While some immigrants from Ireland trickled into what is now Wisconsin as early as the 1600s to take part in the fur trade, the biggest influx of Irish settlers in the state took place in the first half of the 19th century. Though Irish families are documented in town histories and census reports throughout Wisconsin,… Read More…
Early Statehood, the Civil War, and Reconstruction
Wisconsin’s Civil War monuments
In 2012, guest curator Melinda Roberts set out to visit every one of the state’s 532 Wisconsin Historical Society “official” historical markers. Since then, she has photographed and researched more than 5,500 Wisconsin historical markers and sites, museums, lighthouses, and veterans memorials, all documented on her website, Wisconsin Historical Markers (now defunct). Read more about… Read More…
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…
The art of rosemaling
This exhibit was created in collaboration with Emily Nelson, an undergraduate History major at UW-Madison graduating in May 2015. She’s volunteering with Recollection Wisconsin in order to gain experience in historical writing and social media. Emily is a native of Ladysmith, Wisconsin and her Norwegian heritage inspired her to explore the art of rosemaling. Rosemaling… Read More…
Lumber camp life
Logging has been a vital part of Wisconsin’s history since before statehood, and the life of the lumberjack remains a vivid element of Wisconsin folklore. Establishing a Logging Camp Most logging crews in Wisconsin operated only in the winter, taking advantage of hard, frozen ground to haul heavy loads of logs on sleighs rather than… Read More…
Stories from city directories
This exhibit highlights a selection of advertisements from Wisconsin city directories published between 1857 and 1930. City directories are commercially-published compilations of the names, addresses and professions of people in a particular town or city. The earliest formal city directories published in the United States document major urban areas on the East Coast and date… Read More…
Grand hotels
This gallery offers a closer look at some of the state’s grandest hotels and resorts built between the 1870s and the 1940s. Some, like Oakton Springs in Pewaukee, have long since vanished; others, like the Northernaire of Three Lakes and Milwaukee’s Pfister, continue to serve visitors from around the country. Use the arrows or thumbnails… Read More…
Welsh in Wisconsin
The earliest immigrants from Wales to Wisconsin arrived in 1840, with peak immigration between about 1850 and 1860. To read more about Welsh settlement in the state, see Phillips G. Davies, Welsh in Wisconsin (Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2006). Tell everyone who inquires after us that we think the country will prove very agreeable to us…. Read More…
