Understories

Anticipating the climb up Wisconsin’s tallest building. The StairMaster did not prepare me for this! My legs feel like they’re made of lead, my lungs are burning, and my heart is pounding harder than I knew it could. “12 more floors,” I manage to wheeze in the general vicinity of a friend I somehow convinced to partake in the American Lung Association’s Fight for Air stair climb at the U.S. Bank Center. And so we… Read more

Population numbers give the reader a sense of certainty and clarity, but sometimes it is useful to take a look at where they come from and how they might be interpreted. The data in the entry derive from the U.S. Census of Population from 1980 to 2010 and from the American Community Survey (ACS). The census and ACS ask several different questions that can be used to identify a race or ethnic group, including a… Read more

In the days after the sinking of the Lady Elgin there was chaos and confusion in the early reporting of victim names and victim count, similar to the experience following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. But in the weeks following both disasters the names and numbers of victims and survivors came into focus. However, as the years passed, reports of the number of people on the Lady Elgin burgeoned. At the time of the… Read more

It may go without saying, but historians owe a deep debt of gratitude to people who record their actions and save their materials. While we sometimes delve into subjects with little written or visual record, most of historians’ work builds upon the work of earlier record keepers and documentarians. Sometimes, as happened when I began researching the Village of Bayside, we researchers encounter a treasure trove of historical information that we just cannot quite use… Read more

Like many entries in the Encyclopedia of Milwaukee, the information and analysis in this entry depend on the existing scholarship on the topic in question, in this case the years of research and writing by author Kate Foss for her University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Urban Studies doctoral dissertation and book Hard Water. We hope that making that research accessible here will prompt further work. For example, careful readers of this entry, as well as the entry… Read more

When entities merge, what happens to their histories? As I have been writing for the Encyclopedia of Milwaukee, this is a question that keeps percolating in the back of my mind. Where does the history of North Milwaukee belong, for instance? The first village incorporated from the Town of Granville, this suburb later merged with the City of Milwaukee. Where does its early history fit? In the Granville entry? In the Milwaukee entry? In its… Read more

I was presented with a quest. A quest to journey to the depths of microfilm department of the Golda Meir Library at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. Working with microfilm really makes me feel like a true detective of history. You have to use the old film, with the clunky machines. The way the documents look on a microfilm machine has such a classic feel to it. There is nothing quite like working with an old… Read more

There is more to be learned about Quarlls’ life and her escape from Milwaukee. The Burlington Historical Society, Burlington, Wisconsin, has some details. We still do not know much about Quarlls’ brief time in the city of Milwaukee, which was dramatic and interesting. Who betrayed or assisted her (especially the two African American males, about whom less is written than the white males)? What impact did this episode have on the later political positions of… Read more

When disasters occur, counting the number of victims is a difficult task. First responders focus on rescuing the living; news media rush to disseminate information quickly. Sometimes only meticulous later research can establish precisely how many people were killed and injured. Accounts of the Newhall House Fire routinely mention 71 victims, but my review of the evidence suggests that the total was actually 72. The Newhall House fire occurred on 10 January 1883, and before… Read more

In the late 20th and 21st century, scholars and the public, particularly in Germany, have rediscovered Mathilde Anneke’s life and work. Despite spending half her life in the United States, her writings are almost exclusively in German. Some of that oeuvre has been translated into English and several recent scholarly treatments of her life and work have been published. See the bibliography below. There is likely more to be learned. The Anneke Papers, available through… Read more

Laura J. Ross Wolcott’s life has been frequently if imperfectly documented, and our entry reflects the ambiguities in the source material. A good example is a piece in the Wisconsin State Journal, headlined, “Laura Ross Wolcott (1834-1915),” which then leads with the sentence, “Wolcott was born in Maine in 1826.” As was common at the time, she was also known by her married name, “Mrs. E. B. Wolcott,” as well as “Laura J. Ross.” That… Read more

For years, I had known a bit about Paul Grottkau and his role in Milwaukee, particularly as it related to the Bay View Massacre of May 5, 1886. My knowledge, however, was a bit sketchy and once I began looking up information, I became fascinated with him. Born into an aristocratic family in Germany in 1846, he had planned to be an architect and as was typical in the day that meant working on construction… Read more

Working as a fact-checker for the Encyclopedia of Milwaukee through UWM’s Student Undergraduate Research Fellowship program has given me a very exciting opportunity. I am able to really dive into historical research outside of a classroom setting. While fact-checking may not be on the frontlines of the research process tracking down and interpreting primary documents or authoring specific entries for the Encyclopedia, it plays a critical role in ensuring the accuracy of the information in… Read more

At the start of the twentieth century, German sociologist Werner Sombart posed the question: “Why is there no socialism in America?” Since then, historians have implicitly engaged Sombart in this debate. Historians who support Sombart’s thesis posit that socialism never existed in the United States because domestic socialism bore little relation to the fundamental Marxian mandate for sweeping institutional reform. See Daniel Bell, Marxian Socialism in the United States (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1952… Read more

The primary resource for converting pre-1930 addresses to the new address system is Wright’s Street Guide Supplement Directory of Milwaukee for 1930 (Milwaukee: Alfred G Wright, 1931). The Supplement is alphabetical by street name. Copies are accessible to researchers at the Milwaukee Central Public Library and the Milwaukee County Historical Society. The Society also makes it available at their website on the Street Conversions page (http://www.milwaukeehistory.net/street-name-conversion/). A researcher looking for the new address that corresponds… Read more

The author with Frank Zeidler Writing about Frank Zeidler for the Encyclopedia of Milwaukee was an honor and a challenge. An honor because I knew him the last eleven years of his life (1995-2006), and a challenge because much needed to be said. What to put in the entry, and what to leave out? That was my research challenge. Frank was a friend, mentor, and collaborator. We spent many hours discussing politics, transportation, leadership, Milwaukee… Read more

The development of this entry was an interesting challenge: how do I channel nearly 175 years of a vibrant, complex and fascinating movement of people into about six pages of type? Whether I have successfully done so, it’s hard to say. Many will be disappointed by what was left out; others will question what was included. The main point of the entry was to show the importance of workers’ movements in the making of the… Read more

When I am not writing for the Encyclopedia of Milwaukee, I spend a good amount of time working on my MA thesis. My thesis research centers on the Singer Sewing Machine Company’s Russian subsidiary, a business similar in some ways to the businesses I research for the Encyclopedia of Milwaukee. But, owing to the Russian Revolution, Singer’s Russian business was relegated to a dimly understood past in the history books. Many of the businesses in… Read more

The single most inclusive work that details the history of the Episcopal Church in the State of Wisconsin and the Diocese of Milwaukee is Harold Ezra Wagner’s The Episcopal Church in Wisconsin 1847-1947: A History of the Diocese of Milwaukee (Milwaukee: Diocese of Milwaukee, 1947). A history of the Episcopal Church in Wisconsin from the early 1820s to 1847 can be found in John N. Vogel’s “The Episcopal Church in Wisconsin: 1822-1847” (Master’s thesis, University… Read more