FEATURED GALLERY | Highlights from over three million photographs, negatives, cartoons, lithographs and posters in our holdings

Family Gathering on Basswood Island, Photograph by Elizabeth Abernathy Hull, 1916. WHS Image ID 1973

A Summer Place: Photographs From the Apostle Islands

The 22 islands that comprise the Apostle Islands are Wisconsin's northernmost location and one of its most historic places, inhabited by Native Americans, fur traders, missionaries, lumberman, settlers and travelers for centuries. The largest of the islands, Madeline Island, was named for Madeleine Cadotte, daughter of Ojibwe Chief White Crane and the wife of trader Michel Cadotte, in the 1790s, and is home to Wisconsin's oldest permanent settlement, La Pointe. The rich history of the Apostle Islands is brought to life all summer long at the Society's Madeline Island Museum and online, where a selection of historic images are the featured gallery this month from Wisconsin Historical Images, the Society's online image database.

View the Gallery »

BROWSE THE COLLECTIONS | A selection of the more than 28,000 digitized visual materials in our online image database

WHS Produces Digital Reproductions

The WHS Images Digital Lab produces quality giclée print reproductions made from high resolution scans of original source material from our holdings. Custom orders are printed on matte or semigloss papers using large format printers and archival pigmented inks.

Additionally, our lab will produce custom digital file reproductions for commercial publishers in traditional print, editorial and advertising as well as for new media projects like websites, CD-ROMs and podcasts. All sale proceeds directly benefit the acquisition, preservation and maintenance of the physical and online collections.

Contact business manager Lisa Marine by email at lisa.marine@wisconsinhstory.org for details.

Elizabeth Abernathy Hull Photographs

Elizabeth Hull was ten years old when she spent her first summer on Madeline Island in 1910; she was forty-six when she left for the last time. Between 1910 and 1940 she created a visual journal of the island's summer community through her camera's lens. Now, her photographs give us a glimpse of a lost time of endless days with family and friends in a special summer place called Madeline Island.

Place File: La Pointe, Wisconsin

Over the last two years, WHS has been scanning and cataloging its collection of images of Wisconsin places. Consisting of over 10,000 items, the collection highlights main street views, prominent buildings in each community, local monuments and other features of interest. Each month our newsletter features a selection of images from a Wisconsin place. This month's featured city is La Pointe, Wisconsin.

Subject: Bathing Beaches

Summer residents and tourists began finding refuge on the Apostle Islands as early as the mid-1800s, searching for relief from the heat of the cities, and enjoying the boating, fishing, and beauty of the area. By the early 1900s, Madeline Island had received national acclaim as a healthful and relaxing summer retreat, an approbation it maintains to the present day. In that spirit, this selection of images documents a variety of scenes of fun in the sun.

DISCOVER THE VISUAL MATERIALS COLLECTIONS

Currently less than 2% of our total visual materials collections are available online, but we continue to add hundreds of new images to our online image database each month. The Archives online catalog (ArCat) provides access to information about thousands of collections containing photographs and other images. Need help with your search? Drop us a line and we'll be happy to help you find the image you're looking for!

The WHS Images Update is a monthly email newsletter that features gallery exhibits drawn from the Wisconsin Historical Society's visual materials archives as well as highlighting collections in our online image database. To join our mailing list, see our newsletter sign up page. You may unsubscribe from our email updates at any time by clicking here.

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Available online | www.wisconsinhistory.org/whi/