The Wisconsin Historical Society (officially the State Historical Society of Wisconsin ) is simultaneously a state agency and a private membership organization whose purpose is to maintain, promote and spread knowledge relating to the history of North America , with an emphasis on the state of Wisconsin and the trans-Allegheny West. Founded in 1846 and chartered in 1853, it is the oldest historical society in the United States to receive continuous public funding. The society's headquarters are located in Madison, Wisconsin , on the campus of the University of Wisconsin–Madison .
15-605: Lyman Copeland Draper (September 4, 1815 – August 26, 1891) was a librarian and historian who served as secretary for the State Historical Society of Wisconsin at Madison, Wisconsin . Draper also served as Superintendent of Public Instruction of Wisconsin from 1858 to 1860. Lyman Copeland Draper was born on September 4, 1815, in Evans, New York , a descendant of early Massachusetts settler James Draper (1618–1694). Growing up he often heard about
30-694: A variety of visual ephemera. The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research is also housed within the division. The society's archives also serve as the official repository for state and local government records. The society coordinates an Area Research Center Network, an alliance between the Historical Society in Madison and four-year campuses of the University of Wisconsin System throughout
45-578: Is organized into four divisions: the Division of Library, Archives and Museum Collections, the Division of Museums and Historic Sites, the Division of Historic Preservation-Public History, and the Division of Administrative Services. The Division of Library, Archives and Museum Collections collects and maintains books and documents about the history of Wisconsin, the United States, and Canada. The society's library and archives, which together serve as
60-998: The State of Wisconsin. Wisconsin Historical Museum The Wisconsin Historical Museum is a museum located on the Capitol Square in Madison, Wisconsin . It is currently open only for retail shopping featuring books, gifts, and other items focusing on Wisconsin and history. The museum featured information about the history of Wisconsin and is operated by the Wisconsin Historical Society . In addition to Wisconsin history, it provided information about other American history topics through artifacts, photographs, full-scale dioramas, audio-visual presentations, and interactive multimedia programs. In late 2004,
75-553: The WHS since September 1917. The society maintains a fully digitized archive that contains more than 2,000 feature articles totaling more than 30,000 pages. The Division of Administrative Services provides support and planning for the WHS and its divisions. The society's website include a large, searchable collection of historical images and a vast digital archive containing thousands of scanned documents relating to Wisconsin history. Wisconsin Historical Society employees are employees of
90-585: The exploits of his grandfathers and father in the Revolution and the War of 1812. He developed a keen interest in the history of those times. Starting in the 1838, Lyman Draper corresponded with people who were early settlers in the Trans-Allegheny region during the second half of the 18th century. He also traveled extensively in the region to gain a better feel for the territory. Draper's professed purpose
105-624: The library of American history for the University of Wisconsin–Madison , contain nearly four million items, making the society's collection the largest in the world dedicated exclusively to North American history. The Wisconsin Historical Society's extensive newspaper collection is the second largest in the United States after the Library of Congress. Visual materials in the archives include some three million photographs, negatives, films, architectural drawings, cartoons, lithographs, posters, and
120-628: The museum's existence was threatened due to budget cuts, but citing its role in the state's history, Wisconsin governor Jim Doyle restored its funding. In addition to exhibits about traditional aspect of the state's history, the museum has also offered an exhibition on malted milk , which was first made in Wisconsin, and includes in its permanent collection a Big Boy , the mascot of a hamburger chain, rescued in 1985 when its restaurant closed. The museum also opened in 2012 an exhibit about Butch Vig 's (of Madison's Garbage (band) ) Smart Studios ,
135-648: The region. He published 10 volumes of historical notes for the Wisconsin Historical Society, as well as a volume about the Battle of King's Mountain (1780). This featured many of the early settlers. Draper was elected a member of the American Antiquarian Society in 1877. He died on August 26, 1891, in Madison, Wisconsin. The Lyman Draper Manuscript Collection includes his extensive notes and correspondence as well as
150-703: The state and the Northern Great Lakes History Center in Ashland, to make most of the archival collections accessible to state residents. The society's museum collections are maintained in the Collections Division containing objects relating to Wisconsin history. The Division of Museums and Historic Sites operates the Wisconsin Historical Museum in downtown Madison and 11 historic sites throughout
165-637: The state's historic preservation program, the state's burial sites preservation program, and the Wisconsin Historical Society Press , which publishes books on Wisconsin and American history and a quarterly magazine, the Wisconsin Magazine of History . The division also provides outreach to local historical societies. The Wisconsin Magazine of History ( ISSN 1943-7366 ) is a quarterly journal published by
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#1732801752531180-610: The state. The museum has an archaeology program in collaboration with the Department of Transportation and the Department of Natural Resources that undertakes research, and collects and preserves historical artifacts. The other historic sites are tourist attractions that display historic buildings reflecting Wisconsin history and provide exhibitions and demonstrations of state history, such as ethnic settlement, mining, farming, fur trading, transportation, and pioneering life. The Division of Historic Preservation-Public History administers
195-656: The time period from the 1740s through the 1810s. The Draper Collection comprises nearly 500 volumes. The State Historical Society of Wisconsin (now Wisconsin Historical Society), for which Draper served as corresponding secretary from 1854 to 1886, owns the collection of original 18th and 19th-century papers. Major research libraries around the United States have microfilm of the collection. Wisconsin Historical Society The Wisconsin Historical Society
210-627: The works and papers of a number of notable early Americans, collected by Lyman Draper on the history of the trans-Allegheny West. This area includes portions of the Carolinas, Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, the entire Ohio Valley, and the Mississippi Valley. Among the most notable of the figures whose papers he collected are Joseph Brant , Daniel Boone , George Rogers Clark , Thomas S. Hinde , John Donelson , James Robertson , General Joseph Martin , and Simon Kenton . Most materials cover
225-527: Was to shed light on the era and gain knowledge before it was completely forgotten. He planned to write a series of biographies on early settlers in the region and document the Indian Wars in the Ohio River Valley . Although Draper never finished his biographies, his correspondence with survivors of the time and their relatives provide the largest single first-hand account of the settlement of
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