About the Database

The Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database is a publicly accessible online catalog of decorative arts objects made in Wisconsin in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The database is the first and only resource to bring together in digital form hundreds of examples of craft production in early Wisconsin, including furniture, woodcarving, earthenware, stoneware, art pottery, quilts, samplers, beadwork, metalwork and glass from the collections of local historical societies and museums throughout the state.

Method and Scope
The project was inspired by the innovative fieldwork undertaken by the Museum of Early Southern Decorative Arts in the 1970s and 1980s to document thousands of early regional artifacts and craftspeople in seven southern states, creating an indispensable research archive for the study of southern history and material culture. The Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database provides a similar resource for the state of Wisconsin, taking MESDA's template into the digital age with a publicly accessible online database.

Content
The photographs and catalog records that make up the Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database are the result of collaborations with museums and historical societies throughout the state (see the Contributors list for more information about individual sites). Project staff work closely with each contributor to select, photograph and research every object added to the database. Each online catalog record includes one or more high-quality photographs, a detailed physical description, documentation of provenance and family genealogy when available, an analysis of the object's historical context, and resources for further research. In keeping with the project's mission to make material culture artifacts easily accessible online, a blog and a Flickr page provide users with regular updates on newly added database content.

Audience
The Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database is an essential resource for students, local historians, artisans, antiques collectors, and others who seek information about material life and craft traditions in early Wisconsin. The broad range of artifacts documented in the database provides important evidence of settlement patterns, popular culture trends and industrial development, making it a valuable resource not only for Wisconsin audiences, but for all students of nineteenth and early-twentieth-century American decorative arts and material culture. The project also offers each content contributor a unique opportunity to establish an online presence, explore its collections more deeply and forge connections with other like-minded institutions.

Collaborators
The Wisconsin Decorative Arts Database is a collaborative venture of three organizations: the Chipstone Foundation, which funds the project via the Charles Hummel Fellowship; the Wisconsin Historical Society, which provides technical resources; and the Material Culture Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which provides resources for decorative arts research. Images and catalog entries are also made available through Wisconsin Heritage Online, an aggregator site for digital materials concerning Wisconsin history and culture.

Technical Specifications
Digital photographs in the database were created using a Canon Digital Rebel XTi EOS camera and adjusted using ACDSee Pro Photo Manager or Adobe Photoshop. Metadata standards and field properties were developed following the standards of Wisconsin Heritage Online, which are based on Dublin Core metadata elements. The database is structured, searched, and viewed using the CONTENTdm digital collection management software system. Keyword search terms are taken from two standardized vocabularies for the cataloging of museum objects: the Getty Research Institute's Art and Architecture Thesaurus and The Revised Nomenclature for Museum Cataloging (aka Chenhall's Nomenclature).