Wisconsin Historical Society
 | |
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Formed | 1846 |
| Jurisdiction | Wisconsin |
| Headquarters | 816 State Street Madison, Wisconsin 53706 |
| Agency executive |
|
| Parent agency | State of Wisconsin |
| Website | wisconsinhistory.org |
State Historical Society Library | |
 | |
| Location | 816 State Street, Madison, Wisconsin |
|---|---|
| Built | 1896-1900[2] |
| Architect | Ferry & Clas |
| Architectural style | Neoclassical |
| NRHP reference No. | 72000049[1] |
| Added to NRHP | February 23, 1972 |
The Wisconsin Historical Society (officially the State Historical Society of Wisconsin) is simultaneously a state agency and a private membership organization whose purpose is to maintain, promote and spread knowledge relating to the history of North America, with an emphasis on the state of Wisconsin and the trans-Allegheny West.[3] Founded in 1846 and chartered in 1853, it is the oldest historical society in the United States to receive continuous public funding.[4][5] The society's headquarters are located in Madison, Wisconsin, on the campus of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Organization
[edit]The Wisconsin Historical Society is organized into four divisions: the Division of Library, Archives and Museum Collections, the Division of Museums and Historic Sites, the Division of Historic Preservation-Public History, and the Division of Administrative Services.
Division of Library, Archives and Museum Collections
[edit]The Division of Library, Archives and Museum Collections collects and maintains books and documents about the history of Wisconsin, the United States, and Canada. The society's library and archives, which together serve as the library of American history for the University of Wisconsin–Madison, contain nearly four million items, making the society's collection the largest in the world dedicated exclusively to North American history.[3][6] The Wisconsin Historical Society's extensive newspaper collection is the second largest in the United States after the Library of Congress.[7][8][9] Visual materials in the archives include some three million photographs, negatives, films, architectural drawings, cartoons, lithographs, posters, and a variety of visual ephemera.[10] The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research is also housed within the division.[11] The society's archives also serve as the official repository for state and local government records.[4] The society coordinates an Area Research Center Network, an alliance between the Historical Society in Madison and four-year campuses of the University of Wisconsin System throughout the state and the Northern Great Lakes History Center in Ashland, to make most of the archival collections accessible to state residents. The society's museum collections are maintained in the Collections Division containing objects relating to Wisconsin history.
Division of Museums and Historic Sites
[edit]The Division of Museums and Historic Sites operates the Wisconsin Historical Museum in downtown Madison and 11 historic sites throughout the state. The museum has an archaeology program in collaboration with the Department of Transportation and the Department of Natural Resources that undertakes research, and collects and preserves historical artifacts.[12] The other historic sites are tourist attractions that display historic buildings reflecting Wisconsin history and provide exhibitions and demonstrations of state history, such as ethnic settlement, mining, farming, fur trading, transportation, and pioneering life.
Division of Historic Preservation-Public History
[edit]The Division of Historic Preservation-Public History administers the state's historic preservation program,[4] the state's burial sites preservation program, and the Wisconsin Historical Society Press, which publishes books on Wisconsin and American history and a quarterly magazine, the Wisconsin Magazine of History. The division also provides outreach to local historical societies.
Wisconsin Magazine of History
[edit]The Wisconsin Magazine of History (ISSN 1943-7366) is a quarterly journal published by the WHS since September 1917.[13] The society maintains a fully digitized archive that contains more than 2,000 feature articles totaling more than 30,000 pages.[14]
Division of Administrative Services
[edit]The Division of Administrative Services provides support and planning for the WHS and its divisions.
The society's website include a large, searchable collection of historical images and a vast digital archive containing thousands of scanned documents relating to Wisconsin history.
Wisconsin Historical Society employees are employees of the State of Wisconsin.[15]
History of the society itself
[edit]Massachusetts had formed its state historical society 170 years after the Pilgrims arrived. Because of that delay, parts of that colony's early history were not preserved. With that in mind, some of Wisconsin territory's early history-minded leaders began advocating in 1845 for creation of a state historical society. In late 1846 during the constitutional convention, two meetings were held to organize such a society. They adopted a constitution, chose A. Hyatt Smith of Janesville as first president, and chose Governor Doty as one of the vice-presidents. But the newborn society seems to have done little for the first few years.[16]: 73–75
In January 1849, after Wisconsin became a state, interested parties met in the senate chamber and revived the society, electing Governor Dewey as president and Increase A. Lapham as corresponding secretary, among other officers. They drafted a constitution for the society which laid out its purpose, including: "...to preserve the materials for a complete history of Wisconsin embracing the antiquities, and the history of the Indian tribes." This iteration of the society arranged annual speeches and started a book collection, but didn't accomplish a lot because it still had no paid secretary.[16]: 75–77
In 1853 the legislature gave the young historical society a charter and $500 to finance its mission. The members chose Lyman Draper as corresponding secretary and adopted a new constitution which elaborated on the society's aim:
