The Founding of Social Institutions

In Wisconsin's early years, most of the wealth generated through trade, manufacturing, and land sales was directed toward construction projects and land investment, leaving few resources to develop cultural and intellectual institutions. As a predominantly producing and distributing center, Milwaukee exhibited a pattern of building construction centered primarily on the stores, hotels, warehouses, and factories needed to supply the local trade and to accommodate the immigrants pouring in through the harbor. Despite the more practical and functional economic objectives of Wisconsin's early white settlers, however, many also expressed an underlying concern for cultural and social improvement.

Some among these early settlers... more...

Original Documents and Other Primary Sources

	A newspaper produced by prisoners at Waupun, 1886
	A Green Bay girlhood in the 1820s.
	Madison parties in 1837
	A college student begs for cookies from home in 1867
	Electa Quinney, Wisconsin's first public school teacher
	A former student recalls Milwaukee Female College in the 1860's
	Missionaries defend American-style schools for Indian children in the 1830s.
	An early description of the Milwaukee Public Museum (1891)
	Letters from Milwaukee in its infancy, 1836-1846
	Catherine Beecher and the development of Milwaukee-Downer College
	A look at the life and legacy of Frances Willard
	Recollections of Old Superior
	The Stockbridge-Munsee Constitution, 1857
	A guide to the Wisconsin Historical Society headquarters, 1900
	An Abolitionist Recalls Anti-Slavery Days in Wisconsin
	A short history of prison industries, 1852-2002
	The infant state legislature writes its own rulebook, 1853.
	Increase Lapham examining a meteorite, ca. 1868
	Prairie du Chien merchant and judge James H. Lockwood, 1856.
	Pictures of Wisconsin school buildings, 1868-1950
	Classroom rules for Milwaukee public schools, 1846
	Northern settlers try to join Minnesota, 1847
	The Milwaukee Public Museum is born, 1848.
	An Episcopal bishop's diary of his 1834 visit to an Indian mission.
	Frederick Pabst helps to build a theater in Milwaukee
	The first kindergarten in the United States
	Lumber riches fund a Menomonie theater
	The University of Wisconsin's Red Gym
	The State Historical Society of Wisconsin
	The University of Wisconsin's first building, North Hall
	Stonefield, home of Gov. Nelson Dewey and the State Agricultural Museum

Primary Sources Available Elsewhere

	Wisconsin Blue Books
	A history of UW- La Crosse
	Collected historical documents from the Wisconsin Historical Society
	A history of women's education at the University of Wisconsin
	Wisconsin Gazetteer from 1853
	Memoirs of an influential Kenosha schoolteacher
	An Italian missionary recounts his work in the upper Great Lakes
	Rev. W.G. Miller describes missionary work in the Fox Valley, 1845-75.
	A historical, documentary, and descriptive history of Wisconsin to 1854
	Documents relating to child welfare organizations
	A timeline and history of Beloit College
	The history and development of Lawrence University
	Documents and images of Milwaukee schoolchildren, 1887-present
	Biographical sketches and writings of some Wisconsin pioneer women
	Images of schools and libraries in central Wisconsin
	Theater posters from a Madison opera house, 1890s
	An 1861 guide to the University of Wisconsin
	Broadside describing the organization of the University of Wisconsin, 1868

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