In 1901, my Grandpa Fred Ernest Tripp moved to Washburn County, Wisconsin with his wife and four small children. In those early years, Grandpa Tripp would farm in the summer and work in the woods with his brother Rob in the winter. He would buy a 40 acre plot of forest near the railroad stop in Springbrook, and then he and Rob would camp there for 4 days cutting pulp wood and sometimes logs. They would haul them to the rail depot and load them on the cars. The women and kids would handle the homesteads until they came home on weekends.

I remember my Grandpa Tripp being very good with draft horses. One event I witnessed made a lasting impression on me. He and a heighbor had each contributed a pair of horses to pull a heavy well-drilling rig. The four horses could not get it started, and not being used to working together, and dealing with two drivers, they got more nervous and less able to pull as the minutes ticked by. Finally Grandpa Fred said “Let me give it a try with just my team”. He took some time to cool the horses off by holding their collars off their necks as he was talking to them to calm them down. Then, when all was ready, he finally gave the word, and I saw his two horses do what the four horses could not do a short time earlier.

When I was as young as 6 (I am 92 now in 2013), Grandpa would put me on the seat of the binder in the field and let me hold the lines for a team of four while he walked beside. They would keep the machine going all day using 3 pairs of horses and 2 drivers. When one driver went to eat, he would bring back a fresh pair of horses, and the other driver would take a tired pair of horses home when he went to eat.

My Grandpa Tripp was always very active in the community. When the Township of Stone Lake was formed in 1905, he became its first town chairman and served there until 1920. Later, Grandpa Tripp’s son, Forrest Harold Tripp, also served as town chairman of Stone Lake Township for about 20 years, and eventually became the county chairman of Washburn County.

Tell us your own story! Share your memories and photos of work life and vacation life in Wisconsin here.

Herman family, 1909 or 1910. Back row: Grandma Bertha, Mary (Savitski). Front row: Rose (Sadowski), Christine (Henk), Stanley.

Christine was born on December 12, 1905 at home in a log cabin built by her father.  She was the fourth child of Bertha and Joseph Herman. Her family had crossed the ocean in a ship called the S.S. Hannover on March 24, 1900.  They came from Czechoslovakia and arrived in Baltimore on June 7, 1900.  They then travelled by rail to New York, then to Chicago and Spooner and on to Hayward, Wisconsin.

Christine’s family participated in the Homestead Act.  They selected 160 acres in a forest of pines and made a trail to the main road Highway 27.  They had to live on the land and improve it for five years before it became their property.  Because they spoke very little English, Joseph used a catalog at a store to point to what he needed: a cant hook, axe, grub hoe and scythe.  The Matt Kadlec family welcomed the Herman family into their home to live with them for a few months until their log cabin was built.

The barn was divided by a log wall.  The family lived in one half of the barn and the horse, cow and ten hens lived in the other half.  The horse was used to haul water in wooden barrels from Colbroth Lake before their well was dug.  The family started clearing the land for farming and gardening.

On April 29th, 1909, the Sawyer County Record headlines were “Buried in ninety foot well.” It took seventeen days, three shifts of men digging, to finally dig up Christine’s father.  Christine was only four years old when the well collapsed on her father.  Bertha, Christine’s mother never learned to speak English.  What would she do with four children and 160 acres of land.

Mary, Christine’s sister, was 15 years old and snared rabbits for food. The rabbits were skinned out, and hides were stretched over shoes to dry, and used to keep their feet warm.  Every Tuesday and Saturday cream was hauled seven miles in the Hayward Creamery to sell.  One winter, when the horses died, Mary and Rose trained a young bull to pull the wagon. By spring, he was able to haul a stone boat, drag stone, wood and even hauled water in barrels. There was no fresh drinking water because their well had caved in.

Bertha Herman and daughter Christine Henk.

Christine, Stanley, Mary and Rose helped their mother farm.  They grew vegetables, picked berries, and raised chickens and pigs.  There was no electricity or iceboxes or any way to keep meat; so they lived mostly on cheese, eggs, potatoes, dried beans and cottage cheese. Chicken was served only on Sunday after attending Mass at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Hayward.

