1880-1900

Douglas County / Region 1 - North West / Superior / The SS Meteor / Manufacturing & Trade / 1880-1900 / Object Histories / Transportation & Tourism

OBJECT HISTORY: The SS Meteor

The SS Meteor was launched as the SS Frank Rockefeller in Superior, Wisconsin by the American Steel Barge Company in 1896. The last remaining of only 44 “whaleback” ships ever built, she was designed by a Scottish immigrant named Alexander McDougall. She is 380 feet long, 45 feet wide and 26 feet deep. You may notice that the SS Meteor looks somewhat different…

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September 10, 2018

Horlick's Malted Milk / Related Stories / Manufacturing & Trade / Food & Cooking / Science & Medicine / 1880-1900 / Global Connections

Malted Milk and Infant Nutrition

Although known today mostly as a flavoring for milk shakes and chocolate-covered malt balls, malted milk made its first appearance in the 1880s as a substitute for human breast milk.  At that time, breastfeeding babies began to lose its appeal among both…

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August 3, 2018

Ozaukee County / Port Washington / Paramount Records 78 / Region 8 - South East / Related Stories / Home Furnishings / Manufacturing & Trade / Art, Sport & Entertainment / 1880-1900

The Wisconsin Chair Company

Founded in 1888 by Frederick A. Dennett, the Wisconsin Chair Company (WCC) was perhaps the most important business in Ozaukee County at the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth century. The company, located along the northern shore of the…

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July 16, 2018

Tools used in a cupping kit, from left to right: scarificator, cup, syringe. Image courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society.

Outagamie County / Region 5 - Center East / Appleton / Cupping Kit / 1860-1880 / Science & Medicine / 1880-1900 / Object Histories

OBJECT HISTORY: Cupping Kit

Cupping therapy is a medical treatment in which local suction is created on the skin in an effort to increase blood flow to promote healing or restore humoral health balance. It was practiced as early as the Hippocratics and persisted in high medical popularity until the late nineteenth century. This particular kit belonged to Dr. James T. Reeve a physician…

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June 9, 2018

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

Marathon County / Region 2 - North East / 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…

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June 7, 2018

Langlade County / Wolf River / 2000-2020 / 2020-2040 / Region 2 - North East / Pre-1600 / 1600-1800 / Mepps Fishing Lure / Related Stories / 1800-1820 / Manufacturing & Trade / 1820-1840 / Politics, Society & Government / 1840-1860 / 1860-1880 / 1880-1900 / 1900-1920 / Nature & Environment / 1920-1940 / 1940-1960 / 1960-1980 / 1980-2000 / Transportation & Tourism

The Wolf River

Todd Sheldon first discovered the virtues of the Mepps Aglia spinner and later realized improvements afforded by a tuft of squirrel tail while fishing at one of his favorite spots: the Wolf River. Today the Wolf continues to be a destination for sports…

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May 24, 2018