Innholdsfortegnelse for Fall 2024 i Wisconsin Magazine of History

Milwaukee, 1961. When patrons at the Black Night, a popular gay bar, saw four servicemen arrive late one summer Saturday, they didn’t know they were about to make history. They acted—and reacted—as the servicemen hurled slurs and became aggressive, and what began as an altercation escalated into a brawl as the Black Nite patrons fought back. Many years later, Josie Carter recalled the events of that night in vivid detail to Brice Smith, Jamie Taylor, and WMH author Michail Takach, who explores the significance of the night and its aftermath in these pages. Eight years before Stonewall, change was brewing in Milwaukee. Ripon College, 1965. Gary Yerkey had a decision to make. Efforts for voting rights, led by Martin Luther King Jr., were heating up in the South—but was this…

The question of why the Upper Peninsula belongs to Michigan and not Wisconsin is as vexing as it is complex. The short answer has to do with maps and surveys. When Ohio entered the union in 1834, it claimed a narrow strip of land along its southern border that, in other surveyor’s interpretations, belonged to Michigan Territory. The dispute over the strip of land (which included the city of Toledo) led to a short war (you guessed it, the Toledo War) that eventually resolved in Ohio’s favor. In a conciliatory gesture, the US Senate gave Michigan the Upper Peninsula, a strip of land noncontiguous with Michigan but of one piece with Wisconsin Territory. Incredibly, this wasn’t the only map mishap to riddle the UP. When Michigan achieved statehood in 1837,…

In the Summer 2024 issue, Michail Takach shared the first part of the story of the Black Nite brawl, as told by Josie Carter, a self-identified “queen” and lifelong Milwaukeean who helped lead the city’s first LGBTQ uprising. On the evening of Saturday, August 5, 1961, four servicemen drove to the Black Nite, one of several gay bars on Milwaukee’s Plankinton Strip. The men entered the bar, used a gay slur, and physically assaulted the bouncer, Wayne, and bartender, Thomas. Wayne’s partner, Josie Carter, fought the men off by breaking two beer bottles over one of their heads. The servicemen retreated and threatened to come back with reinforcements. This is what happened next. As Josie and the others watched, the servicemen piled into the car with Illinois plates and sped…

25 YEARS AGO | 1999 As with any religious minority, it is tempting with The Community to pronounce its members fanatical and to dwell upon their most weird and aberrant qualities. But The Community simply will not submit to such treatment…. They were hard-working Yankees in the old Puritan tradition, and this is part of their legacy. Their origins in abolitionism and church reform suggest a depth of spirituality beyond what we might associate with mere millenarians.Peggy Sands, “Till the End of Time: Awaiting the Millennium in Wisconsin,” vol. 83, no. 4, Autumn 1999 50 YEARS AGO | 1974 The charismatic Kennedy brothers, abetted by the Supreme Court, the War on Poverty, and the civil rights movement, created a mood of general expectation that “the limits of politics could be…

It is with deepest thanks that the Wisconsin Historical Society recognizes individuals and organizations who contributed $5,000 or more cumulatively between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024, including pledges and gifts of membership. $25,000+ Anonymous (3) Alliant Energy Foundation Ruth and Hartley Barker Advised Fund through Incourage Community Foundation Judge Thomas H. Barland and Jill B. Barland Jane A. Bartell and John W. Thompson Rick Bock Fund of The Minneapolis Foundation The Lynde and Harry Bradley Foundation Charles G. Swem Trust Circus World Museum, Inc. Cleary-Kumm Family Culver’s Dr. Joyce (Carpenter) Degenhart Diane Dei Rossi and James Hardy Robert C. Dohmen Ray and Kay Eckstein Charitable Trust Estate of John H. Englesby W. Jerome Frautschi Pleasant Rowland Frautschi Black Point Historic Preservation Operation and Maintenance Fund at the Greater…

The downward sloping corridor is musty and dank smelling. Water drips down the walls as you light your torch and descend deeper into the dungeon. From somewhere below you hear a low growling noise. Is it the wind? Mustering your courage, you proceed. Ahead of you now is a stout oaken door, its hinges gleaming with fresh oil. Perhaps this is the lair of the goblins you’ve been seeking! What do you do? “These rules are strictly fantasy. Those wargamers who lack imagination, those who don’t care for Burroughs’ Martian adventures where John Carter is groping through black pits, who feel no thrill upon reading Howard’s Conan saga … will not be likely to find DUNGEONS & DRAGONS to their taste. But those whose imaginations know no bounds will find…

The following excerpt is from Chasing the Stars: How the Astronomers of Observatory Hill Transformed Our Understanding of the Universe, coauthored by James Lattis and Kelly Tyrrell and released in Spring 2024 by the Wisconsin Historical Society Press. The book explores the rich history of the University of Wisconsin’s Washburn Observatory, where some of the world’s most cutting-edge astronomical inventions were born. This selection introduces us to James Watson, the observatory’s first director, whose astronomical contributions include the discovery of asteroids and the search for the planet Vulcan. James Craig Watson (1838–1880), born into a poor family in southern Ontario, rose to international fame in his short life. He was a bona fide boy genius whose talents became apparent after the family moved to Ann Arbor, Michigan, where his mother…

BRIAN LEAHY DOYLE Brian Leahy Doyle is a writer, theater director, and playwright. Notable theater projects include the libretto of The Weeping Woman, an opera with composer Michael Dilthey about the relationship between Pablo Picasso and Dora Maar (MASS MoCA), Dead End Kids (Round the Bend Theatre), And We Danced (Know Theatre), Maybe Tomorrow (Aery Theatre Company), and Light from the Pleiades (English Theatre Dusseldorf). He teaches film and communications at Mercy University in Mercy, New York. KURT GRIESEMER Kurt Griesemer is manager of K–12 education initiatives at WHS. He has been involved in education for more than twenty-five years as a teacher, author, media producer, and museum educator. His contributions include creating and producing the Emmy-winning Wisconsin Biographies animated series for PBS Wisconsin and coauthoring the second edition of…

Celebrating More Than Fifty Years of the Warrens Cranberry Festival Each September, the Cranberry Capital of Wisconsin welcomes an estimated 145,000 people to the west-central village of Warrens, population 544. The annual Warrens Cranberry Festival features 1,200 booths offering a mix of arts and crafts, antiques, farm produce, and food. Prizes are awarded for best costume, best button design, and biggest cranberry (a record 6.6 grams in 2023). Other highlights include marsh tours, cranberry treats, a fish fry, live music, and a massive parade. In August 1973, a small group of friends planned a simple community celebration, hardly predicting that their idea would ripen over the next fifty years to become what promotors call the “world’s largest cranberry festival.” Why cranberries? Not only are they the state fruit, but Monroe…