Christine helped her siblings trap muskrats and weasels to sell their hides.  Muskrats brought 18 cents a hide and weasels brought 28 – 33 cents a hide.  Eggs from the chickens sold for 10 cents a dozen.  Sometimes they would exchange a dozen eggs for a ring bologna.  During the winter months, pork was eaten, but had to be used up by spring. The lard was used to fry doughnuts, but the grease was also used for making soap. Kerosene lamps were used for lighting, but at 17 cents a gallon, it was “early to bed.”

In 1912, Christine’s two sisters, Mary age 18 and Rose age 16 got married and moved out leaving Christine, age 7 and Stanley age 13 to work the 160 acres with their mother. Christine attended Boylan School which was a one room schoolhouse. Her mother said it was important for her to learn all that she could.

Stanley purchased a mower to help cut the grain. Stanley was too short to operate the foot-levers, so Christine’s mother drove the horses walking in behind the mower, while Christine held onto the big handle that lifted the sickle bar over the stumps and rocks.

In 1920 a car was purchased.  After that, cream was sold and groceries were bought in just a few hours, leaving more time for other chores. There were still berries to be picked and garden to be weeded.

Henry W. Henk weds Christine Herman on August 29, 1927 in St. Joseph Church, Hayward.

On August 29, 1927, Christine married Henry Henk and started a family of her own. Her first child, Esther, was born in 1928. The doctor came to the house and charged a $35 fee. They had eight children who were all born at home with the help of relatives and possibly a doctor.

Electricity didn’t come to the area until 1940.  Water was pumped from the well using a hand pump and was heated on the wood stove for baths and dishes. The children used homemade skis to get to school in the heavy snow. They carried their lunches in empty syrup pails.  Lunches included sandwiches soaked in syrup, a boiled egg and maybe an apple or cookie. Jackets and snow pants were made of wool with a flannel lining. Caps and mittens were homemade out of wool yarn.  Every spring sap was collected from Maple trees for syrup, and summertime brought berries, plums and fresh vegetables from the garden.

Henry would get up at 5 A.M. and start a fire in the wood stove before going to the barn to start chores. Christine got up a little later to make breakfast in the chilly kitchen. The crock or pail that held the drinking water had ice on top. The children’s jackets, hung on the wall behind the kitchen door, often had frost on them or were frozen to the wall. The door from the living room to the kitchen was closed at night to keep any heat in the living room and stairway to the upstairs. Water for washing was brought up the hill from the pump house in ten-gallon cans on a stone boat pulled by horses. Water was heated in the copper boiler on the kitchen stove. In the summer, big wooden barrels sat under the kitchen eaves to catch rain water for washing. Christine used a big tin tub and a scrubbing board to get the laundry clean.  The items were hung to dry outside in the summer and winter. Sometimes the clothes were brought in frozen from the clotheslines and hung in the living room to thaw and finish drying.  Diapers had to be washed every day.

Christine and Henry had a dozen cows which they milked both morning and evening.  The milk was sold to the local creamery.  When the children were small, they had to be in the barn with their parents. Every spring Christine sent for 100 chickens which the mail carrier would deliver. There was a henhouse for the laying hens and Christine would sell the eggs. Next to the henhouse was a corn crib which held ears of corn to feed the chickens and pigs. Friends and neighbors got together and helped each other at threshing time, silo filling time and wood sawing time. The women of the household would fix a big meal for the workers.

Henry had a stroke in 1955 and it was decided to move into the Village of Stone Lake so it would be easier for Christine to take care of him. Now they had running water and electricity. Christine remained very busy with various jobs working at a cranberry marsh, picking beans, and cleaning resorts on Saturday.  She still raised her chickens and had a large garden.  She enjoyed entering things in the Sawyer County fair every year. She retired at age 73, but continued to help others. Her door was always open.  She continued gardening and entering things in the Sawyer County Fair until age 95.

Tell us your own story! Share your memories and photos of work life and vacation life in Wisconsin here.

I started working at the Stone Lake Dairy in 1953. I was working as an apprentice to learn cheese making. I worked for two years, then took my test and passed. I was twenty-four years old. We made American Cheddar cheese. Every Thursday Wesley Neu, the owner, would take a load of cheese to a warehouse in Boyd, Wisconsin and take the sweet cream to Grassland Dairy.

