WISCONSIN
Celebrating People, Place and Past
People
Use these links to learn more about the people of Wisconsin, including our native
and immigrant groups and notable Wisconsin men and women.
General
The Wisconsin Electronic Reader
Stories of Wisconsin history using original text and historical photographs.
Telling Wisconsin's Stories
From Wisconsin Public Television, this site highlights programs about Wisconsin. It lists broadcast dates and times, with links to program descriptions, Sesquicentennial Minutes and other history-related programs from PBS.
Wisconsin Folks
This is the place to meet Wisconsin artists who highlight their cultures and traditions in their art.
Arts covered include crafts, dance, food, music and regional activities. Teachers can search for artists to give classroom presentations by ethnicity, location, art form or theme at this Web site
from the Wisconsin Arts Board.
Demographics
Wisconsin Demographic Services Center
Population estimates through 2030 by county, city, town, and village from the Department of Administration.
U.S. Census Bureau Data for Wisconsin
The Census Bureau provides data on population, housing, education and other indicators by county.
Wisconsin at a Glance
The Kaiser Family Health Foundation provides lots of information on the state's population
including distribution by age, citizenship status, race/ethnicity and information on median incomes, unemployment rate and health status. The site also allows you to compare Wisconsin to the other states in any of these categories.
Ethnic and Cultural Groups
Aliens and "Real Americans"
This article on from the Wisconsin Lawyer describes ethnic assimilation in Wisconsin during the period 1846-1920, and the laws that were passed during conflicts between German and non-German immigrants.
Looking Further than the Skin
This article on from the Wisconsin Lawyer gives the history of Civil Rights laws in Wisconsin.
Great Lakes Intertribal Council
This page is a part of the Great Lakes Intertribal Heritage Tourism Project. It supplies brief tourism-related information about many Wisconsin tribes.
Ho-Chunk Nation
A brief history of the Ho-Chunk Nation from the Milwaukee Public Museum.
Menominee History
A brief history of the Menominee people from the Milwaukee Public Museum.
Ojibwe Waasa-Inaabidaa
This Web site accompanies a 6-part PBS documentary series about the Anishinabe-Ojibwe people of the great lakes. The Web site contains interactive maps, photographs, video clips and a text history of the 19 Ojibwe bands in the Great Lakes Area.
Chippewa Youth Publications
Publications from the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission include an Ojibway
creation story, historical and cultural information on the Anishinaabeg or Chippewa people
and an online coloring book.
Potawatomi
Web
This site includes information on the history, culture, arts, genealogy and current issues of the Potawatomi people.
McCord Village
This site from the National Park Service tells the story of this village that was settled around 1890-1900 by Potawatomi, Ojibwe and related American Indians.
Native American Research in Wisconsin
A guide to genealogical research for Native Americans in Wisconsin.
Stones Unturned
This beautiful electronic exhibit from the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation contains photographs of clothing, toys and musical instruments from native peoples of Canada, including
the Ojibwa and Algonquin.
First Nations Histories
Short histories about the Fox, Kickapoo, Menominee, Ojibwa, Sauk, and many other native peoples.
Native Web Resource Center
A directory of Native American World Wide Web resources, which can be searched by subject, by nations or by geographic region.
Wisconsin's French Connection
A virtual museum highlighting the French influence in Wisconsin, past and present.
Wisconsin's
Ethnic Settlement Trail
This site explores the history of European settlement of Wisconsin through tours that can be taken which feature buildings and other artifacts of settlement history.
The Underground Railroad
Information about the Underground Railroad in Wisconsin from the Milton House Historic Museum.
The African-American Mosaic
The Library of Congress produced this electronic resource for the study of African-American history and culture.
African American Collections in the Milwaukee Urban Archives
This site lists collections that are available from the Archives, including the papers of many notable notable African Americans. (The documents are not available on-line.)
Winona's Cultural History
This site created by students at Winona Middle School includes information on the history, language and culture of eight ethnic groups which are are also found in Wisconsin (African-American, German, Hmong, Jewish, Luxembourger, Polish, Native American and Norwegian).
Hmong Cultural Tour
This site was created by 4th and 5th grade class at Randall School in Madison, Wisconsin. The students travelled around the state to study Hmong culture, and helped the Madison Children's Museum create a touring exhibit, "Hmong at Heart." The site includes information on music, foodways, crafts, games and healing practices.
The Saturn Hmong Page
This site from a high school in Minnesota includes talking Hmong-English and English-Hmong dictionaries images of Hmong quilts.
The WWW Hmong Homepage
This is a collection of resources relating to Hmong history, culture, language, and current events.
Wisconsin Women's History
From the University of Wisconsin System Women's Studies Librarian's Office, this is a bibliography
of sources for research on women in Wisconsin.
Wisconsin Women and the Law
The Wisconsin Lawyer provides two articles describing the History of Wisconsin's Women's
Rights Law. The first article covers the period from 1846-1920 and the second covers the period since 1920.
Food
Ethnic Recipes
Recipes from many ethnic groups from the Recipe Source.
