Innholdsfortegnelse for Spring 2018 i Wisconsin Magazine of History

A 1,500-mile dash through the Algerian desert; the “hard-luck Cazenovia and Southern Railroad”; Daniel Bastian Nelson’s amateur photographs from the Eau Claire area; the ambitious and sometimes overreaching drive of one of my predecessors, Clifford Lord; and the “unlikely story of a Tibetan refugee family and the Midwestern woman they adopted.” These stories, uncommonly diverse and wide-ranging, are bound by their inclusion in this magazine. They also share the ability to surprise and entertain. Most of the stories originate in our vast collections—four million photographs, altogether 36 miles of unpublished archival and published library materials from which to draw humor, perseverance, imagination, pathos, futile quests, protests and successes … the full range of human endeavor, universally available. It is not obvious, but the people most intimately aware of these stories…

Dear Editors, I recently read your Autumn 2017 issue of the Wisconsin Magazine of History. I wanted to let you know of an error in the book excerpt, “The Wisconsin Capitol: Stories of a Monument and Its People” by Michael Edmonds. The picture of the plat on page 25 is incorrectly labeled as James Doty’s plat of Madison. The plat was, in fact, created by John V. Suydam. Mr. Suydam is my three times great grandfather and I’d like to see him get his due on this. He was commissioned by James Doty to draft the plat. Thank you. Laurie Deakins, Portage From the Editor: Indeed, the caption did not give a full account. We took a close look at the writing on the bottom right of the plat, and found…

Did you know that Barbara Millicent Roberts, better known as Barbie, is from Willows, Wisconsin? While there is a Willow Township in Richland County, Barbie’s town is fictional, as is Willows High School, her alma mater. Barbie is meant to represent a Midwestern girl gone glamorous, one who has followed her career dreams as doctor, astronaut, or army officer while still maintaining her small-town values. Barbie debuted in 1959, and by 1961, when Orville and Frances Fox of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, bought this doll and its accompanying case for their granddaughter Beth in Madison, Barbie’s looks had not changed much. Ruth Handler, cofounder of Mattel, Inc., based the original doll and its curvaceous body on one she had seen in Switzerland, not realizing the Swiss version, with its long legs, small…

In June 1946, thirty-four-year-old Clifford Lee Lord entered the State Historical Society of Wisconsin headquarters building to become the century-old institution’s sixth director.1 He was a scholar, author, editor, and administrator, and, for the next twelve momentous years, he would be the head of the Society. As William B. Hesseltine remembered in a tribute written after Lord’s departure, he was a “genial zealot, bringing with him an enthusiastic welcome for new ideas and a drive for putting them into operation.”2 This article focuses on those years during which he enacted a series of reforms that dramatically changed the Society and created a structure that, in many ways, still defines it today. It is not too much of an exaggeration to state that Lord’s dynamic leadership gave birth to the modern incarnation…

Did you know that Barbara Millicent Roberts, better known as Barbie, is from Willows, Wisconsin? While there is a Willow Township in Richland County, Barbie’s town is fictional, as is Willows High School, her alma mater. Barbie is meant to represent a Midwestern girl gone glamorous, one who has followed her career dreams as doctor, astronaut, or army officer while still maintaining her small-town values. Barbie debuted in 1959, and by 1961, when Orville and Frances Fox of Oshkosh, Wisconsin, bought this doll and its accompanying case for their granddaughter Beth in Madison, Barbie’s looks had not changed much. Ruth Handler, cofounder of Mattel, Inc., based the original doll and its curvaceous body on one she had seen in Switzerland, not realizing the Swiss version, with its long legs, small…

Just in back of Tenzin’s family’s home stood an identical white cement house. Three older men lived there, all brothers. The youngest brother, Migmar Dorjee, was already in his thirties. He was a handsome soldier in the Indo-Tibetan forces and came home on leave now and then. Years later in Wisconsin, in Tenzin’s intermediate English and Migmar’s Tibetan, they would tell me the story of their courtship, interrupted by their grown children’s gleeful translations. Tenzin and Migmar would grin and blush, as if the events had transpired only yesterday. Pema Choedon spoke with the brothers every day, since their cow sheds were just on the other side of the bamboo fence that divided them, and she came to know Migmar’s family well. When Tenzin was sixteen, Pema Choedon told her…

Dear Editors, I recently read your Autumn 2017 issue of the Wisconsin Magazine of History. I wanted to let you know of an error in the book excerpt, “The Wisconsin Capitol: Stories of a Monument and Its People” by Michael Edmonds. The picture of the plat on page 25 is incorrectly labeled as James Doty’s plat of Madison. The plat was, in fact, created by John V. Suydam. Mr. Suydam is my three times great grandfather and I’d like to see him get his due on this. He was commissioned by James Doty to draft the plat. Thank you. Laurie Deakins Portage From the Editor: Indeed, the caption did not give a full account. We took a close look at the writing on the bottom right of the plat, and…