Curators' Favorites: Agriculture & The Environment
Granger Gourd
Ceremonial container made from a gourd, presented to Wisconsin Governor William R. Taylor, 1874. (Museum object #1993.53) In the fall of 1873, Wisconsin wheat farmers were hopping mad. Expecting to profit from a bumper harvest, they were furious when the...
more...
Posted November 6, 2008
Giant Punt Gun
Punt gun used to hunt waterfowl on Lake Mendota, Madison, Wisconsin, c. 1866-1870. (Museum object #1947.1743) Talk about bang for the buck! (Or should that be that "bang for the duck"?) Made by August Herfurth of Madison, Wisconsin, this jumbo...
more...
Posted August 14, 2008
Dairyland Rat Poison
Dairyland Rat Poison container made for the Wisconsin Pharmacal Co. of Milwaukee, 1955-1965. (Museum object #1999.143.34) The same substance that can save your life can also kill you. This is emphatically the case for the compound dicumarol, developed in the...
more...
Posted June 26, 2008
Vitamin-Finding Feces Bucket
Sheetmetal bucket with wooden handle used to collect cow manure during nutrition experiments at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, 1907-1911. (Museum object #1992.103) It may be hard to believe, but this rather plain looking (and perhaps once malodorous) feces...
more...
Posted May 29, 2008
John Muir's Clockwork Desk
Clockwork study desk built by naturalist John Muir while at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, 1861-1863. (Museum object F1998.85.1) John Muir (1838-1914) was one of America's most influential conservationists. A naturalist, world traveler, and prolific writer, Muir was a champion...
more...
Posted April 17, 2008
Ho-Chunk Hide Scraper
Wooden handled hide scraper with steel blade made and used by Ho-Chunk Indians in Wisconsin in the early 20th century. (Museum object #1951.949) Hide scrapers have long been an essential tool for Native Americans living in Wisconsin and throughout the...
more...
Posted February 7, 2008
Lumber Company Scrip
Lumber company scrip issued by Knapp, Stout & Co., Barron County, Wisconsin, between about 1878-1890. (Museum object #N4001) In the forests of northern Wisconsin, ready cash was frequently hard to come by in the nineteenth century. This was especially true...
more...
Posted January 24, 2008
Donald's "Educational" Marbles
Jar of marbles used in Wisconsin fair exhibits by Professor John Sweet Donald of the University of Wisconsin during the 1920s. (Museum object #1953.663) While today people tend to flock to the Wisconsin State Fair for attractions like rides, animals,...
more...
Posted July 26, 2007
Babcock's Revolutionary Dairy Invention
Babcock butterfat tester set used in Adams County, Wisconsin, c. 1895. (Museum Object #1948.589; donated to WHS by Elsie Schieber Patrick) Wisconsin will always be known as America's Dairyland, but there is more to the moniker than just catchy slogan...
more...
Posted May 31, 2007
Bull Semen Parachute
Parachute used by the University of Wisconsin to deliver fresh bull semen to farmers in rural areas, 1944-1947. (Museum object #1993.7) Even though nearly 60 percent of all cattle today are born to cows that have never had actual contact...
more...
Posted April 19, 2007
Watercolor Farm Scene by Paul Seifert
Landscape view of the Martin Luetscher II farmstead, Honey Creek Township, Wisconsin, c. 1875 (Museum object #2005.182.1) This vibrant watercolor painting, by renowned German American folk artist Paul Seifert, documents an early Wisconsin farmstead, the pioneer farm family who resided...
more...
Posted November 16, 2006
Cranberry Harvesting Rake
Handmade all wooden cranberry rake used for harvesting cranberries in Grand Marsh, Wisconsin, early 20th century. (Museum object # 1973.121) The cranberry, Wisconsin’s official state fruit, grows on vines in peat or sandy marshes. In the early days of cranberry...
more...
Posted September 14, 2006
Copper Swiss Cheese Kettle
Copper kettle used to make Swiss cheese at the Tuscobia Cheese Factory near Rice Lake, Wisconsin, c. 1910 to 1969. (Museum object #2004.64.1) Swiss cheese was traditionally made in round, copper kettles because the metal heats quickly and uniformly. This...
more...
Posted June 22, 2006
Bolens Garden Tractor
Garden tractor manufactured by the Gilson Bolens Manufacturing Co., Port Washington, Wisconsin, 1928-1939. (Museum object #2001.1.1) This multi-purpose, walk-behind garden tractor helped bring the advantages of gasoline power to small farmers and market gardeners across America. It is equipped with...
more...
Posted June 15, 2006
Migrant Workers’ Bunk Beds
Bunk beds used by the Contreras family, Mexican-American migrant workers, in Wautoma, Wisconsin, 1970s-1980s. (Museum object #1999.16.1A-G) If home is where you rest your head, this bunk bed documents the process of Chicano migrant workers learning to call Wisconsin home....
more...
Posted June 8, 2006
Hoard's Dairyman Farm Milk Bottle
Half gallon milk bottle used by Hoard's Dairyman Farm of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, c. 1934-1944. (Museum Object 1977.354.84) This bottle documents a man, a journal, and a farm that were instrumental in transforming Wisconsin into the Dairy State. William Dempster...
more...
Posted June 1, 2006
Anti-spearfishing Concrete Walleye Decoy
Concrete walleye decoy purchased at PARR Rally in Minocqua, Wisconsin, April 15, 1989. (Museum object #1990.178.1) In the spring of 1989, tensions over Native American off-reservation spearfishing rights reached a boiling point in northern Wisconsin. Anti-spearfishing organizations encouraged the design...
more...
Posted May 18, 2006
Alice in Dairyland Dress Model
Winning entry for the first Alice in Dairyland dress design, 1948. (Museum object #2005.157.1) On June 28, 1948, the Wisconsin Centennial Dairy Committee informed Miss Betty Lou Jahn of Milwaukee, the maker of the model dress seen to the left...
more...
Posted December 1, 2005
"Broken Star" 4-H State Fair Quilt
"Broken Star" quilt made from flour and feed sacks for a 4-H project, 1931. (Museum object #2005.115.1) Elda Strahm, a farm girl from York Township in Green County, Wisconsin, made this quilt as part of a 4-H project when she...
more...
Posted August 4, 2005
"Blitz Fog" Pesticide Cocktail
"Blitz Fog" pesticide package, manufactured for Northern Industries, Inc., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, c. 1965-1967. (Museum object # 1999.143.22) This package of "Blitz Fog," which features a casually dressed woman eradicating pesky mosquitoes as she tidies her lawn with a power mower,...
more...
Posted April 21, 2005
Birchbark Maple Sugar Container
Maple sugar container made by missionary Rosalie Dousman, mid-1800s. (Museum object #1969.419) This object celebrates the traditional Menominee springtime activity of making maple sugar. Made from birchbark and decorated with porcupine quills, this birchbark box, constructed to house sugar, was...
more...
Posted March 10, 2005
Fair Ribbon Quilt
Quilt made of fair prize ribbons won by William H. Milward between 1908 and 1934. (Museum object #2004.12.1) Made by Elizabeth (Meibohn) Milward, of Madison, Wisconsin from about 250 award ribbons won by her husband William Henry Milward for his...
more...
Posted January 17, 2005
|
