Instructor

The library has a collection of historic newspapers second only to the Library of Congress. It also has resources for genealogists and members of the public who are interested in reading books and articles about Wisconsin history. The archives contain thousands of boxes of original letters, photographs and prints, audio records and film, state records, and manuscript collections that deal with all areas of state and local history. The archives also hold original records related to organized labor, radicalism, social action and the history of mass communications. The Wisconsin Historical Society presently receives 60% of its funding from the state legislature. Threatened reductions to this state funding threaten the continued ability of the Society to maintain current operating hours and services.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

The reading room is open to the public. Rather than allow the public to enter their archives, staff members will bring you materials that you can peruse at these tables. 

The headquarters building was completed in 1900 and is located on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

Robert Nesbit, Wisconsin: A History-Click the link below for more information about this book

Erika Janik: A Short History of Wisconsin--Click the link below for more information about this book

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Introduction to the Wisconsin Historical Society

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Erika Janik: A Short History of Wisconsin

Founded in 1846, the Wisconsin Historical Society is the oldest historical society in the United States to benefit from continuous state funding. In fact, state officials began supporting the Society almost immediately after statehood in 1848. The Society occupied space in campus buildings of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, but by the 1890s, the society's collections demanded a permanent home. The state legislature approved the construction of the Society's current building in 1895, hiring the Milwaukee architectural firm Ferry and Clas. Completed in 1900, this historic building has served as the headquarters of the Wisconsin Historical Society and the home to the state's history library and archives for the past century. Both are open to the public and together they represent the most significant collection of material on Wisconsin history. 

Wisconsin Historical Society

This walking tour of Madison includes several museums including the Chazen Museum of Art and landmarks related to the history of Wisconsin and its capital city. The tour begins at the Wisconsin Historical Society and concludes at the Wisconsin Historical Society. Enjoy our city and our history!  

Madison Wisconsin Walking Tour

Originally named the Elvehjem Art Center, the museum was established to support fine arts education and public outreach along with opportunities for service and research. The original building that housed the Elvehjem Art Center now connects to a second structure connected by a bridge. The expansion supported the growth of the collection that now numbers over 20,000 pieces of art. There is a permanent collection showcased year-round that includes paintings, sculptures, photographs, and more. In addition, temporary exhibitions are also showcased to present visitors with a continually changing experience and to display its growing collections.

Originally named the Elvehjem Art Center in 1978, this museum has been known as the Chazen Museum of Art since 2011 and is located at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The museum expanded to a second building in recent decades and now includes over 20,000 works in its collection. Visitors can tour the permanent gallery along with seasonal and temporary exhibits.

Chazen Museum of Art 

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was born in
Johnstown Center, WI on November 5, 1850. She was the daughter of farmers Marcus
Hartwell Wheeler and Sarah Pratt. As she matured into young adulthood,&nbsp;Ella grew discontented with her
life in rural Wisconsin. Spurred to action by her mother’s encouragement,
teenage Ella began submitting her poetry to popular magazines for publication.
While her attempts were at first unsuccessful, Ella would become a widely read and
popular poet during the course of her lifetime, publishing over twenty volumes
of poetry.

Ella’s poetry features themes of
love and passion, daily life, social issues of her day such as intemperance,
and history. She wrote prose and fiction as well as poetry, and her writing was
published in local Wisconsin newspapers and national magazines. While Ella is
not considered one of the great poets of her time, she was extensively read by
a large audience who looked to her for guidance, comfort, and understanding.

Later in her life, Ella married Robert
M. Wilcox in 1884 and moved from Wisconsin to Connecticut and then to New York.
At her husband’s suggestion, Ella began to study theosophy. After his death in
1916 she grew intensely interested in communicating with him from beyond the
grave through her study of Spiritualism. Ella died on October 30, 1919.

