Turning Points
in Wisconsin History
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
 | Missionaries defend American-style schools for Indian children in the 1830s. |
| An early description of the Milwaukee Public Museum (1891) |
| A former student recalls Milwaukee Female College in the 1860's |
| Letters from Milwaukee in its infancy, 1836-1846 |
| Electa Quinney, Wisconsin's first public school teacher |
| Catherine Beecher and the development of Milwaukee-Downer College |
| A look at the life and legacy of Frances Willard |
| Recollections of Old Superior |
| A college student begs for cookies from home in 1867 |
| Madison parties in 1837 |
| A Green Bay girlhood in the 1820s. |
| A newspaper produced by prisoners at Waupun, 1886 |
 | The infant state legislature writes its own rulebook, 1853. |
| An Abolitionist Recalls Anti-Slavery Days in Wisconsin |
| A short history of prison industries, 1852-2002 |
| A guide to the Wisconsin Historical Society headquarters, 1900 |
| The Stockbridge-Munsee Constitution, 1857 |
| Conditions in state prisons, schools, and hospitals, 1955 |
| Women's charitable work before 1876 |
| Opening of the La Crosse Public Library, 1888 |
| An account of the First Congregational Church, Prairie du Chien, Wis., 1834-1891 |
| Population figures for every Wisconsin community, 1850-2000 |
| Susan Frackelton recalls the Wheelock School for Girls (1926) |
| Baraboo women found their own cultural organization, 1880 |
| A local historian chats about Prairie du Chien (vol. 1) |
| A local historian chats about Prairie du Chien (vol. 2) |
 | Classroom rules for Milwaukee public schools, 1846 |
| Pictures of Wisconsin school buildings, 1868-1950 |
| Prairie du Chien merchant and judge James H. Lockwood, 1856. |
| Increase Lapham examining a meteorite, ca. 1868 |
 | An Episcopal bishop's diary of his 1834 visit to an Indian mission. |
| The Milwaukee Public Museum is born, 1848. |
| Northern settlers try to join Minnesota, 1847 |