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

Sinclair Service Station,Madison, Wisconsin. WHS Image ID 2090

Fill 'er Up: A Historical Look at Service Stations

Since their unremarkable beginnings as cheap shacks and curbside pumps at the dawn of the automobile age, gas stations have taken many forms and worn many guises — castles, cottages and teepees, Art Deco and Streamline Moderne, clad with wood, stucco, or gleaming porcelain in seemingly infinite variety. But, where hundreds of gas stations once stood in Wisconsin's largest cities, only a handful remain today, victims of competition, obsolescence, changing transportation needs and housing patterns, as well as stronger environmental regulation. This month's gallery highlights a selection of images of gas and service stations from the WHS collections.

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.

Fill 'er Up premieres on WPT

Tune in for a joy ride through Wisconsin history and learn how gas stations evolved into icons of modern car culture! Fill ’er Up: The Glory Days of Wisconsin Gas Stations is a new documentary that travels throughout Wisconsin to profile a number of historically significant gas stations — unique buildings that changed the way we live and have become symbols of various stages of the automotive age. To learn more about the project and stream the video online, click here.

Horses to Horsepower

2006 marked the 50th anniversary of the interstate highway system. Even more remarkable than the thousands of miles of highways paved since 1956 is the fact that it took only the previous fifty years for the automobile to develop from a curiosity to a defining factor in American life. Drive through history and witness Wisconsin's dramatic transformation from horse and buddy to hot rod.

Winther Motor Co., Kenosha, Wisconsin

These 1921 photographs of the Winther Motor Company's plant in Kenosha, Wisconsin, give unusual insight into manufacturing at the time. From 1916 to 1927, the company manufactured trucks and automobiles. Detailed shots show men working in the blacksmith shop, parts storerooms, and assembly rooms, using belt-driven machines to construct vehicles and their internal parts, as well as finished products and photos of the business offices.

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/