We had two milk routes: I had one that went from Stone Lake to Earl. The other went to the Hayward area. The local farmers would bring their own milk into the factory. After all the milk was delivered, it was made into cheese.

Wesley would take care of the local farmers who brought their milk in and he would also get the vats ready to make cheese. The other route man would help me in the factory. I worked with 37 men in nine years.

HOW TO MAKE CHEDDAR CHEESE

First, 100 lbs. of milk makes 10 lbs. of cheese. The vats held 10,000 lbs. of milk, but we never put that much in them.  We put about 9,000 lbs. in, so that the agitators wouldn’t spill the milk.

There is a starter or culture which was put into the vat as soon as possible. It tasted and looked like buttermilk. 9,000 lbs. of milk makes about 10 gallons of starter. The starter is the most important thing to a cheese maker. We always made two ten gallon cans a day. One quart of the starter was put into the refrigerator and was called the “mother starter.” We took special care of it because without the starter, you don’t make cheese.

Checks have to be made on the level of acidity and when it is right, you add a chemical called rennet. This was mixed 16 oz. to 12 qts. of water and then added to the milk. At this point the mixture was stirred and the paddles removed. After about 20 minutes, the milk is like custard. I would now cut the custard with the wire knives and turn the steam on. Put the paddles back in and heat to the right temperature. The curd, the 14 inch squares would be firming up.  When right, drain the whey off the curd. All that is left in the vat is the cheese. The cheese was matted by piling it up to work the air and whey out. When right, mill into curd, add salt, and put in the press overnight. We did make Mozzarella cheese for a little while, but it was too time-consuming.

Tell us your own story! Share your memories and photos of work life and vacation life in Wisconsin here.

We recently invited Jay to dig into our digital collections and create a new adventure for the Washburn crew. He started by searching for images to represent his four core characters — professorial figures (Dr. Allenby), 1920s-style ingenues (Rita Rennebohm), earnest fraternity types (Reggie) and, of course, cowboys (Billie the Cowboy). Next, he looked for methods of transportation appropriate to the story’s 1920s-1930s setting. Photos of miniature train cars from Janesville and Two Rivers inspired the plot for this adventure and established a new adversary for the team. Rather than miniature railroads with regular-sized humans, these would be regular-sized railroads with giants at the wheel!

The Expedition’s regular run-ins with giants and other strange beasts are inspired in part by the works of Jules Verne and Bernard Heuvelmans. Heuvelmans, an early 20th century Belgian explorer and zoologist, is credited with coining the term “cryptozoology”–the study of mythic or undiscovered animals. Exploration and a fascination with the exotic and unfamiliar are threads running throughout the series, and Jay says he deliberately set the story in the period between World War I and World War II in order to capture that era of discovery, when there were “still bare spots on the map.” However, the story is less a celebration of global exploration and more a “parody of jingoism,” complete with some sly references to contemporary American politics.

Another central inspiration for The Washburn Expedition is the serial radio drama, a hugely popular narrative form in the 1930s and 40s. Jay cites I Love A Mystery (1939-1944), an ongoing radio play about three friends who ran a detective agency and traveled the world in search of adventure, as a particular influence. In fact, Jay’s fondness for radio storytelling led him to create, in collaboration with The Onion co-founder Scott Dikkers, the series The Radio Pirates for National Public Radio.

What’s next for the expedition? According to Jay, the team will remain in Madison for the next couple of weeks, in order to celebrate the Washburn Museum’s annual Toast Day and take part in a picnic and croquet match. No location has been set for the next adventure . . . so readers, stay tuned!

Jay Rath is a former staff member of The Onion and has contributed to MAD magazine, Utne Reader, Milwaukee Journal, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Capital Times, Wisconsin State Journal, and Isthmus.

