Enjoy a browse through Wisconsin 101’s collection of object histories. Click on the “Read More” button to view the full story and its accompanying related histories or explore the categories listed above each object history to learn more about certain themes, periods of time, and Wisconsin locales.
This bowling shirt costume from the television series Happy Day speaks to Wisconsin's association with bowling. Milwaukee, where the show was set, was known as the bowling capital of America.
Before chromebooks, iPads, and even lined paper, students still had to complete their assignments. In the past, students did most their schoolwork on a slate. A slate is a small, rectangular blackboard made from slate stone. They had two sides and the edges were wrapped in leather or wood to protect students’ hands. In the…
In the late 1800s, the Silsby Company created the Steam Powered Pumper in New York. This technological advancement made the lives of firefighters everywhere easier. They no longer had to rely on bucket brigades to fight fires. This impacted communities all over the country, including in Berlin, Wisconsin.
The first edition of The Settlement Cook Book was published on April 1, 1901 with an original printing of 1,000 copies. Copies not distributed to the settlement’s cooking school students were sold at the Boston Store in Milwaukee for 50 cents each and sold out within the first year. Kander made notes on the recipe for Mocha…
The 40-inch refracting telescope at Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, contains the world’s largest refracting lenses. Built in 1895, the telescope contains two lenses, one made of crown glass, and one made of flint glass. The lenses are each 40 inches in diameter, weigh 500 pounds, and have a 62-foot focal length. The telescope and observatory…
Intended to help customers get the perfect pair of shoes, X-Ray shoe fitting machines like this one from Sturgeon Bay were popular in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s.