Browse by Subject

The Milwaukee County Institutions are a collection of programs, facilities, and complexes that have met a wide variety of county health and quality of life needs. Beginning in Milwaukee’s territorial phase (1835), the county’s care for the poor took the form of outdoor relief. Aid distribution was based on personal situation and overseen by two… Read More

Construction began on Milwaukee County Stadium in 1950 with the hope of bringing professional baseball back to Milwaukee, but the stadium ultimately served as a multi-functional entertainment venue in the city’s industrial Menomonee Valley. Its construction was unique among Major League ballparks in two ways: it was the first one to be erected with lights… Read More

The Milwaukee County Zoo is considered among the nation’s finest zoological attractions. Located just off of Interstate 94 and Interstate 41, the Zoo offers over 3,100 animals in naturalistic exhibits along with many amusements and special events. Visitors particularly enjoy the Zoo’s annual Halloween event, Boo at the Zoo, and the Sunset Zoofari, an evening… Read More

Milwaukee has produced a number of noteworthy people whose careers shaped the United States and beyond. The members of this “Milwaukee Diaspora” were born in the Milwaukee area but made their greatest contributions after they moved away. Any such list is naturally subjective, but the following sampling of famous Milwaukeeans was chosen because they were… Read More

The Milwaukee Exposition and Convention Center and Arena (MECCA) stood in Milwaukee’s Civic Center district on West Kilbourn Avenue for 24 years. It opened in 1974 adjoining the Auditorium/Arena complex and was replaced with the larger, more modern Midwest Express Center (now the WISCONSIN CENTER) in 1998. The efforts to construct the convention center began… Read More

Preceded by the city’s oldest skating rink, the Milwaukee Exposition Building opened at what is now 500 W. Kilbourn Ave. in 1881. Walter Holbrook of E.T. Mix Co. Architects designed the building, which was constructed with Milwaukee brick in the modified Queen Anne style. It was constructed entirely with private funds—when a worker’s strike stalled… Read More

For most of the city’s history, the citizens of Milwaukee have relied upon the professionalism of municipal firefighters. And these thousands of dedicated members of the Milwaukee Fire Department (MFD) have had their traditions, literally, forged in fire. Like most major cities in America, the MFD evolved from a volunteer force organized by concerned citizens.… Read More

There were not many selective service protests in Milwaukee during the Vietnam War. However, one of the protests that did take place here became famous throughout the country. On September 24, 1968, fourteen men stole tens of thousands of draft cards from the Brumder Building (now the Germania Building) on West Wells Street. They took… Read More

The Milwaukee Highland Games is one of the city’s oldest and longest-running ethnic FESTIVALS. Organized by the St. Andrew’s Society in 1867, the festival took place in Mitchell Grove. Throughout the late nineteenth century, festival attendance steadily grew, peaking in 1892 at 25,000. Competitors from around America traveled to Milwaukee to participate in traditional Scottish… Read More

Milwaukee’s emergence as a prominent American city coincided with the advent of modern popular culture in the late nineteenth century. As the city achieved national visibility, its popular identity shifted in ways that reflected historical developments, the demographics of the city, and evolving notions of the American Dream. Throughout most of its history, however, Milwaukee… Read More

Founded in 1974, the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design (MIAD), a successor college to the well-respected Layton School of Art, has become an academic anchor in the city’s redevelopment of its Historic Third Ward, once a gritty manufacturing district. MIAD’s academic enterprise offers a career-oriented education in the arts that focuses on the needs… Read More

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is Wisconsin’s largest and most influential newspaper. It is published daily in print and continuously in digital format (www.jsonline.com). The current publication is itself a result of the 1995 merger of two separate newspapers, the Milwaukee Sentinel, a morning paper, and the Milwaukee Journal, an afternoon paper. Both predecessor publications date… Read More

The Milwaukee Leader was a daily socialist newspaper published from December 7, 1911 to May 1942. It was one of three English-language socialist dailies in America. Victor Berger, the paper’s primary editor and inspiration, published several German language newspapers from the 1890s to 1910 and founded the Milwaukee Social Democratic Publishing Company in 1902. The… Read More

In 1979 Fort Howard Paper Company heir and WFMR-FM radio station owner Doug Cofrin began publishing Milwaukee Magazine, which Cofrin expanded from a monthly pamphlet reporting on local news stories and classical music. Following an unsuccessful 1980 U.S. Senate bid, Cofrin sold the magazine to Cleveland-based City Magazines for $25,000. Struggling to turn a profit,… Read More

The Milwaukee Mandolin Orchestra, originally established in 1900 as the Bonne Amie Musical Circle, claims to be the “oldest fretted-instrument organization in the country.” It was one of over twenty such groups established in Milwaukee around the turn of the twentieth century, when mandolins peaked in popularity. In spite of the group’s preference for popular… Read More

Mayor DANIEL HOAN declared the week of July 16, 1933 the “Milwaukee Homecoming.” Inspired by ethnic festivals he observed on a recent trip to Europe, Hoan transformed the upcoming Elks National Convention of 1933 into a similar gathering in Milwaukee. Convention organizers opened activities to all Milwaukee citizens as well as to the visiting Elks.… Read More

Built as a horse track in 1876, the Milwaukee Mile hosted its first automobile race in 1903. Known as the oldest continuously operated motor speedway in the world, the Milwaukee Mile is on the grounds of the Wisconsin State Fair Park, located in West Allis since 1891. The track held open wheel championship races under… Read More

The Milwaukee Musical Society represented the city’s rich German heritage and the spirit of Gemütlichkeit. It was established in 1849 and first performed in 1850. The amateur musical group operated under the direction of Austrian political refugee Hans Balatka until he left for Chicago in 1860. Internal divisions, financial issues, and a fire that destroyed… Read More

The Milwaukee branch of the NAACP has functioned as one of the city’s leading civil rights organization since 1919. Led for its first half century by prominent middle-class African American professionals, including Wilbur Halyard, Ardie Halyard, and James W. Dorsey, the local chapter battled racial discrimination in employment, housing, education, entertainment, and policing through political… Read More