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Showing 661-680 of 683 Entries

William George Bruce

Author: Bethany Harding
Medium shot of William George Bruce in grayscale tone sitting in a notched lapel suit. Bruce's hands rest on a table, holding a pair of glasses while his eyes look confidently into the camera lens.
William George Bruce (1856-1949), a publisher and civic activist from a largely German North Side ward, was born to Augustus F. and Apollonia (Becker) Bruce on March 17, 1856. Bruce’s paternal grandfather had moved to Milwaukee from New York in 1842, four years before cityhood. A hip ailment left young William an invalid at the… Read More

Wisconsin Black Historical Museum

Author: Marlo Buser
Long shot of the Wisconsin Black Historical Society and Museum facade on a street side. The place consists of two adjacent brick buildings. Both structures have entrances. Two large banners celebrating 30 years of the institution are attached to the exterior walls of the building on the left. The blue sky is above. Other buildings are seen on the far left in the background.
The Wisconsin Black Historical Society and Museum, located at 2620 West Center Street, is dedicated to preserving the heritage of Wisconsin’s African-American community. Founded in 1987, both the museum and its associated organization—the Wisconsin Black Historical Society—were formed by Clayborn Benson, III. Benson, an experienced video and photo-journalist, created the museum to gather together a… Read More

Wisconsin Center

Author: William I. Tchakirides
Long shot of the corner entrance of the Wisconsin Center against the blue sky. Its glass curtain walls and three grand dormer windows are visible. The image shows the other sides of the building. Trees grow on the sidewalk around the building. An intersection is seen in the foreground.
Hoping to revitalize downtown Milwaukee, the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce spearheaded the drive in the 1990s to replace the outdated convention hall of the MILWAUKEE EXPOSITION CONVENTION CENTER AND ARENA with a larger meeting space. A team of six firms eventually developed the 189,000 square foot Flemish and German-inspired Midwest Express Center, which opened… Read More

Wisconsin Conservatory of Music

Author: Karalee Surface
Long shot of the McIntosh-Goodrich Mansion facing slightly to the right. The building's facade and side are visible. The facade on the right features the main building that has an enormous portico with four fluted columns. The front stairs are divided into three sections by handrails. Balustrades enclosed the top of the main building's flat roof. The one-story wing on the left has a bow window in the front and arched windows on the side. Shrubs and green lawns embellish the facade. A driveway is visible. A multiple-story building stands in the background.
The Wisconsin Conservatory is among the nation’s oldest community-based arts schools. Founded by William Boeppler, Hugo Kaun, and Dr. Louis Frank in 1899, the institution provides music education to community members, both amateur and professional. While flourishing in the first half of the twentieth century, the conservatory suffered financial problems at mid-century, and again in… Read More

Wisconsin Gas Building

Author: Catherine Jones
A painted vertical postcard illustrates the Milwaukee Gas Light Company building on a street corner. The stepped tower faces slightly to the left. An American flag stands atop the building. Cars of different colors are parked on the street around the tower. The sky is colored in orange which gradually turns blue.
Designed by the local ESCHWEILER AND ESCHWEILER architectural firm, the Wisconsin Gas Building (also known as the Milwaukee Gas Light Building) opened in 1930. Located at 626 E. Wisconsin Ave., the Art Deco building originally served as headquarters for the Milwaukee Gas Light Company. It continued to do so through several rounds of corporate restructuring… Read More

Wisconsin Humane Society

Author: Helena M. Pycior
A woman in a green jacket and a man in a dark blue T-shirt flank a young girl in a yellow dress and grey cardigan who sits on a chair while holding Buffy, the kitten. They are Stacey, Sally, and Jim. They smile as looking at the camera lens. A window and wall are in the background.
When founded in 1879, the Wisconsin Humane Society (WHS) aimed to prevent cruelty to animals, children, criminals, and “defective and dependent people.” In 1880 the society appointed Richard Whitehead its first superintendent and shortly thereafter the state granted the society limited police powers. Although Whitehead vigorously investigated cases of cruelty to horses and livestock until… Read More