• Jay’s contribution to Recollection Wisconsin
• The Washburn Expedition on Facebook
• Jay on “How I Came to Lead a Global Expedition”

My Dad was a true sportsman who supported our family during hard times by trapping and hunting in the Stone Lake, Wisconsin area. One day during deer hunting season, he and I were having lunch together in our home on Big Sissabagama Lake when he looked out the window and saw something on the ice about 3/4 mile across the lake. He looked with his binoculars and coud see it was a large deer lying on the ice. He felt that either it had fallen and couldn’t get up, or it was wounded and dying out there.

We decided to go down to the south end of the lake to see what we might be able to do to help it. In case we needed it, Dad put a light weight aluminum boat into the back of the pick-up. We drove around the lake to see where we could get to the deer. The ice was only about 2 inches thick, so we were concerned about walking onto the ice without something to hang on to, in case we broke through.

We dragged the boat down to the bank on a point of land that got us fairly close to the deer. I got into the front of the boat, and Dad pushed the boat out onto the ice. The doe did not make any attempt to stand up on the ice, she just laid there and watched as we approached her. I’m sure she was very frightened, but was unable to get up and run.

We had a rope rigged up that would not tighten and choke her as we pulled her. It would also allow her to get loose when she got to shore and had sure footing under her. I was in the front of the boat as my father pushed me up close enough to get the rope around her neck. Surprisingly, she never struggled or tried to get up and get away from the approaching boat and humans. She allowed me to gently and quietly slip the rope over her head and around her neck.

As soon as I had the rope secure around her neck, Dad started pulling the boat and me to shore. She seemed to realize that we were there to help her, and she laid her head down on the ice as we pulled her closer to shore. When we were about 30 yards from shore, I gave Dad the rope. He continued to pull her slowly to shore, hoping that when she got to land, she would get up and have her freedom. At this point, I got out of the boat on the ice to help Dad with the doe. We took the rope off, and pulled her onto the bank by her ears.

There was much disappointment when we got her onto the shore. She made a couple of valiant leaps up the bank, but could not go any further. We realized that when she went out onto the ice, she must have slipped and sprawled, splitting her hind quarters. She never would have been able to walk. It was very sad, but there was nothing we could do to help her any further. We had to leave her lying there on the leaves, as this was buck season only, so we had no legal right to kill her.

We went back to the house and called the Dept. of Natural Resources. They said they would come and dispose of her that evening to put her out of her misery. My Dad always felt we should have done the humane thing and disposed of her ourselves earlier in the day, but it was illegal to do so.

 My parents, Walter and Mary Crandall, were the caretakers of a private fishing camp on a seven acre heavily wooded island on Lake Little Sissabagama in Sawyer County.  In 1904 James Hool from Chicago had moved his fishing camp here and in 1915 he instructed a crew of former lumberjacks, a stonemason (Charlie Meyenburg) and his stepbrother, my father, to construct an in-water boathouse, several cabins, a storage building and to expand the Adirondack-style lodge (a lodge without bedrooms) which had been started earlier.

The old lodge at Isle of Pines.

In 1923 Theodore Gerlach, a publishing baron from Chicago, purchased the lease on the land and expanded the fishing camp.  He brought the telegraph and a group of personal assistants into Stone Lake in order to stay in contact with his office.  The lodge and other buildings were improved.  Dark pine flooring, rich oriental rugs, wicker furniture with brightly colored fabrics, stained-glass lamps, hutches for silver and glassware, oil paintings and many fish mounts decorated the lodge. An oak dining table which could seat 20 was added to the dining room and  a dual- oven, 6 burner and grill cast-iron Magic Chef Stove were added to the kitchen. New bins for flour, salt, sugar, food prep tables, a substantial outdoor grill, a Westinghouse diesel electric generator and a small warehouse of pots, pans plates, Fiestaware and embroidered linens were all brought to this wilderness fishing camp.

My mother Mary Crandall was the cook for the camp and her kitchen was always where guests gathered.  She was known for her famous breakfasts which were served on a red checkered tablecloth.  She served a selection of wheat cakes with local blueberries, Walter Crandall’s Big Island maple syrup, steaming hot mugs of coffee, walleye filets, brown sugar baked beans, thick strips of bacon, hash brown potatoes, cranberry-honey muffins, fresh churned butter, peach preserves, eggs, rum-nut breads and oatmeal.  Her dinners were made of the day’s catch, venison or beefsteak, large baked potatoes (like the railroads served), corn, peas, garden tomatoes, fresh wheat bread, jams, large wedges of local cheddar cheese, Canadian whiskey, coffee and homemade apple or blueberry pies. My father said that no guest ever left with an empty stomach or a clear head.

