Spring 2013 Issue
Volume 96, Number 2
Featured Story
'The "Girl-Man" of Milwaukee: The Lives of Cora Anderson'
by Matthew J. Prigge
'Chicago Day Book' of Cora Anderson's two identities "On May 2, 1914, two police detectives…placed Ralphero E. Kerwineo — a self-proclaimed native of Bolivia, eight-year resident of Milwaukee, and husband of Mamie Kerwineo — under arrest. . . . The suspect had gentle features, dark skin, glossy black hair, and a clean-shaven face. As he was loaded into the squad car and taken to the central station, he calmly lit a cigarette. The charge was the result of a complaint made by Mrs. Kerwineo. Her husband, she had told police, was a woman."
So begins Matthew Prigge's article about a woman who defied cultural norms to be free of the constraints placed on her as a woman, particularly as a women of color. In the early 1900s, Cora Anderson, a woman of African American and Native American descent, successfully transformed herself into Ralph Kerwineo, married man and model employee. At a time when mixed-race women had very few educational, financial, and social opportunities, Cora/Ralph carved out a place for herself by adopting an identity that would let her live the life she wanted. Once found out, she was forced to abandon dressing as Kerwineo, but Anderson had made a statement about the racial and gender inequalities that had defined her life.
Table of Contents
 Building blocks were a key component of the Kindergarten curriculum developed in Germany by Friedrich Froebel (1772-1852).
'The Kindergartners of Oshkosh'
by Wendy Strauch-Nelson
The State Normal School in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, was the home of the first normal school kindergarten in the United States. Between May 5, 1880, and the end of the spring term of 1886, the citizens of Oshkosh participated in a remarkable experiment to help children develop the abilities to think, compare, analyze, and reason, along with the desire "to be and to do good." Young women—referred to as kindergartners—employed a series of educational toys and activities developed by the German educator, Friedrich Froebel (1772 – 1852), to teach the children in their classes to investigate the world and its properties and experience an opportunity for self-expression.
 In 1948, the State Historical Society's collections spilled out into the walkway overlooking the Library Reading Room.
'The Roots of Wisconsin Genealogy'
by Michael Edmonds
Stories of the 19th-century librarians responsible for the State Historical Society of Wisconsin's collections including: founding director, Lyman C. Draper and his first librarian, Daniel Durrie; Draper's successor, Reuben Gold Thwaites, who succeeded in getting a new library built on the University of Wisconsin campus; the first women graduates of UW hired by Thwaites — Annie Nunns, Iva Welsh, and Mary Stuart Foster, whose contemporaries included Hellen Keller and Jane Adams; and Thwaites successor, Milo Quaife, whose acquisition of genealogical documents, proved valuable for decades.
 Frances Fairchild in ball gown, 1880.
'Image Essay: Wisconsin Women of Style'
by Leslie Bellais
The State Historical Society has several fashionable dresses in its collection that date from the 1860s to the 1930s. From the purple velvet gown that Frances Fairchild wore to Spain's royal court to the dress Elizabeth Werner chose when she attended one of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's inauguration balls, these dresses tell the stories of some of Wisconsin's most fashionable and influential women.
BOOK EXCERPT
'Bottoms Up: A Toast to Wisconsin's Historic Bars and Breweries'
Jim Draeger and Mark Speltz, Photographs by Mark Fay
This latest book in the Places along the Way series pays homage to Wisconsin's renowned history of bars and breweries by telling the stories of the state's signature drink—the brandy Old Fashioned, its many popular beers and breweries, and the historic buildings in which one may imbibe them. The book is a companion to the Wisconsin Public Television documentary of the same name.
Learn more about this book
Award of Merit Winner
The "Wisconsin Magazine of History" is the proud recipient of a prestigious 2010 Award of Merit from the American Association of State and Local History's Leadership in History Awards. The awards are presented for excellence in history programs, projects and people when compared with similar activities nationwide.
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