Local History

The Blue Book

This article originally appeared in Exchange, a newsletter published by the Wisconsin Historical Society. (Volume 29, Number 4, Autumn 1987) It is the sixth in a series of articles titled Researching Community History. The series highlights the Society's resources available to local historians. It was written by Tom McKay, retired local history coordinator for the Wisconsin Historical Society.

In 1853 a legislative manual for the state of Wisconsin appeared in print pursuant to a resolution of the Assembly. The resolution directed that the manual contain the rules of the Assembly and Senate along with such statistical information as might prove useful. The publication that Wisconsin citizens know as the Blue Book traces its origins to that resolution. During the course of 154 years, the volume has experienced changes in size, content, and publication schedule — even the official title has changed several times. The statistical information collected has been organized for the use of officials with statewide responsibilities, and the categories of tables and compilations have changed as a reflection of the changing society which state government has served over the years. Nonetheless, the local historian who explores Wisconsin's Blue Book will find a surprising amount of information about individual communities and counties packed between its covers.

A community's institutional structure represents an integral feature of its history. Over its years of publication, the Blue Book has initiated several lists of community institutions. The 1853 Manual for the Use of the Assembly of the State of Wisconsin included a list of all communities with post offices in the state, and the Blue Book has continued to publish such a list to the present. For small communities in particular, the post office lists are quick reference tools. A local historian in Valton, for instance, can find a post office listed for the community in the Blue Book from 1869 through 1915, or researchers studying ghost towns in Waupaca County can chart the growth and decline of communities in question in part with the county post office lists in the Blue Book.

In 1867 the Blue Book added a list of all newspapers published in Wisconsin, and each succeeding Blue Book has carried a list of current newspapers. The list appears by municipality and indicates the title, publisher, and publication schedule for the newspaper. In some years, the listing also included the language in which the newspaper was published and its political persuasion. The Blue Book began reporting on the electronic media in 1946 with a list of radio stations, expanded in 1950 to include television broadcasters.

Educational institutions received attention on a community-by-community basis for a portion of the Blue Book's history. While educational statistics in the current Blue Book appear as state or county compilations, earlier editions contain specific information on local districts. For example, a table appearing in the 1903 Blue Book recorded each graded school in the state along with its enrollment, attendance, and teachers' wages. Similar information on free high schools also appeared. Higher education has received attention in the Blue Book , and future local historians may find a 1987 table reporting enrollments for each public and private college in the state to be a useful source. As a creation of politicians and public employees, it comes as no surprise that the Blue Book contains a wealth of material on politics and public institutions. However, the degree to which this material records local history may cause some surprise. A researcher can put together an interesting picture of local political leanings by charting the results of statewide gubernatorial races. The Blue Book reports these election results for each local precinct in the state and has done so since 1853. It is possible to learn that Tommy Thompson and Anthony Earl ran a dead heat at 61 votes apiece in Spooner's second ward in 1986 or that in the Adams County Town of Grand Marsh, Randall outpolled Hobart 52 to 1 in the election of 1860. The Blue Book records presidential elections in similar detail.

The Blue Book also reveals political patterns through lists of county office holders. The 1853 legislative manual recorded the name of each county sheriff, register of deeds, and clerk of court, and by 1861, an expanded table of county officials also listed the names of the treasurer, district attorney, clerk of board, surveyor, and coroner. Although the careers of local legislators are often well chronicled, the Blue Book may hold some further tidbits. The 1853 legislative manual printed each legislator's town and county of residence, age, native state or country, years of residence in Wisconsin, and boarding place in Madison. The 1870 edition expanded the section on legislators into brief biographies that added information about marital status, educational background, occupation, other elective offices held, and organizational memberships. Since 1905, photographs of individual legislators have appeared in the Blue Book .

Local historical societies in communities that serve as homes to state institutions may find the Blue Book particularly useful. During the late nineteenth century, the Blue Book reported the affairs of state operated schools, hospitals, and prisons in considerable detail. Engravings printed in the Blue Book also offer some of the best recorded images of these institutions. Even the more recent Blue Books hold statistics of value to a local historian studying the influence of a state institution on the community. For example, current copies of the publication report the annual attendance at each state park and historic site.

The Blue Book gathers statistical information generated through government operations, and its contents have changed as government has changed. Exploring early volumes can lead to unexpected insights about local history. A close examination of the 1874 Legislative Manual of the State of Wisconsin produced an abstract of county tax assessment rolls from throughout the state. Among the categories tabulated were the numbers of wagons, watches, and pianos reported in each county. The 1,491 pianos recorded in Milwaukee County compared to the 8 registered in Kewaunee County might give extra perspective to a local historian in either location. The figures certainly create a context for understanding the settlement of the state that population statistics alone do not achieve.

Three useful guides can aid researchers using the Blue Book. Two indexes for locating biographies of specific legislators are: Biography Index to the Wisconsin Blue Books, 1870-1973, compiled by Darlene E. Waterstreet, Milwaukee: Badger Infosearch, 1974; and Biography Index to the Wisconsin Blue Books, 1975-1985, compiled by Darlene E. Waterstreet, Milwaukee: Badger Infosearch, 1986. An overview of the Blue Book's history and contents appears in A Guide to Wisconsin Blue Book, 1853-1962 by H. R. Theobald, "Research Bulletin No. 141," Wisconsin Legislative Reference Library, Madison, 1963.

To thoroughly explore the Blue Book as an historical resource, the researcher needs access to the most complete set as possible of the volumes published since 1853. The Wisconsin Historical Society library holds a complete set in its reference section as do some large public and university libraries. Every public library in the state receives a copy of the Blue Book when it is published, but many of these libraries were formed after the publication of the manual began. Some smaller libraries are not able to retain out-of-date copies of the Blue Book . In addition to its reference set, the State Historical Society Library has every Blue Book since 1860 in its circulation collection. This covers all of the publications except the first two Legislative Manuals . These circulating copies are available to any resident of the state through interlibrary loan. As a record stretching back to 1853, the Wisconsin Blue Book represents one more tool that the local history researcher can use, sometimes with surprising results, in the study of community history.