Badger History Group, Inc. Scrapbooks

Badger History Group, Inc. Scrapbooks
Badger Army Ammunition Plant
1 Badger Rd.
Baraboo, WI 53913
Website: www.badgerordnancehistory.org
Verlyn Mueller, President & Archivist
bhg-arch@tds.net

The Badger History Group was organized in 1998 as a committee of the Sauk County Historical Society. In November 2007 it was incorporated as an affiliate of the Wisconsin Historical Society and in March of 2009 it received IRS 501c3 status. To meets its mission “to collect, preserve and share the history of the Badger Army Ammunition Plant area,” the Badger History Group collects artifacts, archival materials and anything else that can be used to tell the story of the Badger Army Ammunition Plant Area.

The current archive includes materials brought to the Badger History Group by contractor employees cleaning out buildings in preparation for demolition. In addition the Badger AAP photo archive of an estimated 25,000 negatives is in the process of being scanned and cataloged. The archive also includes, scrapbooks from displaced farm families and other individuals; and materials collected and produced by Badger History Group staff. The Badger History Group currently occupies five rooms in the two-story Administration building at the Badger AAP.

This is a photo of some of the materials in the archive. The scrapbook in the foreground and the two open loose leaf binders are from an individual outside the Plant and contain photos, news clippings, and auction notices pertaining to Badger AAP from the Army’s selection of this site in 1942 to build this plant, to events leading up to plant closure. In back of these to the right is an expandable file of 8 x 10 photos from the Army archive. The stack of loose leaf notebooks and the materials to their left and in back are policies, operation reports, incident reports, training manuals from the Plant Guard and Fire Departments.

This is a close-up of the auction notice in the previous photo. In January 1942 the farmers received official notice to vacate with a deadline of March 1, 1942. During February there where actions like this one daily and sometimes two in one day.

This is a close-up of the 8 x 10 photos seen in the first image. The left image is an Instrument Man working on a Process control instrument with his supervisor looking on. The right photo is the installation of a mist eliminator at the Oleum (super strong Sulfuric Acid) Plant in the late 1960s.

This is a close-up of one of the photos in the scrapbook in the first image. The building is the two-story administration building built in the barnyard of the Anna M. Magli farmstead. The large tree was in the Magli front yard. Part of telling the story of the Badger AAP is to also tell the story of the people who lived on the farmstead that originally occupied a particular piece of land. When the Plant was built some of the farm buildings and houses were used for temporary warehouse and office space. That was the case with the Magli farm. The barn was used for warehouse space and the house for office and first aid station space. When they were no longer needed they were demolished. Anna Magli’s daughter lived on a farm south of the plant entrance and watched as the house she grew up in was burned.

This is a glimpse of the “story” that is the Badger Army Ammunition Plant Area; the story of the largest ammunition plant in the world. The story of an event that had the greatest cultural and economic impact on the Sauk Prairie since the pioneers started crossing the Wisconsin River to this new land in 1838.


Entry compiled by Carla Alvarez.
Photographs courtesy of Verlyn Mueller, President & Archivist of the Badger History Group.

Helena Shot Tower Log Book-Sauk County

Helena Shot Tower Log Book/mid 19th century scrapbook

Sauk County Historical Society
531 4th Ave
Baraboo, WI 53913
Phone: 608-356-1001
Email: history@saukcounty.org
Website: www.saukcountyhistory.org
Mary Farrel-Stieve – Librarian

Carefully stored away amongst the collections of the Sauk County Historical Society in Baraboo, Wisconsin is an edge-worn ledger. Handwritten on the cover in black ink-almost hidden amongst the turquoise colored marbleized paper- are the words “Log Book.” At first glance it appears to be a scrapbook. Its pages are filled with sentimental stories and poems clipped from the Sauk County Standard or other regional newspapers. The clippings probably date to the 1860s or 70s judging by the quality of the newspaper.

Yet the scrapbook is in fact a rare glimpse into the business transactions of one of Wisconsin’s early industries—lead mining. If you flip to the inside cover you are greeted in bold, clear writing with the words "Wisconsin Shot Tower [Log] Book 1843—". A careful examination of the book reveals that it is a daily ledger noting the purchases and sales transactions of three men (Henry Hamilton, John B. Terry, and John Metcalf) who operated a store and shot tower at Helena from 1843 to 1845. The site is now the centerpiece of Shot Tower State Park near Spring Green.

