Wisconsin 101

The Evolution of a Swiss Barn

The expansion of Wisconsin’s dairy industry in the 20th century not only altered the economy of the state, but it also influenced the structure of the very barns that housed the bovine champions of the industry. Barns must be adapted and altered…

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May 2, 2019

Related Stories / Sterling Safety Bicycle / 1880-1900 / Transportation & Tourism

The 1890s Bicycle Craze in Wisconsin

Bicycles entered the United States on the East Coast from Europe in 1869. By 1880, bicycling in the U.S. had become so popular that the League of American Wheelmen (LAW) was founded. One of LAW’s objectives was “to promote the general interests…

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November 30, 2018

Related Stories / Sterling Safety Bicycle / Manufacturing & Trade / Politics, Society & Government / 1880-1900 / Transportation & Tourism

Wisconsin Road Conditions

One of the biggest impediments to the progress of the popularity of bicycling in the late 19th century was bad roads. Wisconsin roads in the 1880s were “plagued by mud, poor signage, and crumbling bridges and sidewalks.”[1] This persisted throughout the 1890s…

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November 1, 2018

Related Stories / The Hefty-Blum White Barn / New Glarus / Region 7 - South Center / Green County / 1800-1820 / Manufacturing & Trade / 1820-1840 / Food & Cooking / Ethnicity & Identity / Global Connections

The Swiss Roots of America’s “Dairyland”

When the wheat crop failures of the late nineteenth century jeopardized the incomes of many of Wisconsin’s immigrant farmers, the region’s Swiss population transitioned to a trade that they knew from the Old World: dairying and cheesemaking. To do this, Swiss farmers…

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October 1, 2018

Read more about the article When Lake Koshkonong was a Marsh

An Ojibwe man and woman harvesting wild rice in 1966 near Ashland, WI. Image courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society, image ID 133699.

Related Stories / Lake Koshkonong / 1600-1800 / A Duck Decoy / Pre-1600 / Region 7 - South Center / Jefferson County / 1800-1820 / 1820-1840 / Politics, Society & Government / 1840-1860 / Nature & Environment / Ethnicity & Identity

When Lake Koshkonong was a Marsh

Maintaining practices like an annual visit to Lake Koshkanong to hunt and harvest food is an important way for indigenous knowledge and culture to be passed-on to the next generation.

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September 30, 2018

Slavery in Wisconsin

Related Stories / James D. Williams' Windlass / 1600-1800 / 1800-1820 / 1820-1840 / Manufacturing & Trade / Politics, Society & Government / 1840-1860 / 1860-1880 / Ethnicity & Identity

Slavery in Wisconsin

It may come as a surprise to learn that during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries slavery existed in the region that would become the state of Wisconsin. Over this period, thousands of enslaved African Americans or enslaved American Indians lived and…

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September 11, 2018