Highlights Archives
Fall Reading from the Magazine of History
The autumn issue of the Wisconsin Magazine of History hits newsstands and mailboxes this week, with stories on the early years of women's radio, small town family life in Omro, and the fight to legalize gambling in Wisconsin. It also features an excerpt from John Gurda's forthcoming book from Wisconsin Historical Society Press, Cream City Chronicles: Stories of Milwaukee's Past.
As access to radio grew in the 1930s, women came to be seen as a prime audience for radio programs. Shows geared specially toward so-called "women's interests" — cooking, cleaning, sewing and childcare — began appearing on the radio dial with increasing frequency. Rural women became a particular target for some radio programs due to social and political concern about the degrading quality of country life as compared to the modern, fast-paced convenience of urban living. In Good Morning Homemakers!, writer Erika Janik explores how WHA's Homemakers' Program encouraged rural housewives to adopt the new household conveniences and techniques that would allow them to improve their lives and more closely resemble the ideal image of the full-time homemaker. At the same time, WIBA radio's We Say What We Think Club gave five rural women the chance to speak their minds about the reality of farm life and its benefits over modern city living, a story brought to life in The We Say What We Think Club article by Dr. Nancy C. Unger, associate professor of history at Santa Clara University.
Charles E. Hawtrey's fortuitous discovery of negatives among his father's papers led him to write The Station Agent of Omro: A Snapshot of Small Town Family Life. Hawtrey, professor emeritus of urology, used these photographs, taken by Frank Miller, to capture the life of a station agent and his family in Omro, Wisconsin, from 1912 to 1915.
University of Wisconsin-Waukesha History Professor Jon Kasparek investigates the prolonged battle over gambling between lawmakers and Wisconsin citizens in Void in Wisconsin. With the simple sentence "the legislature shall never authorize any lottery," written in 1846, Wisconsin began a fight that would last almost 140 years and pit those trying to stop rampant immorality against those fighting for the right to enter box-top giveaways. Kasparek looks at the bans, repeals, and law breaking that ultimately led to the creation of the official Wisconsin lottery in 1988.
Milwaukee-born writer and historian John Gurda details Milwaukee's brewing history from the opening of the Lake Brewery in 1840 to the modern breweries of today in this excerpt from his book Cream City Chronicles: Stories of Milwaukee's Past. The book, available this fall from Wisconsin Historical Society Press, is a collection of lively stories about the people, events and landmarks that have made Milwaukee unique.
In Revisiting Sterling Hall, Wisconsin Historical Museum Curator of Costumes and Textiles Leslie Bellais provides a selection of the public memories, reflections and responses left during the exhibit Resistance or Terrorism?: The 1970 Sterling Hall Bombing. A fragment from the engine, all that remains of the van that carried the bomb that injured four and killed one, can be seen at Turning Points in Wisconsin History.
The Wisconsin Magazine of History is a benefit of Wisconsin Historical Society membership. Individual issues are available at the Wisconsin Historical Museum's online store and at bookstores across the state.
:: Posted September 6, 2006
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