Wisconsin Lutheran College

Author: Sheena Finnigan
Long shot of the Wisconsin Lutheran College building complex standing in the background. Green tall trees hide parts of the red brick buildings. The college's monument sign with the school's name appears in the image's center, surrounded by landscaping plants. Green lawns, a sidewalk, and a driveway are visible.
Wisconsin Lutheran College (WLC) was founded in 1973 by a group of Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS) members. The college is owned by a corporation of WELS congregations and governed by its Board of Regents. WLC has enjoyed an ever-growing and generally positive relationship with the Milwaukee metro area and the state of Wisconsin. WLC… Read More

Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary

Author: John Brenner
The Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary's arched entrance gate faces slightly to the left. Rays of sunshine and shadows of trees bathe the upper part of the gate that features a cross and series of windows on the wall, topped with a steep roof. Trees appear on the left and right. A green lawn is in the foreground.
The training of pastors is vital to the life and theology of any church body. In the Lutheran tradition, each congregation calls a pastor to be its spiritual supervisor, advisor, and teacher. For more than a century Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary has been training pastors for the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod and its worldwide mission and… Read More

Wisconsin Soldiers’ Aid Fair

Author: Karen Kehoe
Sepia-colored long shot of a wooden building facing to the right. The building's elongated wings are visible. A large banner hanging over the street in front of the building reads "Soldiers of the Union, Welcome Home." The street spans from the right background to the left foreground. Text at the top right reads "West Side of Broadway, Extending Across Huron St. 1865, The Great Fair."
Milwaukee was buzzing with activity in late June and July of 1865, as the month-long fair to raise money for the local soldiers’ home packed Main Street with crowds of fairgoers. The event was an extension of work undertaken early in the Civil War by women from the west side of the Milwaukee River who… Read More

Wisconsin State Fair

Author: Matthew Costello
Four bakers in uniforms stand on the left while showing trays filled with cream puffs to the fair attendees on the right. Several attendees lean on the long counter table that separates them from the bakers.
The Wisconsin State Fair is an annual, eleven-day festival that celebrates Wisconsin farming, livestock, and agricultural products. The first Wisconsin State Fair took place in 1851, along the Rock River in Janesville. The fair lasted only two days, and 13,000-18,000 patrons attended the festivities. Over the next forty years the fair moved to various locations… Read More

Wisconsin Visual Artists

Author: Sean O’Farrell
An exhibition room with a green-colored wall on the right and various artworks on the left that hang on a white wall. One statue is placed on a white-colored platform set between both walls. Ceiling lamps light the artworks. A banner hanging on the green wall reads "Wisconsin Visual Artists, www.wisconsinvisualartists.com."
Wisconsin Visual Artists (WVA) was formed in 1900 as the Society of Milwaukee Artists. Originally organized by painters and sculptors, the membership came to include visual artists who worked in numerous media. After the formation of the group, the members began to meet in the basement of Milwaukee born-artist Louis Mayer. The Society included numerous… Read More

Woman Suffrage

Author: Margo Anderson
Grayscale photograph of members of the Political Equality League sitting in an early model Ford car running to the right. The women appear in hats. A man in a beret hat is seated in the driver's seat. The automobile's side is draped with a banner that reads "Votes for Women." The exterior wall of a building is visible in the background.
In the 1840s, when settlers from the East and overseas were pouring into Milwaukee and Wisconsin, women did not have political rights to vote, run for public office, serve on juries, or participate in the formal political system. Advocates, however, of what came to be called the “woman movement” were voicing the first calls to… Read More

Women’s Clubs

Author: Kimberly Voss
A painted postcard showcases the Athenaeum Building on a street corner. The building's corner part is in the postcard's center. The building's side that faces to the left and the side that faces to the right are visible. Vines grow on both sides' walls. The two-and-a-half-story building's dormer windows are seen. Text at the top left reads, "Athenaeum Milwaukee 1129."
The “Woman’s Club Movement” dates from the mid-nineteenth century in the United States, as women expanded earlier more modest organizational efforts, such as reading clubs, sewing circles, and reform groups. Women’s clubs were more permanent organizations, run by women, for their own educational goals, civic improvement, and sociability. In 1890, club leaders from around the… Read More