The most famous line from Ella’s
poetry reads: “Laugh and the world laughs with you, Weep and you weep alone,” from
her poem Solitude. Ella wrote these
timeless lines while visiting the Judge Arthur B. Braley family in Madison, WI.
The Braley house still stands today at 422 North Henry Street in Madison, WI.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox was a poet known for her sentimental verses on varying themes of love and passion. She was born on November 5, 1850 in Johnstown Center, WI, and died on October 30, 1919. Throughout her lifetime Ella published over twenty volumes of poetry and fiction and was widely published in local and national newspapers and magazines. Ella is most known for her line, “Laugh and the world laughs with you, Weep and you weep alone,” which she wrote while visiting the Judge Arthur B. Braley family at their house in Madison, WI.  

Judge Arthur B. Braley House

This house was built in 1856 and served as the executive mansion for seventeen governors of the state of Wisconsin from 1885 to 1950. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1972.

Constructed of locally-quarried sandstone, this house was originally built for Catherine and Julius T. White, Secretary of the Wisconsin Insurance Company. The Whites sold the house in 1857 to one of Madison's first settlers, George P. Delaplaine and his wife, Emily. George Delaplaine was secretary to Governors Farwell and Dewey. He was also the co-owner of one of the largest real estate development firms in the city. In 1867 the house rose to greater social prominence when it was purchased by State Senator J. G. Thorpe, a millionaire lumber baron, and his wife, Amelia. In 1870, the Thorpe's young daughter, Sarah, married Ole Bull, the world-famous 60-year-old Norwegian violinist in one of the most lavish weddings the town had ever seen. Governor Jeremiah Rusk acquired the house in 1883 and sold it to the State of Wisconsin two years later. 

Old Governors' Mansion-Wisconsin 

Samuel Klauber, from Germany, was the first Jewish person to settle in Madison. Other German Jews arrived in the coming years and they decided to raise funds to build the synagogue. Financial difficulties forced the congregation to sell the building to the Unitarians in 1873. It was at this point that the building began to be used for different purposes for nearly the next century. After the building's move to the park, members of the Jewish community used it to hold prayer and worship services. Some of these members decided to create a&nbsp;modern Congregation&nbsp;Shaarei Shamayim, which occurred in 1989. They met at Gates of Heaven for many years until 2008 when they started to share the&nbsp;First Unitarian Society building (which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright), located on&nbsp;900 University Bay Drive.

Gates of Heaven Synagogue, located on the southern corner of James Madison Park, is the eighth oldest extant synagogue in the country. It was designed by German-born Madison architect August Kutzbock in the Rundbogenstil style (a type of architecture combining the Byzantine, Romanesque, and Renaissance styles; this was common in Germany during the 19th century) and built in 1863. For many years the Congregation Shaarei Shamayim worshipped here. Various churches and businesses, including a veterinarian clinic and funeral home, also used the building. The synagogue was moved here from its original location in 1971 to save it from demolition. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places a year earlier. Currently, it is used for weddings, social gatherings, concerts, and for Jewish prayer and worship services.

Gates of Heaven Synagogue

The fight for equal political rights in Wisconsin dates back to the earliest days of statehood. In 1869, the Wisconsin Women’s Suffrage Association was established. Members of the association convinced the state legislature to permit women to run for local school boards in that year. By the mid 1870s, women throughout the state could also vote in school elections. In 1887, suffrage leader&nbsp;Olympia Brown tested the law that allowed women to vote in school elections by also&nbsp;voting for municipal offices. Brown argued that because women were not explicitly forbidden from voting in these elections that her ballot was valid because city officials made many decisions that shaped the local schools.&nbsp;Brown sued the city of Racine in an attempt to compel&nbsp;city officials to accept her ballot. Brown won her case in the&nbsp;Circuit Courts but the&nbsp;state Supreme Court reversed the decision in Brown v. Phillips (1888). In the meantime, many women found that their votes were thrown out because the ballots for some school board elections were the same forms that included other electoral races. The women of Wisconsin faced this&nbsp;obstacle until 1901 when the legislature authorized separate ballots for men and women. By this time, however, the women of Wisconsin were pushing for full suffrage rights. &nbsp;&nbsp; Women pressed for full suffrage rights in other elections in the next three decades and secured a referendum on the measure in 1912. Although &nbsp;two-thirds of the all-male electorate rejected the provision, Wisconsin women escalated their efforts in the next seven years, organizing suffrage schools that taught a curriculum of civics and politics. In the next year, bills providing for equal suffrage were presented to each session of the legislature. Women also lobbied successfully for equal suffrage in presidential elections in 1919. Most famously, Wisconsin women pushed for the ratification of the 19th amendment and Wisconsin became the first state to ratify the amendment. The successful campaign was the culmination of years of efforts, the most recent of which occurred right here at the steps of the state capitol.&nbsp;

