11-16 &  30-13

The Wisconsin State Historical Museum is downtown on the Capitol Square. In the museum are four floors of great artifacts of Wisconsin’s past.

Lets start our visit on the ground floor.  The gift shop is here with many wonderful items.  At this time of year a special display is up called “Tis the Season”,  Evergleam Aluminum Christmas Trees of all sizes and colors.  Beautiful!

2nd Floor- 1st Settlers and Native American Tribes

This floor has a great many artifacts from the Native Americans that had large settlements in Wisconsin before Europeans came.  This is a replica of a home lived in at a settlement called Aztalan, now a state historic site and park. It is in Jefferson county.

French explorer Jean Nicolet may have been the first European to have seen Wisconsin in 1634.  Here is a painting by Edwin Willard Deming depicting what his arrival may have looked like.

3rd Floor – Early Wisconsin Settlement by Europeans

Life on the frontier, pioneers making Wisconsin their own. Mining of lead became a big industry. Also a large group from Cornwall, England brought their stone quarrying skills to Mineral Point, their Pendarvis settlement. That is now a historic site.  Some of the masons came to Madison and built a house for someone, still occupied to this day.

The lumber industry was and still is a big part of Wisconsin.

4th Floor- Late 19th-Early 20th Century

The rise of politics and it’s influence on the citizens of the state, as well as the women’s Suffrage Movement nearly a century ago.

Governor Bob La Follette fought for the state to have fair legislation and a “transparent” government.   We recently saw his house in Madison, still occupied.

We hope you enjoyed your visit,  remember to stop by the gift shop for a unique gift. It helps support the museum’s continued operation.

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• Nurse’s Pearl Harbor artifacts donated to Wisconsin Veterans Museum (host.madison.com)
• Madison landscape from 1884 donated to Historical Society (host.madison.com)
• Site gives new meaning to having people for dinner (readingeagle.com)