The kitchen at the lodge.

Guests of on the island ranged from businessmen’s wives and children to salesmen, politicians, artists, writers (Johnny Gruelle wrote Raggedy Ann and the Lucky Penny on  the island), Chicago gangsters and boxers like Joe Louis and Louis Braddock to the famous lumberman of the era (Stout and Weyerhaeuser). Visitors had two occasions to dress in their finest when visiting the island. For many years Saturday nights featured black tie dinners with plenty of drinking, cigars, card playing, watching boxing at the local boxing camp, sharing fish tales and talking politics and business; the other occasion was in the early years at the 4th of July picnics. These picnics were held at the lodge and the back beach lawn.  Guests came by rowboat, motorboat and canoe. My father would use the old white barge, with its smoke billowing engine, to deliver guests who had arrived at the Stone Lake depot on the afternoon train from Chicago and Milwaukee. My mother and the help would move furniture from the lodge out onto the lodge along with wool picnic blankets. Children and adults enjoyed wicker baskets full of fried chicken, watermelon, iced beer, lemonade and homemade wild strawberry ice cream. There was dancing, songs, games, children swimming from the great white dock to the rafts and fireworks on July 4th.  The children would also take ice from the icehouse and drop pieces down the clothes of friends. There was always a crackling beach fire, gossip, socializing and laughter at the camp.

Isle of Pines boathouse.

In 1927, a new lodge was with sleeping quarters was built at the top of the hill. For many decades, the old lodge served as a dining hall. The hilltop lodge burned to the ground as a result of a lightning strike.  The island camp later passed to the Mac Keevers who were able to purchase the island out of a lease from the State of Wisconsin. Later the Dows and Friendshuh families owned the island. By the early 1990’s, the island was rarely used and the buildings deteriorated. In 1995 the island was purchased by the Lytle and Schnack families and restoration of the island began. The final restoration was completed in 2004 and the following year I was invited to attend the 100th birthday of the Isle of Pines on Lake Little Sissabagama.

Tell us your own story! Share your memories and photos of work life and vacation life in Wisconsin here.

Read more about how Jay Rath creates the world’s first Facebook novel here. Click any of the images below to see the item’s source and original caption.

WASHBURN MUSEUM – Dr. Allenby’s commencement speech was very well received yesterday. Everyone laughed and laughed – the chancellor and dean were still chuckling this morning!
Unfortunately, the speech was meant to be serious.

WASHBURN OBSERVATORY – So good to be home in the spring! Rita, young Reggie, Billie the Cowboy and Dr. Allenby are well-pleased. Sadly, in our absence the curator, Prof. Watson, left the great dome’s portal open all month. While observing the stars last night, Dr. Allenby mistook a bee’s nest for a honey-bearing comet.

WASHBURN OBSERVATORY – There is no surer sign of spring than the return of the motorcar moths. They return each year at this time, and always seem to have a strange attraction to Dr. Allenby’s sedan, which they bedevil – curiously, just as semester grades are posted.

WASHBURN MUSEUM – Tougers, all! Reg, here. Good to be home, but I wish my frat brothers didn’t initiate me each time. I don’t mind the raw eggs so much, but goldfish give me the fantods! The boys say they do it ’cause they love me so. Three cheers and a tiger for rummy old Omega Lambda Chi! A bene placito! – REG

WASHBURN MUSEUM – Hello, loves! It’s me, Rita Rennebohm! The girls and I went swimming by the dorms today!! Gosh, the water is cold!!! Dr. Allenby held the camera. Billie the Cowboy was shy and held his breath underwater!! Young Reggie still is!!! I suppose we really should go back for him… Um! – RITA

WASHBURN OBSERVATORY – We inspected the museum this morning and found it in fine shape, although we were concerned that the great tusk was out of place. But Rita explained that she had merely taken the initiative and brought it home overnight to polish. Plucky girl!

