The Wisconsin Historical Society (officially the State Historical Society of Wisconsin) is simultaneously a state agency and a private membership organization whose purpose is to maintain, promote and spread knowledge relating to the

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

, with an emphasis on the state of

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

and the trans-Allegheny West. Founded in 1846 and chartered in 1853, it is the oldest

historical society A historical society (sometimes also preservation society) is an organization dedicated to preserving, collecting, researching, and interpreting historical information or items. Originally, these societies were created as a way to help future gen ...

in the United States to receive continuous public funding. The society's headquarters are located in

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...

, on the campus of the

University of Wisconsin–Madison A university () is an educational institution, institution of higher education, higher (or Tertiary education, tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. Universities ty ...

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Organization

The Wisconsin Historical Society is organized into four divisions: the Division of Library-Archives, the Division of Museums and Historic Sites, the Division of Historic Preservation-Public History, and the Division of Administrative Services.

Division of Library, Archives, and Museum Collections

Wisconsin Historical Society library reading room

The Division of Library-Archives collects and maintains books and documents about the history of Wisconsin, the United States, and Canada. The society's library and archives, which together serve as the library of American history for the

, contain nearly four million items, making the society's collection the largest in the world dedicated exclusively to North American history. The Wisconsin Historical Society's extensive newspaper collection is the second largest in the United States after the Library of Congress. Visual materials in the archives include some three million photographs, negatives, films, architectural drawings, cartoons, lithographs, posters, and a variety of visual ephemera. The

Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research The Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research (WCFTR) is a major archive of motion picture, television, radio, and theater research materials. Located in the headquarters building of the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, Wisconsin, the ...

is also housed within the division. The society's archives also serve as the official repository for state and local government records. The society coordinates an Area Research Center Network, an alliance between the Historical Society in Madison and four-year campuses of the University of Wisconsin System throughout the state, to make most of the archival collections accessible to state residents.

Division of Museums and Historic Sites

The Division of Museums and Historic Sites operates the Wisconsin Historical Museum in downtown Madison and 11 historic sites throughout the state. The museum has an archaeology program in collaboration with the Department of Transportation and the Department of Natural Resources that undertakes research, and collects and preserves historical artifacts. The other historic sites are tourist attractions that display historic buildings reflecting Wisconsin history and provide exhibitions and demonstrations of state history, such as ethnic settlement, mining, farming, fur trading, transportation, and pioneering life.

Division of Historic Preservation-Public History

The Division of Historic Preservation-Public History administers the state's historic preservation program, the state's burial sites preservation program, and the

Wisconsin Historical Society Press The Wisconsin Historical Society Press, operated by the Wisconsin Historical Society, in Madison, Wisconsin, is Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area a ...

, which publishes books on Wisconsin and American history and a quarterly magazine, the ''Wisconsin Magazine of History''. The division also provides outreach to local historical societies.

''Wisconsin Magazine of History''

The ''Wisconsin Magazine of History'' () is a quarterly journal published by the WHS since September 1917. The society maintains a fully digitized archive that contains more than 2,000 feature articles totaling more than 30,000 pages.

Division of Administrative Services

The Division of Administrative Services provides support and planning for the WHS and its divisions. The society's website include a large, searchable collection of historical images and a vast digital archive containing thousands of scanned documents relating to Wisconsin history. Wisconsin Historical Society employees are employees of the State of Wisconsin.

Notable people

* John Givan Davis Mack, professor of engineering and curator of the WHS libraryOn the Presentation of the Mack Portrait to the State Historical Society
''The Wisconsin Magazine of History'', vol. 8, no. 1 (September, 1924), pp. 74–77. * F. Gerald Ham, former Wisconsin state archivist and director of the Division of Library-ArchivesJohn Fleckner, "F. Gerald Ham: Jeremiah to the Profession," ''American Archivist'' 77, no. 2 (2014): 377–393

References

External links

*
''Wisconsin Magazine of History'' archive of scholarly articles

Legislators’ Guide to the Wisconsin Historical SocietyHistorical Society
in ''The Buildings of the University of Wisconsin''
Teachinghistory.org review of WHS website, ''American Journeys''
{{Authority control State historical societies of the United States Organizations established in 1846 1846 establishments in Wisconsin Territory Organizations based in Madison, Wisconsin Digital history projects Photo archives Photo archives in the United States