This exhibit highlights a selection of advertisements from Wisconsin city directories published between 1857 and 1930. City directories are commercially-published compilations of the names, addresses, and professions of people in a particular town or city. The earliest formal city directories published in the United States document major urban areas on the East Coast and date to the 1780s. In Wisconsin, the earliest city directories date to the 1850s; by the 1920s, at least one directory was published for most of the large and mid-sized cities in the state.

The earliest immigrants from Wales to Wisconsin arrived in 1840, with peak immigration between about 1850 and 1860. This exhibit displays the art and culture, both historical and present-day, of the Welsh in Wisconsin.

Did you know that two major energy sources – hydro and solar power – have deep roots in Wisconsin history? It’s true. You might even say a current of energy-related ingenuity surged through our great state throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Read on if we’ve ignited your curiosity.

Fron what Indigenous peoples in what is now the state of Wisconsin grew, hunted, fished, and gathered to the modern supermarket to the ubiquitous summer farmers markets, this online exhibit pairs historical photographs and research to examine where Wisconsinites get their food.

At the turn of the 20th century, most American cities of any size had a family-run department store (or two or more) entrenched in their downtowns. By New York, Chicago, or Philadelphia standards, Wisconsin department stores were small and modest, but they served their communities well. In this exhibit, you'll learn about and see images of Wisconsin's bustling department stores along with the impacts those stores had on their communities and the people they employed.

Wisconsin farmers, artisans, and other vendors work hard all year to prepare for farmers’ markets in order to provide goods to the local community. Many Wisconsin residents “buy local” to support their farmers, and the myriad of market locations around the state allow locals to do so.

The photographs in this slideshow portray the farmers’ markets – a variety including general markets, roadside stands, and co-ops – of the past.

This exhibit highlights multiple forms of memoirs written by Wisconsin residents. In viewing these accounts, we are doing more than merely reading a document – we are experiencing the life of another individual at a different time. For the people who wrote these letters, diaries, poems, and journals, the act of writing brought personal comfort, solidarity, relief and preservation of connections to friends and family. For readers, these memoirs provide historical evidence and insight into the Wisconsin experience.

The Norwegian art of rosemaling. Rosemaling is an art style preserved thanks in part to 19th century immigration from Norway’s farming communities to those of Wisconsin. Since that journey, rosemaling has worked its way into the identity of the state.