Highlights Archives
From the Director of the Society — The Year in Review, 2005
A Message from Society Director Ellsworth Brown
The home page feature on our Web site presents our 2005 Top Ten History-Making Wisconsin News Stories.
Number one gathers the stories of William Proxmire, Gaylord Nelson, and William Rehnquist, whose collective lives spanned 259 years and who, for much of that time, lived and demonstrated the vision and political values of Wisconsin, both progressive and conservative.
What I find especially interesting is that we hold the papers of both Proxmire and Nelson, and both archives are open to the public. Immediately after the passing of each man, our reference desks were flooded with calls from the press for images and information, a familiar occurrence at the Society. Meet the Press and Face the Nation sought images of Proxmire, and you may have seen them on Meet the Press December 18.
The Number two "Top 10" story is also collective, recognizing the 51 Wisconsin soldiers killed in the Iraq War as of December 15, when we released the story. We recognize that the impact of their loss on those who knew them will never end, and we especially recognize the award-winning heroism of the 32nd Military Police Company. It became the first unit in Wisconsin National Guard history to receive the Valorous Unit Award for heroism in action.
Here, too, the Society helps maintain the thread of history. We have been collecting the newsletters of military units since the Mexican War of 1846-1848 and continue to do so now, gathering them — mostly digital these days — from bases around the world. These collections tell stories, in peace as well as in war, that document a life that is largely unknown to many of us.
When you visit the Top 10 Web feature, you will also see a link to Web Sites Worth Clicking. One of them, among my favorites, is "Popular Songs in American History," which catalogs, plays, and provides lyrics for songs beginning in the 17th century. One, "The Girl I Left Behind," appears on the earliest lists, from the French and Indian War, the Revolutionary War, and the Civil War. I'm sure the sentiment, if not the tune, endures.
Along with the hard news from 2005 that we all know, however, we find some uplifting stories about Wisconsin college sports and the impact of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I commend all 10 to you.
We are surrounded by the pervasive power of the Web, which we have chosen as a principal means by which we extend the reach of the Wisconsin Historical Society. The growth of its use demonstrates why: in 2005 the number of visitors very nearly doubled, reaching 1,533,005, up from 767,562 in 2004.
Use is growing fast, and so is content. Michael Edmonds, who is responsible for the Library-Archives Division's Web presence, announced recently that we have greatly expanded the online Dictionary of Wisconsin History, which now has 8,500 entries including more than 2,000 Wisconsin people, the location of every city or town, the origin of 900 place names, the founding dates and location of every civil township in the state, all Wisconsin Blue Book entries from 1960-2005 ... I could go on. This amazing effort has enjoyed many hours of support not only by Michael, but also by David Schowengerdt, Andrew Gough, and James Ellis.
In October the Schoenleber Foundation of Milwaukee, longtime Society supporter, informed us that they will fund the conversion of the entire run of our Wisconsin Magazine of History, 1917 to 2000, to digital form. This news followed close on the heels of a commitment from UW-Madison Dean of Libraries Ken Frazier to fund conversion of the magazine's predecessor, Wisconsin Historical Collections (1855-1911), for digitization. By the end of 2006, the core primary and secondary sources on our state's history — roughly 4,000 articles on 39,000 pages — will be available, for free, on the Web.
I cannot think of a better way to begin a new year than by knowing that two of the Society's bedrock publications of Wisconsin history will go from library stacks to the World Wide Web, a quantum leap from a restricted audience to a limitless one.
:: Posted January 3, 2006
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