Innholdsfortegnelse for Winter 2017-2018 i Wisconsin Magazine of History

“On or about December 1910,” wrote Virginia Woolf, “human character changed. I am not saying that one went out, as one might into a garden, and there saw that a rose had flowered, or that a hen had laid an egg. The change was not sudden and definite like that. But a change there was, nevertheless; and, since one must be arbitrary, let us date it about the year 1910.” I am reminded of these words as I look over the last year of our publication. The year 2017 has been one of civic engagement, celebration, and reflection at the Wisconsin Magazine of History as we look back at watershed moments. We’ve marked the centennial of our magazine and of the Wisconsin State Capitol, and in this issue, we remember…

“We of the state broadcasting service want to use this portion of our schedule to tell you about a man, a man but for whose work in radio, we might not be speaking to you over these facilities, yet a man unknown to most of you as listeners; not a broadcaster, not a performer, instead a worker behind the scenes, a planner, a builder, an engineer, but more than that, a man of vision and high purpose.”1 So began a January 15, 1951, broadcast from Wisconsin’s first state radio station, WHA. The program memorialized Edward Bennett, an engineer and professor who spent thirty-four years developing radio technology on the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison. After joining the electrical engineering department in 1909, Bennett initiated wireless telegraphy experiments that led…

On September 24, 1968, fourteen religiously motivated, anti–Vietnam war activists removed, or in their words, “liberated,” ten thousand draft records from the Milwaukee Selective Service office. The protesters, including five Catholic priests, hauled the draft files to a square in the middle of a busy Milwaukee throughway, poured what they called “homemade napalm” over the records, and lit them on fire. The protesters gathered around the burning pyre, prayed, and sang “We Shall Overcome.”1 Their action sparked immediate controversy within the city of Milwaukee, which was still reeling from the Open Housing marches for fair housing that had ended just months before. Like much of the United States, Milwaukee was divided over Vietnam, but the stealing and burning of draft records was seen as a particularly pointed political act, far…

Fifty years ago, on December 31, 1967, the Green Bay Packers and Dallas Cowboys faced off in the Ice Bowl, which would prove to be one of the most legendary games in National Football League history. The Ice Bowl still stands as the coldest game ever played, with the temperature at kickoff hovering around -13°F, and falling as the game progressed. To Packers fans, it is much more than a game played in gelid, unforgiving conditions, but an epic and dramatic contest in which the Packers prevailed thanks to the character and discipline given them by their legendary coach, Vince Lombardi. Titletown vs. Next Year’s Champions A variety of circumstances converged to make the Ice Bowl a compelling matchup, above and beyond the fact that the winner would be the…

On March 3, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation to create a national system of homes for disabled veterans of the Civil War, famously stating at his second inaugural address that the nation must “care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan.”1 Many veterans had already returned home wounded or disabled, and it soon became clear that a nationwide effort would be required to adequately care for those who had sacrificed their health and well-being in defense of the Union. This work had previously been undertaken in Milwaukee by a women’s group called the West Side Soldiers Aid Society.2 Beginning in 1864, these women converted several storefronts on North Plankinton Avenue to a medical center and rest home providing basic aid to…