Wisconsin Magazine of History Summer 2016

In August 1965, at the height of the civil rights movement—the same month President Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law and the Watts Riots shook Los Angeles—the University of Wisconsin Regents voted to name a building on campus after Carson Gulley, a beloved longtime university chef. Carson Gulley Commons was the first UW–Madison building named after an African American, and the first building on campus named after a civil-service employee.1 Though now largely forgotten, Carson Gulley was a celebrated figure in the mid-twentieth century, known for his groundbreaking efforts crossing racial barriers in Wisconsin as a teacher, a radio and television personality, and a pioneer in the struggle for equal housing. The story of Gulley’s life sheds light on the persistent practices of racial segregation and exclusion…

Each day, visitors to the Wisconsin Historical Society’s headquarters building in Madison routinely pause to examine an odd-looking “clock-desk” on display in the lobby. They get excited as they discover unique design elements, and the cadence of their exchanges often quickens. The desk’s front legs are designed like two giant wooden compasses, and the rear legs mimic stacked books of various sizes. The clock’s counterweights are made of fist-sized rocks and twine, and a brass bell is positioned to ring when the contraption closes one book before automatically thrusting another one forward. In the early 1860s, adventuresome Madison mothers entertained their children by taking them to see the desk and other inventions created by John Muir, then a student at the University of Wisconsin. They were jammed in Muir’s dorm…

While Wisconsin communities in the mid-nineteenth to early twentieth centuries feared the prospect of death by disease, they understood it to be an aspect of daily life. Many people fell ill to malaria or influenza, which were seen as seasonal occurrences. Outbreaks of tuberculosis were not uncommon.1 In order to address the daily burdens of disease, physicians and quacks alike developed hopeful cures. Such cures often went hand in hand with the use of water for health and healing. Advertisements for miracle influenza cures ran frequently in local newspapers, along with directions for use. “Brandreth’s pills are a sure cure for influenza” occupied space in the Milwaukee Sentinel and Gazette on April 1, 1839. “Swallow six or eight pills[;] a large dose is absolutely necessary to relieve the brain. .…

An individual who saw life as a constant struggle without hope, Waldemar Ager has been identified as the archetypal headstrong hero who spent his life advocating for societal and national welfare, all the while never shying away from controversy. He is, in fact, one of the most prolific, important Norwegian American writers of the twentieth century. Although his opinions occasionally went against the national consensus, he is remembered for his strong convictions and accomplishments. Through his advocacy for temperance and his literary activity, he helped define the Norwegian American identity of the early twentieth century. During his lifetime, Waldemar Theodore Ager (1869–1941) became widely recognized as a major Norwegian American figure. In 1912, he was the first resident of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, to appear in Who’s Who in America, an…

  Eight athletes with known Wisconsin connections participated in the 1904 Olympic Games in St. Louis. Among them was a weight lifter who could just as easily have competed in a number of other events. Oscar Osthoff was that good. After the Games he would go on to letter in a whopping four sports at the University of Wisconsin–Madison—track, football, swimming, and gymnastics—and was team captain in all but football, earning ten letters and racking up Big Ten titles in everything from shot put to flying rings. Osthoff’s father, Otto, had been born in Germany in 1840 and came to America in 1867. After running a hotel in Rochester, New York, Otto relocated to Milwaukee and eventually became the manager of Schlitz Park, a beer garden that also featured a…

Each year, we ask readers to vote for the best original article in the Wisconsin Magazine of History. The Hesseltine award was established in 1965 in memory of historian and past Wisconsin Historical Society president, William B. Hesseltine. The winner will be announced in the Winter 2016–2017 issue, and a cash prize of $100 is awarded. Here are the entries for volume 99: Autumn 2015 Nous Vous Remercions: The French Gratitude Train, by John Nondorf A Generation of Oxen, by Dirk Hildebrandt Father Louis Nicolas and the Natural History of Wisconsin, by Michael Edmonds Winter 2015–2016 God Loves Them As They Are: How Religion Helped Pass Gay Rights in Wisconsin, by Andrea Rottmann Green Turtle Soup, Lobster Newburg, and Roman Punch: A Sampling of Menus from the Wisconsin Historical Society’s…