In 1919, members of several women's suffrage associations held a series of rallies at this precise location.  For example, several hundred students joined the University of Wisconsin Suffrage Association in 1919 and held a series of protests in front of the state capitol in April. These rallies, along with many previous years of effort, led the state legislature of Wisconsin to become the first state to ratify the 19th Amendment on June 10, 1919.

Wisconsin Becomes the First State to Ratify Women's Suffrage Amendment, 1919

The Capitol's architecture is not only a fine example of the Beaux-Arts style, it also features Wisconsin iconography. The interior features motifs of wreaths and garlands using oak leaves. The exterior continues this theme of Wisconsin-related motifs with the statue atop the dome, called "Wisconsin," which depicts a woman wearing a helmet with a badger (the state animal) and ears of corn (an important state crop), as well as other symbols of the themes of liberty, justice, and truth.

Built between 1906 and 1917, the Wisconsin State Capitol is the location of the state's seat of government, housing the Office of the Governor, the state Supreme Court, and both chambers of the state legislature. Designed by famed architect George Post, the Capitol is a beautiful example of Renaissance Revival architecture as interpreted through the Beaux-Arts style. The building is 284.5 feet tall, including the large statue erected on top of the dome created by celebrated artist Daniel Chester French who also created the statue of Abraham Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. The Capitol is the third since the state was granted statehood 1848 (two served as territorial capitols). The dome is notable not only for its large size but also for the fact that is the largest granite dome in the world and the only granite capitol dome in the country. The Capitol is also significant for its association with the progressive political movement of the early 20th century, as championed by Governor Robert La Follette (1900-1906) and his sons, which profoundly impacted state and national politics. All of these factors led to the Capitol to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and declared a National Historic Landmark in 2001.

Wisconsin State Capitol

The origins of the museum date back to 1901, when Wisconsin Civil War veterans successfully lobbied the state legislature to establish a museum to remember the service and sacrifices made by Wisconsin men during the Civil War. The museum was located in the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Memorial Hall inside the Capitol building. Civil War veterans operated the museum for almost 40 years. After World War II, the newly created Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs took charge of its care, and the museum began expanding its collection to conflicts after the Civil War. This change in scope was reflected by a name change in 1972, when G.A.R. Memorial Hall became the Wisconsin Veterans Museum (WVM). WVM moved from the Capitol to a newly renovated space across the street in 1993. The exhibit galleries trace the story of Wisconsin’s role in American military history from the Civil War to the present. The exhibits bring back memories for veterans and stimulate discussion among visitors. A research center provides opportunities to learn more about the veterans in your family tree or conduct research on any number of topics. Programs and activities capture the interest and attention of everyone from school children to retired life-long learners. Wisconsin has a proud military history, from the Iron Brigade to the Red Arrow Division, from Arthur MacArthur to Richard Bong, from Billy Mitchell to Mitchell Red Cloud. WVM believes that EVERY VETERAN IS A STORY and is privileged to preserve stories of their sacrifice. Stop in at the Wisconsin Veterans Museum to learn more about the women and men from the Badger State who have served our nation.

The Wisconsin Veterans Museum has been a Smithsonian Affiliate since 2013 and offers exhibits and programs that interpret the role of Wisconsin veterans in shaping the nation’s history. Stories of Wisconsin veterans from the Civil War through the present day are intended to educate and inspire guests to learn more of the state's military history at this museum which offers free admission to the public. Highlights of the museum include a Civil War cannon captured at the Battle of Shiloh, letters written by a World War I army nurse, and the option to listen to oral history interviews with local veterans of World War II. The museum also includes an exhibit that includes the Medal of Honor which was posthumously awarded to a local soldier in the Korean War, a Huey helicopter that flew missions in Vietnam, a Cold War era submarine periscope, and exhibits dedicated to the service of Wisconsin women and men in modern military conflicts.