Sue's
Recipe Server
Recipes from many countries around the world.
Individuals
American Life Histories
From the Library of Congress. Includes 128 first-person accounts of life in Wisconsin collected during the Great Depression. The accounts were written by the Federal Writers’ Project between 1936 and 1940.
Wisconsin Authors and their Works
This site includes biographies, photographs and excerpts from the writings of 16 Wisconsin authors.
Sketches of Wisconsin Pioneer Women
This site includes stories about seven early Wisconsin women.
Shirley Abrahamson
A biography of the Chief Justice of Wisconsin's Supreme Court Justice, who was the first woman to serve on the state's Supreme Court.
Stephen Babcock
The Wisconsin Electronic Reader provides this historical account of the famous Wisconsin chemist. See also this photograph from the University of Pennsylvania Images of Scientists and Philosophers collection.
Black Hawk
This site provides information about Ma-ca-tai-me-she-kia-kiak, known as Black Hawk. See also this biography of the Native American leader from Black Hawk Middle School in Madison.
Ada Deer
African American Publications features this biography of the Wisconsin Menominee who was the
first Native American woman to head the Bureau of Indian Affairs. See also this additional the
text of one of her speeches from Sweet Briar Colleges Gifts of Speech site.
Edna
Ferber
The Appleton Public Library provides the Edna Ferber Home Page which includes a biography of the author and a bibliography. See also this illustrated biography of Ferber from the Wisconsin Electronic Reader.
William D. Hoard
The Wisconsin Electronic reader provides this illustrated account of the "Father of Modern Dairying."
Harry Houdini
The Houdini electronic exhibit from the American Variety Stage Collection of the Library of
Congress contains 143 photographs and 29 related items of personal memorabilia that document the career of Houdini, the legendary Wisconsin magician. Collection materials date from 1886 to
the years following Houdini's death in 1926.
Robert M. LaFollette
This former Wisconsin governor was also leader of the Progressive movement. See also a brief biography and photograph from the National Statuary Hall.
Aldo Leopold
This site contains a brief biography of Leopold as well as links to other sites which provide information about Leopold’s life and work.
Father Jacques Marquette
The Wisconsin Historical Society has converted the journal of his famous 1673 trip down the Mississippi with Louis Joliet into electronic form. See the Mississippi Valley as it first appeared to European eyes. Eavesdrop on conversations with Indians who'd never seen white men. Encounter monsters that lurked under their fragile birchbark canoes, and bizarre petroglyphs that guarded ferocious whirlpools. Running commentary by WHS staff will try to pin-point their location, quote other contemporary accounts, explain archaic words and phrases, and offer insights that make reading the journal more fun.
Joseph McCarthy
A brief biography of Senator McCarthy from the Appleton Public Library.
Golda Meir
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Library features a photographic exhibit on Meir, who grew up in Milwaukee and became Prime Minister of Israel. Other biographies are provided by the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Women's International Center.
Billy Mitchell
This digital exhibit from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Library includes historic photographs. The History Net provides this article, Billy Mitchell: Aviation Visionary from Aviation History.
John Muir
This exhibit from the Sierra Club includes many resources including a section on places in Wisconsin that were important to Muir and a biographical timeline of Muir's life. View a video clip about Muir from Wisconsin Public Television's "Sesquicentennial Minutes." or read a story about John Muir from the "Wisconsin Electronic Reader."
Gaylord Nelson
The Wilderness Society provides this short biography of Nelson, former Governor of Wisconsin and the founder of Earth Day.
Georgia O'Keeffe
This site includes a short biography of the artist, many quotes and reproductions of some of her paintings. See also these sites:
National Women's Hall of Fame: Georgia O'Keeffe
Celebrating Women's History
Chief
Oshkosh
A brief biography of this Menominee leader, as well as others, from the
Menominee Nation Web site. Also see this information of Chief Oshkosh from the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Frank Lloyd Wright
"Frank Lloyd Wright: Designs for an American Landscape, 1922-1932" is an electronic exhibit from the Library of Congress. Frank Lloyd Wright in Wisconsin provides Information about the architect and his buildings in Wisconsin that are open to the public.
Genealogy
American Family Immigration History Center
Learn about the immigrant experience, search for ancestors who came to Ellis Island, or build a family scrap book at this site from the Statue of Liberty-Ellis Island Foundation.
Family History: How do I Begin?
A step by step process for researching your family history from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon). Includes printable forms to help with genealogy research.
FamilySearch® Internet Genealogy Service
The genealogy resources of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are now available online. (This site is very popular and may difficult to access at some times.)
USGenWeb Kidz
This site was designed for students who are exploring their family history. It includes a section
called "How to do Genealogy" with printable forms to help kids get started researching their roots.
National Archives Genealogy Page
This site includes many references for genealogical research, as well as some online records from the National Archives. Information is provided on immigration records, naturalization records, African-American genealogical research, and more.
Cyndi'sList
This is a list of thousands of links to genealogy resources on the World Wide Web.
