Odd Wisconsin Archives: Children
John Muir (1838-1914) was a rebellious child. When he grew up and had kids himself, they gave him a taste of his own medicine. His father was obsessively severe, and the young Muir was unusually creative. A clash between the generations in the Muir home was probably inevitable. But when... :: Posted on October 22, 2007
Almost every day we add a dozen or two new photographs to our online collection, Wisconsin Historical Images. This means that peculiar pictures are published online fairly frequently. One can only wonder, for instance, what made this toddler's parents pose it in a mixing bowl. Or why Gov. Emanuel Philipp... :: Posted on February 28, 2007
In the mid-1850s, railroads spread rapidly across the Midwest. In Wisconsin, a line built from Milwaukee to Waukesha in 1851 was extended to Madison in 1854 and reached the Mississippi three years later. But then disaster struck: the Panic of 1857 killed investment, and the brakes were temporarily slammed on... :: Posted on November 21, 2006
William DeSteese of Fond du Lac County enlisted in the Union Army in the spring of 1864, one month shy of his 14th birthday. In this short memoir recently added to Turning Points in Wisconsin History, he recalls sneaking out of camp in Virginia with other young soldiers and calling... :: Posted on October 29, 2005
It's October, the month when pumpkins are harvested, sold for jack o'lanterns, paddled in Lake Mendota (really), and made into pies. These Madison kindergarteners making their first pumpkin pie at Dudgeon School in 1954 are identifed in the caption, but where are they today? They would be in their mid-fifties,... :: Posted on October 7, 2005
This weekend Disney subsidiary ABC is airing the latest in a long series of films and television shows based on the famous Laura Ingalls Wilder novels. Most of these have simultaneously sentimentalized frontier life and childhood, so it’s always a good tonic to return to original sources for a clearer... :: Posted on March 25, 2005
This past weekend governors from 45 of the 50 U.S. states met to discuss the nation’s ineffective high schools. Only 18% of ninth graders have actually finished college after six more years, and while American fourth graders score among the top ranks of industrialized nations on standard tests, our high... :: Posted on February 27, 2005
Dateline: Wilmington, Del., Oct. 27, 1938. On this date, the Du Pont corporation announced the invention of nylon, a textile fabric that so widely used for women's stockings that it became synonymous with them. What did people wear on their feet and legs before synthetics? These images from our Museum's... :: Posted on October 26, 2004
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