Wisconsin Veterans Museum

The museum's collection is large, holding 110,000 historical objects and around 500,000 archaeological artifacts from Wisconsin that date to prehistoric times to the present day. The collection is divided into five categories: archaeology, culture and history, economic history, Native American ethnography, and social history. The archaeology collection features nationally significant stone and copper collections; culture and history focuses on arts, leisure, sports and recreation, and ethnic history; economic history centers on commerce, technology, agriculture, and industry; Native American ethnography contains everyday items (and religious objects) from cultures of the Upper Great Lakes and the rest of North America; and the&nbsp;social history focuses on home and family life and contains 20,000 items of clothing and other personal wear.

Operated by the Wisconsin Historical Society, this museum has exhibits on three floors that explore Wisconsin as well as national history. The exhibits are divided into several areas: politics, frontier life, immigration, manufacturing and agriculture, and Native American cultures. Visitors will see the numerous artifacts on display, full-scale dioramas, a created ancient Native American house, audiovisuals, and interactive multimedia. The museum also features special seasonal and thematic displays, public programs and special tours, and a museum bookstore. 

Wisconsin Historical Museum

With the massive Orpheum sign easily visible from anywhere on State Street, The Orpheum Theater has been a Madison icon for the greater part of the past century. Built by Rapp and Rapp and mostly financed by William Beecroft, the Orpheum costed $750,000 to construct. Originally built as a movie theater, The Orpheum is host to events with some of the biggest names in the entertainment industry. The theater is well-known for its original French Renaissance interior design. Little known fact, The Orpheum was also the first building in Wisconsin constructed with air conditioning. After many years in despair, in 2013, The Gus Paras family became the new owners of The Orpheum and brought life back to the theater. Frank Productions Concerts currently runs the booking and operating of event at the theater. The Orpheum theater currently hosts many concerts, weddings, stand-up comedy shows, and many other events. It has been an icon in the city of Madison for nearly 100 years and remains a hotspot venue of entertainment.

Built in 1926 by Rapp and Rapp, The Orpheum Theater in Madison, Wisconsin has been one of the most popular venues in the state of Wisconsin for nearly a century. Located in the heart of the city, on the iconic State Street, The Orpheum is well-known venue for hosting a wide variety of entertainment. Events held at The Orpheum mostly consists of concerts, plays, and stand-up comedy shows. 

 The Orpheum Theater

The former hotel contained a bar that was once a speakeasy during Prohibition, called the Barber’s Closet. This is not to be confused with the Barber’s Closet Salon, a hair salon that contained a secret entrance to the Barber’s Closet, hidden behind a cabinet within the Salon. Other establishments within the Hotel included Club de Wash and Café Palms.The former hotel was home to Rod’s, a gay bar established by Rodney Scheel, a local gay man who died in the AIDS crisis. Rodney Scheel had previously opened the first gay bar within Madison, the Back Door. After the Back Door was closed in June 1979, Rod’s was opened in July 1979. Upon Rodney’s death, his brother Greg took over the running of Rod’s. <div>Rod’s was a focal point for the gay and queer nightlife in Madison during its operation, allowing a wide variety of activities, ranging from vanilla to kink. There was a sense of community within Rod’s that is not easily replicated. The fact that there were several bars, some straight, some gay, within the same building was seen as a haven for members of the LGBTQIA+ community who were still in the closet, as they were able to go to one of the straight bars, sneak out the back door, and into one of the gay bars. It is not entirely certain how the Hotel Washington burnt down, but most believe it was due to an improperly extinguished and disposed of cigarette.&nbsp;</div>

Hotel Washington was constructed in 1885 and spent most of the 20th century as an economy apartment complex that included a variety of diners, bars, and nightclubs on the street level. The building was home to two different gay bars during the 70s through the 90s. the structure was destroyed by fire in 1996 and was not rebuilt. The site is now home to Kelley's Market

Madison Wisconsin Walking Tour

Wisconsin Historical Society

Introduction

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Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information