WASHBURN OBSERVATORY – New orders!

WASHBURN EXPEDITION – The strange news is true! An underground explosion has released a gargantuan species of beast from the Old Bear Cave. For reasons unknown, these antediluvian giants are bent on taking over The Milwaukee Road!

WASHBURN EXPEDITION – These giants are becoming more and more brazen. Young Reggie and even Dr, Allenby are frankly terrified! Thank goodness Rita retains a scientific outlook; she’s curious to learn “if the giants are giant throughout.” Plucky girl!

WASHBURN EXPEDITION – Ever since the slumbering race of giants awakened, deep in the Old Bear Cave, they’ve inexplicably been bent upon conquering The Milwaukee Road. And now Billie the Cowboy reports that they’ve moved on to the Great Northern! Where will it all end?

WASHBURN EXPEDITION – Allenby reporting. Rath away; likely chatting up Women’s Dean – again. Not a true leader, op. cit. Race of giants persists, marauds, etc. Take up one railway after another. Interest by gargantuans in public transport laudable, civic-minded, et al. But ruinously hard on locos – very. – ALLENBY

WASHBURN EXPEDITION – This is yrs trly Billie the Cowboy and Them Giants is in a Heep of Trouble U bet. I sent for my ol Pards @ the Miller Bros 101 Ranch We R settin up a Posse. If U want to come good leave Ur Irons @ Home We need all the Lassoos U can git tho. Your PAL – Billie

WASHBURN EXPEDITION – The giants’ inexplicable fascination with railroads shall be their downfall. They will be lured back into the Old Bear Cave by a decoy locomotive driven by Roy, our unpaid summer intern!

WASHBURN EXPEDITION – We hope to lure the giants back into the Old Bear Cave. If our attempt fails, we may yet take up arms. The very idea disgusts us, but Rita is preparing for the worst. “Though I’m a mere slip of a girl, I’m still an American!” she cries, her blue eyes flashing.

WASHBURN EXPEDITION – Success! We lured the giants back into the Old Bear Cave from whence they originally issued. We then dynamited the entrance to the Old Bear Cave!
Now we just have to figure out what to do with the Old Bear.

The images in this feature come from the following digital collections. Follow the links to browse and search the full collections. Click any of the images above to see the item’s source and original caption.

• Aldo Leopold Archives, Aldo Leopold Foundation
• Charles and Rufus King Collection, Carroll University Library Digital Collections
• History of UW-La Crosse, Murphy Library, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse
• History of UW-Oshkosh, University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh
• The Home Front – Manitowoc County in World War II. Part of the State of Wisconsin Collection from University of Wisconsin Digital Collections
• Janesville’s Past, Hedberg Public Library. Part of the State of Wisconsin Collection from UWDC.
• Milwaukee Historic Photos, Milwaukee Public Library
• Public Enemies: Tinseltown Comes to Oshkosh, Oshkosh Public Library
• Ripon College Archives
• UW-Madison Collection, UW-Madison Archives
• UWM Photo Collection, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Libraries

Rachel Thompson (left) is working with Recollection Wisconsin to complete her practicum field project, required for all School of Library and Information Studies (SLIS) graduate students at UW-Madison. Rachel just completed her first year at SLIS and is interested in archives, cultural heritage collections and digital collections. This summer, she’ll be cleaning up and standardizing metadata in our collections and will help us develop a social media strategy.

Ally Hrkac comes to us as a recent graduate from the School of Education at UW-Madison, where she studied Secondary Education-English along with a second major in English and a certificate in European Studies. Ally will work with Recollection Wisconsin to research and write “Stories from Wisconsin Collections” features for our website. She’ll also explore ways to link our resources to the Common Core Standards and investigate how we can provide more support to K-12 teachers and students.

Ally’s position is part of a Summer Service Learning effort that Recollection Wisconsin coordinates in partnership with the Material Culture Program at UW-Madison. The goal of this effort is twofold: to provide hands-on opportunities for undergrads considering careers in the museum/cultural heritage field, and to provide support to small, local, volunteer-run cultural heritage organizations. It’s truly the Wisconsin Idea in action–the students gain real-world work experience and put the skills they’ve learned in the classroom to practical use, and the host organizations receive help with projects they may not otherwise have the time, staff, or other resources to complete. Thanks to grant funding provided by the Caxambas Foundation, the Material Culture Program is able to provide honoraria to the students, who are then able to commit to their projects without sacrificing summer income.

