Mount Horeb Area Historical Society

Mount Horeb, Wisconsin is proudly known as the "Troll Capital of the World." The town celebrates its Norwegian heritage through the mythological trolls that are so prominent in Scandinavian folklore. Troll statues greet visitors as they visit the area.

Image courtesy of Mount Horeb Area Historical Society

Last Wednesday was a picturesque autumn day, and a lovely afternoon to visit the Mount Horeb Area Historical Society. I traveled along the trollway (Main Street) to "troll" for some historic postcards at this historical society. For 34 years, the Mount Horeb Area Historical Society has collection items to reflect the heritage of this area in southern Wisconsin. While the museum exhibit space is housed in a converted hardware store, the archives are located across the street in the Municipal Building. The museum exhibits on display reflect the heritage of the people who brought their culture with them as they settled in the area. The museum collections and archival material continue to grow as the town continues to celebrate its vast heritage.

I met with Laurie Boyden, who runs the archives and the museum of the area historical society. She introduced me to the postcard collection of the historical society. The postcards represent scenes from the area, or include postcards sent to Mt. Horeb over the years. Most postcards have been donated, but the historical society in the past has purchased postcards from antique shops and other sales to keep up with collection development. Since the cards come from a variety of sources, they are kept in one large collection and are sorted into subject areas. These subject areas reflect the heritage and celebrations from life in the area, and include subjects like holidays, local tourism, area businesses, and buildings.

During my visit of the museum and archives, it became clear that preserving and celebrating the area's rich cultural heritage were very important to the Mt. Horeb area. These values were reflected in some of the interesting postcards that have become a part of the postcard collection.

Image courtesy of Mount Horeb Area Historical Society

The above postcard is from a local historical site that celebrates the area's Norwegian heritage. Little Norway is the homestead of a family from Norway that settled into the area in the mid-1800s.Image courtesy of Mount Horeb Area Historical Society

Image courtesy of Mount Horeb Area Historical Society

The above photos come from a book of postcards of various buildings and landmarks in Mount Horeb. While I was not able to pin point a date, these "souvenir letters" reflect how Mt. Horeb once looked.

Image courtesy of Mount Horeb Area Historical Society

Image courtesy of Mount Horeb Area Historical Society

Many of the postcards in the collection include those that were sent to residents in the area. I found the postcard in the above photo to be rather unusual. The postcard's message was written along the perimeters of this tiny card.

Image courtesy of Mount Horeb Area Historical Society

The connection to the area's Scandinavian heritage was also reflected in the postcards. The above photos was perhaps my favorite find of the day: a Norwegian-themed St. Patrick's Day postcard written in Norwegian! The picture below is the back of the post card written in Norwegian.

Image courtesy of Mount Horeb Area Historical Society

Many thanks to Laurie Boyden at the Mount Horeb Area Historical Society for letting me take photos of the postcards, and for giving me a fascinating behind the scenes tour of the historical society's collections.

Mount Horeb Area Historical Society
138 E Main St
Mt Horeb, WI, 53572
Phone: (608) 437-6486
Email: usemeum@mhtc.net
Web site: www.mounthoreb.org
Museum located at 100 South Second Street, Mount Horeb, WI 53572
Archives located at 138 E. Main Street, Mount Horeb, WI 53572

Images courtesy and copyright of the Mount Horeb Area Historical Society.

Entry complied by: Danielle Taylor

Madison Metropolitan School District Scrapbooks-Dane County Historical Society

Dane County Historical Society
Otto Schroeder Records Center
3101 Lake Farm Road
Madison, WI 53711
608-224-3605
dchs@danecountyhistory.org
http://www.danecountyhistory.org

Located in the Lussier Family Heritage Center, the Otto Schroeder Records Center is home to the Dane County Historical Society library and archives collection. It includes historical documentation of the people, places, businesses, and organizations with ties to Dane County, including: books, periodicals, maps, photographs, diaries, scrapbooks, organizational records and other publications.

Madison Metropolitan School District Scrapbooks

Madison built three new schools in 1939! The history and immense growth of the Madison Metropolitan School District throughout much of the 20th century is documented in a large collection of scrapbooks that were maintained by the district. The new schools built in that single year were Washington School at 545 W. Dayton Street, Marquette School at 510 S. Thornton Avenue and Lapham School at 1045 E. Dayton Street. All three school buildings are still standing and are still in use by the school district.

