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St. Catherine’s Residence

Author: Matthew J. Prigge
St. Catherine’s Residence was established in 1894 to provide temporary housing to the large numbers of young women moving from rural areas to Milwaukee for jobs or schooling. The home, originally located at 1131 Sycamore Street (later West Michigan St.), was first known as St. Catherine’s Home for Working Girls. It was administered by the… Read More

Theodora Winton Youmans

Author: Genevieve G. McBride
Theodora Winton Youmans (1863-1932) was the first Wisconsin-born leader and last president of the Wisconsin Woman Suffrage Association (WWSA), which she reorganized as the Wisconsin League of Women Voters. She led lobbying to win the state’s historic first ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment. A prominent journalist, she joined the Waukesha Freeman in the 1880s and… Read More

Vel Phillips

Author: Genevieve G. McBride
Renowned for her civil rights activism and historical status as Milwaukee's first alderwoman and African American on the city's Common Council, a younger Vel Phillips sits behind her desk.
Vel Phillips (1924-2018), Milwaukee’s first alderwoman and the first African American on its Common Council, was born Velvalea Rodgers on the South Side of Milwaukee. While she was a child, her family moved to Bronzeville, where she later established her political career.  She graduated from Howard University in 1946, returned to Wisconsin to attend law… Read More

Woman Suffrage

Author: Margo Anderson
In the 1840s, when settlers from the East and overseas were pouring into Milwaukee and Wisconsin, women did not have political rights to vote, run for public office, serve on juries, or participate in the formal political system. Advocates, however, of what came to be called the “woman movement” were voicing the first calls to… Read More
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