But the scrapbook is also a study in how the meaning of objects can change and how artifacts survive through time. By the 1860s, the ledger had become a useless old book that no one was interested in. It became important again, probably in the 1870s, to a now nameless scrapbooker who carefully clipped and neatly pasted articles which eventually covered about 1/3rd of the book. Then, years later, the book was again tossed aside and forgotten. But over time, it again drew attention and sometime around 1952 was donated to the Sauk County Historical Society as a historical curiosity of a bygone era.

There it sat, and there it remains, but even now its importance has changed. In recent years staff at the Sauk County Historical Society rediscovered the ledger buried in a box of miscellaneous documents. Once again the book is viewed as a ledger for the Wisconsin Shot Tower. The old scrap clippings, however, have become somewhat of an annoyance because they hide the original scratchings of Misters Hamilton, Terry, and Metcalf. Its significance is not as a scrapbook, but rather as a document illustrating a formative era in our state.
The Sauk County Historical Society was founded in 1905 and is the 5th oldest historical society in Wisconsin. Its mission is to preserve collect and disseminate knowledge of Sauk County history. The society achieves this goal though maintaining a museum, library/archive and educational and public programs.

The Sauk County Historical Museum is open year round. Admission is free.

Compiled by Peter Shrake

Images by Sauk County Historical Society

Robert L. Parkinson Library & Research Center at Circus World

Circus World Museum
550 Water St.
Baraboo, WI 53913
608-356-8341
http://circusworld.wisconsinhistory.org/About/ResearchCenter.aspx

Erin E. Foley, Archivist
efoley.cwm[at]baraboo.com

Circus World Museum is a national-class museum and research center dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of the circus in America. It is located in Baraboo, Wisconsin, because that was the winter home of the Ringling Bros. Circus between 1884 and 1918, a period during which the show grew from traveling on 12 wagons, into a huge operation that required three trains to move all the equipment, people and animals.

The Museum opened in 1959. Owned by the Wisconsin Historical Society, Circus World is operated by an independent board. The grounds include eight of the ten remaining buildings from the Ringling Bros. Circus winter quarters. Open year round, the summer season adds two professional circus performances and other activities each day.

Circus World’s Library and Research Center was established in 1965, and is located at 415 Lynn St., adjoining the south side of the Museum. The artifacts and archives in the building document circus and Wild West shows throughout North America. Highlights of the archival collection include 4200 books and serials; 8000 posters; 80,000 photos; 300 original poster sketches; 900 reels of film; and 1800 cu. ft. of archival collections, including 300 cu. ft. of administrative records from the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus, 1920-1960. The Library and Research Center also holds smaller collections of materials from allied entertainments such as carnivals, tent theaters, and medicine shows. The artifact collection includes everything from 200 full-sized circus wagons to the tiny pieces from a flea circus.



Between the 1880s and the 1920s, more than 100 circuses went on the road every summer, performing in a different city every day between April and October. This photo shows the biggest circus of them all, Ringling Bros., set up outside Red Wing, Minnesota, in 1915. The big top (top of the picture) could seat 14,000 spectators at each show. This photo is one of 80,000 historical images available to researchers by Circus World Museum’s Library and Research Center. (Steve "Heck" Albasing photo)


Circus is famous for its advertising. This woodcut advertisement for the Great India Elephant is one of more than 8000 posters in the collection at Circus World Museum. Dating to 1832, it is one of the earliest American circus posters.


Circus World Museum’s collection continues to grow with regular additions from current shows. This photo of a troupe of Chinese acrobats was taken in 2007 at one of Circus World Museum’s performances.

Top image: The Robert L. Parkinson Library and Research Center, 415 Lynn St., Baraboo, Wisconsin, is open year round for visits by researchers. Generally the library is open Tuesday to Friday, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m., year round. Reservations are recommended.

Images courtesy of Circus World Museum, Baraboo, Wisconsin.

Entry compiled by Heather Heckman