Innholdsfortegnelse for Summer 2022 i Wisconsin Magazine of History

Everyone has that one relative who isn’t in any family photos because they’re the one taking the picture. Since it was patented in 2005, the selfie stick—a piece of equipment that has become ubiquitous (some would say, annoyingly so)—has been one solution to the problem, allowing people to more easily photograph themselves or a large group without forcing someone to remain behind the camera. Around 1915, James Peter Jacobson, a physics professor at the University of Wisconsin in River Falls, devised a way to photograph himself and his friends—whom he referred to as “the bunch”—together on an outing. Jacobson attached a string to his camera and used it to operate the shutter from a distance—a “selfie string” of sorts. The string is visible in this and a few other photos…

Newspapers always played a central role in my life. As kids, we sprang to our feet at the thud of the Racine Journal-Times landing on the front porch. Whoever brought in the paper doled out the individual sheets so my two younger brothers and I could read sprawled on the living room floor while my mother and older sister did the same sitting in our comfortable living room chairs. My older brother Jim, serving in the army overseas, had favored the dining room table. Central to our newspaper reading was the paperboy, who delivered the paper every day except Sunday and came to the house every Thursday afternoon to collect the weekly subscription fee. We kids all knew the paperboy and looked up to him. Secretly, we all aspired to…

From the whirling colors of the carnival, to the sights and sounds of the animal barns, to the thrill of winning a ribbon, a trip to the fair creates indelible memories. It seems everyone who’s ever attended a county or state fair recalls lessons, stories, and friendships that came from the experience. Pam Jahnke, a broadcaster for Mid-West Farm Report, explained, “It’s a shared experience. No matter your age, there is a certain camaraderie when you start talking about showing or being at the fair. The wash rack, telling stories in the barn, the knots in your stomach before you go in the ring, the way you hang on every word the judge shares about your project or the crazy rides you went on afterward—heads start to nod when you start sharing…

Everyone has that one relative who isn’t in any family photos because they’re the one taking the picture. Since it was patented in 2005, the selfie stick—a piece of equipment that has become ubiquitous (some would say, annoyingly so)—has been one solution to the problem, allowing people to more easily photograph themselves or a large group without forcing someone to remain behind the camera. Around 1915, James Peter Jacobson, a physics professor at the University of Wisconsin in River Falls, devised a way to photograph himself and his friends—whom he referred to as “the bunch”—together on an outing. Jacobson attached a string to his camera and used it to operate the shutter from a distance—a “selfie string” of sorts. The string is visible in this and a few other photos…

“Stiffness and a sunburned nose are the mark of the hosteler at Neighborhood House, Columbus Park social center, where bicycle trips for girls are being sponsored this summer for the first time.”1 So began an article in Madison’s Capital Times on June 30, 1940, recounting the first two trips taken that summer by members of Madison’s Neighborhood House. Modeled on the example of Jane Addams’s Hull House in Chicago, the Neighborhood House opened its doors in Madison’s predominantly Italian Greenbush neighborhood in 1916 to provide services to immigrants seeking to gain citizenship, teaching them English and practical skills. By the 1940s, it had evolved from a settlement house to a community center as the area’s population shifted from primarily Italian immigrants to a mix of working-class Irish, Jews, African Americans,…