The object of the Society shall be to collect, embody, arrange and preserve in authentic form a library of books, pamphlets, maps, charts, manuscripts, papers, paintings, statuary, and other materials illustrative of the history of the State, to rescue from oblivion the memory of its early pioneers and to obtain and preserve narratives of their exploits, perils and hardy adventures; to exhibit faithfully the antiquities and the past and present condition and resources of Wisconsin, and may take proper steps, to promote the study of History by lectures, and to diffuse and publish information relating to the description and history of the State.[16]: 77–78
The physical presence of the Historical Society started as one bookcase in the state capitol in 1849. After that it resided in Lyman Draper's basement, then the basement of a church, and back to the capitol. These locations were inconvenient and vulnerable to fire. Meanwhile, the UW had outgrown its own 1878 Library Hall. In 1891 UW President Chamberlain suggested that the Historical Society ask the state legislature for a new building to house both the university library and the Historical Society. The legislature granted money starting in 1895 and architectural plans were solicited. After some critique and rework, the design from Ferry & Clas of Milwaukee was selected. The building was constructed from 1896 to 1900.[17]
Ferry & Clas's building is considered one of the finest Neoclassical Revival designs in Wisconsin. The facade is four stories tall, with a central colonnade across the second and third stories flanked by blocks of windows, all of Bedford sandstone with many features carved.[18] The footprint was U-shaped, with the colonaded front the base of the U. Behind the colonade, in the base of the U, is a large reading room a full two stories tall, which was shared by the UW and the Historical Society. Only one upright of the U was initially built, for lack of funds; it extended back from the south end of the base of the U and in the first years held the stacks of both the Historical Society and the UW. By 1914 that wing was filled and the state financed building the northern upright of the U. By the late 40s the whole building was again bursting at the seams, so the state financed a new, separate library for the UW. The UW moved out of the shared building in 1952, leaving the whole building to the Historical Society.[17]
The society has a long record of sharing history with the public, including school services begun in 1947, the regional depositories established in 1951, the historical marker program begun in 1952, the operation of historical sites begun in 1952, and the Historymobile program begun in 1954.[18]
Notable people
[edit]- John Givan Davis Mack, professor of engineering and curator of the WHS library[19]
- F. Gerald Ham, former Wisconsin state archivist and director of the Division of Library-Archives[20]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service. November 2, 2013.
- ^ "State Historical Society of Wisconsin". Wisconsin Historical Society. Retrieved 2024-12-07.
- ^ a b "Bucerius Seminar 2005: American History and American Archives" (PDF). German Historical Institute London Bulletin (38). German Historical Institute: 139. Spring 2006. Retrieved 10 April 2010.
the Wisconsin Historical Society, which is impressive both as a building and as an institution. It is the largest library for American history, it functions as a state archive, it is the premier place to do research on Wisconsin
- ^ a b c Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau (1985). "The Executive Branch". State of Wisconsin 1985–1986 Blue Book. Madison: Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau. p. 460.
Founded in 1846 and chartered in 1853, the State Historical Society of Wisconsin is the nation's oldest historical society to receive continuing grants of state funds
- ^ About page at the Wisconsin Historical Society website.
- ^ "Wisconsin Historical Society" at www.madison.com.
- ^ Cates, Jo A. (2004). Journalism: A Guide to the Reference Literature. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing. p. 251. ISBN 9781591580614.
- ^ Newspapers for Genealogy from the Wisconsin Historical Society
- ^ Newspaper & Periodicals Collections of the Wisconsin Historical Society
- ^ Visual Materials and Films in Our Collections
- ^ "About Us". Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. Retrieved November 22, 2019.
- ^ Wisconsin Historical Society. About the Division of Museums and Historic Sites".
- ^ Schumacher, Ryan (January 2013). "The Wisconsin Magazine of History: A Case Study in Scholarly and Popular Approaches to American State Historical Society Publishing, 1917–2000". Journal of Scholarly Publishing. 44 (2): 114–141. doi:10.3138/jsp.44.2.002. ISSN 1198-9742.
- ^ "About the Wisconsin Magazine of History Archives". Wisconsin Historical Society. October 2012. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
- ^ WHS job announcement from 2010
- ^ a b c Johnson, Peter Leo (September 1942). "The Founding of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin". Wisconsin Magazine of History. 26 (1). Retrieved 2024-12-02.
- ^ a b Feldman, Jim (1997). The Buildings of the University of Wisconsin. Madison: The University Archives. pp. 82–84. Retrieved 2024-12-04.
- ^ a b Donald N. Anderson (1971-11-04). "National Register of Historic Places Inventory/Nomination: State Historical Society of Wisconsin". National Park Service. Retrieved 2024-12-05. With two photos from 1971
- ^ On the Presentation of the Mack Portrait to the State Historical Society. The Wisconsin Magazine of History, vol. 8, no. 1 (September, 1924), pp. 74–77.
- ^ John Fleckner, "F. Gerald Ham: Jeremiah to the Profession," American Archivist 77, no. 2 (2014): 377–393
Further reading
[edit]- Buck, Solon J. "Recent Activities of the Wisconsin Historical Society." Minnesota History Bulletin (1915): 94–108. in JSTOR
- Schumacher, Ryan. "The Wisconsin Magazine of History: A Case Study in Scholarly and Popular Approaches to American State Historical Society Publishing, 1917–2000." Journal of Scholarly Publishing 44.2 (2013): 114–141.
External links
[edit]
- Official website
- Wisconsin Magazine of History archive of scholarly articles
- Legislators' Guide to the Wisconsin Historical Society
- Historical Society in The Buildings of the University of Wisconsin
- Teachinghistory.org review of WHS website, American Journeys
