Wisconsin Historical Society

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 of North America, with an emphasis on the state of Wisconsin and the trans-Allegheny West. Founded in 1846 and chartered in 1853, it is the oldest historical society in the United States to receive continuous public funding. The society's headquarters are located in Madison, Wisconsin, on the campus of the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Massachusetts had formed its state historical society 170 years after the Pilgrims arrived. Because of that delay, parts of that colony's early history were lost. With that in mind, some of Wisconsin Territory's early history-minded leaders began advocating in 1845 for creation of a state historical society. In late 1846 during the convention to write a state constitution, two meetings were held to organize a state historical society. They adopted a constitution for the society, chose A. Hyatt Smith of Janesville as first president, and chose Governor Doty as one of the vice-presidents. But the newborn historical society seems to have done little for its first few years.

In January 1849, after Wisconsin became a state, interested parties met in the Senate chamber and revived the society, electing Governor Dewey as president and Increase A. Lapham as corresponding secretary, among other officers. They drafted a constitution for the society which laid out its purpose, including: "...to preserve the materials for a complete history of Wisconsin embracing the antiquities, and the history of the Indian tribes." This iteration of the society arranged annual speeches and started a book collection, but didn't accomplish a lot because it still had no paid secretary.

In 1853 the legislature gave the young historical society a charter and $500 to finance its mission. The members chose Lyman Draper as corresponding secretary and adopted a new constitution which elaborated on the society's aim:

The object of the Society shall be to collect, embody, arrange and preserve in authentic form a library of books, pamphlets, maps, charts, manuscripts, papers, paintings, statuary, and other materials illustrative of the history of the State, to rescue from oblivion the memory of its early pioneers and to obtain and preserve narratives of their exploits, perils and hardy adventures; to exhibit faithfully the antiquities and the past and present condition and resources of Wisconsin, and may take proper steps, to promote the study of History by lectures, and to diffuse and publish information relating to the description and history of the State.

Unlike some other states, the founders decided that Wisconsin's historical society should not restrict its membership to elites, but should be open to anyone interested, if they paid their dues.

With these changes and with Draper carrying the ball, the new Society began making progress. Draper asked for donations of publications from historians and public figures, narratives and old letters from early settlers, descriptions of Indians and Indian mounds, newspapers, pamphlets, and so forth. In 1855 the Society began publishing the Wisconsin Historic Collections every three years, which printed some of the accounts of early Wisconsin which the Society was receiving. At the start of the Civil War Draper asked several Wisconsin army officers to send him relics of the war and encouraged soldiers to keep diaries of their experiences. In 1875 the Society acquired the Perkins Collection of 9,000 stone and copper Indian artifacts. The Society was seeing 20,000 to 35,000 visitors each year and by 1876 had the largest library west of Washington DC.

Reuben Gold Thwaites took over from Draper in 1887. He identified gaps in the Society's collection and travelled around the state seeking to fill them. He sent staff to libraries outside Wisconsin to copy Wisconsin-related documents. He strengthened ties with the UW by opening the Society's library and source materials to UW students, which was a new thing for a non-university library. He hired assistants Annie Nunns, Mary Stuart Foster and Iva Welsh, who were so important to the Society that their long period of influence has been called "The Matriarchy." He hired Louise Phelps Kellogg as a research assistant in 1901. He improved the Society's museum displays, to serve the general public who were less interested in the Society's library. In line with Progressive Era ideas, Thwaites encouraged local historical societies around the state, and in 1898 advocated state legislation to establish a network of local historical societies, guided by the WHS. Local societies in Green Bay and Ripon were the first to affiliate, in 1899. By this point, the WHS was seen as one of the leading historical societies in the US.