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Classroom Material

Wisconsin Firsts and Other Famous Facts

See a list of historical highlights from Wisconsin history
Photograph

Man with Wings

Date: 1909
Description: An unidentified man demonstrates his unsuccessful bird wing-like mechanism, which was part of an experiment in aviation.
Photograph

Diagram of McCormick's Reaper

Date: 1867
Description: A diagram of McCormick's cultivator-reaper, which was patented in 1845. The illustration, titled "The Cultivator" depicts a man using a rake to remove the ...
Photograph

McCormick's Blacksmith Shop at Walnut Grove

Date: 1931
Description: Exterior view of the blacksmith shop at Walnut Grove farm where Cyrus Hall McCormick (1809-1884) invented and built his first reaper in 1831.
Photograph

Cyrus McCormick's Reaper Patent

Date: 1834
Description: Press release image compiled by the International Harvester Company. The image includes "excerpts of the patent grant from the U.S. Patent Office to Cyrus ...
Print

American Inventors

Date: 1900
Description: Cigar box label with portraits of inventors Thomas Edison, Eli Whitney, Robert Fulton, Cyrus McCormick, Richard March Hoe. Around the edges are illustratio...
Poster

McCormick's Patent Virginia Reaper

Date: 1849
Description: Advertising handbill for Cyrus Hall McCormick's patent Virginia Reaper. Printed for C.H. McCormick & Co. by James J. Langdon, Chicago, Illinois.
Print

McCormick Catalog Cover

Date: 1895
Description: Color lithograph cover illustration for the McCormick Harvesting Machine Company catalog. Shows a portrait of Cyrus Hall McCormick over an illustration of ...
Drawing

John Muir's Clock Design

Date: 1863
Description: Sketch of John Muir's clock design.The built clock was a combination of scythes, wheels and arrows. A rough bough of burr oak was set upon a base incrusted...
Drawing

John Muir's Drawing of a Table Saw

Date: 1863
Description: A diagram of a table saw, designed and drawn by John Muir.
Photograph

Lillian Sholes

Date: 1872
Description: Lillian Sholes, demonstrating a prototype typewriter invented by her father, Christopher Latham Sholes.
Photograph

Dr. Babcock with Butterfat Tester

Date: 1926
Description: Dr. Stephen Babcock with an electric centrifuge butterfat tester.
Photograph

McCormick Reaper Exhibit at "A Century of Progress"

Date: 1933
Description: Female model posing with a rake next to a reproduction of Cyrus Hall McCormick's first reaper at International Harvester's "A Century of Progress" Worlds F...
Photograph

Vote Recording Machine

Date: 1919
Description: Inventor, B.L. Boboroff, displays his vote recording device to members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
Photograph

Thomas A. Edison

Date: 
Description: Quarter-length portrait of a young Thomas Alva Edison.
Photograph

Thomas Alva Edison, Mechanical Genius

Date: 02 17 1913
Description: Portrait of Thomas Alva Edison in his lab where he worked on his "talking moving machine."
Postcard

Milwaukee's Flying Machine

Date: 1912
Description: Dr. A. Rudolph Silverston's vacu-aerial flying machine, as seen from the rear. Handwritten at top: "Rear View." Caption at bottom reads: "Silverston's Milw...
Postcard

Curtiss with Langley's Aerodrome

Date: 06 1914
Description: The Aerodome, invented by Samuel Langley, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, as reconstructed by Glenn Curtiss at Hammondsport.
Photograph

Wrights' Neighbor

Date: 07 02 1909
Description: Test flight of the bi-plane invented by Ray Zorn of Dayton, Ohio, who later resided in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Photograph

Fabric from 1903 Flyer

Date: 
Description: A piece of fabric (approximately 1" x 1") from the 1903 Wright Flyer. It is attached to a certificate and includes a photograph.

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