The Treaty of 1837 signed between the United States Government and the Ojibwe Tribe called for annuity payments to be made at Madeline Island. This video features the movement of the annuity payment location from Madeline Island to Sandy Lake, Minnesota in 1850, the difficult travel of the Ojibwe and the death of 400 tribal members, the trip of Chief Buffalo to Washington, D.C., and the decision to move the payment location back to Madeline Island.

This agricultural chemist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison made some all-star discoveries and scored major points with the Babcock Test, totally changing the dairy industry game. 

Resources available for exploring this story include:
- A short animated video with captions and transcripts in English and Spanish
- A short biography book accessible as a slide deck, with per-page audio for listening along, and maps of key locations in the story
- Questions that can be used for conversation, reflection, and connection with the story
- A historical image gallery full of primary and secondary sources to explore
- A guide for activating the media with learners that includes story stats, extension activity ideas, and standards supported

This story is part of Wisconsin Biographies, a collection of educational media resources for grades 3-6. Explore the full collection at pbswisconsineducation.org/biographies.

How do the stitches of a sampler tell us about the past?

Using a needle and thread was considered a necessary household skill for girls and women in the 1800s. They made samplers to practice stitches and show off what they could do. Margaret Miekel’s sampler helps us stitch together the living and learning in the area before Wisconsin was officially a state!

This episode is part of The Look Back, a series made for learners in grades 4-6 that explores eras from Wisconsin’s history through artifacts. The collection is hosted by historians who model an inquiry process: sharing artifacts, asking questions, visiting archives and museums to learn more, telling the story of their findings as they go, and making connections to our lives today.

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.

Teaching About Wisconsin is from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction's social studies webpages.

Many resources for teaching about Wisconsin can be found through our state agencies and organizations. Primary sources about Wisconsin are available through the Wisconsin Historical Society, Recollection Wisconsin, and digital archives from many Wisconsin universities. The resources are divided into geographic, historic, government, and economic themes.

Note: These are not lesson plans, but basic information and data about Wisconsin. To meet standards, students will have to DO something with the information.

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.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson wrote “In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love.” But in much of Wisconsin, once the lakes thaw, some men’s (and women’s) thoughts turn to sport fishing, particularly on the first Saturday in May which signals the opening of fishing season.

This online exhibit features images from Recollection Wisconsin content partners documenting our state's rich history of recreational fishing.

The Wiscsonsin Historical Society has gathered and organized an immense collection of resources in a user friendly manner for the teacher and student.  Connecting local history to national and global developments, this website has such a variety of content that a teacher or student can find rich primary and secondary sources on virtually any trend or topic in history.  The site also includes lesson and unit plans, information about museums and historic sites in the state, and resources for exploring one's family history.

This resource was created as part of the CESA #1 EL OER Project to help EL students access social studies curriculum and/or texts related to Wisconsin history (fur trade and early settlement). The first page can be used as a vocabulary reference during the unit. Students can use this page to help understand text about this unit or to write related sentences. The matching activity can be used to introduce/pre-teach vocabulary, or it could also be used as an assessment tool (for level 1 & 2 ELs) to see if students understand vocabulary related to Wisconsin and this time period.

Wisconsin Life celebrates the people, places, history and culture of the state. Come with us as we kayak the Mississippi River, interview musicians in Milwaukee, and bake pasties in Rhinelander. We connect you with diverse people and ideas through short stories updated twice a week.

This resource is informational; the podcast alone will not meet any social studies standards.

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.