Wisconsin 101

Read more about the article OBJECT HISTORY: Trade Blanket

A trade blanket, with the "points" visible on the right side of the picture. Image courtesy of Ron Dennis.

OBJECT HISTORY: Trade Blanket

This blanket, ordinary though it may seem, tells the story of an important meeting of cultures that occurred in Wisconsin between 1634 and 1763. Not long after the explorer Jean Nicolet first set foot in Wisconsin, French traders saw an opportunity to make money by sending beaver furs back to Europe for use in stylish…

0 Comments

September 10, 2018

Read more about the article What is a Point Blanket Coat?

In 1818 Anna Maria von Phul painted this picture of a Native American woman wearing a white wool trade blanket. Image via Wikimedia Commons.

Region 2 - North East / Marathon County / A Hudson's Bay Company Point Blanket Coat / Wausau / Related Stories / 1800-1820 / Manufacturing & Trade / 1820-1840 / Clothing & Fashion / 1840-1860 / 1860-1880 / 1880-1900 / Ethnicity & Identity / Global Connections

What is a Point Blanket Coat?

The practice of converting Hudson’s Bay Company blankets into coats began years before the company began mass-manufacturing point blanket coats in the twentieth century. During the fur trade, Native Americans hunters traded beaver pelts for wool point blankets. Point blankets were waterproof…

0 Comments

June 7, 2018

1820-1840 / Manufacturing & Trade / 1840-1860 / Science & Medicine / Object Histories / Nature & Environment / Ethnicity & Identity

OBJECT HISTORY: Galena

Galena, the official state mineral of Wisconsin, is the raw material used to produce lead. During the Wisconsin “lead rush” of the 1820s-40s, lead was more valuable than gold. That is because just about everybody, rich or poor, used objects made of lead in their daily lives – products that ranged from plumbing to toothpaste!…

0 Comments

December 9, 2017

Oconto County / Migrant Worker's Cabin / Region 2 - North East / Oconto / Related Stories / Food & Cooking / Manufacturing & Trade / 1900-1920 / Nature & Environment / 1920-1940 / 1940-1960 / Ethnicity & Identity / 1960-1980

Migrant Workers and the Bond Pickle Company

The Bond Pickle Company of Oconto, Wisconsin was founded in 1915 by five brothers. The Bond brothers quickly developed the firm, by 1917 acquiring 10 “salting stations” where the cucumbers were received from local farmers and a processing factory on West Main Street in…

0 Comments

September 1, 2017

2000-2020 / 2020-2040 / Pre-1600 / 1600-1800 / 1800-1820 / Home Furnishings / 1820-1840 / 1840-1860 / 1860-1880 / 1880-1900 / Object Histories / 1900-1920 / 1920-1940 / 1940-1960 / 1960-1980 / Ethnicity & Identity / 1980-2000

OBJECT HISTORY: Cradleboard

Native Americans used cradleboards in North America to protect, carry, and entertain their babies. Cradleboards allowed women to keep babies close to their side. Women carried cradleboards on their backs. They also could rest them against a tree. The cradleboard protected babies from danger and kept them happy. Native tribes made cradleboards in many ways,…

0 Comments

June 9, 2017

Read more about the article The Settlement House Movement

Scene from Poale Zion Chasidim, an Americanization pageant held in the Milwaukee auditorium to welcome Milwaukee’s new citizens, 1919. Image courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society, ID: 5348.

Settlement Cook Book / Related Stories / Home Furnishings / Food & Cooking / 1880-1900 / 1900-1920 / 1920-1940 / Ethnicity & Identity / Religion / Global Connections

The Settlement House Movement

Mass immigration from eastern and southern Europe dramatically altered America’s ethnic and religious composition around the turn of the twentieth century. Unlike earlier immigrants, who had largely come from western European countries like Britain, Germany, Ireland, and Scandinavia, the new immigrants came…

0 Comments

May 1, 2017