Manufacturing & Trade

A Cherokee weir similar to the one the people of Aztalan built, showing what it looked like 1000 years ago. Image courtesy of Western Carolina University's Digital Heritage Project.

Region 7 - South Center / Pre-1600 / Manufacturing & Trade / Food & Cooking / Object Histories / Nature & Environment / Ethnicity & Identity

OBJECT HISTORY: Aztalan Fishing Weir

Fishing can take a lot of patience. A person could sit with their fishing pole for hours before they get a bite! Fishing weirs are time-saving technologies built in the water to trap fish. This fishing weir was created by the people who lived in the Early Mississippian settlement, Aztalan, sometime between the 10th and…

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September 9, 2020

Marathon County / Region 2 - North East / A Hudson's Bay Company Point Blanket Coat / Wausau / Manufacturing & Trade / Clothing & Fashion / Object Histories / 1920-1940

OBJECT HISTORY: A Hudson’s Bay Company Point Blanket Coat

This wool coat was constructed from a ‘point blanket’ made by the Hudson’s Bay Company, likely during the early 1920s. A Wausau businessman wore it at one of the town’s early Winter Frolics, an annual winter sports festival that attracted tourists from as far as Chicago. The businessman belonged to a group of local business…

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September 9, 2020

A Duck Decoy / Jefferson County / Region 7 - South Center / Lake Koshkonong / Manufacturing & Trade / 1860-1880 / Art, Sport & Entertainment / 1880-1900 / Object Histories / Nature & Environment

OBJECT HISTORY: A Duck Decoy

With its painted black bill, brown head, and white and black body, it is likely obvious to humans that this object is made out of wood. This object is called a duck decoy, and was intended to fool other ducks into settling…

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September 9, 2020

Vulcan Bowling Pin. Photo credited to Joe Hermolin.

Langlade County / Antigo / Vulcan Bowling Pin / Region 2 - North East / Manufacturing & Trade / Art, Sport & Entertainment / Object Histories / 1940-1960 / Global Connections

OBJECT HISTORY: Vulcan Bowling Pin

This bowling pin was produced by the Vulcan Corporation in Antigo, Wisconsin, sometime in the late 1950s after Vulcan had introduced its patented “Nyl-Tuf Supreme” plastic coating (as indicated by the pin’s red label).

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September 8, 2020

An official WPA poster. Photo courtesy of Wikimedia commons.

Lapham Peak Observation Tower / Related Stories / Manufacturing & Trade / Politics, Society & Government / Nature & Environment / 1920-1940 / 1940-1960

The Works Projects Administration – An Answer to the Great Depression

In 1929, the United States fell into the deepest economic hole the country has known: the Great Depression. Over the three years following the economy’s collapse in 1929, 3,392 banks across the country closed their doors and over $1 billion in deposits…

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September 8, 2020

Synagogue Window / Region 5 - Center East / Sheboygan / Related Stories / Sheboygan County / Manufacturing & Trade / 1880-1900 / 1900-1920 / 1920-1940 / 1940-1960 / Ethnicity & Identity / Religion

The Growth of Sheboygan’s Jewish Community

Although Sheboygan and Milwaukee are only 55 minutes apart by car today, the two cities on the west coast of Lake Michigan remained largely separate in 1900 when they both competed to become the industrial capital of Wisconsin. Through the latter half of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century, the industrialization process in both cities was shaped by an increase in Jewish immigration to the region. 

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July 7, 2020