose to move away from the name Wisconsin Heritage Online, which we’ve used since the program started in 2005. We think… Read More…

Civil War letters of Francis Deleglise, Langlade County Historical Society

Deleglise letter from Camp Randall to wife, 1861.

Francis Deleglise was a young man of 25, living in Appleton with his wife and children, when he enlisted in the Iron Brigade, Wisconsin’s most famous Civil War unit. The Iron Brigade fought in the Army of the Potomac, suffering unusually high casualties at Gainesville, Antietam (the Civil War’s bloodiest battle), and Gettysburg. Throughout his… Read More…

Crandon High School Yearbooks, Crandon Public Library

crandon high school yearbook 1951

“The Cardinal endeavors not only to record a year in our School’s history, but to serve as a stimulus for recollecting our thoughts in future years. This book is merely a printed symbol; the memories which it represents are within us.”   This quote from the 1938 Crandon High School yearbook evokes the value of historical… Read More…

Senator William Proxmire Collection, Wisconsin Historical Society

Wisconsin Congressional delegation lunch

When Senator William Proxmire retired in 1989 after 32 years in the U.S. Senate, he and his staff donated more than 200 boxes of office files to the Wisconsin Historical Society. The Society has now made available online an extensive selection of those materials, including official press releases, newsletters sent home to constituents, campaign strategy… Read More…

Jay “Ding” Darling Collection, Beloit College

This month we added the Jay “Ding” Darling Collection from the Beloit College Archives to our search engine. Jay Norwood Darling, better known as “Ding,” spent most of his career as an editorial cartoonist for the Des Moines Register and Leader. A dedicated conservationist, he also created the Federal Duck Stamp Program and, in 1936, founded the National Wildlife… Read More…

Share your Wisconsin winter stories

Postcard showing winter road conditions in Dodgeville, 1929.

All of us create Wisconsin through our contributions to this place and in knowing, remembering, and sharing our stories. We’ve teamed up with Wisconsin Life, an audio essay series on Wisconsin Public Radio that celebrates what makes Wisconsin unique, to collect and share your stories, memories and experiences of winters in Wisconsin. We invite you to contribute… Read More…

Deer hunting

Our guest curator for this post is Beth A. Zinsli, a member of a large deer hunting clan from central Wisconsin. She was raised on venison, Colby cheese, and other typical Wisconsin fare. She is also a Ph.D. candidate in art history and visual culture studies at UW-Madison. Hunting whitetail deer is an annual fall ritual… Read More…

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