The larger Madison Metropolitan School District Records collection held by the Otto Schroeder Records Center of the Dane County Historical Society consists of minutes, annual reports, curriculum studies and other assorted records and publications from 1928 through the 1960s.
Included as a part of this total collection are eighteen scrapbooks of news clippings covering events from 1871 to 1972 and five scrapbooks of photographs. Most of the scrapbooks contain clippings about the district from the “Wisconsin State Journal” and “Capital Times” newspapers. One scrapbook was created by a class at the Longfellow School for Crippled Children.

The scrapbooks containing the photographs are organized with each photo numbered and identified as to the school depicted. The Madison school buildings documented in the photo scrapbooks include Washington, Lapham, Marquette, Emerson, Franklin, Longfellow and West.
The photographs appear to be copies of items used in the annual report booklets and for other public uses such as newspaper articles and publications. Some of the photos carry “crop marks” indicating they were cropped for use in other materials. The photographs are not dated, and the children in the photographs are not identified, but as a whole they document every aspect of school life from every grade level during the 1940s: classroom activities, gym class, art class, home economics class, theater presentations, library activities, sporting events, etc. Some of the photos depict activities and services at the Longfellow School for Crippled Children.

Entry compiled by Tara Genske.

Images courtesy of Mary Hark.

Happy Wanderers 4H Club Scrapbooks-Dane County Historical Society

Dane County Historical Society
Otto Schroeder Records Center
3101 Lake Farm Road
Madison, WI 53711
608-224-3605
dchs@danecountyhistory.org
http://www.danecountyhistory.org

Located in the Lussier Family Heritage Center, the Otto Schroeder Records Center is home to the Dane County Historical Society library and archives collection. It includes historical documentation of the people, places, businesses, and organizations with ties to Dane County, including: books, periodicals, maps, photographs, diaries, scrapbooks, organizational records and other publications.

Happy Wanderers 4H Club Scrapbooks

4-H is a national youth organization which is administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture Cooperative Extension System, and through state and county branches on a more local level. 4-H seeks to empower youngsters, by encouraging them to “learn by doing.” While 4-H has its roots in agriculture, and is traditionally associated with rural topics, it has grown to encompass many other interests and hobbies of young people, such as computers, art, cooking, history, and photography. The group’s motto is "to make the best better,” and the 4 H’s in the name represent head, heart, hands, and health

4H had its roots in Wisconsin. There were over 2,100 4-H clubs operating in Wisconsin as of 2006, with about 50,000 youth enrolled. Wisconsin 4-H began in turn of the 20th century crop growing contests for youth. University of Wisconsin College of Agriculture Professor Ransom Asa Moore came up with a plan to involve farm youth in growing small plots of improved grain varieties in order to show their parents the potential economic advantages of the improved crop strains. Traditional farmers were slow to accept technological changes on the farm, and it was felt that through a program of youth experimentation, changes would occur at a faster pace. Contests and programs similar to the Wisconsin one popped up, and in 1914, when Congress created the Cooperative Extension Office, there were provisions included to organize boys and girls clubs. This is where the 4-H got its start.

Our Happy Wanderers 4-H Club Records collection consists of official record books (1961-1988) and four scrapbooks (1961-1976) that fully document the activities of a very active youth organization over the course of several generations. The scrapbooks include correspondence, newspaper clippings, photographs, the group’s recognition certificates, award ribbons, programs, and detailed activity reports. It appears the scrapbooks were created simultaneously with the records files in order to save all of the materials that would not fit into the organization’s official record books. Of particular interest are the many programs for county and statewide 4-H activities that the Happy Wanderers participated in, including various music festivals, drama festivals, fairs, talent shows, dog shows, a foods revue, and speaking contests. There are also numerous items documenting the group’s yearly celebration of "June Dairy Month,” a statewide event to educate the public on the values of dairy products. There are several club-produced cookbooks and other dairy promotional items that were distributed to the public included within the collection.

The group was known as the Glendale Glowers 4-H Club until November 1965. The Happy Wanderers 4-H Club was one of many Madison, Wisconsin area branches of 4-H. The records do not indicate when the group formally disbanded, but there is no longer a 4-H chapter in Madison operating under this name.



Entry compiled by Sloan Komissarov.

Images Courtesy of the Dane County Historical Society.