In addition to working directly with Ally, Recollection Wisconsin has placed four Student Service Learners with local hosts this summer:

• Laura Sevelis will work with the Oregon Area Historical Society to inventory and re-house their costume collection.
• Mara Champagne will partner with the Koshkonong Prairie Historical Society (Cambridge) to help plan an inventory project and write interpretive texts for exhibitions.
• Hadley Nelson will collaborate with Hawks Inn (Delafield) to photograph and catalog collections and to research and write a guided tour for volunteer docents.
• Gianofer Fields will expand on her series of audio object studies, It’s A Material World, by teaming up with local historical societies to help them create their own audio recordings to tell the stories of objects in their collections.

Stay tuned throughout the summer as each student reports from the field!

Visiting the Oregon Area Historical Society: Material Culture Program director and Art History faculty member Ann Smart Martin, Summer Service Learner Laura Sevelis, and Recollection Wisconsin Program Manager Emily Pfotenhauer.

3. Cat show winners in Trempealeau County; Memorial Day grilling in Milwaukee

Tied for third place: Mary Lunde holds the winners of the cat show at the Trempealeau County Fair, captured by photographer Wade Britzius in 1976; Mrs. Ervin Moore runs the grill at a Memorial Day cookout in Milwaukee in 1967.

Trempealeau County 1976: Images at the Bicentennial, Old Main Historical and Community Arts Center, Galesville. Photo by Wade Britzius.

Historic Photo Collection, Milwaukee Public Library.

2. Antiwar demonstrators at UW-Madison graduation

This group of students graduating from UW-Madison in June 1968 carried posters protesting the Vietnam War along with their diplomas.

UW-Madison Archives by way of University of Wisconsin Digital Collections.

1. May Day celebrations at Lawrence University

Our most popular post on Tumblr this month was this pair of lantern slides depicting May Day events at Lawrence University in Appleton in the early 20th century.

“The Queen and Attendants,” ca. 1930. Lawrence University Archives.

Maypole dance, May Day 1910. Lawrence University Archives.

Highlights from digital collections across Wisconsin are added to our Tumblr blog several times a week. Head here to pick up the RSS feed.

Chuck and I spent the last couple of years building a log cabin on his property on the Wisconsin side of Lake Superior. When my daughter and her boyfriend came up to spend a weekend with us at the cabin, they took that opportunity to announce their engagement. Chuck, touched by the moment, offered the cabin for their summer honeymoon.

Over the next couple of months and multiple trips to the Lake, we planned entertainment for their visit. We plotted coordinates using a handheld GPS, as we hid presents in the woods and created a notebook of daily clues to keep them entertained for the week.

We picked out the most scenic spots on the property to place various real and joke gifts. We buried a bottle of champagne in the cool clay and included coordinates for a nearby log and pond to enjoy a toast; hung a gift certificate to the local coffee shop from a branch overhanging one of the trails we had cut through the woods. Thinking they would enjoy finding the blackberry patch with its ripe berries, we directed them to a can of sardines tucked into a balsam tree on the edge of the field of berries. The sardine can was a family joke referencing Megan’s grandmother’s overstocked kitchen of inedible food. The final package for them to find was a set of pottery bowls, made by a local craftsman that we carefully protected in a Styrofoam box, camouflaged with balsam branches and hid along the scenic path past the Aspen grove.

They neglected to turn the page. Imagine our puzzlement, when they returned from their honeymoon enthusiastic about the champagne, but clueless about the other carefully placed treats. It took several additional trips to the Lake to retrieve the overlooked packages under strict parental supervision. The notebook remains in the cabin along with their additional notes to us. Revisiting the notebook and the hiding places on the trails on subsequent visits are tangible memories of an interactive honeymoon at the cabin.

Tell us your own story! Share your memories and photos of work life and vacation life in Wisconsin here.