Ferdinand L. Kronenberg’s (1877-1944) work spanned nearly five decades in Madison and many Kronenberg-designed buildings survive today. Together they give Madison much of its unique historic architectural identity. Some impressive Kronenberg residential structures survive, but many believe Kronenberg’s most exciting buildings were his commercial designs.
During the 1980s, Historic Madison Inc. board members Ruth Doyle and Hallie Lou Blum led an initiative to conduct a series of oral histories with prominent and impactful Madisonians. The HMI volunteers finished the last interview in 1991. Collectively, they interviewed over 60 Madisonians, some of whom were over 100 years old.
This digital collection of historic plat books, city directories, and atlases provides accessibility to early information about South Central Wisconsin, specifically Columbia, Dane, Portage and Wood counties. The early city directories for Madison provide helpful historical information on the early years of the state capital in addition to helping those looking for information on specific people and businesses in the area in the 1800s and early 1900s. The directories provide an alphabetical list of citizens with their addresses and occupations, a classified business directory, lists of city and county officials, churches, schools, societies, streets and wards.
Sixty-nine volumes of The Tychoberahn, the yearbook for Madison’s Central High School, published between 1900 and 1969. Alternate titles include Orange and Black and Mirror Magazine.
The Madison Mozart Club was an all-white male amateur singing group formed in 1901 and disbanded in 1958. During that time, the group gave over 200 concerts throughout southern Wisconsin. They sang a broad range of music ranging from traditional choral pieces to negro spirituals, to popular music, and more. The Club was founded by John Simpson, a Norwegian immigrant, and Elias Bredin, a University of Wisconsin-Madison music professor. As a significant part of the Madison music scene during the 20th century, the Club consisted of several prominent Madisonians, including Edward A. Birge (President of UW-Madison: 1900-1903 and 1918-1925), Glen D. Roberts (law partner of Robert “Fighting Bob” LaFollette), and Frank A. Maxwell (Madison’s city treasurer).
Martin Peter Schneider was born in 1890 in Lodi, he graduated in 1912 with an engineering degree, and soon after that, he attended graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Later that same year, Schneider was back in Madison, starting his practice in his home. His impressive architectural work includes designs in most styles popular from the 1910s through the 30s. His designs include both residential and commercial buildings. Many of his buildings are still standing and are recognizable Madison landmarks today.
The Rick Burns Train Photograph Collection is a collection of almost 500 photographs of trains and train stations in and around the Madison area in between 1963 and 1967, the years that he attended the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Also included on the Dane County Historical Society Website is an article written by Burns about the collection and his own experiences photographing the trains.
These 27 photographs come from the Walter Scott Materials collection. Walter Scott (1911-1983) is a well-known naturalist who was inducted into the Wisconsin Conservation Hall of Fame in 1995. He also had a penchant for preserving local history and was one of the founders of Historic Madison Inc. These photographs were taken on August 16, 1962. Some photos were taken from an airplane, some in a small rowboat, and others from the shoreline.
