Until the nineteenth century, white settlement in Wisconsin was sparse and centered almost solely on the fur trade and military posts at Green Bay, LaPointe, and Prairie du Chien. With increased westward migration after the War of 1812, white settlers initially settled in two areas: the lead mining regions along the Mississippi and along the lakeshore in what later became the city of Milwaukee. Because water routes remained the only feasible means for travel and transporting goods in the early nineteenth century, towns and cities usually fanned out from rivers and lakes. Although the major lead mining towns of Platteville,... more...
| A Green Bay girlhood in the 1820s. |
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| Madison is promoted as a tourist destination in 1877 |
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| A woman's memoir of the founding of Sheboygan |
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| An Indian woman founds the town of Marinette |
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| Quality of life in Madison in 1850 |
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| Recollections of Old Superior |
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| The founding of Portage, by Frederick Jackson Turner (1883) |
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| A journalist describes Ashland's premature demise, and its resurrection. |
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| The Origin of Milwaukee's name |
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| A teenager comes to Green Bay as a new bride in 1824. |
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| An early Yankee settler recalls Prairie du Chien's infancy. |
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| Letters from Milwaukee in its infancy, 1836-1846 |
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| Memories of Milwaukee's first family |
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| A young boy's experience of Madison in the 1830's |
| An early history of Madison illustrated with contemporary photographs |
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| An Abolitionist Recalls Anti-Slavery Days in Wisconsin |
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| A colorful and opinionated guide to Milwaukee businesses, 1877 |
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| Promoters describe Superior in its infancy |
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| Promoters try to entice settlers to Bayfield County |
| The Founding and Early History of Madison |
| Increase Lapham examining a meteorite, ca. 1868 |
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| Prairie du Chien merchant and judge James H. Lockwood, 1856. |
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| Bird's-eye views of Wisconsin cities and towns |
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| Madison's first white woman settler |
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| The first house in Madison, built in 1837 |
| An early Milwaukee settler recalls the city's infancy |
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| A historian and old settler describes Milwaukee's origins, 1873. |
| States and territories created under the Northwest Ordinance. |
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| The imaginary capital city that its chief promoter envisoned, 1836. |
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| Two founders of Milwaukee design its downtown in 1837. |
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| A territorial leader lays out imaginary city blocks in Milwaukee (1835). |
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| Wisconsin Blue Books |
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| The people and places of Fond du Lac County |
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| A minister seeks to attract settlers to La Crosse in 1854 |
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| Bizarre tales from La Crosse newspapers |
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| Derivations of Indian Place Names around the Great Lakes |
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| Reminiscences of early La Crosse by L.H. Pammel |
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| A historical, documentary, and descriptive history of Wisconsin to 1854 |
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| John Nolen envisions the future of Madison, 1911 |
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| A narrative and documentary history of La Crosse county (1907) |
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| Biographical sketches and writings of some Wisconsin pioneer women |
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| The Wisconsin State Journal looks at Madison from 1852 to 1902 |
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| Images and maps of Milwaukee Neighborhoods, 1885-1992 |
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| Historic postcards of Milwaukee |
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| A bird's-eye view of Milwaukee in 1854 |
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| Reminiscences of an early settler in Milwaukee, 1835 |
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| Selections from the 1887 landownership maps of Racine and Kenosha counties |