Woodland Pattern Book Center

Author: Marlo Buser
A line of shelves full of pamphlets and booklets inside the Woodland Pattern Book Center. The shelves face to the right. The wooden floor is visible on the right. Another shelf appears in the background.
Woodland Pattern Book Center is Milwaukee’s hub for individuals who are passionate about non-mainstream poetry and literature. Founded by Karl Young, Karl Gartung, and Anne Kingsbury in 1979, it is located on 720 E. Locust Street in the city’s Riverwest neighborhood. It carries over 25,000 volumes, mostly works of avant-garde poetry from independent and small… Read More

Work

Author: John Gurda
Sepia-colored photo of Allis-Chalmers factory's interior displaying the employees assembling WC model tractors along the image's center. A row of other types of equipment appears on the left and right sides. Streel structure is visible on the ceiling. Texts beneath the image, at the bottom center, read, "View of WC assembly line" and "July 19, 1945."
“Milwaukee is a workingman’s city,” wrote Frank Flower in his massive 1881 History of Milwaukee. Flower described a community of tradesmen, machinists, and laborers where a typical worker could enjoy, even on wages of a dollar or two a day, “good air, good water, cheap living, and a chance to found a home of his… Read More

Workers’ Movements

Author: Kenneth Germanson
Grayscale image of a line of Edwards Motor Company's male workers in suits walking from right back to left front on a sidewalk on Wisconsin Avenue. Two workers carry strike signs. One sign reads, "Edwards was Dictator of the Automobile Business." The other one says, "Unfair to Labor." A building's exterior wall and its marquee's underside are visible in the background. Words visible on the marquee read "139 regular employ...Ready to serve Y." A man in the right foreground appears to walk to the right.
Throughout most of its history, the Milwaukee area has been characterized for its manufacturing and blue collar heritage that molded much of its character. The industrialization that began after the Civil War required the muscles and brains of thousands of working people; to fill the demands of production. Budding entrepreneurs encouraged workers to come to… Read More

Workforce

Author: Brian Mueller
Grayscale long shot of a group of men working to lay streetcar tracks along N. 8th Street. They work on the tracks that stretch from the background to the right foreground. Other tracks span to the left foreground. Heavy equipment can be seen in the street side on the center back. Tall trees grow on either side of the street. A building is seen in the far right in the background.
A “workforce,” according to the Oxford English Dictionary, encompasses the “People engaged in or available for work, either in a country or region or in a particular company or industry; workers or employees collectively.” For the purposes of this article, therefore, we consider the kinds of work people in the Milwaukee area have done for… Read More

Writers and Writing

Author: Elissa Cahn
Best known for his military career, Charles King was also a prolific writer. Pictured here is the title page of his 1905 novel "A Broken Sword."
Milwaukee is the birthplace of numerous writers and an inspiration for many others. Certain individuals are known primarily for their writing, whereas others made literary contributions in addition to the achievements in other walks of life for which they are best known. Some writers have achieved iconic status in the history of Milwaukee for their… Read More

Yankee Hill

Author: James K. Nelsen
Sepia-colored image of Juneau Avenue stretching down on the left next to a line of trees growing on the road verge. Several seemingly identical dwellings with stone staircases and pillared entrances are visible on the far right. Text under the photo reads "Looking Down Division, From Jackson Street."
Yankee Hill is a neighborhood in the City of Milwaukee. The city government describes its boundaries as Ogden Avenue to State Street, between Jackson Street and Lincoln Memorial Drive, though in the past, the boundaries have extended further west to Jefferson Street or Broadway and several blocks south to either Mason Street or Wisconsin Avenue.… Read More

Yankee-Yorkers

Author: William I. Tchakirides
Grayscale long shot of Jason Downer's house. The two-and-a-half-story building features two entrances, a central bay window, and arched windows on the ground floor. Other arched windows appear on the upper floor. Dormer windows are set on the steep roof. The central part of the building is topped with an ornate gable roof. Bushes, a lawn, and trees embellish the front yard. A sidewalk, street light, and a street can be seen in the foreground.
Yankee-Yorkers began settling the Milwaukee metropolitan area in the mid-1830s. These Protestant, English-speaking, and highly mobile pioneers, mainly of British descent, hailed from New England, New York, Pennsylvania, and other Mid-Atlantic states. Following completion of the Erie Canal’s western terminus, Yankee-Yorker migrants inundated the midwestern frontier, including Milwaukee, in search of open land to speculate… Read More
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