Octagon houses

This exhibit was created in collaboration with Emily Nelson, an undergraduate History major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A tour of 19th century Wisconsin architecture brings up lumber baron’s mansions, dairy barns, and . . . octagon houses? It was once a craze among the stylish to structure their homes in the shape we now… Read More…

Eastern Shores Library System

Slides and handout from a webinar presented for Eastern Shores Library System as part of their Ozaukee and Sheboygan Memories project, February 20, 2015. The project is made possible with Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funds awarded to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS)…. Read More…

Mineral Point Library Archives

In A Field Guide To Mineral Point (Mineral Point Historical Society, 2012), Nancy Pfotenhauer writes: Mineral Point started as a wild and wooly frontier town. The discovery of lead in 1828 attracted dirt-poor hard-scrabble diggers, educated second sons, land speculators, lawyers, and lawless desperadoes . . . The very first to arrive were Yankees from… Read More…

Exploring effigy mounds

This exhibit was created in collaboration with Emily Nelson, an undergraduate History major at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. More than a thousand years ago, Indigenous people in southern Wisconsin sculpted the landscape into the shapes of the creatures they saw around them. These mounds in the earth continue to watch over the people of the… Read More…

2014: Our year in review

In 2014, Recollection Wisconsin focused on building connections both inside and outside the state. We reached out to K-12 educators with new materials for classroom use and surveyed libraries and museums in small communities across Wisconsin to collect feedback on their digitization needs and interests. We forged relationships in the region by helping to plan… Read More…

Tumblr top ten of 2014

And now presenting the ten posts that inspired the most comments, likes and shares on our Tumblr blog, Wisco Histo, in 2014. For more great images, see which Tumblr posts got the biggest buzz in 2013. 10. Standing for indigenous people on Columbus Day, 1992 Tumblr likes and reblogs: 104 9. Nuns and books on… Read More…

Veterans Photographs, College of Menominee Nation/Menominee Public Library

Menominee County in northeastern Wisconsin has one of the highest per-capita rates of military service in the nation. A new initiative from the College of Menominee Nation’s S. Verna Fowler Academic Library and Menominee Public Library pays tribute to the many veterans in the community. Bryan Stevenson, Head of Special Collections at the College, invited… Read More…

McDonald’s in Wisconsin

A McDonald’s restaurant in Manitowoc. Manitowoc Public Library.

Guest curator Nichole Fromm is a librarian who blogs about restaurants at Eating in Madison A to Z with her husband JM. She was also the proud recipient in 1986 of a Golden Arches Good Taste Award. For better or worse, McDonald’s has built up a place in American hearts and minds. This exhibit uncovers… Read More…

Scandinavia Memory Project

Twenty-two yearbooks and other publications from schools in the village of Scandinavia in Waupaca County, Wisconsin are now available online from the Scandinavia Public Library. Although no schools remain in the community, from 1877-1932 the village was home to Scandinavia Academy (renamed Central Wisconsin College in 1920), a junior college supported by the Norwegian Lutheran… Read More…

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